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| How good do you think 2004 will be for mmorpgs? |
| I think it'll be the best yet! |
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40% |
[ 9 ] |
| I think it will suck, big time! |
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9% |
[ 2 ] |
| It won't be any worse than 2003 |
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40% |
[ 9 ] |
| I don't know / I don't care... |
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9% |
[ 2 ] |
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| Total Votes : 22 |
Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
As the new year begins, it's always fun to try and predict what kind of year we'll be having. I remember last year the outlook was pretty encouraging, but then we all know what we got in the end...
So, how do you see the upcoming year as far as the mmorpg genre goes? What do you see happening with it, why does it seem positive or negative? How do you wish things go? Let's discuss the games that you think will make the genre advance.
_________________
=Proud Father of a new gamer GIRL!=
=Member of The Nonflamers' Guild=
=Worshiper of the Written Word=
Last edited by Ekim on Sun Jan 11, 2004 3:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
Wed Jan 07, 2004 7:36 pm |
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Ammon777
Warrior for Heaven
Joined: 20 Apr 2002
Posts: 2011
Location: United States |
Okey, last year 2003 sucked, plain and simple.
This new year, 2004, is going to be the best MMO year ever. The games that are due to come out this year are going to actually leave a mark. I know SWG left a mark, but it was a casual one, to say the least. The other contestants left average marks: Horizons is average, and Final Fantasy is an average MMO as well. Some games got expansions, and thats good stuff, unless you are like me and arent playing any of them!
Last years disappointments for many hardcore players were (although it can be argued by a bunch of people that they werent disappointing -- although those people are mostly inexperienced casual players, or were disenchanted by DAOC's leveling treadmill in the first place); anyway, the disappointments of 2003 were:
-- Star Wars Galaxies (not intended for hardcore players; many disappointed)
-- Planetside (it was nice at first, but got old; droves left after initial months)
-- Neocron (it never was fun; nope, it never was fun in the first place)
-- Asherons Call 2 (content at launch? none; content now? some, but too late!)
Im not saying those were failures, but in many eyes they werent "worthy" of a long-term subscription.
Many people became disillusioned in 2003. Many hardcore players -- such as myself along with ~500,000 other people i know about -- are still waiting for a decent MMO to dedicate our time to. We have been waiting since quitting AC, EQ, UO, or DAOC. For me thats been 2 years of waiting. My long wait is finally going to end in 2004, and its about damn time, i say.
In 2004 the genre will hit an all-time high mark. All you have to do is look at the list of upcoming games for this new year and you will find that there will be something for EVERYONE, unlike last year, which sucked for many of us because the choices were so damn SLIM...
The most notable games that will come out this next year are (followed by likelihood):
-- Darkfall Online (mabye late 2004) (content? you bet your arse!)
-- Dragon Empires (certain) (content? yes) (graphics? awesome)
-- Trials of Ascension (its possible, but not probable)
-- Everquest 2 (certain) (good content) (best graphics EVER)
-- Ultima X Odyssey (certain) (tons of specialized content)
-- World of Warcraft (probably) (content? prolly)
-- Realms of Torment (fairly certain) (no content though)
-- Lineage 2 (certain) (castle seiges i guess)
-- Middle Earth Online (probable)
-- Warhammer Online (probable)
-- Mythica (maybe) (by microsoft)
-- a bunch of others (like City of Heroes and Wish)
plus we will get a few new announcements of upcoming games in development, such as the important announcement from Sigil Games Online about the project they are working on! (thats supposed to be within a few months, btw.)
i cant speak for everyone; however, i know my stuff better than most people, enough that i have the knowledge to declare that the most innovative games are:
-- Trials of Ascension (most innovative by far, by leaps and bounds)
-- Darkfall Online and Realms of Torment (very daringly innovative)
-- Mythica and Ultima X Odyssey (private realms are innovative)
-- Dragon Empires (has a very well-designed system that is innovative)
sorry to say that World of Warcraft is NOT very innovative, so shove it. plus you guys are gonna have to put up with legions of Warcraft punks. i dont envy you  |
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Wed Jan 07, 2004 8:54 pm |
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Ammon777
Warrior for Heaven
Joined: 20 Apr 2002
Posts: 2011
Location: United States |
forgot to say that the biggest successes of 2003 were:
-- Everquest (by far the most successful, still...)
-- Dark Age of Camelot (still... for 2 years now...)
-- Tale in the Desert (very innovative)
-- Ultima Online and Asherons Call 1 (still retain a bunch of players)
i might have forgotten a few in all this. i dont care though.
2004 is gonna rock! woohoo! |
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Wed Jan 07, 2004 9:05 pm |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
I don't know... some of the games you mentioned won't be coming out this year (if anyone is still dreaming of WoW in 2004 better get a good dose of reality fed into them  ).
