The gaming world of late has been suffering from the fatigued player base games like World of Warcraft have left behind. It seems that game developers have picked up on this and instead of developing expansions for existing titles or revisiting the generic feeling of old games, they have been looking for ways to innovate the MMO genre with new, exciting titles that can challenge World of Warcrafts dominance and end its reign as number 1 P2P MMORPG.

So what can we expect from the MMO genre in the next 5 years? Well, in short, we’re looking at seeing some of the most famous franchises in the media make the move to MMO and whilst we are all used to unfinished, unrefined games going live, it seems that the new age of game development for the MMO environment is very much about delivering a game that feels finished but has room for expansion.

One of the arms in the MMO genre that seems to be getting a lot of attention of late is the science fiction area. The fantasy area is very much saturated at the moment with games like EverQuest 2, Lineage, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online and World of Warcraft delivering good content and quenching fantasy fans thirst for this genre. Even World of Warcraft is suffering from a market area that has too many competitors for the numbers involved. It is logical then to assume that the next major area that will be targeted by game developers is the science fiction area and this is shown in announced and rumoured titles that are in development.

Currently, Star Wars Galaxies and Eve Online are the major players in the science fiction area of MMO gaming. Star Wars Galaxies is still very much alive and kicking but it is suffering for the bad design and content decisions that have been made over the years. It won’t be long before this title out lives its welcome.

Eve Online is very much going strong. With an engine redesign and massive content changes that will allow you to actually control your character penned for release in the future, CCP are very much putting all of their efforts into trying to chokehold this area. I personally don’t see this happening. Eve is a good game but for the most part, it is a very time consuming game that requires unprecedented levels of attention for tasks that are menial in other environments. I have no doubt that it will remain as one of the big names for a while yet but I don’t see it being the title to knock World of Warcraft off its thrown.

There are some titles that have been confirmed which represent hope for the MMOers out there. Tabula Rasa is the first of the next-gen sci-fi titles to come out and having played the open beta for many, many hours I am genuinely excited about this title. There are new, innovative ideas coupled with industry standards that make this game the single most refined MMO since World of Warcraft was released oh so many years ago. It feels good, it looks good and whilst there are still some improvements that can be made on top of what it already has, it plays as if someone has sat down and thought long and hard about what makes a game playable as a pose to what makes a profit. It also delivers a fresh new look and feel that no other game can reciprocate because no other game has tried to. While Eve takes care of space ships and fleet battles, Tabula Rasa portrays what it feels like to be a ground troop in a similar environment. The coupling of guns with spell-like abilities doesn’t come across as implausible as you would think either. The concepts behind every aspect of the game are well thought out and leave no room for ifs and buts.

Another title that is suspected for release in 2008 is Star Trek Online. Star Trek had yet to make the move to an MMO gaming environment and with the weak and tired gaming titles it currently has, this is no surprise. Over the 36 years that gaming titles have been developed for the franchise, only three spring out; Armada, Bridge Commander and Elite Force; and even then, they were average to poor for the most part. The latest incarnation for the PC, Legacy, was poorly received, poorly designed and poorly executed and Star Trek fans are very much disenfranchised because of this. This is why Star Trek Online needs to succeed. Perpetual are a new developer so hopefully this means they will be willing to make some choices that will innovate the game. That said however, the new status of the team represents a risk for the title and we could simply see another flop in the Star Trek gaming franchise. Not much has been released about the game yet excluding some concept art and a couple of screenshots and this is a good move as it destroys any expectations fans may place on them. As an avid fan of Star Trek myself, I am hoping that Perpetual pull it off but I am not expecting them to. If Star Trek Online succeeds along with Star Trek 11 (the new movie) it could represent a brand new life for the franchise but if either/or fail, it could be a long, long time until Activision risk revisiting the Star Trek franchise.

