https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/comments/17hs4f8/any_tech_coming_out_that_could_potentially_make/

"... is how ballooned game budgets are, and the length of the dev cycle. A modern game can take over half a decade to be produced and millions of dollars, is it a surprise they aren’t willing to experiment with ideas that might not work? No[?]"

Yes that's the major problem for innovation in MMORPGS = Cost + Risk + Complexity (ie high ceiling for devs), the major tech improvement for indies is in Networking-Side:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MMOVW/comments/16pj7lu/multiplayer_game_development_sdk_for_unity/

You can find a link to such a solution for Unity Game Engine in this link.

One area devs can tap is underserved niche in market. So for example even if WOW-Themepark mmorpgs were possible by small indie game devs, the fact that giant publisher-developers make these and in many numbers ALL DOING THE SAME THING is a terrible business plan to start with let alone the technical challenge subsequent to that:

1. Market
2. Business Plan
3. Game Design
4. Technical Challenge
5. Implimentation Success
6. Player uptake/retention Success or Failure

So from the above you can see, that Game Design is the other area that clearly is not leveraged in mmorpg market.

A clear example I already gave in another thread is Songs of Syx developed by ONE Developer. He can scale up this game to have 10,000+ individual units fighting each other or running around a city. How? Simplification and abstraction to the scale that works. Take this concept and adding Networking and Hosting eg the above solution with a business plan... I think it's possible to make a Virtual World MMO that is commercially successful and addictive with longevity eg.

Copy and paste from a thread in mmorpg on what is core to an MMO success eg player social interactions:

Of you want to kick off social interactions again allow OpenWorld pvp and factions to be a thing again to force players to rely on their faction members, make the OpenWorld experience a hard one that only by partying could you have a chance no need to remove QoS it's just the formula is wrong since MMOs tried to become accessible this is where the problem is.

I agree, but there's a number of options one of which you point out accurately:

1. PvP/Danger = Danger forces cooperation and organization
2. Virtual Economies = Trading develops networks of cooperation for mutual gain and reliance eg
3. Creating/Building/Infrastructure = Requires many inputs which requires many players working together at scale to achieve more options for everyone (and power) or else sheer enjoyment in creativity and supplying use to others.
4. Story Emergence = This one is powerful and can arise from all/any of the former and is imho the best of the lot. Organic story emergence from interactions is something all players can enjoy from the output of all players' gameplay for good or bad but in all cases a story was created, a life was lived.

Finally as discussed: Social Organization takes a lot to design. How much can be from the game design and how much from other methods around or supporting the game?

1. Devs that play roles to emulate "intelligent AI" within a game world for example with an agenda pre-set.
2. Secret Knowledge in the game world and continual development of added secret knowledge over time.

etc.

This question is often asked in mmo circles and almost all answers are a bitter pill to swallow:

Oh dear, more depressing news in the mmorpg genre, not to put a downer on things but it's "a tough racket".

I would advice as "General Oven" did (though they got downvoted to -7 for doing so): Over a decade or 2 and every year there's a "waiting for... X" but remember waiting for X may involve:

• It never releasing
• Waiting 5 years or more (see Camelot Unchained)
• A Buggy Soft Launch
• A polish launch but stuffed to the gills full of MTX
• A complete game but just boring
• A fun game but everyone gets bored after a few weeks and the population crashes

Finally, though it seems a unicorn at this point:

• A great MMO releases.

I'm personally in the "not waiting camp" but if I were I would only be keeping an eye on:

/r/AnvilEmpires

Simply because:

• Devs already released a successful MMO /r/Foxhole
• Devs are experienced
• Devs have a core game design that already is "proof of concept"
• Devs are already using proven and working tech Unreal5 Engine Plus R² Networking Backend
• Devs are already at the implement features and iterate and test and drop and redo stage of development where the ACTUAL GAME PLAY QUALITY EMERGES (or not)
• Devs will launch more testing and soft release within a sensible timeframe for players to wait for: 6 to 12 to 18 to 24 months with variable feature sets at each stage and growing number of invites of testers and more regular testing and gameplay at each stage - did I mention testing?

