With the recent release of The Old Republic, the announcement of Elder Scrolls Online, and now the footage of a Kingdoms of Amalur, I thought it'd be good to have some discussion on the genre in general and what we want out of it.

I think the whole genre has really lost its way since the formula defined by WoW became the standard, and it's gotten even worse lately with games like The Old Republic and Elder Scrolls Online actually thinking it's a good idea to make them feel more like single player games.
Games like Eve Online and early Star Wars Galaxies are really some of the only semi-modern games that actually understand the unique possibilities a MMORPG provides: living virtual worlds truly defined and driven by the players themselves. I think developers are afraid of making these types of games, because it doesn't give them as much ruthless control over the player's experience. If there's one thing I think has really defined the overall game design of this generation, it's developers acting like frustrated film directors, prodding the player through an extremly linear pre-determined path and punishing him/her for trying to stray from it.


That's for single player games mostly, but I've seen this line of thinking entering MMOs as well. How WoW has changed since its release is a good example. There were many aspects of the game I liked, which have been successively chipped away with each major update as they streamline the experience.
Early WoW dungeons like Blackrock Depths and Stratholme were a lot more sprawling with different paths, many bosses were purely optional, and it was pretty rare to feel like you had to clear the whole dungeon every time. Modern WoW dungeons are much more linear and scripted, making for a much more monotonous experience after multiple playthroughs. http://i.imgur.com/dS5yZ.jpg comes to mind which some of you have probably seen.
The PvP was also a lot more player driven in the early days. There were the legendary battles between the towns of Tarren Mill and Southshore, and the constant alliance raids on the Crossroads. There were no specific mechanics or reward systems in place for this, it was simply something the players organized themselves for fun. Now, there's nothing that's stopping players from still doing this, but since the introduction of instanced PvP zones and reward systems directly related to those, Blizzard sends a clear message that this is how you're supposed to play the game.
Now I could ramble on about my other cherished aspects that are no longer found in the game, like dragging world bosses to heavily populated areas, but ultimately my point is that Blizzard only wants us to experience this world on their own terms with increasingly narrow guidelines.

So, I think it's gotten pretty bad. But the recent trends has gotten me extra worried with the aforementioned The Old Republic having voiced NPC dialog as a main selling point, and the main quests in Elder Scrolls Online supposedly being 100% solo. Their priorities just seem so distant from the spirit of the genre.

At the same time we've had the mod DayZ enter the spotlight which caused its host game ArmA 2 to reach Steam's top seller spot. In spite of its myriad of mechanical issues and weak presentation, people find the game very compelling because of the criminally underexplored experience it provides. And MMORPGs can potentially offer such an experience better than anything else, but so far we've largely squandered that opportunity.