4 ms·

>I think we need a new WoW, and I think it’s going to have to come from FAANG level company. FAANG huh... Considering the recent track record of the bigger US

>I think we need a new WoW, and I think it’s going to have to come from FAANG level company. FAANG huh... Considering the recent track record of the bigger US studios, I'm not holding my breath for anything that's more than a fleeting curiosity. >A fully dynamic cloud backed world running AI agents, GPT-3+ storylines, Unreal 5 graphics. So here's some MMORPGs roughly in order of current popularity: 1. FFXIV/Lost Ark, 2. OSRS, 3. WoW. They're doing fine without fancy cloud tech, GPT generated nonsense will make any of these games worse (good side-quests aren't about having lots of text nobody reads), and players tend to not care about graphics beyond "is it good enough?" (Graphics sell games, they don't retain players). I think AI will be able to write, design and code interesting and fun quests about five years after it starts writing mostly good novels. Looking at the games in general, it would appear that at the top end creativity, craftsmanship, and unique opinionated design beats formulaic games with pretty graphics and cool tech every time. If creating "the next big game" is what you're aiming for, technology should be the means to realize your vision and not the goal itself.

ThalesX 4y ago
> FAANG huh... Major US based video RPG developers (to be fair there's like one and a half of them) seem to be chronically unable to craft interesting worlds in recent years. They're still doing fine creating gameplay that ticks all the boxes of superficial fun, but I'm not holding my breath that the design by committee approach is going to yield anything actually engaging. I don't find it impossible that the "new WoW" might pop up from a FAANG-level company. They have the resources, the tech and they can acquire IP that's already made by indie and build on top of that, or hire talent and actually let them do their job. I know it's dreamy, but it's not impossible. > So here's some MMORPGs roughly in order of current popularity: 1. FFXIV/Lost Ark, 2. OSRS, 3. WoW. > They're doing fine without fancy cloud tech, They mostly don't have it, so have to do fine without it. Also WoW: Shadowlands had massive lag for shared zones, fancy cloud tech could probably help a bit > GPT generated nonsense will make any of these games worse (good side-quests aren't about having lots of text nobody reads), Transformer models can be used for more than just text generation, and you can use other models to produce a lot of quirky content. I think if sprinkled on correctly, it would really give life to some NPC and locations. > and players tend to not care about graphics beyond "is it good enough?" (Graphics sell games, they don't retain players). Well good graphics on decent machines certainly don't shy players away either. Personally I like the WoW engine as it's somewhat timeless, but I would love to see a shiny new one with all the foo and bar. > Speaking of AI in general... I think AI will be able to write, design and code interesting and fun quests about five years after it writes its first good novel. I guess it could be used to manage biomes, regional planning, urbanism, random events, some needs for NPCs etc. Imagine the team of writers comes up with a 'harsh winter' event, where apart from the content they produce, it requires the "Weather AI" to create the conditions for that harsh winter. It would be magical to have this kind of creative control over the world and have NPC AI react to it. Want to add a pirate event? AI can suggest realistic locations, NPC, maybe some storylines for inspiration that can be tweaked. Maybe the villager AIs would start having trouble from the raids so they would try to solve the problem locally by forming a militia and fighting the pirates. Maybe it wouldn't work, but that town's demographics would be forever altered. Famine could come next collapsing the village even though the pirate threat has been dealt with. I don't know if this level of world dynamism can be done without AI and AI agents. > Looking at the RPG space in general, it would appear that creativity, craftsmanship, and unique opinionated design beats formulaic games with pretty graphics and cool tech every time. Surely such an awesome technical feat such as the game I'm imagining, with perfect code and CI/CD pipelines, minimal resource consumption and an amazing team behind, it would be trivial to add handcrafted experiences in this massive world.
- kitsunesoba 4y ago
  > Also WoW: Shadowlands had massive lag for shared zones, fancy cloud tech could probably help a bit Actually, high lag in shared zones has been for the past several expansions been because of cloud tech. Sometime around Cataclysm they switched from dedicated hardware to cloud shards, and since then lag in packed zones has been bad because the shards that get spawned are almost never big enough to keep up with the load. This is exacerbated by ever more complex combat — a large battle between players in Shadowlands is many times more demanding than the same size battle in original WoW.
tomc1985 4y ago
How the hell is Lost Ark so popular? The stereotype-laden jankfest where the social hubs are full of town guards that groan orgasmically nearly every time you walk past them? Hell, I can't think of any game that placed so much emphasis on bodily noises. The game where every fun little privilege seems to be a time-limited rental? Then again I couldn't stand the awfulness for more than a few hours. Maybe there's a gem in there but damn if it isn't rough on the outside.
- stuu99 4y ago
- chmod775 4y ago
  >How the hell is Lost Ark so popular? It's still relatively newly released in the west, there was lots of hype, the game has a high amount of spit and polish, and its gameplay was filling an under served space. If it played like your typical tab-targeting MMO, nobody would have cared. Also there's probably some bots increasing the steam player numbers, but that's another story. For now I decided to put it up there with FFXIV. >Hell, I can't think of any game that placed so much emphasis on bodily noises. I can: Genshin Impact. Genshin went in really hard on using micro transactions to let you play more, as well as having characters making sounds that are indistinguishable from pornography. Compared to what is typical for the Asian market, Korean games tend to be tame. > The game where every fun little privilege seems to be a time-limited rental? The way I understand LA is supposed to be played, is creating lots of alt characters so you can do the time-gated "fun" content on each them every day. Personally I hate daily tasks in games ("dailies"), because then the game starts feeling like a chore and also I'd have to play every day to keep up. LA is full of those.
bergenty 4y ago
What about elder scrolls online. I really liked that game.