Another major science fiction franchise that is making the move to an MMO environment is Stargate. The Stargate franchise is one of the younger franchises in the science fiction world and it has done well to succeed where series like Sliders and Seven failed. Even Enterprise, the latter Star Trek title paled in comparison to the two Stargate series that were in circulation at the time it was aired. Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, another newcomer to the MMO development world, is developing the MMO title. That said there are many famous names from many companies on the team so it isn’t like they have an amateur squad developing this one. So far, they have told us that it will be canon and run in partnership with Atlantis and the as-yet unnamed third series currently in development, which means that the lore and on going story should be rich and uncompromising. The screen shots and concept art they have released tells us that the game will be aesthetically pleasing but once again, they have released very little about the game play itself, which (again) removes any expectations the fan base will have on the developers. Of course, they will want to see the staple Stargate and DHD that we are all familiar with as well as places and faces from the series but at the same time, the developers will want to add their own view of certain events and situations that they don’t really want the fan base to know about. Luckily for the Stargate franchise, this isn’t a make or break title. There has yet to be a Stargate PC game actually released. Interestingly, an FPS based on the popular TV show, SG1, was in development and set for release but various sources stated that the title had been cancelled. Despite this however, the developer, Perception Studios, seems intent on releasing the title in 2009, which is a risky business for a company in such turmoil. Add to that the fact that the cancellation was never officially confirmed by either Perception and/or MGM. Whether the title will actually be released is another matter. Stargate Worlds is where most of the attention is focused at the moment so if it is the only incarnation of Stargate to be released to the PC in the next few years, nobody will ever notice that SG1: Alliance was ever around.

There are rumours surrounding BioWare and its entry into the MMORPG world. Most of these rumours do surround a Knights of the Old Republic MMORPG and whilst many fans of BioWare have effectively demanded that they make a Baldur’s Gate or Jade Empire MMORPG, BioWare haven’t actually said anything against the prospect of a new Star Wars MMO. Star Wars Galaxies would have been going strong now if certain changes to the game had not driven a lot of the player base away from the title so it makes sense that Lucas Arts would look at developing another MMO title to go up against the array of next-gen titles to come out. Knights of the Old Republic is effectively the single best Star Wars title to come out of Lucas Arts and it was developed by BioWare. If BioWare approached Lucas Arts with the offer of developing a Knights of the Old Republic MMO, I have no doubt that Lucas Arts would jump at the chance. Whether BioWare, who stated that they would not develop Knights of the Old Republic 3, would work with Lucas Arts again is in question on some fronts. Despite this however, the prospect of a Knights of the Old Republic MMO has developed quite a following and if BioWare are watching and are actually doing this, they must be quite impressed with the amount of conjecture flying around the Internet at the moment. Again, this would be a make or break title for the Star Wars franchise in the MMO area. If it is in development and it fails to attract the ex-Star Wars Galaxies players back to the franchise then this could represent a death in the Lucas Arts family and a resolution to develop single player titles for the immediate future. I personally would like to see this title but many are pinning Obsidian as the developer of the next Knights of the Old Republic title, which, to me, is a bad thing. They got Knights of the Old Republic 2 wrong so I would hope that Lucas Arts would keep them well away from any Lucas’ owned IP. If a new Star Wars MMO is in the works and the guys at BioWare are developing it, it will no doubt be a massive player in the P2P market and possibly the strongest contender to World of Warcraft.

Blizzard Entertainment seems to be cropping up all over the place these days. With a Warcraft movie well into development and Starcraft 2 and Wrath of the Lich King announced and expected for release next year, they are very much alive. Blizzard has effectively confirmed that they are working on a new MMO title to replace World of Warcraft as its staple MMO and this isn’t surprising. Whilst development for the Warcraft MMO franchise might continue for the immediate future, the game is very old and is starting to feel dated compared to newer releases so Blizzard will be preparing a newer title to take over as it’s flagship game. With the announcement of Starcraft 2, many fans suspect that Blizzard is preparing a Starcraft MMO title for release in the future. A lot of people don’t think this is the case but I don’t think it is entirely implausible. Warcraft 3 and its expansion, The Frozen Thrown, was used to set up much of the back story for World of Warcraft so it isn’t foreign to assume that the single player Starcraft 2 campaign might tie up some of the less MMO-friendly story arcs in the title in preparation for another MMO. With the fantasy market saturated, it seems like a good idea fro Blizzard to move into the sci-fi MMO area. That said, Diablo hasn’t had a release for near on 8 years now so Blizzard could be developing an MMO based on this franchise. At the moment however, no information has been released about any new MMO projects or even Blizzard projects excluding the word, “Hydra,” so what Blizzard are up to is anyone’s guess.

The MMO genre looks like it is going to be very active, especially the science fiction area. World of Warcraft is old and can not hold its place indefinitely but someone is going to have to do something new in order to knock it out sooner, rather than later and science fiction seems to be where gamers and developers are pinning their hopes. Warhammer Online and Age of Conan might succeed in doing the unthinkable but if they don’t, World of Warcraft won’t have any other major contenders to worry about. At least, not for the next decade unless someone can come up with a new, innovative idea that everyone likes and everyone likes science fiction.