Still, I agree there are some potentially good games listed there, and I doubt that 2004 would be as bad as 2003 was. As much as I liked SWG, it still didn't save the whole year on it's own.
The two games I'm looking forward to the most in 2004 is RoT if only for its blood-line system, and Wish because of some of the things I've seen (although I'm still not convinced that they really have something to keep players interested for a long haul...).
And then I'm still hoping for a nice surprise coming from the left field. I'm ready for it. The world is ready for a nice surprise, I think. We even deserve one! 
_________________
=Proud Father of a new gamer GIRL!=
=Member of The Nonflamers' Guild=
=Worshiper of the Written Word= |
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Wed Jan 07, 2004 10:03 pm |
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Arma
Mysterious Lady
Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 1230
Location: in the middle of hell |
Well, I DREAM about World of WarCraft coming out this year, but the realist in me shouts FORGET IT, no way Blizzard are putting this out until mid-2005!
Anyway, I think that 2004 will either be a great year for MMORPGs or will suck like 2003. |
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Thu Jan 08, 2004 6:13 pm |
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Kaniver
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 04 Dec 2003
Posts: 47
Location: Western Oregon |
There are so many MMORPG's in development that should at least hit the beta level in 2004 thats it hard to imagine that one of them won't knock our socks off. I look foward to somthing with original concepts. MMORPG's are not easily rushed sucessfully. The feature I most crave is engaging gameplay. I cannot well explain engaging gameplay, but I'll know it when I see and feel it. I rate gameplay several tiers above graphics.......pretty pretty doesn't cut the mustard by itself. Gameplay & graphics......well now were talkin.
I too think it could well be somthing out of left field that catapult the genere into the real " NEXT GENERATION MMORPG "
One of the dark horses that has captured my attention is Dark & Light. I have my doubts but I can dream can't I....heh heh.
WOW sounds good and the screenshots are very well done, gameplay and community will tell the tale.
DE......high hopes wait n see attitude
Ultima X.......has some good sounding features, combat sounds engaging, EA has the muscle and experience to do it well...wait n see.
I could go on but I have relagated myself to wait n see on everything. It isn't what they say but what they produce that counts.
MMORPG's are a very subjective kind of experience..........what rocks your world I may find quite dull. I thought DAOC was terrible, many many would disagree with me.
We are fortunate indeed to have the RPG DOT family of websites to keep us well informed. I appreciate it's mature format and contributors. Hopefully we'll get a game as well done in 2004 |
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Thu Jan 08, 2004 7:01 pm |
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Kiff
Protector of the Realm
Joined: 27 Oct 2002
Posts: 257
Location: Indiana |
I have high hopes for '04. But I wanted to vote no better and no worse than '03. I'm eagerly awaiting Darkfall Online, because finally powergamers can't uber level themselves away from the power-causal player like myself...I'll be able to practice just what I want and not have to worry about making the next level to put points into a certain skill to remain competitive.
DF is going to be my high point of this year and it is what I really look forward to...and I also want to see what DAoC does with it's RvR expansion. |
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Thu Jan 08, 2004 9:19 pm |
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Hyrrix
Fourty-two
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Posts: 282
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Hmm, there are a couple of things I'm looking forward to in 2004. First of all there are the existing things that'll be getting better. Dark Age of Camelot looks more promising than ever with its Realm vs Realm expansion/changes coming our way. Some time ago I was asked to participate in a roundtable article about the future of DAoC, and I pretty much came to the conclusion that the most important feature of DAoC is still the RvR. Mythic has a good amount of feedback on the system and has been gradually adding and changing things to the concept. Whatever MMORPG is going to try to claim the title of best large-scale RvR battles, will have to go through a large amount of careful balancing and tweaking first before coming near to DAoC, I believe. Looks promising to me.
Apart from that, the first telling of A Tale in the Desert will end in acouple of months (probably March, altough nothing's official yet), and I'm already looking forward to starting anew in the Second Telling of the game. If they manage to pull it off rightly to attract the attention of enough new players, I'm sure this will be a great experience once again.
Then there's SWG. A good game with lots of potential, but one that couldn't hold my attention for long. However, I promised myself to get back to it one day, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. Meanwhile it's been improved and I'm sure the space expansion will add a great deal to it.
Then there's the new stuff. Altough I'm looking forward to games such as Darkfall Online, Dark & Light, etc as well, I doubt they'll make 2004 properly. Realms of Torment probably will, but I do hope they take the time to do proper debugging and balancing. There are so many good games on the horizon such as Glympse, Trials of Ascension, Freeworld, Guild Wars, Face of Mankind (more inovative than one would expect), etc. but it remains yet a mystery if they'll turn out what we expect them to be. It's always a bit guessing in this genre, isn't it? Some things sound great on paper, but turn out to be totally different than we anticipated.
