It seem’s the big chief of ActiBlizzard Bobby Kotick is open to the idea of a Call of Duty themed MMO according to a recent interview with the Financial Times. He pretty much goes on boasting about how some 60% of Xbox Live subscribers are only subscribed because of Call of Duty Multiplayer and that how Activision doesn’t receive a single penny from that (boo-hoo?). So why hasn’t the huge super-mega publisher pushed out one of these yet? Here’s some key things that I think might be an issue:

1. Latency – First and foremost, for any shooter to be successful you need to be able to make it fun to shoot other people. You expect your bullet to hit whatever you are taking careful aim at within milliseconds after pulling the trigger. This results in having a good ping to whatever is handling the magic in the background, usually between 50-100ms ping (<50 is optimal and preferred amongst the hardcore FPS’ers out there). Making sure that your MMO meets this criteria over a large network presents a huge problem. Reaction times are a huge part of playing an FPS, and if your game can’t react within milliseconds of what you want it to do, then people are going to be pissed.

2. Market – There really isn’t a market for an MMO FPS. It’s not that we wouldn’t want a persistent online shooter, but there have been plenty of games that kind of build around not needing an actual 24/7 world in order to deliver that kind of experience. Leveling up is a big part of online shooters and unlocking extra talents and features is pretty much expected from any multiplayer FPS nowadays. So what else is there? Having unique worlds to explore through and shoot other people in? Shooting 10 rats and turning in their hides for a scope?

3. Balance – Alot of MMO’s strive for ultimate balance in their universe. Adjusting overpowered spells and abilities are easily done and patched in without too much of an issue. So how do you create a balanced setting for a game that relies mostly on a player’s reaction and how powerful their gun is? Are headshots still viable? Are AWPS gonna lay waste to the noobs trying to turn in quests? Can you nerf the guns just at the right level, and will the players be happy with what they have to use?

4. Need – Do we really want to play online with 1,000 of other players shooting away at eachother? We kinda play games to make us feel like we make a difference, like WE actually did something important or gratifying. Being in the first wave against an entrenched position only to die over and over again might make some players quit and play some MW2 where they can actually get a kill.

5. Patience – MMO’s require patience. MMO’s have large worlds that you usually have to traverse. You’ll need to go through a long leveling system in order to justify paying a monthly fee. There will be server downtime. Some portions of the game might be inaccessible for the current “you” and you’ll have to revisit at a later date. Solo play is not really the focus of playing an MMO so expect to spend some time looking for others to play with. Now can you imagine the majority of online FPS players going through this?

Now I’m not putting down an idea of playing an MMO FPS, these are just some of the issues I think about and why there really hasn’t been a successful one yet. I’ve tried one, WW2 Online or Battleground Europe is what I think it’s called now, and that was fun but the novelty wore off pretty quickly, the game suffered from poor latency issues, an old game engine, and very quick deaths after very long searching and waiting for the enemy. What do you guys think about this? Would you pay to play an MMO FPS? Feel free to leave comments!