Comments on: Predict: When do we get our first non-fantasy, big success MMO?

By: Outsider

Outsider — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 23:13:36 +0000

A friend of mine just suggested something that made me think of this thread:

Grand Theft Auto MMO

That would have an absolutely INSANE amount of subscribers.

By: WitchKiller

WitchKiller — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:55:13 +0000

Don’t forget the Warhammer 40K MMO. The developers are in my hometown but I doubt that I’ll enjoy it. Anyway, it might turn out to be a hit. The next big MMO may not be Sci-Fi, I’m hoping that Age of Reptiles makes it on the mainstream market.

Personally,I’m still waiting for a strong non-DIKU MMO to launch, and the setting comes second.

By: Longasc

Longasc — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:35:37 +0000

We all can relate to history or at least our contemporary imagination of it. The Middle Ages seem to have the most appeal, they are the base of most fantasy games and novels. But future is often more about technology and machines than your character. In EVE, I am more or less a Armageddon BB, a fast Minmatar frigate, but not a char like my avatar in WoW, GW or other games. The fantasy setting of magic seems to offer the most and easily and readily available tools and possibilities for the world, enemy creatures and your personal character development. While it is new an exciting, it is still familiar enough for us to feel at home in this setting, which is very important.

Future worlds are either just unimaginable or just recycle old known things like government, justice, weapons and stuff in a new way, often just with new and fancy gear. But technology is so much harder to balance than “magic”. Truly new concepts are also very hard to communicate to the public. I also think that the more or less ranged combat of the future is a problem for MMOs. People did not find a solution for it yet, melee and short ranged attacks/spells predominate.

KOTOR is more like the old Lucasarts Action-Adventures than a MMO, btw.

By: Outsider

Outsider — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 05:08:45 +0000

If you hadn’t disqualified KoToR, I would have chosen that. That game will be huge.

Other than that, I don’t know. I definitely think it’s possible for a non fantasy mmo to make it big, but nothing that’s been announced at this point will break the 500k barrier. Maybe a Battlefield mmo would do it though. I think it’ll ultimately take a strong liscence that means something to casual gamers and a skilled development team.

By: Talsek

Talsek — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 19:32:54 +0000

I think hybrid fantasy/sci-fi settings like the Star Wars universe are great for a few reasons. For one, Star Wars generates instant interest because of the name recognition. The KOTOR series also brings in a number of rabid fans, and counteracts some of the negativity left behind by previous poorly made Star Wars games. Also, the hybrid setting serves as a sort of gateway drug to help people break the tight association between fantasy and RPGs. It’s true that many of the best RPGs/MMOs are fantasy-based, because they account for the majority of the games released. Law of averages. But I also have gaming friends who dismiss non-fantasy RPGs out of hand. That’s a shame, but having some outside motivation to try non-fantasy games is a good thing. Superhero/sci-fi games do seem like the logical step beyond ‘traditional’ fantasy, so I hope there are some notable successes that get people thinking outside the fantasy box.

I do think that for the near future at least, non-fantasy MMOs based on original or fairly obscure IP will be a tough sell. If games like the KOTOR MMO do well though, hopefully it’ll open the doors for future successes.

By: Hal Black

Hal Black — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:56:32 +0000

Eve Online seems to be about halfway there, at around 250,000 subscribers, the last I read. They seem to have been able to sustain steady, but small growth over the past couple of years.

From the previews, the KOTOR MMO does look like WoW in Space Stations. There are light saber battles where the light sabers don’t cut guns, walls, columns, and limbs in pieces as in the movies, but instead bounce off the opponent like a normal MMO sword. And the opponents just square off, stationary, and run the weapon attack animation over and over. So while Star Wars in general could be done without it being too much of a fantasy hybrid (maybe a creation inspired by X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter or Rogue Squadron) it looks like the Bioware offering will be more of the same. But Bioware makes some great games, you never know.