TenTonHammer.com - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

By Garrett Fuller, Industry Relations

The MMO genre has grown drastically in the last four years. In the early part of this decade we saw games like Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot set the groundwork for World of Warcraft. By 2005 Blizzard had won the race and became the dominant game on the market. Even four years later, WoW continues to have a huge impact on our world as gamers. So where is MMO game design going after this giant explosion of popularity?

Age of Conan looks to revolutionize MMOG combat.

2008 offers us some great options as MMO players to look forward too. Age of Conan being the game of the spring and summer season will challenge players with strong content, personalized story telling, and a unique combat system that really give the players more to do than just point and click. AoC has expanded the genre by bringing in NPC cuts scenes for players to enjoy as well as having more combat options than just your regular hot bar. With Conan you have to pick where to swing your sword or cast your spell. This type of active combat makes the game move faster or at least feel like it is moving faster.  

Dungeons & Dragons Online had a very active combat system as well. Constantly having to catch moving targets and allowing players to move out of attacks gave the player a dynamic role in fighting. These steps in combat speed and player activity are taking us away form the standard tool bar that has a list of skills we can use to fight our opponents. Warhammer Online has a similar system by adding in their Moral Abilities, which players must build up before they can use. Again we are seeing the standard skills grow into more active, calculated, attacks and spells. This slow but sure move to more complex player options in MMOs will lead us down the path of more dynamic player side games.  

The social aspect of MMOs is the largest factor that these games offer. Guilds have taken on a life of their own and now collectively travel from one game to the next. Remember your five person RPG group years ago to meet and play D&D, well now you have groups with hundreds if not thousands of members. EVE Online has seen their Corporation system grow into an all out warfare in space. The Corporations themselves have grown into powerful influencers on EVE and really add to the game’s overall design. With Web 2.0 in full effect and social networks growing more and more online, will we see even more social factors coming into MMOs? Will players be rewarded for being the “most popular orc” in their tribe? Time will tell.  

Kid based games like Mabinogi hope to target tweens and their parents.

The other factor that will impact MMO design heavily is the growing number of games geared toward children. Club Penguin, Webkinz, and ToonTown all target a very young age bracket. Gaia, Mabinogi, and a ton of other games target the tweens, so what will we have in five years? It looks like a pretty well educated player base looking for new challenges. Games are made to challenge the players and hopefully make them grow. If this theory holds true then new generations of game players are growing before our eyes. Not only that, but with the huge popularity of the console market, almost every teenager in the U.S. is playing video games. How will this affect their choices as adults? How will it impact their children? Video games are becoming as normal as sports to most children and families, with social networks growing even more, who knows family night in the future may consist of a boss raid.  

These are just a few points to think about with where video games and MMOs in particular are heading over the next few years. If the rumors are true and the big publishers continue to expand MMOs then there are some very big games and new play styles coming to the market in 2009 and 2010. (Bioware…cough, cough, 38 Studios, cough, Red 5 Studios, ahem…) These companies are all expected to release new games in the next two years. Hopefully they will push the limit on game play and drive players into a new fun world of interactive games where the days of target and click are over, and social networks will continue to expand.