Will 1999 ever happen again?

[Morningbreath]

Originally Posted by Sadre Spinegnawer [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Always a good post topic, imo.

My take is, the first years of MMO's were a once in a lifetime thing. It was new, there was little competition, the internet itself was still new, computer games were more complicated than consoles, people still used computers (most my friends rarely use a computer: they use their pads or phones for most of their online living) as their only online source, and people's attention spans were not divided into a thousand things.

What you are asking, I think, will there ever be a game that requires time, hours at a spell, playing a challenging game with others, and not just for a few weeks before a new game catches your attention, but for months and in fact a year+?

No, that will not happen. Too much has changed with the internet, people, the ways people use the games and devices, etc.

I would argue that is why p99 works. Let's face it, it is a one-off server, and it attracted everyone missing the way we used to do stuff with these things.

I see absolutely no chance of any subscription based, persistence RPG online world in the future. No one is gonna pay, not enough to make any company want to actually invest the kind of capital required. That is why all "persistent" worlds are riddled with PTP loopholes.

It takes tremendous talent and work and money to create a balanced persistent online world that is also policed for hacking. Where is the market? E-gaming deals with session games, where you play these little matches. But a persistent, more-or-less non-linear and open gameworld like eq or even eq2?

No market that will ever command the necessary talent/time/money required to build it.

TL;DR We are stuck with one-offs forever now. Brad McQuaid can enjoy seeing his dream fail, for, it will.

One of the bestselling games on the PS4 last year was Bloodborne. It's not an easy "give you everything" type of game. It falls into a different genre from MMOs but it's proof that a difficult game can be successful *IF* it has compelling gameplay and content.

In some ways I agree that Verant was lucky to get Everquest out the door when they did--I signed up for beta because it was one of the few 3D-accelerated games on the horizon--but I also think the co op group gameplay was revolutionary. Alot of games represent a technical achievement for their time but don't retain any kind of following.