FUTURISTS: What will replace MMORPGs?

[-SIN-]

Hopefully some MMO's with some actual RPGing! That would be nice!

 

[dougmander]

VR. VR technology will be as much of a change compared to the traditional MMORPG as MMORPGs were compared to pen and paper.

I don't see fully immersive VR happening, even if the costs ever came down to make a home system feasible. Why? Precisely because it's immersive. It's nice to be able to sip a drink, have a snack, or scratch the dog's belly while you're playing a game. Wearing gloves and a headset? No thanks. The level of immersion offered by a screen-based or table-top game seems to be just right for most folks.

MMORPGs will be around for a long, long time. Their peak popularity is still many years away. I don't see anything replacing them until we have as radical an advance in our understanding of what makes an engaging game experience as the jump from board games to RPGs.

 

[balterkn]

Two technologies that I'm following:

- 3D environments (not full VR to start, but more on the stereoscopic 3D than the faux-3D we currently have)
- MMORPG's with AIs; actual AI's with complex story reactions (similar to the ALICE research begin done here: http://www.alice.org/ )

 

[Nifft]

Synthesis of the two things the Internet does most.
MMOP: Massively Multiplayer Online Porn.

I'd go into details, but grandma would object.

Cheers, -- N

 

[TwinBahamut]

Err... that depends. By futurists, are you talking about people who try to guess at the future, or are you talking about the classical avant-garde artistic movement in pre-WW2 Italy that glorified speed, violence, sexism, and fascism?

For the former, I've got nothing. The MMO concept is still evolving, and hasn't reached its potential yet. As others have said, it would take a significant new development in technology (equivalent to the development of the internet), or a cultural change of some sigificance.

I suppose the latter would advocate something that might not be discussable on these boards, but it would be quite violent, and all D&D books would be burned for being old fashioned and out of date.

 

[Nyaricus]

Synthesis of the two things the Internet does most.
MMOP: Massively Multiplayer Online Porn.

I'd go into details, but grandma would object.

Cheers, -- N

This post FTW!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

With computer power increasing leading to increases in sophistication and quality of graphics, as well as physical controls like you're starting to see for the Wii, I predict:

Westworld or Dream Park...especially if they involve LARPs as a Pro sport (on ESPN 7 ).

 

[Relique du Madde]

In the worst case scenario...... camp fires with interactive story telling near the bombed out husks of our civilization which was destroyed in a massive assult from the polar bear, penguin, and otter axis of evil....

Best case scenario.... a true virtual world on web 3.0 which you can enter via cybernetic implants which during the first several years of existance leaves your brain vulnerable to hackers.

 

[jeff37923]

.hack//ENworld

 

[WayneLigon]

VR is a dead end until they can put that tech into contact lenses, and even then all you're really getting is a bigger screen. AI - barring an Einstien-level genius - ain't happening in our lifetimes, if ever. Holodeck-like 3D probably ain't happening in our lifetimes, if ever - they've been chasing that for 60 years and the most advanced stuff stilll requires a mobile home full of gear and it still looks like crap. You need to look at something that can be on a Wal-Mart shelf in 25 years.