Hey guys I'm here to tell you that I want to know what you think about next gen mmorpgs. You can answer here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1bpIrc9nl2tr3MN_gSK552QtJ4bmDOhyCOn6sNismk00/edit#

Certainly an interesting way to approach the design for a "next gen MMO", which implies over a hundred million dollar budget.

Most projects go with actual market research, but I suppose an anonymous Internet survey is good too.

What about this is in any way "next gen"? You're talking about current (and sometimes very old) RPG mechanics and concepts.

MMOs are such a development money pit in large part because few people have bothered innovating in the genre over the years. If you want a shot at a slice of that pie, you need to do something fresh.

ROA Head Dev - no offense, but your word choices suggest that you aren't familiar enough (yet) with the terms used in current MMO design to be the lead designer of an MMO. I went ahead and filled out the survey, but, it didn't actually ask the right questions to let me paint a picture of the kind of MMO I'd really like to play. And there's more than one type of MMO I'd like to play, so that adds some complexity to the problem. But, I did a survey about MMO preferences a few months ago, and the results are public, so you are welcome to look at my questions and results:

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/821/view/forums/thread/406778/MMO-Preferences-Survey-Results-Finished.html

Notable results included "solo or small group PvE" being the single most popular activity to spend time doing in MMOs, while group PvE and group PvP tied for second, and Sim gameplay and Social interaction tied for 3rd. The people who liked the solo/small group PvE and the people who liked the group PvP were almost mutually exclusive, so it would be logical to focus a game design on one group or the other.

My further personal conclusions at the end were:

Marketplace/economic play and multiplayer minigame play tend to be preferred by the same people, while this group tends to not be fond of team PvP and PvP RTS. Theory: Perhaps this group dislikes direct violent competition but likes indirect or non-violent competition. And the reverse applies; people who like team PvP tend to like PvP RTS but not to like economic play and multiplayer minigames; perhaps they dislike non-violent or indirect competition. Possible correlation to Timmy, Johnny, and Spike archetypes as discussed in theory related to Magic The Gathering.

People who like solo or small group PvE tend to also like single player minigames and sim/crafting play, but tend to dislike both types of PvP. Theory: This group dislikes either competition or intense socialization.

People with a strong preference for socialization (chatting, posting, roleplay) tend to dislike sim/crafting gamelay, single player minigames, solo/small group PvE, and 1v1 PvP. Theory: extroverts

Theory: Lack of popularity of 1v1 PvP may come from the fact that it is not satisfying to either introverts (because it features human opponents who are not separated from the player by a wall of gameplay) or extroverts (because there is only one human opponent, so it's only) low grade socialization. People who prefer 1v1 PvP may be intermediate between introverts and extroverts, and since humanity follows a bathtub curve of distribution WRT these traits, there aren't very many people in the mid-range.

Additional conclusions: It seems like an MMO with a dual focus on PvP and crafting will either have no audience or will have two distinctly different player types that don't get along very well. Since may of the recently-opened sandbox MMOs have PvP and crafting, these games may experience pressures to align with one group or the other, seeing the game mature into either a PvP focused game or a Crafting focused game.

What is the definition of "next gen" ?!

Everything ( interesting ) has been done to death in the MMO area.

"Space" - check.

"Modern" - check

"Future" - check

"Prehistoric" - check

"Anime" - check

"Hentai" - check

"Building" - check

"God Like" - check

"Military" - check

"Life Simulation" - check

"Pet Battling" - check

"Fishing" - check

"Robots / Mechs" - check

"Combat" - check

"Adventure" - check

"Strategy" - check

"Simulation" - check

"Puzzle" - check

"Creation" - check

"City / Empire Building" check

"Super Powers" - check

"Kill things until you're level 99" - check

"Spend your entire life grinding out skills" - check

"Create your own world" - check

"Create your own MMO" - check

Some one please show me some "next gen" MMO were I will be saying "I haven't seen that done before" .

What is the definition of "next gen" ?

Some one please show me some "next gen" .

- "next generation" will be only by uniting all the listed by You..

@Shippou - If you know of an interactive story MMO, I'd like a link to that.

@Shippou - If you know of an interactive story MMO, I'd like a link to that. :D

ESO was a bit interactive where the world actually changed as you did quests. This however lead to a minor peoblem where your friends would be invisible to you because they were in a diffrent phase of the quest. ESO also allowed you to use some legitament kiting techniques which for an MMO was pretty nice to see(rather than in other mmo's where no matter how far away you were, the enemy hitting you was determined by dice roll.)

Hi guys.

Soo i was thinking about next gen mmorpg but as far as i am concerned i havent really play any role playing game so far..

Sure there are a lot of games called mmorpg and you do play a role but not a role that has any impact on world since anyone has the same role.

So what i would love to see is a mmorpg that forces you to play a role and that that role has an impact on world.

What i have in mind?

Imagine a world with no shops run by npcs. So you want to get/buy sword, well you search a player that has chosen a role of blacksmith. He is makeing swords but he needs a raw materials so he could go and get them, but that would prevent him from makeing swords, or he can go to player that has chosen to play a role of miner and he trades for that material. Of course one can have more roles but he cannot be soo efficient.

Do you guys understand me? its basicially a player driven economy. The game of course should have a goal.

I know that most players wont like this sort of game but i have enough of games that says kill x number of y animal...

Thats my idea of an mmorpg i would love to play.

@ Tonchek

You just described about 8 different MUDs I have ran across over the years, were everything from government, to economics are ran by the community .

Would be fun to see "100% player controlled" concept fleshed out in a 2D environment.