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The Soapbox: Social gaming won't destroy MMOs
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Richard Garriott has gone on record saying that he believes that the days of classic MMOs are over. The future is social gaming, social media, a lot of things with the word "social" shoehorned in. Coincidentally, he's gone on record as saying this at a time that coincides with his entry into the social gaming arena following a somewhat forcible expulsion from the MMO genre. You probably think that Richard Garriott is crazy even if you haven't been to space. Still, the idea is a little worrisome. Your phone calls with your mother have changed from being about your aunt's new hip to asking why you haven't watered your crops in FarmCenterWorld or whatever she's playing. You can smile at the collapse of Zynga all you want, but there are still plenty of companies making good money by slapping microtransactions on Build Mode from The Sims and calling it a day. Combine that with recent failures and missteps in the MMO world you probably wonder whether Garriott, crazy or not, might have a point. But don't worry. Odds are pretty low that social gaming is actually going to kill MMOs... for a lot of good reasons.
PAX East 2011: The future of MMOs from the mouths of the developers
The PAX East panel that almost made me late for the Star Wars: The Old Republic Meet 'n' Greet was a panel hosted by MMORPG.com and featuring some of the heavy hitters in MMO development for this year. I am certainly glad I did not skip this one. This was the chance for the fans to hear what the future of MMOs will bring from the people who are making them. Let me give you a rundown of the panel members -- and tell me you don't just stand in awe of these guys: (from left to right) Curt Schilling, the founder of 38 Studios; Craig Alexander, the VP of Product Development for Turbine; Jeremy Gaffney, Executive Producer at Carbine Studios; Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer for Trion Worlds; Brian Knox, Senior Producer for En Masse Entertainment; James Ohlen, Creative Director for BioWare; and Colin Johanson, Lead Content Designer for ArenaNet. The opening question really set the stage for the panel. It let us know where the minds of these producers and executives are. The question was simple: Where do you see online games going in the next 10 years? Follow after the cut to find out their thought provoking answers.
Guest Post: Into the future with user-created content
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. One wonders how long World of Warcraft will remain viable. It is quite possible that my warlock will still be going strong decades down the line. Of one thing, however, I am certain: I will be playing some sort of MMORPG for as long as I'm able to tweak my spec. But will that game be WoW? My friends and I muse about what it would take to switch to another game. That game would have to build upon WoW's legacy and offer something new and amazing to boot. Speaking of boots, I'd wager my Prelate's Snowshoes that the new game will be some incarnation of WoW itself, as Blizzard has proven so willing and able to adapt and grow with its fan base. What makes WoW so popular and enduring? For starters, the game is so accommodating, with plenty to offer noobs and leets alike. Players can feel a sense of accomplishment from merely questing, while others can savor the challenge of working through multiple levels of high-end raid content. I can feel the delight of one-shotting a low-health rogue sneaking around the lumber mill or experience the soul-destroying chaos of getting quickly roasted in arena. And those of us with creaking, overworked CPUs are able to take part in the fun.
WoW vs. LotRO: The future of MMOs
The comparison is always made between any fantasy-based MMO and World of Warcraft. It's just the nature of the beast these days. In a recent editorial over at Warcry, they compare Lord of the Rings Online with WoW, mainly for the fact that they both have expansions releasing later this year. For WoW, this will be their second in 4 years, while LotRO will be turning out their first in the 1.5 years they've been around.The article brings up some good points when it comes to how similar the two games are, and goes on to proclaim that the future of MMOs lies in innovation and daring to be different from WoW. While the failure of some recent MMO releases would contradict this theory, it's more of a focus on long-term, while "staying [in the] comfortable WoW nest where it's warm and safe" is more of a short-term solution for competitors.
Cryptic has something to ask you
You probably already know that Cryptic Studios plans on coming to Gencon Indy and PAX this year. What you may not know is that Cryptic would like you all to tell them what you want to see. What team members do you want to meet? What panels do you want them to attend and discuss? All of your questions can be asked in the discussion thread.Our personal suggestion is definitely related to PAX, where we'd love to see Jack Emmert, Randy Mosiondz and John Layman. Last year at PAX there was a very interesting "Future of MMOs" panel that we would love to see get some Cryptic input. Although truthfully we just want to find a bunch of you guys and chat about all things superheroes, MMOs and pen and paper RPGs. Oh and of course if we could get some crazy demoing of Champions Online, that'd be super awesome too. It's probably asking a bit too much, but it's nice to dream isn't it?
The Daily Grind: What would you pay for?
At this year's Game Developer's Conference, a lot of hay was made over the concept of microtransactions and the free-to-play model. Attendees seemed split right down the middle, some for, some against. It wouldn't be a stretch to characterize the Massively readership as similarly split. But for those of you who love your free-to-play MMOs, is there anything that would get you to pay a monthly fee?Many titles have the option to both play free and pay a monthly; Dofus, for example, and Second Life too, to polarize the offerings. Are there any such models that have shot themselves in the foot by making the paid content not appealing enough to energize users to pay? If not, what will it take?
