It’s been a big year, perhaps one of the biggest years ever for MMOs. We’ve seen the launches of TERA, The Secret World, Pirate101, and Guild Wars 2. World of Warcraft, LOTRO, RIFT, EQ, and EQII are all popping out expansions this fall. I’m still riding high on the insane amount of choices of gameplay — and new gameplay — right now, although sooner or later it’ll settle back down into a somewhat normal routine.
But without GW2 and SWTOR as the big “must haves” for the future, I’ve heard some people feeling uncertain about what’s to come for MMOs. We get so used to having these major must haves on the radar that when they finally arrive and there’s no new contender to pick up the ball, we’re left with a hype void. What is there left to get excited about? Have we crested the hill of the silver age of MMOs and are about to descend into the dark ages?
It’s all in your perspective (and the unknown future), I suppose. MMOFPS players have a great deal to still be excited about, with Firefall, PlanetSide 2, and DUST 514 coming soon. In fact, those are probably going to be the only major holiday releases we’ll see this year, believe it or not. Me? I’m not so much into FPSes anymore, so they hold very limited interest for me.
However, I still think there’s a lot to be excited about for the future, and here are five games that I’m following avidly:
1. WildStar
This has to be my #1. Everything I’ve seen about this game so far just gels hard with me — the cartoony look, the humor, the housing, the multiple playstyle paths, the scifi/western blend. It has a solid team and the deep pockets of a big (if aggravating) publisher behind it. I hope that it’s still got a ways to go, because I know I’ll be dropping everything for it when it hits.
2. EverQuest Next
I hope we’ll be hearing more about this title from SOE Live this week, because I’m genuinely interested. I grew to appreciate EQII quite a lot (sigh… another title I wish I had time to be playing these days), and I know that SOE is going to want to put their best efforts toward their flagship product. Smedley’s promised that this will be a great sandbox to help sooth the wounds left by the closure of SWG, but we’ll see.
3. City of Steam
Small. Browser. Indie. Steampunk. And it looks really awesome. As I’ve said before, this could easily slide into the role of a pick-up-and-play casual MMO, and I’m totally digging the aesthetic and setting. Lots of strong buzz around it helps, too.
4. The War Z
While I have DayZ on my desktop, I haven’t found the time to play it yet. However, I’m really attracted to the idea of a zombie survival MMO, and recent reveals of the War Z have piqued my interest. It’s a popular genre that really hasn’t been done much in MMOs up to this point, and I’m guessing the first studio to deliver a solid product in this area will dominate.
5. Neverwinter
I have enjoyed all of Cryptic’s MMOs to date, and everyone I’ve read who has gotten their hands on Neverwinter reported back a surprisingly fun D&D MMO. I loved DDO to a point, but its complexity also presented a barrier. That doesn’t mean the world is too small for two D&D games; quite the contrary. It’s a great setting and I look forward to player-created missions for it.
Of course, there are a lot of other games on the horizon that have the potential of surprising me as well, such as ArchAge, Marvel Heroes, Star Citizen, and TESO. Well, probably not the last one. It’s really interesting to me how many of these projects are diverging from the norm of MMOs, which actually gives me great hope for the future. Studios are breaking free of the WoW model and are embracing other formats and ideas, in particular player-created/generated content such as what you’d find in sandboxes.
I’m in The WarZ Alpha right now, I haven’t heard of the other games you mentioned but so far I’m really digging WarZ. I feel like, by the time the game is released for public, it will be a solid MMOZHS in which the gaming community hasn’t seen. Of course, this all depends on the feed back and what the developers do with that information.
It seems to me that one of the largest problems MMGs have these days is that people are *always* looking for their next title. They’re fickle, easily bored, and always seem to move on in three months. Population crashes, servers are closed, cue proclamations of “fail” from the internet fourth estate.
That may be a symptom of the design malaise that’s settled on the industry, but one of the things I enjoy about this blog – and it’s a quality I tend to share – is that you enjoy where you are, not where you’re going next.
Having said that, the games I’m keeping an eye on are dark horses; Pathfinder Online, The Repopulation, Embers of Caerus, and Chris Roberts’ Star Citizen.
Part of me really thinks that I ought to get off the never ending cycle of chasing the new cool shiny thing. Jumping around as much as I have done in the past has only lead to me being behind the curve in any given MMO to the point that expansions and updates no longer apply to me. For example, you are bubbling with joy about Riders of Rohan, but I am so far from the previous level cap that the expansion is pretty much meaningless to me.
So this year I have pretty much stuck to two key MMOs. We’ll see if I can keep that up.
