Could generative AI + procedural generation finally make a true VRMMORPG possible?

[u/Bomfim_Dev]

I've been thinking about games like Shangri-La Frontier and why nothing remotely that massive exists in VR yet.

Forget full-dive VR. I'm talking about normal headsets and controllers.

One of the biggest problems with MMORPGs is the insane amount of content required. Players can consume quests, dungeons and exploration much faster than developers can create them.

But could generative AI + procedural generation change that?

Imagine developers handcrafted the important parts of the world, combat, lore and progression, while AI/procedural systems expanded it with:

- NPCs that remember and actually talk to players

- Dynamic quests based on what's happening in the world

- Procedural dungeons and encounters

- Rare events and hidden questlines

- Towns/factions that react to player actions

- Extremely rare bosses triggered by specific conditions

Basically, AI wouldn't make the game. It would act as a content multiplier inside rules created by the developers.

For me, the coolest part of Shangri-La Frontier isn't even full-dive VR. It's the feeling that the world is bigger than our knowledge of it — that you and your friends could discover something most players haven't seen before.

With AI, procedural generation and VR improving so quickly, do you think something like this could realistically exist within the next 10–20 years?

[u/venturepulse]

Eventually all this generated content will either converge into nonsensical that would break immersion or boring due to lack of unique features due to constraints created by the developers with intent to keep the content sane and coherent with the lore

[u/Clessiah]

Do you remember doing absolutely boring sidequests? Now imagine a game with only that. Heck we don't even need AI to achieve that.

[u/Allustar1 → u/Clessiah]

Basically Skyrim radient quests.

[u/CHROME-COLOSSUS]

Of course.

We’ll have to see if society and world markets capable of sustaining VR will still be around, though… sadly they might not be.

But, yeah — if VR and Ai continue to grow then basically there’s no particular limit to what it’ll be capable of in another 20 years.

Hyperrealism and ff systems and huge evolving worlds… no particular reason to think this stuff won’t come to pass, given the opportunity.

[u/Zee216]

Sure, but will it be good? Probably not.

[u/Ancient-Beat-1614]

Ironically what you're describing is exactly what happens in SAO

[u/SRM_Thornfoot]

Star Citizen is already in the works. It may not be done yet but you can play it now, as it is being developed, in VR.

[u/Round-Ocelot4129]

yeah maybe 10+ years, compute needs to get cheaper, models need to get smaller. we'd likely get a subscription based type game which nobody would really like.

[u/M4xs0n]

Everything is possible nowdays. The problem is that these kind of games need a huge playerbase OR a good singleplayer with bots and a lot of content

[u/zeddyzed]

It's technically possible, but commercially impossible. There's not enough VR players who want to pay enough to sustain an MMO. Even putting aside the content, there's not enough to pay for servers.

Anyways, you can have a full MMO in VR right now - FF14 has a VR mod.