Agree on everything except that we should really stop using the word free because its not free. We need another word to use instead of free.
As long as players pay the freemium cashshop for stuff, the model will continue. They lure you in with the first thrid of the game free then give you a taste of a few "premium item freebees" and bam...people are all over them as "must haves" I stopped playing Atlantica because raiding guilds require you to use cash shop items and I refuse to spend money just to dungeon raid.
IMO the only true free to play out there right now is Guild Wars. Does it have an ingame shop? Yes BUT and this is what makes it different--- the ingame shop contains NO potions, NO game altering weapons, NO health scrolls, NO game altering anything. What you do find in there are character services (appearance and name changes) , costumes, all the available chapters and expansion, extra storage slots, extra characte slots, skill unlock packs and pet unlock packs for those too lazy to go out and get them for free themselves..a pvp only version of the game and a pvp only item unlock for those too lazy to earn the item unlocks through pvp or pve. With the exception of the Games themselves NONE Of the rest of the shop items are manditory to play the game in its entiriety nor required by guilds to dungeon raid or pvp. I have played GW for 5 years counting beta time and can tell you..the best weapons are not found in the ingame shop..they are made by players who customize their weapons or by the bosses we spend hours killing to get that weapon. Wanna bit of an armor buff ? Go farm a few compoents and see a chef or consumables crafter. All max level armor-- availalbe to everyone all they gotta do is have the game gold and components. Guild Wars is a TRUE FREE TO PLAY in my opnion...the rest are just Free-to-Start-So-We-Can-Nickle-and-Dime-You-the-Rest-of-the-time
I don't share the enthusiasm for 2011... or really for 2010.
I am impressed with the LOTRO business model. I think more games will follow, with the down side being a blur between subscription and F2P games.
I see a strong trend towards MMORPGs becoming single player games with community lobbies. Seems to me that anymore there are only two types of games... "quest grinders with cut-scenes" and FFA (or guild based) PvP games.
What happened to freedom oriented PVE games?
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
Aion?? You have GOT to be kidding! Its still the same old gankfest game that its always been. In fact, from what I understand they have changed it to be even more gank friendly. As for World of Warcraft, its a good game up to 85, the same as it was to 60, then 70, then 80... Then its mainly raiding and or PvP. But a more polished game one is unlikely to see these days. I just wish it wasn't so much the World of Ghostcrawler as it has become. That fellow has a SERIOUS fixation on spread sheets and data mining.
WoW players, who will see that it's 90% of wow and go back to wow where they have their level 85 raiders.
WoW haters, who hate anything wow so once they heard it's 90% wow they won't play it.
People bored with WoW, they don't hate wow but get bored after a short time with wowish mmos and quit.
I am afraid I am a hybrid. I am bored with WoW, do not hate it, but still like some WoWish games (even now they are freemium - which I ignore and just subscribe).
Sadly, Cataclysm was the best thing that happened to MMORPGs this year. I agree with the author on this, it sickens me too...
On the other hand, FFXIV clearly deserves the WORST first place.
Really hoping that something good and uniquewill see the light next year... Good luck to all of us and Happy New Year!
I'd tend to agree about that. But APB is out of business, and FFXIV is still in the process of losing its subscribers. It remains to be seen if SE can salvage the game or not. It should never have been released in the state that it was. Outside of the core of True Believers, the game has been savaged by just about every major game site there is.
Besides a single 6 hour rollback there were no major bugs, issues or broken mechanics upon release. Unlike many many other supposedly 'AAA' releases.
Whatever you may think about the game I believe that's something that deserves some credit and a mention on a list such as this.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's the single greatest game of all time or anything like that. But a game that's released in a bug-free and polished state with devs that actually listen to the community is something that deserves some recognition. Especially in the current environment where games are rushed out of the door as soon as budgets grow tight and devs spend more time hyping their games then listening to their gamers.
