Future of gaming: MMO?
so, basically, i was thinking today about MMO's, and specifically about world of warcraft as it pertains to the casual gamer. basically, it has done what no others have been able to, specifically in the draw of non hardcore gamers into its ranks. so, my question is this
do you see a widespread shift of the gaming industry to an online only sort of infrastructure? i guess, i was thinking about software piracy, and how widespread and rampant each of the major releases for 2004 (specifically halo 2, half-life 2, and doom 3). mmo's have essentially reduced piracy of these games to almost zero. granted, there is the occasional mmo server software leak (lineage 2, anyone?
) and this could certainly be detrimental, but that seems like a fairly low risk compared with leaks of your game being avaliable for download a month before you can even buy it in the store.
obviously, the gaming industry is booming right now, so this wont even be a possiblity for some time, but what are your thoughts?
do you see a widespread shift of the gaming industry to an online only sort of infrastructure? i guess, i was thinking about software piracy, and how widespread and rampant each of the major releases for 2004 (specifically halo 2, half-life 2, and doom 3). mmo's have essentially reduced piracy of these games to almost zero. granted, there is the occasional mmo server software leak (lineage 2, anyone?
) and this could certainly be detrimental, but that seems like a fairly low risk compared with leaks of your game being avaliable for download a month before you can even buy it in the store.obviously, the gaming industry is booming right now, so this wont even be a possiblity for some time, but what are your thoughts?
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I think consoles and endless sports franchises will dominate the market for the forseeable future. Any big or important changes will take place on the PC and will never be big enough to fully change the industry but will continue to change and shape it in the way it always has done.
I have to agree, I would LOVE to play WOW, but no way in hell am I gonna pay a monthly charge just to play the game I already paid for. :fu:
WoW is a service, however.
I dont think that the supscriptions are particularly high I just dont like the idea of tying myself into a game I know I wont get the time to play. If you have just paid to spend your weekend sitting at your computer instead of doing any number of other things it starts to get a little silly for me. Thats why I wont pay to play. Doesnt matter how good the game is, I just wont do it.
*Zuntar takes a deep breath........puts arms over head and preparesfor the flames.
What is "Guild Wars"?
*Zuntar ducks.
I don't think guild wars will be doomed. From what I know, it's just a graphical version of Battlenet, and Blizzard doesn't really make any income off that service. I will definately get Guild Wars. I'm fed up with all the bullshit in WoW.
Servers down daily, lag, blatant class inbalances and lack of communication with the devs. I also got tired with the guild I associated with. They fought over stupid things.
No for me my online gaming consists of xbox stuff Crimson Skies, Tony Hawk, doom etc... I can play those games deal with people and if someone is a morron I can switch arenas. I also don't have to continuously play to keep leveling up. It fits perfectly in with my limited play time and best of all It's free.
Guild Wars is an intriging concept but like Diablo, Sacred and any others I'll get bored of it also it's just the same old thing point-click and watch the computer decide if I killed it or not. Maybe rewarding my ability to click on a special icon at just the right time to aid in my killing.
One thing I hope people should understand is all these questions about how one person who has never been in the industry can build their own MMO. Sorry if this sounds rude, but I laugh. However, I laugh becuase I did the same thing not to long ago when I wanted to start my own. I doubt much will change in the world of MMO's. Guild Wars is one of the best games I have ever played, and it can only get better as people take their buisness/design model and add their own fixes and changes to make it even better.
Guild Wars is NOT like EQ/EQ2 becuase it would cost them too much money and they wouldn't make any $$$ from it. MMO's like EQ generally HAVE to have subscription fees(another reason you're general person cannot start their own amoungst so many others IE: BANDWITDH). I hear people complain how they cannot afford to play and that it's unfair..... that's crap becuase if you were the developer you'd think it was unfair that you have to host a free MMO while you dish out teh bucks to host servers, send out god knows how much bandwidth and pay however many people to keep it all working and patched. Simple fix..... can't pay to play, don't play.
But the point I guess I want to get across is that MMO's will exist the way we see them for the forseeable future, there will be some MMO's like GuildWars who are free(and this idea is not new BTW) and some you have to pay for just like your cell phone and whatnot. The only way it'll change is by new laws that may or may not pass that can govern such things like Virtual Property and all that, or worse.... taxes. That kind of thing could possibly kill most the MMO community.
