Should MMO's have sequels?

[Reoh]

There's an intriguing article over at massively on whether or not MMO's should have sequels.

Should MMOs have sequels? - Massively

I have to agree that it may not be in the industry's best interest to release a sequel for the many reasons listed within the article. I also prefer games that continue to develop and grow gradually over time, particularly in regards to story arcs and content within the world evolving to give it a dynamic feel.

[Zx]

Story arcs and content evolution as we see in popular mmo's give best value for money.

A sequel which I would imagine would be a full price game should only be released if it provides for next gen graphics or some major upgrade that absolutely can't be implemented in the current game. Then there's the problem with characters and whether they can transfer to the new game.

[McMuttons]

Well, a sequel can be a game in the same world, but at a different point in the time line, or just based around the same concept. Lineage II was a pretty successful sequel MMO, for example, and one which I liked a lot.

[roob]

A sequel is usually done from something that has already been successful.

Successful MMOs can carry on for years and years and it's no big suprise that we don't have too many MMO sequels.

The main issue i see is taking away subscribers from the original game, as mentioned in the article.

EQ1 to EQ2 is a good example.

Take an established world and set your sequel at a different point in the history.

Don't have the exact same locations so that people get to see new area content.

Expand the original game content with also adding in new classes, races, crafts and other new game mechanics.

Improve the graphics so it looks up to date.

Over time with expansions, add in areas from the original game world so the players from the first game get their nostalgia fix.

EQ2 had many issues for the first year, but was revived back from the dead when the devs realised they didn't want to play the game as it wasn't fun anymore.



i'd like a MMO sequel to consider a path similar to City of Villains.

Have the game similar in many ways to the original, but set appart so that the classes and experiences are just different enough that it isn't quite the same. Also having a link in some way between the original and sequel worlds would be awesome.



-roob

[Dravin]

I like sequels especially if they are a better than their initial counterpart - but if you can simply expand ongoing onto the original, do that!

[Mem]

Interesting, the whole sequel, prequel thing is like the movies a bit, relying on the maker to produce the content and fun. And using the current player base for another sale and duplicate subs.

In Darkfall Online (DFO) the content is player created and destroyed, in the main. Thus the environment, your equipment, towns, cities and economic status determine what content you can access.

In the article Eve is mentioned a lot, and these two games share a similar fan base with many Eve players liking DFO. Did eve also have a slow start? Do most Iterative games, I think they called it?

Really interesting read, thx for that one