Slimfrog

This is in response to a thread I have been following on the forums over at MMORPG.com (Link at the bottom of the site). Again, its on the current state of the MMO genre and the staleness of it.

Link to thread: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/2840060/thread/236668#2840060

“I wanted to comment again on this thread since it has a lively mature discussion going. I believe the MMO developers need to stop marketing to a player base but market to the genre. Think about it for a moment.

An FPS game is catered toward fast twitch reflexes and fast paced combat. There have been many FPS, and I can’t think of one that didnt have at least a tiny bit of success. They create their games based on FPS characteristics, NOT player bases. People that like that gameplay will buy those games and play them.

MMO developers are catering to a market rather than a genre. They are defining their playerbase before the game is even released by putting in features that many of us would agree are not what made up an MMO 10 years ago. FPS game developers are not trying to change the genre, they are just making small tweaks here and there and adding features that ENHANCE gameplay but do not change the core.

MMO developers are adding all this functionality and convenience to their games that TAKE AWAY from what a traditional MMO is. 

Comparing the MMO genre to the FPS genre was just an example. My point is universal.

Dont cater to a playerbase, instead create your worlds, invest the time needed, and put out a game that all will play, not just  the casual, or hardcore.”

I believe the MMO design is just losing its flare to be honest. And maybe not just the MMO genre, but all online genres. Its been stated before that players are just simply getting used to the mechanics, tiny changes to a feature here and there are not keeping our attention, and the recycling of the same old features is just not compelling as they once were when the MMO genre was young and fresh. Graphics can only get so detailed before they become too much like real life. The fantasy genre can only mix and match the basic archetypes so many ways to logically create something even half-ass “new”. Don’t get me wrong, we all have the “must haves” that must be contained in a game to play it. Features that should by now be a “default” thing with all MMOs. 

I will use WoW as an example as its the fondest “End-Game” experience I have had. There are many complaints that encounters are becoming to easy or simplified, but could it be that you are such an experienced MMO player that nothing really seems all that surprising. There are only so many ways to use a randomly generated event with a computer. A computer/program operates on a specific list of instructions to accomplish a task, and throwing in a RNG in there will only change so many things. Scripted events only stay so cool and new for so long, before you no longer have to keep that silence on ventrilo to stay concentrated. 

The gamers are just simply too used to the mechanics, the setting, and all of the other features that make up a normal MMO.

This doesn’t mean there isnt room for innovation, but there are only so many ways to skin a cat before you are a pretty experienced cat skinner.

This isn’t knocking MMO development, its just a point of view on how far the average MMO player has come along with the Genre itself.