Future MMOs – Exotic Races

Recently I was having a conversation in ventrilo with some guild mates regarding races in MMOs. We got onto that because it was mentioned that 38 Studio’s Copernicus is (allegedly) going to have 12 playable races available. I’ve always liked the notion of a lot of different races for players to chose from. In practice, however, I am frequently disappointed.

Now please understand that I don’t subscribe to the idea that the fantasy MMO market is “saturated.” If someone makes a superior fantasy MMO players are going to play it. With that disclaimer out of the way I’d like to say that I am fatigued with the same classical races over and over again. How many games have to have humans, elves and dwarves? Surely we can have more exotic choices without the game destroying the space time continuum.

To expand on that point: is 12 playable races really 12 races (I’m not picking on 38 here I’m just using that number as an example) when four of them are elves? Have we seen a true difference in look and feel to actually warrant high elves, half elves, wood elves and dark elves to be rehashed over and over? I say for the most part no.

I am ready for a game where exotic races are more common instead of the odd balls. Here is a list of possible options that I’ve heard tons of times over or would just like to see:

Pixies/Faeries won the number one desired race way back in the EverQuest 1 days by a healthy margin. I think everyone likes the idea of playing a tiny race with limited flight. They eventually were used in EQ2.

Gnolls is another one I hear a lot as a desired playable race. Of course, when I say “hear a lot” I really just mean “I say it a lot and sometimes someone nods.” Gnolls are great! They’ve been around forever and they were cute in EverQuest.

Centaurs are rumored to be a race in Copernicus. They’d offer all sorts of unique design challenges and would be rather interesting to play.

Wolf type things that aren’t necessarily large dumb animals. This is another “Ferrel wants” type thing. I’d like a wolf race that focused more on the “team spirit” and nobility of the species. Darkfall and Vanguard both have a wolf race and unfortunately both games treat them as primitive beasts. It is a start though!

Rat people are ever popular. They were very popular in my guild in EverQuest 2 and seem to be highly requested by Warhammer Online players (Skaven).

Lizard men were an awesome addition to the EverQuest universe and I feel that they’re under utilized. You could even have winged ones with various forms of flight.

Elementals would be a really unique experience for players. Perhaps they could focus on a resistance type which would then affect their entire career (stone would be a great tank, for example).

Half-anything would be a unique dynamic. Let players mix two races in an engine that could handle that sort of thing and pick features from each. This may be technically difficult but interesting to say the least.

Those are just a few ideas I came up with off the top of my head and I’m sure everyone else has a list a mile long. If that is the case, how come we continue to get the same old choices? I’m not certain but perhaps designers already have some surprises for us in store!