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Original post by lightblade Quote: Original post by Will F World of Warcraft having recently acquired 6 million people paying a monthy subscription makes me believe that it's not a fad. Assuming 6 million people paying $10 a month = $720 million a year. Ok, that is +720 million -??? server maintenence fee -??? server hardware upgrade -??? costumer support -??? initial development cost -??? expansion development -??? advertisements add all that up...you decide and...MMO is definitely a fad, with all the MMO addiction cases around, government will will step in and regulate it. By then, it will fade.

bluntly, a whole load of crap.

like it did to the "LAN" based games, "Networked", "Battlenet", MMO will be another element in games. How many percentage of good games we see these days that DO come with some form of networking as compared to 5-10 years ago?

It is true that not everyone likes MMORPGs, at least not the current model.

Some of the reasons are the time investment, the boredom factor, etc.

I think that the genre has the potential to be highly captivating for much wider audiences when a new design provides a game that is FUN to play for however much time you have. A vast and interactive world (with whatever theme appeals to people at the time) where the actions of players with the tools provided create ongoing and interesting content for everyone else. I'm not talking content like you can make your own objects (that clash horribly with everyone elses, like in second life) but content that is generated by the interactions of players with each other and the environment. Things that can make a huge world change in different areas at different times from prosperous kingdoms, vast empires, tribal warefare, post-apocolyptic waste land, etc. and all the little roles and scenarios and such that come in-between.

Some people would be in for the long haul. Others would want to log into such an exciting world when they hear of some big events on the horizon. They have kept a basic fighter decently equipped and trained and they want to hire out for a couple of hours and fight in some land-dispute battles. They just hop right in, go to the local recruiters office, receive their assignment and off they go to participate in a battle that really will determine the balance of power in that area for a time. That would be a dynamic world where players can AFFECT outcomes. That's the true potential of the genre and perhaps the future if someone takes the risk. Even people who like other genres couldn't resist the pull of participating in one or more facets of such a dynamic world where the content stretched out to infinity.

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That would be a dynamic world where players can AFFECT outcomes. That's the true potential of the genre and perhaps the future if someone takes the risk. Even people who like other genres couldn't resist the pull of participating in one or more facets of such a dynamic world where the content stretched out to infinity.

Heh, how are people going to be irresistably pulled by something (player affected content) that is the very thing that they abhore (having their entertainment defined by the whims of malicious swarms of pre-pubescent little Napoleons)?

I think that with a more immersive interface (better than keyboard/monitor, say implant controlled?), the advent of virtual countries is not far away.

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Original post by phantom Quote: Original post by Xelen I don't really see RTS having any reason/advantage to go MMO style I dunno, I think a very large persistant world would work wonders as an RTS, however it would require a certain degree of team work and alliance building, however if my experiances with Eve are anything to go by that shouldnt be a huge problem (many many people there naturally allied themselves into groups to push the story line).

I would have to agree it would be awesome having a persistant world to constantly do battle, harvest resources on and populate in a massive RTS. However the downfall I am seeing is that you may start up, have to go to work, come back to find that your base is no longer exsistant :P

To prevent that, the most feasible option would be to make it a turn-based strategy. That has already been done on massive scale obviously, though they are most often done in the web client. Example would be Kings of Chaos website where you get turn points to attack, and then have to defend yourself while smartly attacking people in order to get money to expand.

However, I wouldn't be surprised to see someone(if they haven't already) go into a lot more detail by having features where they have to take/hold land and harvest resources. Then move their troops through different terrain, and then research to improve their troops. Maybe if it were really massive, they could have cross server wars, so planets at war.

Wow thanks guys this is great to get all this feedback.

Guess its time to start posting Designs then.

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Original post by Xelen However the downfall I am seeing is that you may start up, have to go to work, come back to find that your base is no longer exsistant :P

Yes, that is one problem [grin]
that and new people joining the game as well (I made a journal post on this recently infact).

I'm not saying it would be an easy concept, there are alot of details to deal with, but I think it would be cool... oh, and when I say BIG I mean BIG, I'm thinking galactic scale here [grin]

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Original post by Anonymous Poster You can NEVER underestimate human creativity. MMO's are STILL evolving and show no sign of slowing down. They're actually picking up speed.

evolving? what you talking about?
every new MMO came out is just another grindfest.
Judging from business point of view, "evolve" a MMO takes a lot of investment. Unless you're a really big publisher that can really take the risk, nobody will even try.

also, PC games in U.S. will NEVER be as popular as in Korea. The reason is that Korea complete boycotts Japanese products, which includes ALL but XBox console systems. Another reason is that Korea itself is one of the global leadership in high speed internet service. Add the 2 reasons together, and you get MMO.

lmao, if American start playing MMO like Koreans do, it will only leads to more terrorists attacks, since everybody getting addicted to it and no time to keep track of those terriorists.

it is a completely lame and stupid reply to say the reason Korea does well in MMO is because they boycott all Japanese products: That is at any level, untrue.

The cost for development will go down. The cost of maintainance will go down.

Think 20 years back if it was even imaginable to play MMO-anything.

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Original post by Takaloy it is a completely lame and stupid reply to say the reason Korea does well in MMO is because they boycott all Japanese products: That is at any level, untrue.

Oh...but it IS true!

I don't want to get too deep into this politic thing, but...
South Korean shares an even deeper hatred toward Japanese than Chinese. Their boycott law toward Japanese products is not lifted until 1990, but even though there is no law restricting Japan's imports, their people just refuse to buy Japanese products. Remember...Japan occupied South Korea from early 20th century until the end of 2nd world war.

I see you're from UK...UK has always been the one that colonize other people's land. You never know how it feels to have others colonizing you.

Because of the early console systems were mostly produced by Japan, S. Koreans tend to play computer games a lot more.

And yes, please rate me down for this, but I really REALLY have to express my feelings...because I too have a deep hatred toward Japan, and this hatred will not end until Japan formally apologize for what they had done.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_culture_of_South_Korea
(Foreign influences: first paragraph)