MMOs Should Stop Trying to Be Different

I feel the most fatal flaw in the MMORPG industry is the constant strive by game developers to create something that is different.

In essence it is good to create something different - it means there is more diversity in your choice of games - but I find such a constant focus on this can drag down the quality of key elements in MMO play.

Still sitting high upon its frozen throne, World of Warcraft has reigned in the industry for more than 5 years. There is a good reason it has sat there too. When Blizzard was creating WoW, they looked at great elements from their predecessors and put that in their game.

On top of this, they took their own story from the Warcraft 'Real Time Strategy' games and other ideas they felt would improve the current MMO space and built this into their game.

Across many gaming forums you can find discussions about World of Warcraft, with a number of members who claim that Blizzard stole the majority of what was in their MMO and just happened to become successful.

This is a ludicrous idea, if it were true then their predecessors would have been just as successful. When the wheel was invented and put on cars, people did not rave about it being stolen from older designs, they just made better cars using the wheel as a foundation for improving.

This is the same stance I feel games developers need to take when approaching the industry. I am not saying everyone must use World of Warcraft as their foundation, but as the most successful MMORPG out there, it is a good place to start.