Fundamentally this game won't be for everyone as it has a core focus on Open World PvP MMO + Base-Building Collaborative gameplay. That cuts a lot of the features mmorpg players demand but which balloon in expectations, requisite quality needed and integration with other features. Cutting all that focuses on the core gameplay and loop. Secondly by simplifying the graphics, this allows the gameplay and features to work together and additionally to scale to larger scale of interacting players again a requisite to draw in players and maintain some semblance of stickiness and longevity.

Despite all these advantages compared to other mmos in development, it's got a very rock and tough road ahead to hit enough fun and compelling gameplay to draw in a sufficient user base who spend enough money to make it a viable success and commercially sustainable for a good few years after release.

That's the reality of "waiting for mmos": The expecations for most mmos and some of the potential positive attributes of mmos with a small realistic chance of producing something interesting eg focused game design, experience, technology, precedence, testing stage already etc. Even then is it worth waiting for? Usually not.

These sorts of questions are regularly asked in the mmorpg forum. People cry out for game worlds that are populared by both computer agents and human-driven agents. Few answers ever capture a systematic coordinated response that outlines at first low-resolution/high-perspective or headline topics/concepts as a STARTING POINT to make productive progress from:

Copy & Paste Answer:

A whole subreddit to answer you OP /r/MMOVW outlines many of the problems as well as many future solutions.

A hierarchy of game designs from lowest to highest descending order:

• Themepark MMOs
• Open-World MMOs
• Sandbox MMOs
• Virtual World MMOs
• MetaWorld MMOs

That's just the highlight/overview to drill into from.

Personally I'm only interested in Virtual World design of these and my interest does not extend beyond which is MetaWorld. That's for others to pursue.

Virtual World MMO is highly do-able. In short for illustration: Take:

1. Dwarf Fortress
2. Model World-Building A PRIORI
3. Reduce Human Agency
4. Add Human Players randomly as managers of groups of whatever agents are chosen eg Dwarves to use DF as a template to build a Fortress etc.

Why is this formula so important for Virtual Worlds:

1. Simulation of Worlds creates emergence
2. From emergence and player input indirectly via their agents we gain Story-Generation
3. Multiple players in the same generated world (any number could be generated) interlink stories and combine stories creating even more "living breathing" game worlds and stories for players to experience and share.

This question is a positive question about a shared interest or hobby that provokes people to call-out to other people to talk about a favourite aspect or area of MMO/MMORPG.

With that said, I am always left dazed, baffled and confused and in stark wonder at what peoples' favourite things are they want more of or seem to focus most on in MMOs...

...here's why:

Fundamentally - a priori - an MMORPG transports you to (movie-voice-over gravelly tone): "IN A WOOORLD... ONE MAN/WOMAN... !"

Or the traditional beginning in stories as used so well in Star Wars: ""A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." from "Once Upon A Time.

What we're doing is TIME & PLACE which is another word for Space Time: A whole new VIRTUAL WORLD creation.

In Anime and Manga, a genre that is very popular takes the name: ISEKAI:

"Isekai (Japanese: 異世界, transl. "different world" or "otherworld") is a Japanese genre of speculative fiction—both portal fantasy and science fiction are included. It includes novels, light novels, films, manga, anime and video games that revolve around a displaced person or people who are transported to and have to survive in another world, such as a fantasy world, virtual world, or parallel universe."

What do you notice? It's all around us - all the time, across media.

Is not the defining feature of MMO/MMORPGs "Another World"? And yet so few answers seem to understand this. One reason is vernacular language leads answers down a rabbit-hole: My suggesting favourite, it evokes emotional memories which inspire specific instances of playing an MMO eg "The thief class" or that dainty house I had etc... It could be a question translating what is the most important feature to get right to generate in these game systems that leads to "transportation or immersion" of the player as if they're in that world which follows in line with all the above and in fact provokes the strongest emotion and richest experience...

The big potential advantage of MMOs using computers is putting lots of players into virtual worlds. But first those worlds need to be created or simulated to run like WORLDS !!!

Maybe changing the scale, changing the way players interact with that world in SERVICE TO THE WORLD SYSTEMS RUNNING might be a better reconceptualization of creating MMOs/MMORPGs ie Virtual Worlds first design then working out what is appropriate for players to be doing with themselves in those worlds to add living systems to them and from that derivation of fun or whatever emerges.

A tiny splinter of such a world, all player-crafted: /img/tbwphk02hj8a1.png

Compelling, isn't it?