http://www.thatsaterribleidea.com/2012/07/stagnant-mmos.html

No idea whether anyone’s developed anything along the lines you’ve suggested.

Also The Secret World can be regarded as contemporary Lovecraftian horror on a WoW type engine. It’s broadly similar in tab targeting, hotkeyed special attacks, even a combo points resources system. Someone will probably get very annoyed with me for saying that, but I think it’s as you write Spinks that adding more settings onto the core system is a great deal if fun.

I mean, to me, yes, all MMOs play about the same. You move with the same buttons/mouse, you push the number keys and stuff happens, you’ve got the same general sorts of abilities (hit them with weapons, hit them with spells, hit them with your fists, hit them with other long distance items), there are usually dances people are supposed to learn for boss fights. But all of that gets learned very quickly. Like within minutes/hours/days of playing the first MMO. I suppose there’s a little fine-tuning, but… This can’t possibly be what’s under discussion. I mean, it describes every video game ever, for one thing. (Barring those where you have to aim, I suppose.) Am I just really badly missing the fine points of gaming?

I think what they want is that ‘magic’ back, and they don’t know how to get it. So they complain about mechanics, raids, quests, and they try every MMO to see what they can find. The trouble is, old habits die hard and they race to max level and then say “That’s it?”

It reminds me more of an addict looking for a hit than anything else.

(For the record, I do my share of bitching, but in the end I still do love the virtual worlds. I just get annoyed at the people who were expecting to recapture their past, when they should be enjoying the present.)

The problem, of course, comes when there are very few alternatives on the market that *aren’t* ‘clones’.

But yeah, I basically agree with what you’re saying. When I was planning the handover of my WoW guild so I could move over to SWTOR, I heard a lot of critiques of SWTOR, basically “it’s just a WoW clone in space”. And what they didn’t get was that that was fine with me – that’s what I wanted.

That said, I don’t think the tabletop/MMO comparison is 100% transferable. I think for most MMO players, the game system & mechanics get more conscious attention and are a bigger part of the ‘gaming experience’ than for most tabletop gamers, where the system is really just the framework that you don’t think about outside of character creation. That might just be the kinds of gamers I play with in both arenas, though

And for everyone who grooves on learning new and complex mechanics, there are thousands more who would prefer something they’re more comfortable with (there are better rulesets that D&D for example, but it’s like pulling teeth to get some groups to even consider them.) There can be plenty of new things to learn even if the core combat stays the same, is my point.

Personally, I do not want a core set of mechanics for MMOs. They are supposed to be hugely complex virtual worlds. I want to be mystified every time I begin anew so that I can stick with the game and the people I’ve met there for years. Once I’ve learned and mastered the game, my interest wanes. That is why I cannot play WoW in Telara, or WoW in a galaxy far away, or WoW in Middle Earth–I’ve seen all this before. And WoW-ology has the additional problem of preventing a mutually beneficial and long-lasting community.

Do people… people who care about cars… complain when Hyundai makes a car that just happens fit almost exactly into the same dimensions as the current Honda Accord? They do as well.

Trying to copy somebody elses schtick is almost always viewed with at least mild disapprobation unless something new is brought to the table with it.