Here is my opinion:
I personally don’t like survival games such as: ARK, Valheim, Dark and Light, etc… At the same time, I love “skilling” MMO’s like Old School Runescape, RPG MO, Damascus, etc…
I am the actual candidate to play these games yet I find myself not liking them.
Cons (My opinion)
1.) I don’t like building. (Yes, I don’t like Minecraft)
2.) I don’t like forced grouping. (Solo players should have the same opportunity as groups.)
3.) I don’t like inventory management. (I’m a hoarder that likes adventure. Having limited bag space, limits each adventure I go on. And yes, OSRS/RPG MO/Damascus all have the limited bag space, I feel this is something that has yet to be innovated upon. Instead of designing the bag to be limited, design the world around infinite bag space. So we can adventure as long as we want without going from tree to bank or from mine to bank. But the drop rates, mechanics, etc are balanced with that in mind.)
4.) I don’t like micromanaging “realism” bars in a game unless the system feels like it makes sense to have them. (For example, imagine the game world is absolutely massive and not procedural generated, I’m talking handcrafted MASSIVE world and you had infinite bag space. Well, if I want to go on a long adventure, maybe thirst/hunger could stop me and so I would feel motivated to prepare more before I head out.)
Pros (My opinion)
1.) I love “skilling”. OSRS, RPG MO, Damascus, and to some extent, New World had skilling. The survival RPGs like ARK etc… Usually have this type of “skill” progression and so that is my main lure to these games.
2.) Sense of progression. Both skilling as well as finding or crafting some awesome loot. And eventually taking down bosses.
3.) Sandbox design. No forced themepark questing, just a large open world I can do what I want. Questing can exist, but in a way that doesn’t feel necessary. (For example: Maybe there is a bestiary library in the game UI. Every monster in the game has an endlessly repeatable kill counter. So you can continuously do that if you want but its not like you are grabbing a “!” quest and filling a quest log, you are just playing the game like a sandbox, sort of natural questing.)
4.) Exploring a new world. I like handcrafted worlds. Procedural generated games feel lifeless and void of creativity. I want some world artist to handcraft the caves I enter, the forests , rivers, mountains, hidden passageways, etc… I have playedsurvival games that felt like Diablo 3 greater rifts because of there “endless procedural generated” game world. (The game was called Solace Crafting.) I want the game / game world to have an end so to speak but in order to get there, would take a lot of time and the entire journey is enjoyable. RPG MO / Old School Runescape, sort of have an end. You can theoretically continue bossing, selling rare drops to get rich, but nothing is saying you need to. You are simply playing still because the game is fun to play and you put in that work to reach that point. You are strong in that world and you can go out and kill anything because you earned it.
In a nutshell, I think whatever game Blizzard makes will have its place. Overwatch/HotS, both unique games, but I don’t play them because they aren’t my jam. Does that mean they are bad? Absolutely not. Tetris is a good game, but I don’t play it, because it’s not my jam. Apples vs Oranges! I’m happy with whatever game Blizzard makes. My dream game would be another Runescape/RPG MO style “skilling” MMORPG.
My actual prediction though is that they are following the money. And if you look at ARK, Dark and Light, Conan Exiles, Valheim… There is a desire to play survival games. Valheim was an indie company and they sold million(s) of copies. So imagine what a AAA company with a bunch of successful games behind there back would do with this genre? Maybe they will turn it into something more types of players would actually play.