[MUD-Dev2] [ANNOUNCE] What Makes A Next-Gen Game?

[Lachek Butalek]

On 3/19/07, Morgan Ramsay <morgan at igda-sandiego.org> wrote:
> This being an online games list, I have to ask. What makes a next-gen
> MMOG? A next-gen virtual world?

Depends.
Does "next-gen" mean it uses a new, groundbreaking technology that
will all but invalidate current MMOG offerings?
Or does it mean it will "up the ante" of MMOG's in so many different
arenas that it becomes the de facto market leader?
Or is it the intersect between the two, in that it refers to an MMOG
that takes full advantage of new advances in hardware architecture, to
stunning graphical and immersive effects?
Or is it a game that challenges preconceived notions of the MMOG
genre, breaks the current mold and creates an entirely new one for
future MMOGs to be steeped in?
Does it refer to a quality that appeals to the professional taste of a
small number of top-tier game designers - a sort of Designer's
"Academy Awards"?
Or does it refer to the quality that appeals to the professional taste
of a marketing department, smelling a new untapped market of 10Mn+
subs?

"Next-gen" is not defined, thus it's very hard to define what it means
when applied to an MMOG without the whole opinion devolving into a
personal wish / gripe list.

By the way, this is not an online games list - it's an exercise in
collaborative linguistics. ;)