Quote Originally Posted by Peregrine View Post
Ok so that's the idealist soapbox. In reality there is no new technology here. 3d? Oooh. MMO concepts are a limited resource, they are NOT boundless unwritten worlds limited only by imagination. For the concept to fit the market and genre, it has to be addictive and time consuming. Basic human psychology limits what kinds of activities that entails. The best and easiest concepts get tapped quickly, and then after a maintenance phase the field starts to become stale if it's just not that great of an idea to begin with.

The goal is to not revolutionize and revolutionize forever, or die. The goal is to become such a good fundamental idea that people will always want the product. Like Coke. Coke needs no revolution. No innovation. The product has enough inherent value to stay forever as it is.

If MMOs don't, they'll just contract or be perpetually tried and burnt out on by new 14-22 year olds each generation. If you're tired of MMOs, you're probably done with MMOs. Don't be expecting them to change much. WoW, Rift, FFXI...that's about as good as it gets folks. This is the product. It's either good enough or it isn't. It's not a diamond in the rough any more.
And that's the pessimist's view. It's a sad indictment on the genre's potential if WoW and FFXI are the best it can do. Fortunately, we are seeing games like Guild Wars 2 , ArcheAge, and TERA innovating and adding new ideas to the genre.