Massively Multiplayer Mashup
Industry developers urge MMO evolution
"We don't need another EverQuest clone," said Guild Wars operator ArenaNet's Jeff Strain this week, echoing the thoughts of millions of MMO gamers.
"Not because I think it's an awful game design," he continued in an interview with CVG, "but because I think there are games out there that have polished it to the point that it's seen its ultimate expression. I hope that the development teams that are out there making MMOs don't keep trying to make any more a polished version of that same game."
Now that Warcraft has conquered the virtual universe, developers in the field are increasingly beginning to shift their attention to the idea of a post-Warcraft market, where innovation and smart design could eventually capture the attention of gamers who will be ready for an adventure outside of Azeroth.
In an interview with Shacknews, Mythic co-founder and leader of ZeniMax Online Studios Matt Firor put it this way: when it comes to MMOs just starting up, by the time they are actually completed, Warcraft won't be a factor.
"Any MMO starting development today isn't going to have to worry too much about competing with [Warcraft]," Firor said. "It'll be in its decline by the time any new game launches."
To those developers with a fresh start, Strain had this advice: "I hope what they're doing instead is saying, 'How can we try something new? How can we bring more innovation into the industry?'"
While expressing similar calls for advancement in the genre at last month's Develop Conference, long-time MMO developer and current NCsoft developer Richard Garriott also acknowledged that the business often encourages "churn"--not always the easiest path toward singular innovation.
"Churn is inevitable. Churn is our friend," Garriott said, referring to the process of mass-producing a variety of MMOs. "Most online players have moved onto another game within 10 months, and we've worked out it costs around $100 to attract a player to your game in the first place. You need to have more than one product available. That's why NCsoft is a portfolio company. We can make it easy for players to switch to another of our games, reducing the cost of capture."
So you've got an MMO studio, unlimited funding, and a release date of 2017. Where to start? As long as you find the idea of a Pokemon MMO appealing, MSNBC has a few bright ideas.
Massively Minor Minutiae
- The recent delay of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures to a March 2008 release is explained in a letter from the Funcom Team, as well as a forum post by community manager Shannon "Pharamond" Drake.
- Blizzard has updated their World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King website with Chapter 2 of their Rise of the Lich King story. Also, Paypal is now accepted for Warcraft subscriptions, allowing you to buy an account on Ebay and subscribe to the game all under one convenient service.
- Mythic has announced that the High Elf and Dark Elf armies in its upcoming Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will be unveiled at the Leipzig Games Convention next week.
- SOE's name dropped from Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising, leaving Perpetual Entertainment listed as both publisher and developer. Apparently it was done to clarify SOE's role as merely the marketing and publicity provider, although I'm sure forum goers have already speculated on some insidious plot to downplay the unpopular SOE branding.
- Mythic holding another Dark Age of Camelot New Frontiers Battle Event.
- Lord of the Rings Online Book 10 coming in August. Also, a developer diary on the reputation system and one on the music, as well as overviews of the changes to the Hunter and Captain classes.
- MMORPG.com and NCsoft are running a 14-day free trial for City of Heroes.
- NetDevil's upcoming Jumpgate Evolution update is explained in a dev journal by developer Steve Hartmeyer.
- Interplay has alleviated much of their debt, and is now looking forward to raising funds for its Fallout MMO.
- The CEO of a pets-based MMO in beta titled GoPets is calling for an Avatar Bill of Rights, that would guarantee non-discrimination and compensation for service downtime, among other things.
