The Daily Grind: What is the next MMO innovation?

@Dblade
Look at me, I'm having fun so I'm a drone!
I like something you don't, I'm a drone!

Get over youself dude.

@Dblade

I'm a drone too! =D Have you considered that we play Rift because we like Rift? It's very possible that I got into the beta, liked what I saw, and bought the game.

@Dblade
Guild Wars 2 would like a word with you.

@Apakal stealing Gears of Wars' revive down friend system and tacking it on to a basic GW1 skill system minus healing is going to be a lot less innovative than people think. And yes, rift players are drones, chasing after the next new thing regardless of innovation. Hell, for the past few months the main draw of it was that it worked and was polished. Not an innovation in sight, just a refinement of prior mechanics.

The genre is not going to advance this way.

@Dblade

U mad bro ??

Confirming he mad.

@Krelian

As much as I disagree with dblade here... U mad bro is almost never a good choice when you're trying to emphasize your credibility.

-birk

@Dblade
Why do we have to innovate to have fun?
Rift is fun.
Rift is not innovative.
So?
There are plenty of games that tried to be innovative and were not fun.
I can't imagine how sad it is to live a life so negative all the time.

@Dblade

DBlade is not attacking you personally. He is just trying to make a point by calling Rift fans drones. But it is true that if people keep supporting WOW clones then they will still dominate the market.

@2DruNk2FraG its definitely a monster that needs to die, if only because its sucked out the oxygen of the entire genre.

@Dblade what this man said is spot-on, although the jab at RIFT players was uncalled for. We do not see innovation in mainstream MMO for the same reason we do not see innovation in reality TV or blockbuster movies: because the folks fronting the money generally want to stick to what is known to work.

@MMOaddict Next time a friend shows off their new sportscar, I am totally saying "pffft, such a Ford-T clone".

@xyna031

I believe we're talking about MMO innovations, not game companies we despise.

@Utakata Yes i despise a little the company in question (just little? XD) But Age of Conan was and its still innovative atleast for me, just the combat system itself its still the best in the genre for me, not even DDO and Darkfall rewards so much with just the combat like Age of Conan did for me.

@(Unverified) Well, he didn't really list any wow clones, just mentioned them. Was talking about really different games (Rift does some have innovations, no offense to it, but at its heart it IS a wow clone)

@MrsAngelD

Yup. GW2, I think, is definitely bringing down the innovation. Sure, it will still feature zones and kill 10 rats, but thats where the similarities should end. No quests. The game will not have quests, but dynamic chains you can participate in or not. No picking up quests to work on 3 or 4 days from now. If you don't work on the problem now, then it will pass you by. Then theres healing... no dedicated healing class. Every class can heal themselves and maybe drop a few buffs on others, but the buffs will be location based, not personal based. Also, combat will be more location based, too. Those that can take hits better will stand between the foe and the attackers and actually BLOCK attacks. Class combos will only work from location based.

So, getting rid of quests and getting rid of the holy trinity, changing healing into something everyone has to watch out for, and changing buffs and fighting to location specific. GW2 should rock the foundations of the MMO world, and I know I'll be there on day 1 to see and help it occur.