Blizzards new MMO...any thoughts? Diablo based? Starcraft? Or something else?

[Zijan]

Hey guys,
I m new to this site so if I messed this up please tell me so I can do it right next time.
Blizzard has released information that they are working on a new MMO. A lot of people I've talked to have commented on it being based on Starcraft. My thoughts however have had me thinking of a Diablo MMO. There have not been a lot of Sci-fi MMOs out that have done well in the past. Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) and EVE were probably two of the biggest to my knowledge. SWG servers are almost completely unpopulated after some unpopular patches. Eve to my knowledge is the biggest Sci-Fi MMO since the decline of SWG and the number of players aren't exactly comparable to Blizzards standards with WoW. I don't believe Blizzard would take the chance on another Sci-fi game when so many of them have flopped over the years. I know Blizzard has been a major developer for PC games and that these Sci-Fi MMO's have been released under companies not related to Blizzard. But the statistics are still there...

On The Other Hand...
The Diablo franchise has always had a massive audience but unlike Starcraft is part of the medieval D&D that has always done well in MMOs. MMOs such as Everquest, Dark Ages of Camelot, Everquest II, Warhammer Online and King of MMOs WoW. There are many more I am sure but these are the major ones imo. Another subject of interest could be based on the story line....What lore will their be for RP players? I ll admit I never played through the SC campaign so I m ignorant to this area. However I do know Diablo has room for this conflict to be exploited; What is more timeless then Heaven vs Hell?
Their is also a problem of with enemys...SC has 3 different races....will they break the traditional "1vs1", Horde vs Alliance, Jedi vs Sith, Dark vs Light....not quite sure how they would incorporate a "1vs1vs1".
I realize Diablo dose not have any playable characters to go against their current "heroes" in the franchise. Something Blizzard will have to concocked for their new MMO. Given they could introduce factions to allow the same characters PvP against one another without the creation of opposing heroes.

I realize the link to my source for the Blizzard MMO is 2 years old. I haven't found any other sites that have really said anything more or different then what was quoted. Please feel free to give your opinions one way or another. All information regarding the new MMO is welcome.

[SimbaTheLion]

I think it's quite likely that we will see something entirely different when it comes to Blizzard's new MMO. Perhaps a medieval style, but at the same time I feel that it is unlikely the game will be a blatant spin off of Diablo, Starcraft or even World of Warcraft. Medieval MMOs tend to have a specific appeal to most gamers for some reason. However, there is a market for more modern MMOs; games like Trickster by Ntreev Ltd. are doing quite well – this is a game based around eight playable anthropomorphic animal races, all with different abilities and skills, ranging from the ability to drill, to the ability to shoot things – and of course plenty of sword fighting for those who are interested in the good old standard style of combat. Something that breaks out of the common mould like Trickster has done seems to work well with MMO fans.

Blizzard would be making a huge mistake profit-wise if they make their MMO a spin off of World of Warcraft. They need to realise that if they do decide to make a new World of Warcraft, they will not only lose a lot of players from their old game to their new one, but also they will not be attracting many new players; if players have not been interested by World of Warcraft, why would they be interested in a game so similar to it? Blizzard almost certainly have more sense than this, so I very much doubt that we will see a World of Warcraft clone.

Having a Diablo style of MMO would work a lot better I feel. However, if Blizzard are planning on releasing their MMO within a short timeframe, this would be a mistake also, since players will still be revelling in Diablo 3. Blizzard need to choose their time correctly; if they do this, perhaps by making Diablo 4 an MMO, then they could be onto a real winner.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing something new though – it would be nice to have a fresh start with a new, fun universe to explore. Please make it medieval though, Blizzard; sci-fi MMOs are similar not very popular amongst players compared to medieval ones.