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It was not so long ago that I discussed the evolution of massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs), predicting new trends and proposing design considerations for future games of this genre. This was before World of Warcraft (WoW) brought MMORPGs into the mainstream, dwarfing the previous heavyweight contender Everquest, and before Blizzard earned their masters at Vivendi Universal more money per year than whole countries.

Yet, Blizzard’s success has as much to do with pushing the MMORPG envelope as it does with limiting MMORPG evolution. As I mentioned in my previous article, Blizzard’s best bet was to capitalize on what made Diablo 2 a success, and though one can argue that they did not fully capture the merits of Diablo 2, they nonetheless exploited the “kill and collect” philosophy. (Some would say they did this too well.)

With an expansion slated for an early 2007 release, WoW hopes to keep the attention of its current players, as well as bring some of their old subscribers back. Though the changes to gameplay are minor, some of the improvements, for those who are not already too jaded (like myself), are significant enough to keep grinding for items enjoyable. Yet the expansion does not address many of the important considerations I proposed in my aforementioned article. Still, Blizzard is not alone in failing to properly see how MMORPGs can evolve beyond the grind, and though games like Second Life illustrate concepts that companies like Blizzard should embrace, for now, WoW is a cash cow that can get away with two deaf ears.

The death of WoW is heralded, albeit quietly, by other games on the horizon. Even if upcoming contenders like Warhammer fail to recruit heavily from WoW’s ranks, projects like Multiverse are prophesies that a changing of the guard will eventually take place, and not how many expect.

A quick look at the number of MMMORPGs out there should make companies like Blizzard wonder how long their days are still without numbers; production costs of MMORPGs are down, and the feasibility of bringing an MMORPG to market is much greater than it was before. If anything, the success of WoW has made these types of games more acceptable to the masses, to the point where Blizzard has built up this enormous population of gamers that will just as easily move on to the next big thing once it’s around; a company with a ground-breaking MMORPG will not starve anymore from lack of interested parties.

Multiverse is one of a number of projects intended to reduce the production costs of MMORPGs even more. Multiverse proposes to do this by bringing to market a free MMORPG engine, which can then be modified and built upon by developers. In effect, Multiverse takes care of the hassle of developing what’s arguably the most expensive and complicated component of MMORPGs. More importantly, Multiverse is free to anyone and everyone, not just developers who have the money to license an MMORPG engine. Multiverse plans to make money by taking a cut of the subscription costs for games that utilize it. Companies that intend to make their games free to players do not need to pay Multiverse anything.

Many believed that Multiverse was a pipe-dream, as most of the projects similar to it never really get off the ground. However, Multiverse is now in open beta, and already has gaming projects being developed around it. What this means for the future of MMMORPGs is that there is finally a way for independent developers to get cracking on building compelling MMORPGs, just as mod-developers of first person shooters (FPS) started with small game modifications that eventually led to industry-pushing games like Team Fortress and Counterstrike. How long before a talented team of developers makes an MMORPG that draws in crowds akin to the flock of deathmatch players that found a new life in Counterstrike? How long before such an effort draws monetary funding from a large company, after the potential of such projects is well-recognized?

Perhaps a significant factor in the commercial viability of Multiverse will be in licensing contracts. The cult-classic show Firefly is already being licensed to Multiverse for the development of an MMORPG based on Firefly’s background. With a company like FOX willing to have a game built upon an established world with a fan-base that will immediately embrace such an MMORPG, Multiverse can prove its worth to the industry as long as a competent development team is chosen for the project. Naturally, the development tools for Multiverse will play a significant role in its success, just as appropriate tools are needed for FPS modding. Undoubtedly, a fair amount of effort by the Multiverse development team will have been put into the creation of such teams. Still, even if the Firefly MMORPG sucks, it will have an instant player-pool because of its name alone.

Multiverse’s flexibility will be important for determining where the MMMORPG genre goes. Games like Eve Online have shown the industry that MMORPG gamers want more longevity in their games than WoW-style hack’n slash, which is why Eve has a huge player-base coming from other games, and why Eve’s players tend to stick around longer. While WoW’s player base is still growing, that growth has slowed down significantly, and if the lack of interest in the game from WoW’s early adapters are any indication, the more casual gamers who have since tried WoW won’t stick around as long as their predecessors did, which means WoW’s player base should plateau before dropping in another year.

In the meantime, there’s plenty of MMORPGs that will hit shelves in 2007, and now, independent, “homebrew” projects are as viable as MU*-development was yesteryear. It will take some time for Multiverse to build a solid developer community, but once it does, expect some interesting titles to hit the ‘net.

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