Alright, so for my first article, I've decided to talk about the surging increase in new genres of games that have been releasing recently and whether they can dethrone the current king in the online gaming market, World of Warcraft.
Alright, so lets first talk about World of Warcraft; as of September 2011 it has around 10.3 million subscribed users, across 4 expansion packs of the game. Getting 10.3 million subscribers world wide is no easy feat and even multiple games that span across platforms and continents do not gain that large a playerbase. A number of games have been released in the recent past that have been dubbed as possible 'WoW killers' however none of them have been able to compare to the might of Blizzard Entertainment's flagship game.
What draws people to the game is that there is a large diversity of roles to be played and one does not have to only grind ( hunt monsters of their level to gain levels) to have fun in the game; there are raids, PvP, etc. This variety in terms of game play has drawn people in to both spending their money in the game as it runs on a monthly subscription, but it also forces them to invest a lot of time into the game so that they know that they are getting the absolute value for money for what they are paying and also as is common across all online games, to try and be the best.
Although the first three expansions have been treated with positive feed back; after 8 years, the latest expansion seems a little more than lack luster to many of the members of the player base, due to the fact that they are releasing a new race called the Pandareans, which come from a continent which was somehow never discovered till now, even though it's right next to the main continent. The introduction of the new class, "Monks" is also not appealing to many people due to various flaws in their conceptualization. Therefore with the release of the new expansion pack we are going to see a lot of player's stop playing WoW for a while.
Now, the new genre that is coming up is the system of a non-targeting MMORPGs. This style of game relies on playing the game in the form of a Hack n' Slash game. It involves the player using basic attacks with the mouse, which is also used to target various enemies on the playing field without having to lock-on on a single target, killing it and then moving on to the next target. Skills are also used, like an MMORPG, however they are specially made keeping in focus the non-targeting system.
These games appeal to the masses because they bring about a sense of excitement into the game and focus on making the game fast paced and challenging as well. The players are challenged to both manage to attack their opponents, avoid their opponents moves and also work in conjunction with the other members of their party to achieve success in hard dungeons. Many of these games are instance based ( which means they occur in a pre-programmed environment that has a set number of monsters and usually one or more boss monsters), which allows for more party oriented playing however, the game tends to involve repeating a dungeon multiple times, often on varying difficulty levels to complete quests and then get rewards. Most of the MMORPGs coming out in these days are non-targeting, and seem to have taken most online gamers by storm. Some examples of this are; Dragon Nest, Vindictus, Blade and Soul, Guild Wars 2, C9 (Continent of the Ninth Seal), etc.
Another genre that is coming up is the MOBA or Massive Online Battle Arena. This started off with Aeon of Strife, a mod for the first Star Craft. A mod of this kind was also implemented in another of Blizzard Entertainment's games, Warcraft 3; known as DOTA (Defense of the Ancients) this game revolutionized the MOBA genre for many years and was a hit game among many and quickly became a very popular tournament game. The DOTA style of game play has been implemented by various newer games, such as League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, Realm of the Titans, etc. All of which have become immensely popular in the recent years, especially League of Legends which at one time had 11 million players online, beating the number of players on WoW. It has also become very popular competitively, being featured in various tournaments such as Intel Extreme Masters, World Championship Gaming, etc.
Therefore, to finish my post, I believe that the new genres of Non Targeting MMORPGs and MOBAs will easily overtake the popularity of World of Warcraft.
Alright, so lets first talk about World of Warcraft; as of September 2011 it has around 10.3 million subscribed users, across 4 expansion packs of the game. Getting 10.3 million subscribers world wide is no easy feat and even multiple games that span across platforms and continents do not gain that large a playerbase. A number of games have been released in the recent past that have been dubbed as possible 'WoW killers' however none of them have been able to compare to the might of Blizzard Entertainment's flagship game.
What draws people to the game is that there is a large diversity of roles to be played and one does not have to only grind ( hunt monsters of their level to gain levels) to have fun in the game; there are raids, PvP, etc. This variety in terms of game play has drawn people in to both spending their money in the game as it runs on a monthly subscription, but it also forces them to invest a lot of time into the game so that they know that they are getting the absolute value for money for what they are paying and also as is common across all online games, to try and be the best.
Although the first three expansions have been treated with positive feed back; after 8 years, the latest expansion seems a little more than lack luster to many of the members of the player base, due to the fact that they are releasing a new race called the Pandareans, which come from a continent which was somehow never discovered till now, even though it's right next to the main continent. The introduction of the new class, "Monks" is also not appealing to many people due to various flaws in their conceptualization. Therefore with the release of the new expansion pack we are going to see a lot of player's stop playing WoW for a while.
Now, the new genre that is coming up is the system of a non-targeting MMORPGs. This style of game relies on playing the game in the form of a Hack n' Slash game. It involves the player using basic attacks with the mouse, which is also used to target various enemies on the playing field without having to lock-on on a single target, killing it and then moving on to the next target. Skills are also used, like an MMORPG, however they are specially made keeping in focus the non-targeting system.
These games appeal to the masses because they bring about a sense of excitement into the game and focus on making the game fast paced and challenging as well. The players are challenged to both manage to attack their opponents, avoid their opponents moves and also work in conjunction with the other members of their party to achieve success in hard dungeons. Many of these games are instance based ( which means they occur in a pre-programmed environment that has a set number of monsters and usually one or more boss monsters), which allows for more party oriented playing however, the game tends to involve repeating a dungeon multiple times, often on varying difficulty levels to complete quests and then get rewards. Most of the MMORPGs coming out in these days are non-targeting, and seem to have taken most online gamers by storm. Some examples of this are; Dragon Nest, Vindictus, Blade and Soul, Guild Wars 2, C9 (Continent of the Ninth Seal), etc.
Another genre that is coming up is the MOBA or Massive Online Battle Arena. This started off with Aeon of Strife, a mod for the first Star Craft. A mod of this kind was also implemented in another of Blizzard Entertainment's games, Warcraft 3; known as DOTA (Defense of the Ancients) this game revolutionized the MOBA genre for many years and was a hit game among many and quickly became a very popular tournament game. The DOTA style of game play has been implemented by various newer games, such as League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, Realm of the Titans, etc. All of which have become immensely popular in the recent years, especially League of Legends which at one time had 11 million players online, beating the number of players on WoW. It has also become very popular competitively, being featured in various tournaments such as Intel Extreme Masters, World Championship Gaming, etc.
Therefore, to finish my post, I believe that the new genres of Non Targeting MMORPGs and MOBAs will easily overtake the popularity of World of Warcraft.
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