MMO's can be fun, but I'd like to see some more co-op MP games. I have an idea for one I've got on hold until I get a job that uses the Torque Game Engine that is upto 32 players, but encompasses an area the size of Houston. It's MMOish in that it has MANY controllable players and a persistant world, but anyone would be able to host it. If you've ever played Freelancer you kinda get the idea, except this is based on land and isn't a FPS or RPG BTW
/checks his bank account, .. fuck
That does NOT mean PC gaming is dead, because the two things PC does better than console currently (by a HUGE margin) are MMO's and real-time strategy games (RTS's). Sure there have been 2 MMO's on console (a seperate version of EQ and Final Fantasy XI), both of which did poorly. Yet, look at World of Warcraft on the PC/MAC. 3 million subscribers world-wide! That's 3 million people who not only payed $50 US (or the equivalent), but also pay the monthly subscription fee. And that = a ton of money they're hauling to the bank with steamshovels and dumptrucks. Is it any wonder EVERYONE is in the MMO business now? I think people actually started taking it seriously when EQ (Everquest) was touting 400,000 monthly subscribers several years before WoW. NCSoft is a company who focuses on nothing BUT MMO's (City of Heroes, Lineage 2, Auto Assault, Guild Wars).
So yes, it's my opinion that if you are still a die-hard computer gamer, the future is MMO and RTS, otherwise start looking into consoles if you want FPS's, RPG's, Sports, etc.
I know guys who refuse to believe that.... (FYI I am Pro: Mouse and Keyboard). They claim that they could outdo me in everyway with their trusty XBOX controller vs. my Keyboard and mouse.... just wish I could prove them wrong. It's natural that they choose a form of "challenge" that no one is capable of dealing, nor am I willing to dish out the money if there was a way.
What they don't seem to realize is what I keep telling them.... auto aim is the only reason they are so accurate on Consoles! You can't tell me that with your single thumb on a tiny fast moving joystick on a handheld controller that you could easily point and shoot like you could with a mouse in which you use your whole hand to move and steady the reticule! It just doesn't work that way.
For example, when your reticule hovers over or gets near a target you can shoot it will usually either slow down, or snap to the area over the target to prevent you from over shooting the target. Tell me I'm wrong!
I love consoles, but damnit I hate when people spout off about things like this that make no sense.
Console FPS games are a lot slower in pace and enemies are always slow to react to give you plenty of aiming time.
Consider this, on it's first day of sale, Halo 2 for Xbox (arugably an only average game) sold $125 million in sales on the first day (that's about 2.4 million units) according to various news articles on the internet. I think it's now past the 5 million mark. I know the PC version didn't come near that.
Now I'd hate to see the computer go away as a game machine, because it's still my favorite way to play games, but I seriously think the only real future it has lies in MMO's and RTSes.
*Zuntar turns to google.
I'm sure the new games will probably be bigger but the game play isn't going to be evolving to a new level on PS3 or Xbox 360. Both systems have too much money invested to start taking chance and won't be breaking the formulae. How much better is Burnout 4 going to be over 3 seriously, making the game prettier isn't going to do much and any game play enhancements could still be done on the current hardware. This caries forth to every genre better graphics aren't going to mean a better game. I'm not excited about PS3 or Xbox 360 at all. Even after my current xbox is forgotten on the game front I'll still have it and it's modded goodness around and bringing an endless ammount of function. Actually until they (assuming they do) mod the 360 or PS3 to be able to provide the media capability of the current one I won't even consider getting one.
Nintendo though with the Revolution just with the design of the controller they are changing the way the games are potentially played. The console market has proven time and again that 3rd party gimicks are rarely supported beyond one game. So if this game with a regular controller and then after released a game that used this new controller it wouldn't take off. But because it's part of the hardware from the beginning and developers know that everyone has it there is no risk in using the motion control features. They can now create games that even if they aren't different in concept can play a whole lot different because of the control. Even taking simple existing games but changing the interface creates an entirely new experience. That to me is very cool and worth getting excited about. Especially if the interface feel right.
Just think a sword fighting game that works (well) by having your on screen character move the same way you swing your hand. This has been attempted before but never done right. But it's always been a gimick not built from the ground up. Plus Nintendo has also shown they are willing to take some chances with other things such as DDR, not my thing but it's certainly popular or their Bongo Controllers which is silly but quite fun.
I'm a big Nintendo fan since I bought the GameCube, and I'm also very excited about the Rev. Hell, I'm excited to see the new Zelda (which looks bad-ass), and dare I say, Pokemon XD! I also appreciate how smart they're playing their next-gen console. It's obvious they're not even concerning themselves with competing with Microsoft and Sony, but creating their own seperate market with all thier unique licenses and characters.