As popular as World of Warcraft is, it's still only a set of minor improvements overlaid (with very shiny art, granted) on a design model that's starting to show its age in an industry where games like Braid, Portal, and Trine are starting to shine.
Games like City of Heroes have already solved major flaws with systems like Sidekicks, where higher-level players are temporarily reduced in level so they can partner with a lower-level friend.
We may never get rid of the level treadmill. But with some new MMOs in alpha or beta using Unreal Engine 3, it's possible we'll see the first visually impressive and financially successful MMO FPS/RPG hybrid with a large player base in the US. (I don't think Neocron has a large enough US player base to count and I don't consider World War II Online a MMO FPS/RPG hybrid based on what I've read.)
When I started playing video games in 1985, Super Mario Bros. didn't have any save functionality, no simultaneous multiplayer, levels had only one exit, and levels were strictly linear. The original SMB is still fun to play, but if someone were to release a platformer with 32 levels (not counting the Minus World) and no save feature, people would flip.
My point: Platformers have evolved. So have first-person shooters, role-playing games (in which there is NO excuse in 2009 to feature random encounters), shmups and other genres.
It seems MMO developers are dragging their heels when it comes to innovation--and understandably so. MMORPGs are expensive to develop, expensive to promote, expensive to maintain, and expensive to expand. Few companies are willing or even able to take the risk on a revolutionary MMO. Just as you probably wouldn't expect Transformers 3 to revolutionize the American action blockbuster, it's probably unreasonable to expect anything but "baby steps" when it comes to advancing the MMO genre.
Still, it's an interesting point of discussion, especially since we have so many MMO experts in the community (whether they recognize themselves as such or not). Many current MMO players on these forums played at least one MMO prior to picking up World of WarCraft. They understand a game doesn't need 9 million subscribers to be financially successful or fun. (If anything, Dark Age of Camelot was usually more fun because it had a more mature player base.) I'd be interested to hear their opinions, as well as anyone who discovered the MMORPG genre through WoW.
Games like City of Heroes have already solved major flaws with systems like Sidekicks, where higher-level players are temporarily reduced in level so they can partner with a lower-level friend.
We may never get rid of the level treadmill. But with some new MMOs in alpha or beta using Unreal Engine 3, it's possible we'll see the first visually impressive and financially successful MMO FPS/RPG hybrid with a large player base in the US. (I don't think Neocron has a large enough US player base to count and I don't consider World War II Online a MMO FPS/RPG hybrid based on what I've read.)
When I started playing video games in 1985, Super Mario Bros. didn't have any save functionality, no simultaneous multiplayer, levels had only one exit, and levels were strictly linear. The original SMB is still fun to play, but if someone were to release a platformer with 32 levels (not counting the Minus World) and no save feature, people would flip.
My point: Platformers have evolved. So have first-person shooters, role-playing games (in which there is NO excuse in 2009 to feature random encounters), shmups and other genres.
It seems MMO developers are dragging their heels when it comes to innovation--and understandably so. MMORPGs are expensive to develop, expensive to promote, expensive to maintain, and expensive to expand. Few companies are willing or even able to take the risk on a revolutionary MMO. Just as you probably wouldn't expect Transformers 3 to revolutionize the American action blockbuster, it's probably unreasonable to expect anything but "baby steps" when it comes to advancing the MMO genre.
Still, it's an interesting point of discussion, especially since we have so many MMO experts in the community (whether they recognize themselves as such or not). Many current MMO players on these forums played at least one MMO prior to picking up World of WarCraft. They understand a game doesn't need 9 million subscribers to be financially successful or fun. (If anything, Dark Age of Camelot was usually more fun because it had a more mature player base.) I'd be interested to hear their opinions, as well as anyone who discovered the MMORPG genre through WoW.