MMORPGs copied Ultima Online and EverQuest, says Lord British

MMORPGs spawned from the humble beginnings of being geekfests, until the market expanded in the past several years, permitting both hardcores and casuals to join the bandwagon. Spending an hour online browsing the Internet is enough to find out how many games are available on the MMO market. Hundreds of companies are trying to take advantage of the rapid growth, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s enough innovation.

“Lord British” Richard Garriott from NCSoft gave his piece during the Develop Conference in Brighton and stated, “Game design has not changed over 10 years. Fundamentally the gameplay is unchanged.”

He also added that most elements found in today’s RPGs are taken from Ultima Online and EverQuest, restricting diversity offered to the player. He continued:

Worse yet, there are many things that have become standard that I look at and even though they are powerful enough to encourage the behaviour of people obsessed with playing these games, I don’t think they are the right way of building the future. Players manically manage one per cent of their character and it quits becoming an immersive world and becomes a data management game.

Tabula Rasa, according to Garriott, promises to address category staples and take the genre to the next level. Through improved combat, AI, dynamic combat, and a compelling story, NCSoft’s next big offering is set to break new grounds. “We owe it to consumers to provide new kinds of gameplay,” said Lord British.

Via Games Industry

MMORPGs spawned from the humble beginnings of being geekfests, until the market expanded in the past several years, permitting both hardcores and casuals to join the bandwagon. Spending an hour online browsing the Internet is enough to find out how many games are available on the MMO market. Hundreds of companies are trying to take advantage of the rapid growth, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s enough innovation.

“Lord British” Richard Garriott from NCSoft gave his piece during the Develop Conference in Brighton and stated, “Game design has not changed over 10 years. Fundamentally the gameplay is unchanged.”

He also added that most elements found in today’s RPGs are taken from Ultima Online and EverQuest, restricting diversity offered to the player. He continued:

Worse yet, there are many things that have become standard that I look at and even though they are powerful enough to encourage the behaviour of people obsessed with playing these games, I don’t think they are the right way of building the future. Players manically manage one per cent of their character and it quits becoming an immersive world and becomes a data management game.

Tabula Rasa, according to Garriott, promises to address category staples and take the genre to the next level. Through improved combat, AI, dynamic combat, and a compelling story, NCSoft’s next big offering is set to break new grounds. “We owe it to consumers to provide new kinds of gameplay,” said Lord British.

Via Games Industry