EverQuest 2, Asheron's Call 2 and Linage 2 all faced seemingly lower subscription numbers than their predecessors. It would seem that sequels -- while able to be successful -- don't live up to the same success that the original games had. It's possible there could be an exception to the rule someday, but so far there hasn't been.
MMOCrunch suggests that sequels simply can't succeed and gives several reasons as to why: players having to start over, the problem of sequels being the same game and players feeling like they're getting left behind.
Updating the original game to the point of newness like CCP has done with EVE Online is a great method, but it's not the only one. MMO sequels can be done, but not the same way as a sequel to something like Halo. Developers need to take the issues stated above into account. Why should players leave their long-played characters in EverQuest to essentially play in the same world with newer bells and whistles? They shouldn't, not unless that new world vastly changed and improved in earnest.
EverQuest 3, it'll have newer graphics, current standard MMO features, brand new features and be set a hundred years after EQ2.
Are you already as bored as we are?.
Lets make it more interesting. Everquest 3 will have all that new stuff, but be set over a thousand years into the future where the world of Norrath has entered the industrial age; Steampunk. The lands, people and places in Norrath would be very different from its previous games. New places to explore, new ways to play and if done right a reason to maybe leave your old EQ2 character behind.
Just take a look at Guild Wars 2. It could be the first MMO sequel to become incredibly successful and partly because it's set 250 years after the original game, thus allowing the developers to change quite a lot. Players new and old alike will have a reason to play Guild Wars 2. They'll want to experience the new game and it's new world.
MMO sequels can work if they're different enough in setting and concept. It's a tight rope to walk, but altering a sequel is paramount to finding success.
