MMORPG: Five Companies that Should Make MMOs

This week, Jon looks at five video game studios that could really shake up the MMO genre if they chose to throw their hat in.

[Pandamobile]

Valve already dominates and revolutionized the FPS genre, they don't need MMOs.

[Xi]

Valve is already working on an MMO.

L4D is instance-based gameplay and the director was their method to design levels which felt new and exciting, as well as have story like elements without relying on desinging new content. If you compare them to mmo games or wow instances you quickly realize just how similar they are.

tf2 speaks for itself, loot, achievement grinding, experience, levels on weapons, status effects, modifies etc. Rename medic - priest, spy-rogue, sniper - hunter, pyro - fire mage and you're 90% of the way there.

l4d2 is valve developing a method to allow gamers cross play, like an exspansion set, as well as developing on what l4d does, dynamic enviroments and better director AI.

Take my word on it, valve is working on developing an mmo game and it's probably the reason why development on hl2 ep3 is taking so long.

[Pandamobile]

None of Valve's current game remotely resemble an MMO.

[Christopher]

Valve is great with FPS, but I highly doubt any of their concepts used with advancing FPSes would work well in an MMO. Honestly, what Valve has done is been the front runner in advancing FPSes out of just being mindless shooters and into being a combination of solid FPS and Adventure/RPG games.

[Xi]

The ammount of support they give their games would make them an excellent mmo developer.

[Pandamobile]

Mmm, all those $10 map packs.

[Xi]

oh right, I've never paid for a piece of bungie DLC.... Bungie always makes their stuff free over time. Something blizzard should do with their expansion packs...

[Pandamobile]

You do realize the scale of those expansion packs, don't you?

It's a lot more than 3 maps.

[Xi]

Bungie actually listens to it's community and releases what they want.

[Tomonobu Itagaki]

Valve can't even make a 4-players game without lag or connection errors, i seriously doubt they will ever be able to do a MMO. A knowing them, they would be too lazy to do such thing, since Half-Life, all their games are either 5 hours long, either only online with a bunch of nerd community.

Anyway, MMORPGs are a waste of time and money, when you don't have a "craft" in your name, you are destined to fail financially. But i can't wait to see how Epic will transform their franchise Gears of War.

[Xi]

that's why counter-strike feature 32, 64, 156 person servers... And tf2 has 32 person servers.

[VicHyper]

I've played tfc with 32 players, five years ago(granted, those servers were pretty uncommon). Valve incorporates more user feedback into TF2 than some MMOs Ive played. They could make a decent mmo if they wanted to.

[TukkerIntensity]

MMORPGs are garbage.

[Jinxstar]

98% of them are I agree. There are a few that are fun though so long as you have good peeps to play with and get good dev support.

[Tony P]

Thank's to WoW's massive success, MMOs have become the shameless cash-in of gaming these days. Most every game is a me too w/o doing much to differentiate themselves from the pack. Jinxstar is so right saying most of them are garbage. Go to a MMORPG.com and see exactly how many crap MMOs are flying below your radar. I'd wager at least 50 minimum.

You only hear about the bigs ones by big name devs. You almost never hear about the dregs.

[starmin76]

There already is a developer who is trying to introduce good storytelling to MMO's. Their name is Bioware, and so far it looks like their doing a better job at it then, IMO, Valve ever would.

Anybody who's read previews for SWTOR knows that it could revolutionize the conceptions of the MMORPG genre.