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(06-09-2015, 12:27 PM)Addison Wrote: A lot of the design choices people are saying are bad are pretty standard in both eastern and western MMOs. And it's not going to change so long as games that follow that formula turn a profit.
John Smedley (president of DBG, formerly SoE) might like to think that the current MMO formula is dead, but that's only because the games his company produces are either failures at launch, or on life support and haven't made money in years.
...and the threat lives with EQ Next, in this case. When your company has earned itself the moniker, "They Break Games", you might want to tread very lightly and watch your step.
The formula itself isn't gonna be enough to sell games anymore, because MMOs are a time investment above and beyond the usual console game, and with so many on the same formulas, people will find the one they can stick with and ride those rails. The only reasons that EQN has attracted so much attention are that many people have big nostalgia for EQ and EQ2, and the new title has been promising some really big changes to the very core concepts of the MMO formula. And now, the latest news from them hasn't been promising, and without those new concepts, I can't see nostalgia alone keeping EQN afloat if it DOES manage to one day come out.
The nearer feature seems to be a resurgence of Sandbox play. Star Citizen can make it big this way, but it's got some hurdles. All the people dumping massive money into it to get their Special Spaceships will have fun, but will people on a smaller budget just be little fish in their big pond, and not be players so much as CONTENT for those big spenders? Also, Half of Eve Online seems to be threatening to jump into Star Citizen and turn it into a Gankfest, if they possibly can, and speaking for myself, if I wanted to play Douchebags and Spreadsheets again, I'd be playing EVE already.
But a real sandbox, one that isn't just a playground for trolls, that would make some bank.
The old MMO formula isn't a BAD thing - we just have a saturated market for it, and reskinning the Same Old Thing yet again isn't gonna hack it anymore.
"But in the laugh there was another voice. A clearer laugh, an ironic laugh. A laugh which laughs because it chooses not to weep."
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