Market Saturation

So I happened to be helping write up this Gamasutra interview with Red 5 CEO Mark Kern. The Red 5 team was founded by WoW vets, and now the studio is distributing their not-yet-announced game through Webzen in Korea, in addition to opening an office in Shanghai. I'm always fascinated to hear about the MMO market in the East, because it's so much more prolific than it is here.

Generally, too, I think in Asia they have a broader variety of MMO styles and types on offer, probably because it's a much larger industry there than it is here, and thus trying something new isn't inherently so risky. On our shores, WoW is essentially God, and as alternatives, we have a bunch of WoW clones that sort of feebly wiggle at the mold but do nothing to break it. Excerpted from the article:

How would you describe the MMO market at this time, and has it changed much since you first established Red 5 Studios?

Unfortunately, no. Everyone is playing it safe in WoW’s shadow. Everyone is creating a WoW clone. Even Tabula Rasa is not substantially different from WoW. Everyone is trying for that colorful WoW art style and copying the WoW [user interface], and nobody yet is doing it anywhere as good as WoW.

So if you aren’t offering anything new, and just trying to ape the leader, then you are doing the market and gamers a great disservice. There is so much untapped potential in MMOs that aren’t like WoW. This is where we need to head as an industry.

I haven't played Tabula Rasa yet, but I know more than one person in the beta who expresses a similar sentiment. Personally, I don't play MMOs much because none of them has really rung my bell yet. The whole Tolkein-knockoff environment really doesn't appeal to me. I like fantasy as much as the next person, but isn't there some other way to do fantasy besides relying on breastplates, Ring of +5 something-or-other, and people named Lord Consonant Blend? Answer me this -- if pointy ears and mystic holy Codpiece of Perdition tactical village-razing action aren't for me, then what persistent, immersive MMOs are an option for me? What online world can I play if I don't want to be a mighty warrior? And if I would rather do something besides level-grind without being left out, what can I do?

Plenty of people have said to me something to the effect of, "But, in [insert title here,] you don't level-grind, you go out with your friends and hunt monsters until you get stronger." I understand how there is a difference to some -- they're enjoying it, so it doesn't feel like a grind to them. I don't enjoy it, and no matter how you spin it, it's always a grind to me. There have indeed been games -- all of them single-player console titles -- where I have found emotional reward in level-grinding. One of my favorite series is Harvest Moon, and one could argue that that's one big level grind. So it must be something else that MMOs are missing for me, and I can't quite put my finger on it.

I've said before, that I think the spread of virtual worlds is good for the entire gaming industry because the free-to-play model becoming prevalent in online worlds means developers have to look at games from the standpoint of keeping players engaged and enjoying themselves for the long haul, not just getting people to buy the titles and then washing their hands. Another reason I think that this whole virtual worlds thing, as vaporous as it can sometimes seem, is good for gaming is because it's creating a lot of overlap between the usually disparate spheres of core-market gamers, casual gamers, social networks, MMOs, and all of those things, trying to create the most compelling cocktail of play experiences.

Case-in-point: You can now get to Second Life from Facebook, and you will soon play casual games on MySpace. There is a social network for your virtual relationships. You have a friend list and a leaderboard on your video game console, the same way you do on both a social network or a casual gaming portal. MMOs can learn things from social networks, which can learn things from virtual worlds, which can learn things from single-player console games.

The fact that all this persistent focus on socialization is a little irritating is a discussion for another time -- I don't think we always have to play with others. In general, I like to play video games by myself, and when I want to talk to my friends I call them or go and see them. But I've always said that I'd love to play a socially engaging MMO if there were one that interested me, both setting and game mechanic.

Rather than list a laundry list of traits and gameplay elements that would comprise "my perfect MMO" (though I might, egocentrically, do such a thing some other time), I'll pose a question -- what do you think is the key to getting out from under the shadow of WoW, in such a risk-averse development environment? Do you think, in the current climate, that a developer could sneak something totally different out into the market and have it do well? And if so, how do you think they'll manage it?