What Next-Gen MMORPGs Need In Order to Grab Our Attention
Since we are so generous, we have compiled a list of 10 things (in no particular order) we want to see in the upcoming MMORPGs.
1. Allow Players to Make Real Money While Playing the Game
I Make My Living By Grinding Gold in MMORPGs. Maybe We Will Actually Be Able to Say That One Day.
Kind of the opposite of what all game developers want isn’t it? Diablo 3 tried this back when it first launched and it didn’t work out so well, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Just imagine an MMORPG that would let you make some money in the game. We’re not talking about gold farmers or in-game currency; we’re talking about a “revolutionary way” that would make both the developers and players happy. Entropia Universe has been doing this for a while now by allowing players to withdraw their in-game currency and convert it into real money, but the process is extremely convoluted and tedious that many people get frustrated and simply quit the game. How exactly would this work, we are not sure but we would like to believe that something like this could be done one day. On a serious note, making something like this would be extremely difficult and would require one heck of an anti-cheating program but if it would work, it would truly be an evolution in MMORPGs.
2. Next Generation Realistic Graphics
It Needs to Look Even Better Than This
Let’s face it. Graphics DO matter. Not as much as gameplay, sure, but they definitely matter. It’s much easier to get immersed in a gorgeous world than in a cartoony world (I’m looking at your World of Warcraft). Many MMORPG developers tend to dumb down the graphics so that more people would be able to run their game and while the cause is noble we still want to see prettier graphics in the end. So don’t worry about our PC (or consoles) developers, they can take it, just give us lots of pretty things to gaze upon.
3. Super-Fast Servers With No Lag
This Couldn’t Be More Accurate.
You finally made it to the last boss of the raid. You have been looking forward to this the whole week. The tank pulls the boss and the battle starts. The DPSers are at the back dealing massive damage while the boss is facing the tank while the healers are topping up everyone’s health. The boss is almost dead, looks like you might be able to get that Epic Helmet this time. NOPE, not tonight. Because the game lagged and it wiped your entire raid party. There are numerous tales of entire groups of skillful players failing because of this extremely annoying thing that can’t seem to disappear from any multiplayer game. It’s 2016, can someone please make some servers that don’t lag? Are we really asking too much? We only want to play the game we paid for the way it was intended to be played.
4. The Ability For Players to Become Super Powerful In PvP
If We Can Look This Powerful, Why Can’t We Also Feel This Powerful
You’ve been doing PvP for a while now and have been trying very hard to get that awesome looking PvP weapon you’ve had your eye on for a while. You finally get it and what does it do? A couple of more points of damage; disappointing. Unfortunately, something like this is nothing new for active PvP players who have been working much harder than others to get the most powerful gear. We feel that those players really deserve to not just look the part but to play the part as well. What’s the point of even doing PvP in MMORPGs when the highest you can get is being a little bit more powerful than an average player? Sure, some balancing would have to be done, but we would like to see an MMORPG that can really make us feel powerful in PvP after doing so much of it.
5. Players Can Build Villages, Settlements and Conquer the World From Other Player Factions
Nice Little Town You’ve Built Here. It Would Be a Shame If Someone Were to Conquer It.
While many MMORPGs have already experimented with player housing, we are yet to see an MMORPG that will allow us to build our own town and then take over another town with our friends. All we ever got was AI buildings that need to be conquered or defended. Imagine how more passionate we would feel about defending a settlement we built ourselves by the sweat of our brow. You get the picture. We love pre-build towns and we like raiding them but we’re old enough to build our own and… destroy them.
6. A strong Social Element That Encourages Players to Communicate With One Another
Games Are Much More Fun With Friends.
It’s truly amazing how many today’s MMORPGs fail to meet this. If most of the game content can be done by one person that that one person will never feel the need to go out and look for other players. World of Warcraft seemed to have nailed the social aspect of MMO’s back in its vanilla days, but as time went by they added the Dungeon Finder and they removed the elite quests just so they can cater to players who want a solo experience. As much as some of us enjoy soloing quests in MMORPGS, this isn’t helping the game. There are fantastic single-player RPGs out there that we can only tackle on our own. MMORPGs were made to be played with other players, and solo activities should be kept to a minimum.
7. Thrilling Quests and Adventures That Truly Excite the Players
Quest: Kill 10 (Insert Name Here) and Return
Let’s add another log to the fire of complaints in MMORPGS. The Boring Quests. Back in the day, they were tolerable. Quests were expected to be grindy and boring but now in 2016 we are expecting much more. Killing 10 of the same enemies or collecting 10 of the same items just doesn’t cut it anymore. We want adventure, we want to travel, and we want to feel a sense of accomplishment when we actually finish a quest. Runescape seems to have a good idea when it comes to questing and we’d like to see more of that.
8. Realistic Killing Blows and Death Animations
So… how did it die?
I remember back in my High School years when I discovered World of Warcraft. I was so into the game back then and this one particular time I was doing a “Kill 10 Murlocs and collect their heads” quest. I had friend doing it with me and I casually asked how come some of these murlocs don’t drop any heads, to which he said: “Well, maybe you hit them so hard, that you crack their skulls and there is nothing left to collect”. Back in the early 2000’s this was an acceptable answer but today there is no excuse. If I crush a murloc’s head I want to see a beheaded murloc corpse next to me. Chop of their limbs, stab, or smite them, why can’t we get animations for stuff like these. It’s high time we stop seeing two characters swinging their swords at each other until one of them falls. Might seem a little gruesome, but we need more death animations. Speaking of death animations…
9. Each Class Should Have Over 100 Combat Animations
Slashes and Slices Aren’t the Only Acceptable Combat Animations Game Developers
Ready for another story setup? Here you go. You’ve just hit level 40 with your Paladin, and it’s been a hard grind, like really hard. You’ve been leveling hard for the past 3 weeks. You finally hit level 40 and you get to acquire the new ability paladins get at level 40. You get it and you go out into the world to test it on an unlucky mob that happens to be in your way. You use it and… it looks just like the ability you’ve been using this whole time, but hey, at least it does more damage and stuns your opponent right? Why, oh why, do game developers think that a Slash, a swing and a stab are good enough for us? We want more. We are talking about jumping stabs, spin-attacks, passing your sword from one hand to the other and then attacking (maybe that one isn’t that great, but it would look cool). Warriors, Paladins, Barbarians and other melee classes in MMORPGs are sometimes hard to tell apart because they all have one thing in common, they all hit with weapons and it always looks the same. So, we want unique animations for each class. Show us why we should pick that Barbarian over the Warrior and why a Mage looks cooler than a Warlock.
10. An Enormous World Filled With Players, Monsters and Adventures
If an MMORPG World Begs You to Explore It Then That MMORPG Is Doing Something Right
Granted many MMORPGS do this right. They make an exciting world with lots to do and lots to see. However, because a lot of MMORPGs still don’t know how to do this right, allow us to clarify. We need a world that looks and feels alive. We want to see other players and different monsters wherever we go. We want to feel like we are on an adventure and not like we are just finishing a zone and then moving on to the next one. World of Warcraft used have so many great zones where hundreds of people would quest at the same time, but with each of its expansions launch, all of those zones have become barren and that is something we don’t want to see. Show love to your zones MMORPG developers and we will love them too and don’t abandon them because of something new.
These are the 10 things we think Nex-gen MMORPGs should have. Please keep in mind that this list is entirely opinion based. We can only hope that one day an MMORPG that meets all of our demand will be launched and that we will play it like there’s no tomorrow.
For more lists like these, check out these links:
13 Best MMO Games in 2015 and 2016
