I don’t think that people have the game they want. I just think it happens to be the best thing out there at the moment. Sadly that best thing is a pretty poor product.

I played WoW for a long time and eventually got bored. I’ve yet to find an MMO that will entertain me with great gameplay combined with a great community since playing Neverwinter Nights online. I’ve tried a bunch of other MMO’s, such as Final Fantasy xi or Tabula Rasa, the firsts gameplay just didn’t entertain me, what with the useless grind, I did however like the community of players that I met. Tabula Rasa on the other hand made me feel disconnected from other players. I felt like I was constantly alone, though able to watch many others scramble around the world.

A friend and I eventually grew tired and I convinced him to try and play Diablo 2 again, a game we hadn’t played for about six years. I quickly realized that Diablo 2, while a classic, was now a horrible game for our time.

I’ve been trying to find a new online game to play for the past three years. I understand that games such as Neverwinter Nights now have nothing to offer me due to the aging it has gone through. Of course I realized quickly that its poorly handled sequel also offered me nothing. After a bit of thinking I think that perhaps what people need is a successful version of a game similar to NwN that offers a system that can be moded successfully into persistent worlds that groups of like minded people can shape into what they want. Rather than hoping some developer will do it for them. If this can be done, then said developer would probably have one of the most successful games on their hands.

I understand that something like this would be against what the people selling these products would be into. it would probably not help said company to earn the most money, through say subscription fees. Thus the likelihood of such a product is nil. People now can only hope that a company will come along and create their perfect MMO. Sadly I doubt something like that will be achieved any time soon…..

my 2 cents.. and a bit of ramble…

I liked Auto Assault, I played it for at least 2 months when I bought it last year. But it completely lacked the customizability, strategy, and role playing concepts I’ve enjoyed from SJG’s Car Wars for so long that I’m bringing it out of storage and showing to my 12 and 11 year old kids. I’m having a storm of ideas of how to translate this timeless classic into a fully viable video game that is something this old gamer would love to play and buy if it were available today.

This may or may not be true, but you couldn’t possibly refer to AA as Car Wars Online.
Cars Wars was a turn-based wargame/boardgame.
The indie game Darkwind is much closer to being a true Car Wars Online..

What I saw was:

* Unpopulated worlds that looked like a 6 year old game.
* Frequent segment loading (unlike the huge seamless WoW experience). The world was basically segmented into arenas. No reason or excuse for this.
* Really bad network interpolation and prediction for other players. They would bounce and blink around. You really don’t get the impression of auto combat from that.

I think the concept would have some niche appeal if it was done well, you could probably get 100k people playing the game, maybe more. This game looked like the company bit off more than it could handle, and had to ship *something*.

Dungeon Runner’s features list ls particularlly guilty. “Your character will progress in power as you gain levels and acquire unique treasures.” Wow, really? “Adventure alone or form your own team of heroes to battle the menaces that plague your world.” Why hasn’t anyone else thought of that? “Gather in public meeting areas, then adventure in instanced dungeons.” Instancing? What an innovative idea! It just goes on and on. There is some promise hinted at in there, but it’s obscured by all the filler crap.

I see this time and again…a game fails and OMG THE MARKET IS SATURATED. The game just sucked.

It has a free trial. Go, download, spend a few minutes and perhaps your writings on the subject will have a bit more insight.