For a lot of gamers, MMOs have grown stale. Old hat. Granted, if those same gamers were being honest with you, they'd probably admit that - for them - "MMOs" is essentially a singular term. When they use it, they really mean "World of Warcraft."
The undisputed king of the MMO hill has evolved and changed over the years, sure, but tweaks and landmasses do not a new game make. That, however, is why Trion Worlds boss Lars Buttler is so thrilled that his game and others are finally shaking things up - even if only a bit.
"I think nobody can ever predict that there's another WoW because WoW basically had, for seven years, no competition," Buttler told IndustryGamers . "There was nobody launching that created an experience that was even remotely comparable - never as deep, never as polished. Now that has changed, obviously. Rift is out there as the most serious competitor they ever had, and now with Rift updating and evolving in the most dramatic way, that is changing everyday. But our goal is not necessarily to create one giant product that everybody has to play, but to give people choice."
Trion Worlds is hedging its bets on that large degree of choice with its newly announced development platform, Red Door. Essentially, it'll allow developers to use Rift's backend tech to power their games while also functioning as a sort of social network for players. To Buttler, then, there's no MW3 vs BF3-style struggle to sell the most and trash-talk the loudest. Bring 'em on, he says. The more, the merrier.
"I'm actually extremely excited about what's happening in our space. When we started five years ago, there was only WoW . Now there's Rift as an absolute serious contender, with the most dynamic gameplay ever. Then there's Star Wars, then there's End of Nations coming. Then there's Defiance coming ahead of Star Wars . So we're not afraid at all. We actually look forward to it with great excitement. It makes our point."
Which sounds fantastic. Now I just need to set aside, oh, roughly my entire mortal life to play all of them.
