Ekim's Gamer View: The Revolution of Evolution
Ekim, 2003-09-26

People are wondering what game will make the MMORPG genre even more compelling than it can be today. Which game will be the one to break the boundaries of the genre, to change the way we see it, and even how we play it. We hope the next crop will be a big step forward, an evolution that starts up the revolution… Well, I have big news for you: no single game will do that, not yet.

The Next Step: Adolescence

The genre is out of its infancy. Whoever still tries to make us believe that we should pardon a game's faults because the genre is still young should be sent to the Sahara desert to eat crackers without water. The genre is no longer new. Some developers have already come out with their second game for crying out loud. When that happens, the infancy is done with. We now have a grownup genre.

That isn't to say that there's no room for improvements anymore though. We now have a pimple-faced adolescent that seems to always want to do what he's not allowed. We have to tame him, so to speak. All adolescents are alike, and each of them want to resemble each other. You could call it peer pressure, in gaming I would say it's almost the same. One of them makes money, so all the others follow suit by dressing the same way because they want to be just as successful. Never mind originality, it doesn't exist in this context.

So until the genre reaches its adulthood, we still have to see the positive in all the crap we are offered. A flawed game can still be enjoyed, otherwise there wouldn't be anyone playing SWG or Shadowbane, that much is clear. But to expect anything truly ground braking from the next crop of games (or the current one) which will be coming out in the next year is like dreaming in Technicolor. Sure, there will be inventive features, some might even be original, but a feature doesn't make a game.

This coming generation, the third or fourth depending on how you see it, will not be the one to floor us out of disbelief and wonder. What will probably happen is that we'll see a few nice features here and there, most of which we will wish could all be included in one single game. But the limits of the genre won't be pushed by any one game. Not by a long shot.

Revolution in Numbers

What is truly revolutionary right now is to see how many of these games are being developed at this very moment. It's almost impossible to list them all because there are so many. We were amazed last year because there were 5 or 6 titles in the works, most of which have seen the light of day by now. But this year is truly ground-breaking indeed. Someone in our MMORPGDot forums attempted to list them all, and came up with 19 titles that are in development! Nineteen!! And the best part is that there were probably a few more missing! To me, that is the true revolution of this upcoming generation.

Whether any of these 19 games end up being any good, or if they even come out before the end of next year is irrelevant at this point. Half of them probably won't be release by the end of 2004, in fact. What is relevant is the simple statistical data, the numbers. If 19 titles are being developed right now, it means that we will soon be faced with a lot of choices and options. This alone will bring in an evolution.

With options come winners and losers. And you know what? I'm sorry to say that I really, honestly hope that there are finally some losers in that upcoming bunch. I hate to wish anything bad on anyone, but this genre is in dire need of a failure, as I already said a few weeks ago. Despite the horror stories that have cropped up in the last few years, this genre is yet to see a single game shutdown due to a complete failure. And because no one seems to be able to fail, I fear that some developers out of those 19 games are just laughing their way through development, careless of what their game might become since they are almost assured to make even just a little money…

And the Failure goes to…

But the number of games probably means that there will be at least one failure out there. There has to be. Can we really afford a choice of 10 MMORPGs? Could they all survive at the same time on the market? We've often said that consumers can't afford to play more than one of these games at a time, that it would be impossible for more than 4 or 5 MMORPGs to survive at the same time, but I really begin to wonder if it really is… In any case, a failure would only be a positive thing for this genre, a sort of wakeup call for our pimple-faced adolescent that keeps missing the bus for school and arrive late for class. Time for this teenager to learn about responsibilities.