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The Next Big MMO?
- Thread starter Huntn
- Start date
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Re: Titan, Blizzard just announced that they're rebooting the entire concept and that it's delayed until 2015 or 2016, at least. They pulled most of the developers off the project to work on something else. So... I wouldn't hold your breath.
Personally, I think that the MMO field is fracturing, and will continue to do so, so we're not likely to see "the next big MMO" that monopolizes the genre. And that's a good thing. I think subscription based is going away too. Some will say that quality may suffer if a company isn't making billions off of creating a crack-like product that entices people to keep coming back each month. Guild Wars 2, LoTRO, NW, etc has proven that to be a false statement by providing quality (and updated) content, good character creation, and their own uniqueness to the genre.
The subscription was exactly what turned me off to WoW - feeling like I was obligated to play 2x a week because I needed to get my money's worth, and feeling that if I didn't invest enough time and energy into it, I was wasting my time because I'd never get the gear necessary to be included in raids, etc. As much as they wanted to make the game more casual friendly, it still requires a massive amount of commitment in order to participate in end-game content. I'd much rather play a Buy-to-play like GW2 or a free-to-play like LoTRO or NW. I've heard A Secret World is really good, and I'd love to try out Star Trek Online, just because I'm a trekkie.
Micro transactions get a bad rep, but if a game is done right you should be able to enjoy the game and excel at it without them if you have patience; otherwise, spend a small amount of money and buy in-game currency to save time. At least with micro transactions you feel like you're actually buying something, instead of paying just to play the game. It's like the difference between having your income taxed vs a consumption tax - one takes your money regardless, the other only takes it when you actively engage in commerce, and you can tangibly see what you're buying.
It's cliche to call for the end of WoW - their subscription base is still huge compared to the competitors, and their content IS massive (of course they've had nearly 10 years to build it to where it's at) but at the same time it's shrinking compared to back when it had practically no competition (at least, no quality competition.) As more good MMOs are made, they will siphon off the WoW players (and even more likely, attract new MMO players that otherwise would have had nothing BUT WoW to play 3-4 years ago.)
Eventually they'll go free-to-play (and/or buy-to-play) just to stay competitive and to stop the slow bleed of users. There will always be WoW players who feel that they've invested years of time and money into the game, and that alone makes it difficult to abandon that world, but if Blizzard doesn't adapt to the new MMO world order, they'll end up with a subscription base of hardcore-only players that reminisce about the "good old days when dungeons were hard and you had to run everywhere until level 60."
TL;DR: Titan is in cryostasis; quality free/buy-to-play games are leeching subscribers from WoW and represent the future of the MMO landscape.
Personally, I think that the MMO field is fracturing, and will continue to do so, so we're not likely to see "the next big MMO" that monopolizes the genre. And that's a good thing. I think subscription based is going away too. Some will say that quality may suffer if a company isn't making billions off of creating a crack-like product that entices people to keep coming back each month. Guild Wars 2, LoTRO, NW, etc has proven that to be a false statement by providing quality (and updated) content, good character creation, and their own uniqueness to the genre.
The subscription was exactly what turned me off to WoW - feeling like I was obligated to play 2x a week because I needed to get my money's worth, and feeling that if I didn't invest enough time and energy into it, I was wasting my time because I'd never get the gear necessary to be included in raids, etc. As much as they wanted to make the game more casual friendly, it still requires a massive amount of commitment in order to participate in end-game content. I'd much rather play a Buy-to-play like GW2 or a free-to-play like LoTRO or NW. I've heard A Secret World is really good, and I'd love to try out Star Trek Online, just because I'm a trekkie.
Micro transactions get a bad rep, but if a game is done right you should be able to enjoy the game and excel at it without them if you have patience; otherwise, spend a small amount of money and buy in-game currency to save time. At least with micro transactions you feel like you're actually buying something, instead of paying just to play the game. It's like the difference between having your income taxed vs a consumption tax - one takes your money regardless, the other only takes it when you actively engage in commerce, and you can tangibly see what you're buying.