That said, I am always interested in what SOE is doing with the EverQuest lore… even if it annoys me… so I will be soaking up all that they care to share about EverQuest Next. (I predict we get almost no details at SOE Live.)
And then there is Neverwinter, about which I have mixed feelings. It is Forgotten Realms, a big plus in my book, being the bestest D&D campaign setting ever IMO. But then there is Cryptic. In the end, I haven’t really liked any of their past work. Also, I am a little annoyed by the name they chose. With all of the freaking Faerun from which to choose, could we please get over Neverwinter? How about Calimport? Or Luskan? Or Scornubel? All fine locations with deep lore and no previous games named after them.
I’m on board for four of those five. If I never see another zombie EVER again, though, it will still be too soon.
At least for me, I’m currently so satiated and satisfied with MMOs that it’s not about needing the next big thing to keep on going. I think some people get addicted to that false hope that their salvation is in the next release. But I can and do look forward to good ideas making their way to release.
After the last few weeks of beta Planetside 2 is easily topping my list. It’s done something that no other MMO has done for me since 2002. Something that not even Planetside 1 did for me. I’m having loads of fun even without my full guild online, or hell, even solo.
I can’t stand playing WoW, GW2, WAR, SWTOR, EVE, even bloody Torchlight 2, a game that in all other respects I absolutely adore, without at least a small group of my friends. But PS2 is still fun for me even while I’m running solo in a crowd of strangers or defending a base almost by myself. It’s a very odd feeling for me. I can’t wait to get home tonight and earn more cert points for my engineer.
As for the entries on your list, only Wildstar and Neverwinter are even blips on my radar. The former looks like it might be fun to tool around in with some of my non-PvP friends and I’ve always liked Cryptic even if none of their newer games have come close to CoH imo. Though, unlike Will up above I would be happy if the whole world forgot about Forgotten Realms and am in fact loathe to touch D&D at all without a thick protective coating of Eberron or Ravenloft being applied before hand.
After how immensely dull I found EQ2 to be SoE would have to pull a whole flock of rabbits out of their hat to sell me EQNext. My zombie needs are more than adequately met by L4D2. And my feelings on City of Steam are nicely summed up by my reaction to the first 4 words of your take on it. Which, respectively, are, “who cares?,” “disgusting,” “who cares?,” and “obnoxious.”
Can WorldAlpha be #6?
Dunno if it counts as an mmo in your optics, but personally I’m looking forward to Marvel Heroes
..And wildstar, wildstar is a given
I agree with Attic Lion.
An MMO isn’t nearly as fun if your not with a group. If I’m gonna be stuck in a world all by my lonesome, It better be a world that is fun to look at, or has alot of fun side quests. I’ve stopped playing WoW because i can’t stand looking at it anymore.
What kind of high budget game doesn’t have Normal Maps on its models? XP
Has anyone else seen this game “The Origins of Malu”? It looks kinda little like Rift meets Final Fantasy. Their website at this point looks mostly like artwork and I don’t see any much gameplay. But at least they have normal maps. :/
I wouldn’t get too excited about Wildstar. The big-name publisher is “aggravating” when you don’t understand their motive, and their motives do not include letting it play out if the property in question isn’t suitable for their home territory, which is not North America. I desperately want it to be amazing, and I dread it as well, because knowing the publisher, it’s only got a few years, at best, to live before it gets cancelled with little cause.
Everquest Next is something I’ll have an eye on, though I don’t know if I’ll ever get into it.
City of Steam certainly seems interesting. And I do like the possibilities offered by a browser-based platform.
The War Z… zombies are boring, as far as I’m concerned. That’s all I’ll say.
Neverwinter could be good, but I’m again wary of the developer/publisher – Cryptic’s track record for delivering on games is mixed. The product is good, but often fails to match the hype or expectations. The publisher is one I’m not entirely fond of – I don’t care for the general tone of microtransactions in their games, although I can’t really pinpoint why it irks me so much more than, for example, Lord of the Rings Online, which is just as bad in some ways especially when entering as a new, never-subscribed player. I’ll certainly give it a shot, though.
@Rivalyn:
My opinion on Cryptic is that – given sufficient time – they always produce good results. CO and STO were developed simultaneously and on extremely short schedules (for MMGs). In the years since, STO has become a *very* good game IMO (I haven’t played CO). I played Neverwinter at PAX East last year and had a lot of fun with it.
As for Wildstar, I’ve heard some insider gossip about Carbine that leaves me dubious it will ever ship. A lot of staff have cycled through since then that data was fresh, so maybe they’ve gotten themselves on course.