What could the future of MMORPGs look like? We speculate a bit and take a look into the crystal ball.
MMORPGs are very popular, but mobile games reach a much larger player base. Simply porting an MMORPG to a smartphone doesn’t work that well yet. Players who play mobile games usually play for only a few minutes at a time. Combining this with the rather long play sessions and complexity of an MMORPG is challenging. But what if one could integrate all of this into daily life?
Augmented Reality makes it possible
Imagine the following: You create a character on your phone, set its stats and skills, and put the phone in your pocket. While on the go, you receive notifications in the form of vibrations or messages. A monster has been spotted nearby! You take out your smartphone and look around using the display and camera, seeing the monster overlaid in your surroundings via augmented reality. Now you can attack it regularly with the learned skills. If there are other players nearby, you join forces to take down the enemy or even a boss.
But maybe it’s not a monster at all, but a hidden treasure. You scan the area with your phone until you find the chest overlaid via augmented reality and can attempt to crack it open. You collect the loot and experience points, enhancing your hero. PvP would also be possible. If you encounter another player of the MMO in the city, your phone vibrates, you take it out, and have the opportunity to challenge them to a duel. Or you can trade with that player. In this way, you can also make new friends, form guilds. Taking it a step further, it would even be possible to overlay a guild fortress via augmented reality at a location. This fortress could also be continuously expanded.
Even quests would be possible. You receive a notification that a horde of goblins has been spotted 1.5 kilometers from your current location and you head there to attack them. Even other players could post quests. Crafting, resource gathering, housing, everything would be conceivable. Such an MMORPG could be played intermittently, as you would always have it with you.
Initial examples of this type of MMORPG are seen in Google’s Ingress, an augmented reality online game that operates in a similar way. Perhaps the upcoming technology will enable us to actually play complex and deep MMOs someday. This way, mobile games and MMORPGs could be meaningfully and interestingly merged.
