Evolution as it does and doesn't apply to MMOs

by Eliot Lefebvre on Jan 17th 2010 8:00PM

A few days ago, we discussed the lack of innovation in the MMO market at the moment, as well as some of the underlying reasons behind it. The topic prompted We Fly Spitfires to postulate the idea that we needed an MMO that broke most if not all of the established and accepted rules of the genre. In his own parlance, we needed a mutation instead of a steady evolution.

Those of you familiar with evolutionary science might be quirking your eyebrow a bit, as did Of Teeth and Claws, where it was pointed out that mutation is a part of evolution. Continuing the analogy, it's a part of the slow improvement we see in our genre of choice, as the source leading to feature implementation and improvement. And as Killed in a Smiling Accident added, evolution is not a straight line, nor does it select features based on inherent quality -- the current "standard features" have evolved because they're best at succeeding in the current environment (that is, the market).

Ultimately, aside from fascinating extension of the analogy, the biggest point to be taken away from both this discussion and the previous one is that change in the genre isn't something which will happen overnight. While the powerful influence that World of Warcraft has placed upon the genre is beginning to abate a bit, it'll be quite some time before it's discarded wholesale.

Tags: evolution, game-development, game-features, genre-improvement, improvement, innovation, killed-in-a-smiling-accident, mutation, of-teeth-and-claws, we-fly-spitfires, world-of-warcraft, wow

Reader Comments (41)

I think you miss-understood me, The game doesnt need orks and elfs and all that bs. The setting of the game, the classes, the way they work ,the mechanics of the those classes, that does no matter. What I am trying to say is that what makes wow such a good game are the three basic things that I mentioned.

This basic diversity in the game play and the sense of freedom to play however you want has been missing in every attempt made by any studio. They usually leave out the dungeons and raids or do them in a half assed manner. This was Warhammer's and AoC's down falls. Aion has done the same thing. I never tried there dungeons in the beta but when I found out there were only 4 and they were all in the end game I stopped playing.

What I meant when i said by some one just coping wow was that they need to offer the same thing that wow does. I think I made that perfectly clear but I guess you didnt read what I wrote save for the last few sentences.

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