It's cliche to call for the end of WoW - their subscription base is still huge compared to the competitors, and their content IS massive (of course they've had nearly 10 years to build it to where it's at) but at the same time it's shrinking compared to back when it had practically no competition (at least, no quality competition.) As more good MMOs are made, they will siphon off the WoW players (and even more likely, attract new MMO players that otherwise would have had nothing BUT WoW to play 3-4 years ago.)
Eventually they'll go free-to-play (and/or buy-to-play) just to stay competitive and to stop the slow bleed of users. There will always be WoW players who feel that they've invested years of time and money into the game, and that alone makes it difficult to abandon that world, but if Blizzard doesn't adapt to the new MMO world order, they'll end up with a subscription base of hardcore-only players that reminisce about the "good old days when dungeons were hard and you had to run everywhere until level 60."
TL;DR: Titan is in cryostasis; quality free/buy-to-play games are leeching subscribers from WoW and represent the future of the MMO landscape.
Big mmo's
Hello,
I use to play WoW, and while it was a lot of fun, it's mostly the people that you play with that make it that way.
Looking forward to [URL="https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/"/URL]
I'm sure it said something about a mac client...
Cheers,
Ray
Hello,
I use to play WoW, and while it was a lot of fun, it's mostly the people that you play with that make it that way.
Looking forward to [URL="https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/"/URL]
I'm sure it said something about a mac client...
Cheers,
Ray
A Mac client is going to be a big help for any MMO. I kow of a few households that between parents and children that have 4 WoW subscriptions. If there wouldn't have been a Mac client, the number would've been 0.
I know for myself if I have to reboot in to windows, I'm not interested in playing a game.
Plutonius
macrumors G4
Dirtyharry50
macrumors 68000
Me too. I'm very glad Blizzard does their games for Mac too.
I took a little break from WoW last month but it's already bugging me. I'll be back in Azeroth this month. lol
I found this Titan Focus Site whose goal is to provide info about Titan, Blizzard's next big MMO. Other than Blizzard's announcement that the project has been delayed to 2016, no one outside Blizzard, other than those sworn to secrecy knows anything about it. With my recent MMO failure rate, I refuse to get excited until I know more, tons more and I got time, like 3 frackn years. 😉
antonis
macrumors 68020
This is indeed a very long time, especially since MMO scene is in transitioning period. Subscription-based model is dying while on the other hand the free-to-play releases fail to deliver an equally good experience (hence it's so difficult to find what the title says: the next big MMO).
Waiting is all we can do. At least that's a chance to lighten the single-player backlog a bit 😉
Although GuildWars2 did not catch with me, it was a quality production. I wonder if it's micro-transactions are keeping it afloat and how long it will be, before they crank out expansions?
Dirtyharry50
macrumors 68000
I don't know if it has already come up earlier in the thread or not but I just discovered yesterday that following the LoTRO port to OS X, Turbine did also release an OS X version of Dungeons and Dragons Online. If you like D&D, there is a lot to like in the game as far as character stats and development goes, playing with builds, etc.
Like LoTRO, it is f2p and both are available on Steam or from the Turbine sites for each game if anyone is interested in taking either for a free spin. I used to play both and have some characters in each world so I think I am going to do that myself. 😀
Like LoTRO, it is f2p and both are available on Steam or from the Turbine sites for each game if anyone is interested in taking either for a free spin. I used to play both and have some characters in each world so I think I am going to do that myself. 😀
The Mac version is out of date and missing expansions, but NWN 2 (or even 1) online is one of the greatest PC gaming experiences I've ever had. It's endlessly customizable, true to D&D rules, and lets you play your way. I would literally give anything for a new game like that, that could support a persistent world system for player created content (look it up, folks!), but it'll take a Kickstarter for it to happen, I'm afraid...
Take a look at the new 'Neverwinter' game if you want to see what they'd rather do. Sure, it's more customizable than other MMOs, but it's microtransaction hell 🙁
But uh... I have had a lot of fun on LoTRO, too. I haven't been into it in a long time, but it had a really great community in the early days.
Dirtyharry50
macrumors 68000
I'll have to go check but I thought I noticed the latest expansion content was Steamplay on Steam. Perhaps it has come up to speed since you played it?