Altough I'm most passionated by and interested in the inovative titles that aim at mature and consistent worlds with a high level of player-content and player-governing; usually also with a particular stress on Role-Playing, the fate of these types of games is also the most insecure. So even though I try to strongly support these projects, I think that some others have a good chance of coming out of this year as everyone's favourite. UXO is taking the market by storm already. Announced just a couple of months ago and already on Themis' number 5 of most anticipated MMORPG's at this moment. Also Mythica with its aim for instant-fun looks very promising. To a much higher extent within this same design philosophy I think Guild Wars is very promising and, altough it aims at simplicity, is very innovative.
Then there's a couple of important announcements that'll be made. Sigil Games Online for one, but let's not forget that Funcom is also working on a yet un-announced mmorpg, as well as a social-focused expansion pack for Anarchy Online. Also, with Turbine having bought the AC-franchise over from Microsoft, I think we've got an increased chance of seeing a graphical update for the original Asheron's Call... Not sure what they're planning, but I'm quite confident that we'll see something new in the franchise soon.
2004 and 2005 will be great years, I think.
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Vault Network Editor |
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Sat Jan 10, 2004 6:41 pm |
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Zakhal
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 13 Oct 2002
Posts: 188
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Realms of torment. Hopefully we finally get a welldone pvp game. |
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Sun Jan 11, 2004 5:43 am |
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Hexy
High Emperor
Joined: 28 Jun 2002
Posts: 621
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EverQuest 2 will probably hit home pretty big.
However, World of Warcaft looks like the real behemoth coming up in 2004/2005.
Plus, we'll have to see what people like Sigil and Funcom bring to the table, although I have little faith in Funcom.
Furthermore, there's a host of quasi-interesting games like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Matrix Online, Mythica, City of Heroes etc.
Then you have buch of seedy MMOGs, stuff that looks very insecure.
_________________
Like some bold seer in a trance;
Seeing all his own mischance |
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Sun Jan 11, 2004 9:47 am |
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Ican
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
Posts: 185
Location: UK |
I wish there was an option ...." it won't be any worse than 2003"
The MMROPGs produced in 2003 were simply dire. In fact, they were so bad, that like one of Pavlov's dogs, I feel almost repulsed into never wanting to touch another MMROPG again. Thank god there were some good single-player games to retrieve the situation ( KOTOR, Gothic 2 ).
I must give special mention to Horizon's. In my eyes, it beats AC2 for being the most disastrous on release ( I never tried Anarchy Online ). I would not be surprised if there was a mass exodus from Horizon's. Better start building the Ark ....
With Ammon ... I eagerly anticipate Darkfall. I'm hopeful WoW will prove to be a good mainstream MMROPG. But , I also don't think this will be completed before 2004 is out. |
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Sun Jan 11, 2004 1:34 pm |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
quote:
Originally posted by Ican
I wish there was an option ...." it won't be any worse than 2003"
Your wish is my command Added a "Won't be worse than 2003" option to the list.
_________________
=Proud Father of a new gamer GIRL!=
=Member of The Nonflamers' Guild=
=Worshiper of the Written Word= |
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Sun Jan 11, 2004 3:30 pm |
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Ican
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
Posts: 185
Location: UK |
Thanks ... 
I'll vote now .... |
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Sun Jan 11, 2004 6:08 pm |
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Christation
Village Dweller
Joined: 02 Jan 2004
Posts: 24
Location: Louisiana, US |
Dragon Empires, Lineage 2, Everquest 2, and Dark and Light are on my '04 list as very promising. DE and D&L are more innovative while EQ2 and Lin2 have the experience factor... but then again, so did SWG with all the EQ folks. My money is on '04 being the best year yet for MMOG.
_________________
Christation
MMORPGDOT Editor
...Don't rob someone of hope; hope may be all they have. |
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Mon Jan 12, 2004 3:25 am |
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Ligi
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 27 Aug 2003
Posts: 39
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2003 - The "More of the same year" with the exception of A Tale in the Desert and SWG. But both couldnt hold my atention for more then a couple of months.
2004 - The " year of many choices" - diferent concepts are coming and for many tastes:
- PvP fans (Darkfall and Dark and Light)
- crafters will have Horizons polished
- EQ fans will have EQ2
- Ultima fans will have UOX
- Worldcraft fans will have... to wait ... as always P
- European FF fans, will have FFXI servers (hopefully)
- RvR fans will have DaoC better then never
If the above is not enough, Dragon Empires, City of Heroes, Lineage2, and many more will be around too.
I really believe that we wont see so much offer so soon after 2005, the period between 2004 and early 2005 will be unique and lots of MMRPG players who are discusted with the corrent status will be pretty busy.
Untill those games dont come out, I am having lots of fun in FFXI |
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Tue Jan 13, 2004 11:59 am |
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