MMORPG Leveling -- A visual timeline. Predictions?

The trend will continue of older gamers thinking games are getting too easy.

Games will go social and be playable via apps, Facebook, etc. What current players like will be considered too much time wasting, and the cycle will continue.

2014: Log in at town which you cant exit. No levels , no combat. There is a big button which allows you to come to forums and troll which is the main part of the game



2015: Log in at town, spam a button over and over till some tokens appear ( It only works if you are tank or healer ). The Tokens can be traded in town for armor.



2020: Log in to town which is a huge maze. You see these tokens on ground which you pick up , every now and then you see a big token which gives you special powers ... these ghosts are chasing you in the maze until you pick up the big token.

Levels will be gone.
Roles will have less importance.
Players will continue to have less and less time to play mmos.
FPSMMORPG.

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Originally Posted by Caraway

Too much 'accessibility' can be a bad thing. MMO developers want to keep people paying so they want to keep people playing. Making too much available too easily kills revenue so time sinks are necessary.

And I'm not familiar with any true modern sandbox MMORPGs out there. Even ESO looks like it's going to end up being pretty theme-parky from what I've experienced in the betas.

EQNext will certainly be more open and encouraging of a sandbox style game but that's not due for at least another year. Additionally there is Brad McQuaid's Pantheon that is on Kickstarter now but that won't be likely to even hit alpha until 2015 either.

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In addition to EVE, there is also Age of Wushu aka Age of Wulin.

What I think will be the future.

1. No Main Levels. Instead, you pick a skill, and level it. The skills become available as part of a tech tree or as something externally acquired.
2. PvP based. Everyone is free to gank you wherever you are. Other features of the PvP climate includes dungeon invaders, you sign up with a party and defend/invade a dungeon to gank another party doing their dungeon quest; faction raids, an instance that will involve a massive raid upon an opposing faction.
3. Reputation based Your work with your faction improves your reputation with them, and you gain benefits, but your work against other factions create a negative reputation, that enables these factions to put a bounty on your head, collectible by another player who is going to hunt you.
4. Destroyable items, armor and houses. In order to feed the crafting and gathering economy.
5. Regional domination. Your decisive victories can lead your faction or guild to control an area.

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1999: Leave town in a party of multiple players, and venture into an open world to grind mobs, free to set your own pace.
2004: Leave town alone, and venture into an open world to grind quests, free to set your own pace.
2009: Don't ever leave town, line up in a queue to enter a linear closed off instance with multiple players, pace is bottlenecked by controlled daily/weekly experience bonuses.

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Your argument here is super skewed. You can "set your own pace" just as much now as you could then. Feel free to level slower by playing less or being bad. Feel free to level faster by playing well, playing more, and / or killing faster etc. You also set your pace by choosing different content. Bonuses are not "bottlenecks." I could just as easily say in FFXI that the pace is bottlenecked by EXP chain breaks.

Noboy's forcing you to stay in town, line up in a queue or enter a linear closed off instance. Nobody's forcing you to group, or do anything. You're just as free to set your pace now as you ever were before. I'd arge you have far more freedom now than you did before as well.

1999: Level up by waiting forever for an EXP party, locating a camping spot and repeatedly killing the same monster(s) over and over for several hours. The only thing that made it at all enjoyable was that you were sharing this long drawn out experience with others.
2004: Level up by repeatedly killing the same monsters by yourself, or by doing quests that award EXP.
2009: Level up by joining a group of people for dungeon runs or guildhests or grinding mobs, by yourself by killing things for the hunting log, by doing quests, by doing levequests, or doing Full Active Time Events.

In 1999 we had 1 key way to level up. That was the only way.
In 2004 we had two key ways to level up.
Today we have many ways to level up

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Originally Posted by Zantetsuken

The popularity of/interest in RUST, LBP, MINECRAFT, Everquest Landmark, etc.. Should make it clear that the future of MMO's is more environmental interaction and player created content.

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Indeed. It would be nice if MMO developers could realize this, instead of leaving it to facebook/phone app developers.

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Originally Posted by Doo

FPSMMORPG

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I feel like that's been obvious since WoW. I know a few FPSs have tried it, but I'd really rather see it developed from a basis as an MMORPG instead.

2014: Insult multiple players in /sh, and teabag dead alliance members during raids, upload videos of teabagging to youtube with a Linkin Park song dubbed over them.