Later that same day...
I did get on Steam to check and noted the base game and a Catacombs Starter content pack had Steamplay logos but the latest expansion did not, all on the same Steam store page. So it is hard to tell what is going on there for sure. I went to the Steam forums and posted a query hoping a Mac player will come along and let us know the current state of affairs one way or another. I'll return with news whenever I might have some about this. I do plan to try it for myself but it might be a little while with some other stuff taking priority with my fun time for now.
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Dirtyharry50
macrumors 68000
I did fire up DDO last night and checked the Turbine store in game within the Mac client. The store automatically filters out anything a character cannot make use of and I found all current content could be purchased including Underdark, the Druid Class, level cap increase, etc. So it does seem that Mac players have the same game available to them as Windows players at this point. 😀
What do you define "big MMO" as? As this point I see it as one that attracts and keeps over 1 million subscribers. And the company has to have planned for the right number of subscribers so they don't need to cut services and future updates because it was too costly.
I think I mean by the next big "MMO", the next ground breaking online game involving large numbers of players. Honestly I'm mostly thinking of MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, but I also like MMO shooters, such as World of Tanks. I'm very interested in Titan, Blizzards next big project, but it's just too far out to get excited about it.
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Dirtyharry50
macrumors 68000
The next big MMO in terms of subscriber numbers will be the next WoW expansion. I guess that might be wrong but I really, really doubt it. They've lost some big numbers I've heard but WoW was so huge to begin with that it still is huge compared to everything else and is likely to stay that way unless The Elder Scrolls Online takes the MMO world by storm.
Sometimes I think WoW is like The Beatles. It could only happen one time. It might be a long time before anything comes along that hits 10 million subscribers and that game may not resemble MMOs as we know them now.
So, for the time being all roads lead to the next WoW expansion being the next big thing, don't you think? What else will occupy that many million MMO players?
Sometimes I think WoW is like The Beatles. It could only happen one time. It might be a long time before anything comes along that hits 10 million subscribers and that game may not resemble MMOs as we know them now.
So, for the time being all roads lead to the next WoW expansion being the next big thing, don't you think? What else will occupy that many million MMO players?
You are my new favorite person. Loved Escape Velocity (should play it again) and a MMO version would be amazing.
Beyond that I am looking forward to what Elderscrolls Online turns out to be.
Personally I would not categorize the next WoW expansion as the next big thing, but a continuation of an all ready big thing. 😉 For ESO, I'm in wait and see mode.
ElderBrE
macrumors regular
The Elder Scrolls Online and Star Citizen are the ones I will play.
Nothing else seems to be worth taking an interest at for me. Star Citizen looks glorious though, I will be building a new PC rig with several monitors and SLI just for that beauty.
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Then take a look at Star Citizen.
Also, the dev over at StarDrive (RTS) wants to add a mode to his RTS where you just control one ship a la Escape Velocity. He directly quoted he would like that mode to be like Escape Velocity.
Nothing else seems to be worth taking an interest at for me. Star Citizen looks glorious though, I will be building a new PC rig with several monitors and SLI just for that beauty.
----------
Then take a look at Star Citizen.
Also, the dev over at StarDrive (RTS) wants to add a mode to his RTS where you just control one ship a la Escape Velocity. He directly quoted he would like that mode to be like Escape Velocity.
Dirtyharry50
macrumors 68000
Yeah, I have to agree that's really a better way to categorize it which leads me to thinking there is no next big MMO I can think of, not on the scale of WoW anyway.
Then again, I probably should not use the WoW yardstick to measure everything. ESO could turn out to be a great game and do well even if it had many less players than WoW. After all, my old favorite EverQuest is still going strong and it is well over a decade old with almost 20 expansions at this point.
Any ideas if the Star Wars MMO is ever going to come as a Mac version? I'd love to give that a go without having to install Windows.
25 New MMORPGS on Horizon for 2013 and Beyond- interesting!
ElderScrolls Online
This is what they show for Titan (Blizzard's next MMO), but there is no assurance this is accurate:
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