I don’t think there will ever be a true “wowkiller” MMO, because what people are looking for in a “wowkiller” isn’t actually achievable. WoW has a nostalgia that none of the other games can possibly recreate because it was many people’s first ever MMO, and it was the first MMO community they experienced, and it was a cultural phenomenon that no other game can possibly create again. No other game can match that, including WoW itself.
To an extent I agree. The wowkiller dream is just that, a dream. When wow Classic came out, I felt it captured the parts of old game design that I have been missing. Of course, its impossible to make a new game like old wow, particularly because the reason the gameplay is so “good” (in my personal opinion) is because its so dumb. Tedium is a key ingredient. Taking ages to do anything, and waiting tick for tick to do auto attack damage? People would lose their minds.
But I don’t think its actually impossible. I still have (some) faith in the video games industry to innovate and find the formula that’d become a new phenomenon. Nothing can be the same as the first time, the rpg cat is out of the mmo bag in that regard, but I do think there is some mix of gameplay, world design, lore construction, and community interaction, that can bring a new game to the same heights as old wow.
I don’t think there will ever be a true “wowkiller” MMO, because what people are looking for in a “wowkiller” isn’t actually achievable. WoW has a nostalgia that none of the other games can possibly recreate because it was many people’s first ever MMO, and it was the first MMO community they experienced, and it was a cultural phenomenon that no other game can possibly create again. No other game can match that, including WoW itself.
To an extent I agree. The wowkiller dream is just that, a dream. When wow Classic came out, I felt it captured the parts of old game design that I have been missing. Of course, its impossible to make a new game like old wow, particularly because the reason the gameplay is so “good” (in my personal opinion) is because its so dumb. Tedium is a key ingredient. Taking ages to do anything, and waiting tick for tick to do auto attack damage? People would lose their minds.
But I don’t think its actually impossible. I still have (some) faith in the video games industry to innovate and find the formula that’d become a new phenomenon. Nothing can be the same as the first time, the rpg cat is out of the mmo bag in that regard, but I do think there is some mix of gameplay, world design, lore construction, and community interaction, that can bring a new game to the same heights as old wow.