Nova

Bliz has def lost a lot of potential money from me by trying to get my to buy 3 new expansions at full price just to catch up. I guess they just assumed people would suck it up and pay $100 just to catch up and play again but there are many out there like me that have just forgot about the game or went and played rift.

I think I could throw out some number like for every person that pays to catch up, 100 people don't and forget WoW. My reasoning for that is cost-of-entry is very important for many as seen by the popularity of F2P games.

The 'next big thing' will be the game that gets the MMOFPS done right. So with APB being a game attempting to do that, it has a chance. Add in the popular GTA style cut-throat world and you have some extra allure.

And hope fully it is a real MMO and not a online game trying to pose as an MMO for that extra monthly subscription cash flow.

My main will be a sith inquisitor. After that I will probably mess around with both a trooper and a jedi knight. I figure i'll eventually stick with the one I like best between those two and play that as my alt.

I agree with a lot of what he's saying but think his proposed solutions are too complex and thus have little chance of actually happening.

Easier solutions: Increase xp on regular mobs 10%. Give 10-15% extra bonus xp when in a group.

Then the easy solution for fortress lag/crashes? Add an option (preferably easily to switch on and off on the fly) that removes all special effects. Possibly add one for turning off player models too for.

The UI is just too difficult to rework so I don't see any changes coming to that. It hasn't bothered me at all yet anyways.

*crosses fingers*

HELLOOO?!? YEA, I'M DOIN THE CIVIL WAR THING. WHA... YEAH I SAID I'M DOIN THE CIVIL WAR THING. RIGHT....YEAH.... CIAO!!!! /trigger happy tv guy voice

I think the key to really pushing this technology into the 'gamer' market segment is the monitor being touch compatible. Does it make technical sense? No. Will it sell the product? Yes.

Besides leadership skills, i've also learned a lot about economics/business from EVE. Anybody who's dived into the eve markets knows that it is much more complex than just a simple game economy. They even have a special guy they hired to develop and monitor the economy (there are some articles here on massively involving him).

1) Sci-fi and FPS MMOs tend to be gaining steam. 2) Blizzard has the 'track record' of taking a developing genera and doing it right. 3) I don't think they have any business doing a typical MMORPG (why compete with yourself-WoW). 4) Starcraft:ghost was randomly "indefinitely postponed" and was blizzards first attempt at an shooter type action game (developers working on the shooter had to go work somewhere).

All that said, my theory: a new fps/shooter mmo. I've already written rants on other forums about my belief that the next 'huge' MMO will be a FPS/MMO blend but in short, who wouldn't want a MMORPG?