ThalesX 4y ago

> FAANG huh... Major US based video RPG developers (to be fair there's like one and a half of them) seem to be chronically unable to craft interesting worlds in recent years. They're still doing fine creating gameplay that ticks all the boxes of superficial fun, but I'm not holding my breath that the design by committee approach is going to yield anything actually engaging. I don't find it impossible that the "new WoW" might pop up from a FAANG-level company. They have the resources, the tech and they can acquire IP that's already made by indie and build on top of that, or hire talent and actually let them do their job. I know it's dreamy, but it's not impossible. > So here's some MMORPGs roughly in order of current popularity: 1. FFXIV/Lost Ark, 2. OSRS, 3. WoW. > They're doing fine without fancy cloud tech, They mostly don't have it, so have to do fine without it. Also WoW: Shadowlands had massive lag for shared zones, fancy cloud tech could probably help a bit > GPT generated nonsense will make any of these games worse (good side-quests aren't about having lots of text nobody reads), Transformer models can be used for more than just text generation, and you can use other models to produce a lot of quirky content. I think if sprinkled on correctly, it would really give life to some NPC and locations. > and players tend to not care about graphics beyond "is it good enough?" (Graphics sell games, they don't retain players). Well good graphics on decent machines certainly don't shy players away either. Personally I like the WoW engine as it's somewhat timeless, but I would love to see a shiny new one with all the foo and bar. > Speaking of AI in general... I think AI will be able to write, design and code interesting and fun quests about five years after it writes its first good novel. I guess it could be used to manage biomes, regional planning, urbanism, random events, some needs for NPCs etc. Imagine the team of writers comes up with a 'harsh winter' event, where apart from the content they produce, it requires the "Weather AI" to create the conditions for that harsh winter. It would be magical to have this kind of creative control over the world and have NPC AI react to it. Want to add a pirate event? AI can suggest realistic locations, NPC, maybe some storylines for inspiration that can be tweaked. Maybe the villager AIs would start having trouble from the raids so they would try to solve the problem locally by forming a militia and fighting the pirates. Maybe it wouldn't work, but that town's demographics would be forever altered. Famine could come next collapsing the village even though the pirate threat has been dealt with. I don't know if this level of world dynamism can be done without AI and AI agents. > Looking at the RPG space in general, it would appear that creativity, craftsmanship, and unique opinionated design beats formulaic games with pretty graphics and cool tech every time. Surely such an awesome technical feat such as the game I'm imagining, with perfect code and CI/CD pipelines, minimal resource consumption and an amazing team behind, it would be trivial to add handcrafted experiences in this massive world.

kitsunesoba 4y ago
> Also WoW: Shadowlands had massive lag for shared zones, fancy cloud tech could probably help a bit Actually, high lag in shared zones has been for the past several expansions been because of cloud tech. Sometime around Cataclysm they switched from dedicated hardware to cloud shards, and since then lag in packed zones has been bad because the shards that get spawned are almost never big enough to keep up with the load. This is exacerbated by ever more complex combat — a large battle between players in Shadowlands is many times more demanding than the same size battle in original WoW.

tomc1985 4y ago

How the hell is Lost Ark so popular? The stereotype-laden jankfest where the social hubs are full of town guards that groan orgasmically nearly every time you walk past them? Hell, I can't think of any game that placed so much emphasis on bodily noises. The game where every fun little privilege seems to be a time-limited rental? Then again I couldn't stand the awfulness for more than a few hours. Maybe there's a gem in there but damn if it isn't rough on the outside.

stuu99 4y ago
chmod775 4y ago
>How the hell is Lost Ark so popular? It's still relatively newly released in the west, there was lots of hype, the game has a high amount of spit and polish, and its gameplay was filling an under served space. If it played like your typical tab-targeting MMO, nobody would have cared. Also there's probably some bots increasing the steam player numbers, but that's another story. For now I decided to put it up there with FFXIV. >Hell, I can't think of any game that placed so much emphasis on bodily noises. I can: Genshin Impact. Genshin went in really hard on using micro transactions to let you play more, as well as having characters making sounds that are indistinguishable from pornography. Compared to what is typical for the Asian market, Korean games tend to be tame. > The game where every fun little privilege seems to be a time-limited rental? The way I understand LA is supposed to be played, is creating lots of alt characters so you can do the time-gated "fun" content on each them every day. Personally I hate daily tasks in games ("dailies"), because then the game starts feeling like a chore and also I'd have to play every day to keep up. LA is full of those.

bergenty 4y ago

What about elder scrolls online. I really liked that game.