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"False ideals cannot be shattered by criticism. Right ideals must take up the battle against them."
— Franz Werfel
In years past, once technology had progressed far enough to allow video games to be created, perhaps some dreamed about the possibility that, one day, different players separated by immense distances could play the same game together. This desire found its outlet in earlier, failed attempts at online gaming, such as Nintendo's "Family Computer Communications Network System," designed for the Japanese Famicom game system, or SegaNet, which originally saw a popular response with Sega's Dreamcast system, but ultimately withered on the vine due to a lack of financial support.
However, while consoles have only just begun to come into their own online communities (bolstered in large part by Microsoft's Xbox Live service), PCs have long been bastions of online gaming, going back more than three decades when MUDs, or Multi-User Dungeons, were first played in the 1970s. MUDs ultimately gave way to MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games), and after games like Ultima Online and Everquest took the PC gaming scene by storm, the market has been flooded with MMORPGs ever since.
What makes them so popular? Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft is purported to have more than five and a half million North American players, with another one million in Europe. While MMORPGs were considered popular before WoW's arrival, such numbers might have seemed inconceivable for the "niche market" that they once were. After such astronomical sales figures, it stands to reason that other companies will hope to create "the next World of Warcraft," and so what was already a crowded market will see a flood of newcomers, each fighting for a piece of the pie.
But what makes an MMORPG, really? I would theorize that such games require only two major parts to pass the "litmus test" for such games: first, a player must be able to interact with other gamers online, and second, that actual "progress" can be recorded somehow, whether through the accumulation of experience points or otherwise. Anything else is simply glorified eye candy, all familiar pieces (monsters, towns, treasures, weapons, gear, etc) simply rewrapped for the audience again and again.
Imagine, if you will, an art gallery with paintings hung inside by all of the great masters of the last millennium. Think of Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Raphael, Botticelli, and more – hundreds more, if you like. Each have their own unique artistry, their own methods and design, and truly no two paintings would ever be alike. As you move from one painting to another, each painted by a different artist, so you can see the differences between them – sometimes subtle, sometimes immense.
Now imagine that they all painted the same picture of a cardboard box, on a plain, white background. No more, no less. Some might focus on the box itself, with clever designs or unexpected dimensions, while others bring the background to the forefront, almost swallowing up the box with a great field of white color, or warping the picture until the viewer loses sight of where the box ends and the background begins.
I would argue that the developers of many existing MMORPGs, and those in development, have focused too strongly on making their own game "different" from all the others, yet each are simply bringing more of the same to the table. No matter what the setting, or the character classes to choose from, or the playable races, these games are focused on nothing more than a steady progression from level one until a character can no longer rise above his fellow gamers. Then, he must undertake quests or adventures on a massive scale (involving multitudes of people), engage in player-versus-player battles, or seek to attain the best gear he or she can possibly find.
On one hand, MMORPGs are, by and large, tailored for this style of gameplay. Designed as the ultimate equalizer, such games pit you against your fellow gamers until one or many can rise to the top and become the strongest of all. But having such freedom comes with a heavy price: namely, the lack of any final goals to accomplish. There is no "ending" to such games, which may explain why some enjoy them, if only because only the player can choose at their whim when they've experienced all that they want to see and discover.
But doesn't this take away any real satisfaction that could only be found in "beating" the game? And doesn't designing a game that only caters to such a player drive away others who have little or no interest in a never-ending crusade to become what, in essence, is little more than "king of the hill?" MMORPGs seem to be gaining more popularity with every passing year, but if each of them keep following the same model of game design, then they will only begin to cannibalize on one another as the same collection of gamers go from one game to the next. Some sizeable guilds make a practice of this, abandoning one game to play the next that comes along. This is obviously not a way to foster and grow the MMORPG community at large, and something must be done to attract gamers that might not normally play such games if the industry hopes to survive in the long run.
It might be said that World of Warcraft attracted much of its base from players who developed a relationship with Blizzard through their previous games (namely, those who enjoyed the Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft franchises). Brand familiarity may ultimately decide which MMORPGs maintain a user base, and which others fade and die out for good. Perhaps other franchises are awaiting a similar treatment. But simply making "another MMORPG based on a popular series" is not going to increase the market base in the long run. New models of games and innovative new features must be introduced for MMORPGs to grow in popularity. One example that comes to mind is Archlord, an upcoming game from Korean developer NHN Games, which promises to allow one gamer to gain control over the entire world (and all the players in it) if he or she becomes strong enough.
Everquest came out less than a decade ago, and it proved that a sizeable number of gamers are interested in such games. World of Warcraft is the first such game to ever reach numbers in the millions. But unless the industry tackles this issue and supports newer, innovative ideas, or "recreates the MMORPG-wheel" by putting a fresh spin on old gameplay, the continued growth of the genre is in doubt.
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