The Next Great MMO..

I believe will function a lot like Rust or Ark/Conan exiles..

Imagine World of Warcraft or Elderscrolls Online, etc. With a PVP and land building system as Rust/Ark.

Another thing is that exploration NEEDS to be a very high factor. No randomly generated environments..

2020 internet speeds are a lot faster, technology is better.. This type of game would be really addicting IF DONE RIGHT. A triple A company such as Blizzard, Bethesda, or Bioware should do this..

I'm telling you it'd be fire af. But not everyone would be into it.. It'd work. It just wouldn't be the carebear grind experience that most MMO companies are catering too.

(Also non related the Battlefield series developer DICE should make a medieval fantasy type game.. Dragons as planes, naval combat with cannons... Cool classes like mages and necromancers, etc)

I'm telling yoouu....

I am so disconnected with what younger gamers like in video games so maybe you are right.

I hate Minecraft, Ark and Fortnite but those games are massively popular and continue growing...so they must appeal to lots of people.

I agree randomally generated maps suck. Exploration should be rewarded. Maybe a combo system could work? 75% of the main map is the same for everyone but it’s massive. Then they have 25% of the map(certain areas) that are randomally generated.

This way you kinda get the best of both? It would work like Pokémon’s Safari Zone but actually random. I don’t know.

I think a consistent "open world" with randomized dungeon levels would be the ideal way to go about it.

I don't think a AAA studio should do it, however. AAA means they need millions of people to play their game to sustain it, that won't happen for a game you describe as I imagine only a few hundred thousand regular players would exist at any time. You need a specialized, independent developer to do it. Just look at EVE Online; a persistent universe where everything is the same in one ginormous megaserver, but the players alter their environment, and it is very successful despite not being hugely popular.

It's also important to remember that Rust, Ark, and Minecraft are (or started out as) products from independent studios.

I would love a "Battlefield: Fantasy World" game; with the success of Warhammer: Total War, I am shocked more people have not applied conventional gaming formulas to a fantasy setting. Warhammer was all about historical realism and shit like that, but then along comes Warhammer and it's one of the best installments in a series of games that has nothing but excellent stuff.

Archers as sniper, mages as gunners, knights as assault, druids as medics, dragons and gryphons as airplanes.

You could have a light faction (humans and angels or something) and a dark faction (corrupt humans and demons) and so on. I think that'd be great, and mercifully different from the repetitive World War/Modern War cycle we are stuck in.

Blizzard, Bethesda and Bioware are dead/garbage now

Imagine giving The Elder Scrolls Online such high praise. .

Depends on definition of "great" for a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Play game.

My personal take is I've never found much good about any of them. Outside of grouping with a large number of players, what do they offer exactly? Battle Royale genre already has the scope yet more success with great gameplay mechanics and decent enough level design. All of which most would agree was always the MMORPG genres undoing. As games they're pretty awful, fetch quests and micro-transaction pits, oversimplified gameplay with zero depth. Most even have a Pay to Win model as well.

MMOs high in large play like garbage and are only remotely fun due to the unexpected patterns of real world players flooding the map, whether that be friend or stranger.

Even World of Warcraft, is just a time sink of terrible game design. Only thing I respect about WoW is it brought a lot of people into gaming itself and help in win over doubters of the early 2000's towards gaming itself. WoW wasn't even the first MMORPG but it did make it become the swollen lump that it is today.

High-in-large people who enjoy MMOs have a lot of free-time, want something easy (very easy), but extremely repetitive, so long as one can have all your friends in that pit it's ok.

So on that note I think anything could be the next big MMO, it just needs to run well performance-wise, and have a cosmetic hook to gather the masses.

Anyone played ESO recently? Heard it’s gotten quite good.

Time of MMOs have passed, welcome to the current flavor of the year Battle Royale. It's all about the money and making MMOs is costly and long term business while you can just make a quick buck making a battle royale game.

I've been an avid MMO player for years, played Everquest, WoW, Warhammer Online, SWTOR, GW2, tried some asian grindfests...

Currently looking forward but with great scepticism to Ashes of Creation. Check it out if you're into MMOs

@no1gamemaster: Meh, what the world really needs is bespoke sci-fi MMOs. Not more Tolkien Syndrome clones of Warcraft.

@no1gamemaster: Well, the companies you mentioned, I don't think I can trust anymore. Hell I don't think that bethesda was ever all that great.

In anycase, av a gander at my sig.

The problem with MMOS in my opinion;

Time.

Younger generation want what they want when they want it now. These are the people bugging you for handouts. Asking to be carried. Jump to whichever guild benefits the most rather then try improving.

They don’t want to spend the time to build their character. They want to log in & be able to blow shit up without any difficulty. Instant gratification.

I think you've hit in on the nose on this one.
MMOs are about time invested (I should know, been playing WoW for 15 years now) and in this age of instant gratification and then moving on the next thing MMOs just don't appeal to younger gaming audience.