This post is in response to Psychochild's state-of-the-industry-style post.
Perhaps the thing he said that bothers me the most is that "we're still stuck with old DIKU gameplay." This hasn't been my experience at all, frankly. DIKU is still the thing that everyone thinks about when they're talking about big successful MMOs, but that doesn't mean they all are.
Dungeon Runners, for example, had combat elements completely distinct from the DIKU style (in particular, ranged attacks had actual paths they followed, and collision detection along that path; this meant 'twitch' gameplay had a real effect. It was a bit wonky since it was server-side, but I think it was a good step in the direction of "do something different." Was it earth-shattering innovation? Of course not, but it did impact the game, and I think it could have become a strong differentiator if other things, like the business model, hadn't let the game down. Similarly, the canceled project I still can't talk about was most definitely not a DikuMUD-style game, and my current project is somewhere off the beaten path too, with collectible card game mechanics in place of many DIKU tropes.
Only one of those three games without the same ol' DikuMUD gameplay is up (or will ever see the light of day), but Wizard101 is a pretty notable success, I think. This dovetails nicely with one of the points Brian made that I really do agree with - 2010 was a great year for free to play games. That's probably the biggest lesson I've learned so far - "free to play" may be a dirty word to some, but I think the period of time where every MMO had a mandatory subscription fee is over. Some will continue to go this route, but with the ever-crowded marketplace - particularly with competition (in terms of time spent) from Facebook-style games - games that require a financial commitment to even see have to overcome a lot more inertia, probably through significant marketing spends.
Beyond games I've personally worked on, Brian mentions RIFT quite a bit as a game that's disappointingly DIKUesque, but doesn't touch on the other game Trion Worlds is publishing - End of Nations, which is aiming for the MMORTS label - at all. There's also another studio in town working on a "massively multiplayer strategy game" that I don't know much about, but again: MMOG, not "graphical DikuMUD."
Which projects will pan out? I'm not sure, but I think I can definitely say there's ongoing innovation in online gameplay, and investment in new businesses. It's not the crazy days of yore when everyone was agog at the success of Ultima Online or EverQuest, or the moderately more mature period right after World of Warcraft launched... instead, people are paying attention to (and hoping to capitalize on) the success of Facebook and Zynga. It's a different market, but not a completely unrecognizable one. :-)
Happy 2011, everyone!
Anyway, you're not exactly building your case here. Dungeon Runners was killed. We can argue if it was gameplay or some other feature, but I don't care how many angels dance on the head of that pin.
I've worked on two projects that were outside the DIKU-focused gameplay in the last few years, and yes, they were canceled too; the goal each time was to focus more on Explorer type gameplay. But, I don't see that as a hopeful thing. If anything, I see that as a negative since it means that the will is there to start something different, but not to finish it. It also potentially points to the fact that a large enough audience might not care for something that isn't DIKU-focused.
As for Rift compared to End of Nations, it's quite obvious from my RSS feeds which game is getting the attention. I haven't played the Rift beta myself, so I simply linked to an article that described it. I've read a lot of blog posts that say it's very WoW-like. We'll see how those two games go; if I had to make a bet, I'd bet on Rift doing at least moderately well barring some stupidity (on the level of Allods' cash shop), and End of Nations not getting nearly as much attention.
In the end, I stand by my statement that MMOs, as a whole, are stuck with DIKU type gameplay. We might see a few alternatives, but those few exceptions seem to affirm the rule to me. I'd love to be wrong, but I've been wanting to be wrong in this area for YEARS.
Anyway, this comment might be almost as long your post, so I'll stop now. ;)
At any rate, happy new year!
The biggest feature that everyone has that strikes me as culturally opposed to the way Diku worked is the threat system. Aggro management on muds (especially Diku-derivs) was solely based on follow order. Nukes didn't worry that they'd hit a boss too hard... either the mob was tankable or it was not.
The other (related) big feature that I see in many graphical mmo's today that just wouldn't have flown 20 years ago is the notion of crowd control as a major class feature. Sure, some muds gave some limited CC abilities. But the ability to completely remove mobs from combat for extended periods of time... and to then require this sort of behavior in large encounters?
Diku is dead, people. It died years ago.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
You keep using that word [DIKU]. I do not think it means what you think it means.
I, also, played and coded text MUDs. I was more of a fan of the LP variety, though.
The reason we call them DIKU-derivatives is not because they don't offer any changes (like aggro management), but rather because the core gameplay in DIKU MUDs and modern MMORPGs is very similar. Go through a dungeon, kill monsters, loot their stuff, etc. There's rumor that EverQuest was even improperly based on the DIKU codebase from some strange behaviors that would take a lot of effort to clone.
So, that's why we call them DIKU games. They're not just the old text games with graphics, but they have a quite obvious heritage.