Toskk, who readers from my WoW days should remember as an excellent feral Druid theorycrafter, approached me a few days ago about an intriguing project. Like myself, he feels that the current crop of MMOs (with few exceptions) fit a certain mold and there has yet to be a game announced that truly feels like a 'next generation MMO'. But that begs a few questions: What would a next generation MMO look like? What features might/should it have? Are there any logical progressions from where we are to the next generation?
Starting very soon you will see articles appearing on this site that explore some of the facets of next generation of MMOs. Some will be authored by myself, but others will be written by Toskk (and perhaps a few other people as well). The posts will be clearly identified as belonging to the project, and will be categorized for easy access.
I will still continue blogging about all manner of other gaming-related topics, but I just wanted to give a heads up that you will occasionally see a post on the site by an author aside from myself.
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Thursday, 17 September, 2009
Posted by
Andrew
at
5:48 PM
Exploring the next generation
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5 comments:
I think the "next-gen" MMOs may have to change the metagame and previously unchallenged theories of how a game universe/world/whatever must operate to really break into "next generation".
Things like not having your "holy trinity" of tank/DPS/healer roles, not having a max level character have tons of spells/abilities to pick and choose from, starting with all of your abilities from level 1, and just boosting their power/range/duration as you progress, abandoning the leveling system altogether, etc.
Giving players a new take on resource management (mana, rage, energy, focus, etc.) may be interesting, not sure what you could do for it off the top of my head.
I'd like to make a suggestion for the first article or two. Write what, in your opinion, were the defining characteristics of previous generations. What improvements were significant enough to be generational instead of just refinements of the existing reality?
Whether we the readers agree or disagree, thinking about what makes a generational change may help make more interesting responses to your core discussion of 'what's next'.
Ohhhh great idea. :)
How to break the holy trinity would be a good start.
FPS mmo's. Ive not yet seen one done well.
More skill and less numbers. I have a friend who played wow for years and gave up eventually. He still states that wow is too much of a numbers game and not enough of a skill based game. Rely less on rng and more on how you play.
Better crafting systems.
I think Kirkspencer makes a very good point. It's also worth registering an opinion on whether WoW was "next generation", or if it just did what the other MMOs of its' generation did, but really well.
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