Ekim's Gamer View: Surprise Me!
Ekim, 2004-01-09

Like everyone else I've made my wish list for 2004 as soon as 2003 was over. I did it pretty early this year because of the kind of year we've had last. Let's just say it won't go down in history. This year the mmorpg community is hungry, famished even. We need a surprise, something unlooked for.

Something smells nice!

Every year is filled with its share of hype, and 2004 certainly doesn't look like it will be different. It's like a waiter in a specially nice restaurant that's holding a tray full of deliciously smelling plates walking through a room filled with hungry customers. The smell makes our mouths water, and we're holding our forks and knives with the anticipation of wolves in the middle of a harsh winter at the sight of a fat rabbit. Ok, lots of analogies here, but you get the point. The trouble is once we finally get our plate sometimes it doesn't look quite as good, and the taste is disappointing.

The 2004 crop of games deserves interest. There's some variety in there, and some games look more interesting for sure. But what do we really need? We need a Baldur's Gate. By that I don't mean that we need an isometric mmorpg, don't get me wrong. We need a surprise hit, a game that gets to the heart of what an mmorpg should be, and needs to be so that the genre evolves instead of staying as stagnant as it is. We need something that comes out of the blue, a title that no one foresaw could be that good. We need a game that will do to mmorpgs what BG did for single-player rpgs in general.

I guess the same effect could also be achieved by a game that has a high level of expectations. If World of Warcraft lives up to all the expectation I guess it would be a pretty good game. But the chances of that happening is slim, SWG proved that last year. Historically the best games, those who were remembered the most, were those that came out unlooked for, without any special expectations, which didn't suffer from hyping as much as other high-profile games.

Is the mmorpg fresh today?

What happens if this year is as dreary as the last? I'm afraid just to think about it, but we have to. Not that I think 2004 will be a bad year, but if you remember the beginning of 2003 the outlook was pretty good too and look how it turned out in the end. A lot of games that are listed to be released this year could slip through the cracks and be postponed until 2005. It happened before, so we can't be surprised by that. So out of the games that will eventually make it to store shelves by next December, we need at least one good game, a game that stands out of what has been done in the past, that will renew our hopes for the genre. If that doesn't happen, things might go downhill very fast. Older games are enjoying good player-bases right now, but eventually we all need a change. If it doesn't come in the means of a good mmorpg, then players will turn their attention elsewhere, and then those who have new games coming out will have to fight to convince players to come back to the genre. Right now they only have to convince us to switch from our current game to a new one, and most of them have failed to do that so far. What does that tell us about the future? In short, I too have high hopes for 2004. It has the potential to become the greatest year in mmorpg history if only one of the promised games delivers on their promises. The only thing that remains to be seen is whether developers will really deliver, or if we'll once again be spoon-fed some of the re-heated goulash we've already been served many times before. Good luck to us all for the new year!