Naoki Yoshida recent interview

[justinjarjar]

Video game industry in general is getting dull, welcome to a mature industry. If you want different and new you have to look at indy since blockbusters make more than enough money on rehashed content (like hollywood). Is it bad? Not really, just the way it is. There are very few industries that do not hit these dull what next time spans. Someone will come up with the new blockbuster game that is different the only question is when? Is MMO's dieing? maybe, might be that the old audience has less game time and MMO's are not appealing to the new youth or maybe it is just hitting a dull period until the next big thing happens. There are still many successful MMO's out, but yes they all are not that different in mechanics to each other. Is this a problem? IDK most cars are just slight variations on a theme, yet that industry still can afford to have multiple producers. Give it time guys, form what i have seen even platformers are far from dead and that is like the OG big game.

[GalkaBikini]

I'm glad the MMO market is in decline. I miss the old days when there were only a couple of games to choose from, like Ultima Online and Everquest. After WoW everyone and their momma was making an MMORPG, and now there are so many that it's just pointless. When you have too many of something it really feels like the value of it all is lowered. Personally I find it embarrassing how little the MMO has evolved since WoW. I wish more developers weren't afraid to take risks, though it's definitely understandable when you're dealing with hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars.

On the other hand, I firmly believe that emulated player run servers and "classic" servers will only grow in popularity. A lot of the older MMOs have huge emulator communities, and with the recent announcement that Daybreak Games (formerly Sony Online Entertainment) was fully acknowledging and accepting the player run classic Everquest server "Project 1999" as a fan service and would never seek to shut it down, I expect other companies to follow suit by either officially allowing the servers or running them themselves.

I'm still waiting on an ACCEPTABLE classic FFXI server.

Oh and the future of the MMO and gaming in general is absolutely based on headgear, like the Oculus Rift.

[justinjarjar]

IDK about headgear... if it is then they are years away form it being viable (still have major problems and most people like me find it a gimmick). I also think more gear is not the way the industry wants to go (IE look at rockband or GH phase where the extra gear made more logistic problems then the companies could handle). Are headsets cool? Yes and will be a niche market. Classic servers are (and have been) run for a while now since people like them old game feelz. FFXI will not see a fan server until the game is not run by SE (not sure when they will shut that game down). MMO market at this point has stabilized at a decent size (not MMO rush era highs but good enough numbers for some developers to devolve).

[GalkaBikini]

You guys have SO obviously not used an Oculus Rift yet, heh. It is the future, period.

[Akiza]

Every game coming out has a mutiplayer online component with rp elements. The problem is MMO's have forgotten about the rp element and focused on social aspects. MMO's will become shared virtual worlds with single player experience and focus on character progression.

[justinjarjar]

Yes and I have heard reviews also it is a gimmick. If you want to use it good for you, but in way is it going to be a thing for many many years to come. Even then what do you mean by 3d? Since right now 3d is a gimmick or it is only used to enhance an image (which is cute but not needed in anyway).

[Dawnblade]

I never played SWG but wasn't the "failure" due to Sony trying to make Jedi more accessible to casuals, and make "The New Experience" patch? Any old SWG players want to explain what happened there? Most people I heard who played it said the game died cause of that patch.

Yes, the game was it was before said patch had out of the best character development systems I've seen in any mmo since. There were balance problems of course but those always exist. I was one of those who left at the time. And I've been looking for a similar product since.

[TheUltimate3]

Yes, the game was it was before said patch had out of the best character development systems I've seen in any mmo since. There were balance problems of course but those always exist. I was one of those who left at the time. And I've been looking for a similar product since.

I hung on for about 3 months after the NGE. Yeah you'll never find another.

[justinjarjar]

Many MMO's are making money, the idea that they are magically going to die tomorrow is silly, give it time maybe they will die out or maybe they will continue on, no one can predict the market change that far in the future, even yoshi. If it is making money most people will not fix it and major mmos are, so what are we talking about at this point?