We are the bunny. Resistance is futile. ''/\/\'''''/\/\''''''/\/\ ( o.o) ( o.o) ( o.o) (")("),,(")("),(")(")
I very much doubt that 2011 is going to be a spectacular year for mmos, in fact, I'd have to argue that it won't even be better than 2010 (the amount of games released does not equate to a great year for an mmo gamer). Until the genre shifts into the 3rd generation, you're going to see more and more new 2nd gen mmos fail. The current game mechanics are tired. It's a bad investment, so there will be little funding. The current mmos that have slipped (e.g. SWTOR, DCUO, etc) are going to lose subscribers after the first few months of launch. MMO gamers are tired of the same ol' same ol', and that's generally the reason why so many people are still playing WoW. It's a polished 2nd gen game with lots of content.
The genre doesn't need a new feature here and a new feature there, it needs a completely different paradigm, and I don't think it will be Blizzard who creates it. Blizzard is known for perfecting already defined genres. 3rd gen mmo will come from a sleeper dev. and then other studios will follow.
You do realise that EVERY SINGLE ONE of those glowing revies is due to either bribery or blackmail by blizzard. Thats the ONLY sane response. The reason wow is still up there is due to delusional wow fanbois like yourself. When are going to join the REAL WORLD and realise that wow IS NOT nor EVER will be a good game, and NO there are NOT 12 million people playing it and even IF there where it STILL would not make it a good game. Just a popular one
The reality is that Blizzard continues to make MASSIVE profits from a game thats now six plus years old. Its player base is still growing, when the industry norm is a sharp spike at launch, and then a decline in the player base. Only EVE online and a tiny number of others have managed to side step that process.
I'm aware of how much this reality makes the haters foam at the mouth and chew on the table leg, but one has to deal with reality. ^^ WoW is one of the most polished games around at this point. For all of its faults(which are legion...) it remains a good game all the way up to level cap.
I for one disagree on some of these, but really agree on others.. I'am not a fan of F2P/P2P hybrids, nor am i fan of F2P games like ALLODs that cheap you out of all you're cash for content.. I'am more of a person who likes one or the other; any other payment plan seems like they are playing both sides of the fence on ya'.
I also don't think AION or AoC improved enough to even be worth mentioning.. AION has a few features that have been in place since launch, and complained over and over again, but never changed.. Trust me, i lvl'd to 50 within the 3rd month.. And AoC is just plain terrible..
Other then that.. After reading this article i think i'am finnaly gonna give Global Agenda a shot.. I didn't like vindictus too much but i was happy to see a game that finnaly offered something a LITTLE different come to the market.
Currently Playing: Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
Aion?? You have GOT to be kidding! Its still the same old gankfest game that its always been. In fact, from what I understand they have changed it to be even more gank friendly. As for World of Warcraft, its a good game up to 85, the same as it was to 60, then 70, then 80... Then its mainly raiding and or PvP. But a more polished game one is unlikely to see these days. I just wish it wasn't so much the World of Ghostcrawler as it has become. That fellow has a SERIOUS fixation on spread sheets and data mining.
What's wrong with that?
Not everyone wants to play a completely pvp free game and there are people who don't care about beign ganked.
Looked, I'be been ganked in Aion. It's no big deal. And what is better is that you then can put out the APB and get others to track them down.
A game is not a bad game just because it doesn't fit someone's taste.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Besides a single 6 hour rollback there were no major bugs, issues or broken mechanics upon release. Unlike many many other supposedly 'AAA' releases.
Whatever you may think about the game I believe that's something that deserves some credit and a mention on a list such as this.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's the single greatest game of all time or anything like that. But a game that's released in a bug-free and polished state with devs that actually listen to the community is something that deserves some recognition. Especially in the current environment where games are rushed out of the door as soon as budgets grow tight and devs spend more time hyping their games then listening to their gamers.
Totally agree with you. Perpetuum seems to have slipped under many peoples radars. Except for some LOS issues, its been one of the most polished releases I've seen in quite some time. Especially when one considers that there are only 10 Dev's working on it. Its in game chat reminds me of a certain space game, in so far as the GM's and Dev's actually take part. ^^
APB did make me so happy when i enterd the beta but it made me so sad that it was so infected with bad attitude and a community that was almost worst then WoW. But hey it was fun as long as it was in play...
Well personally Im looking forwards to the coming year of things predicted for EVE Online. Sure, not all of them might happen, but it looking like it gonna be interesting anyway. Now they taken out learning skills, and tweaked attributes so you all basically start off as if you learned it all, it a lot easier game for people to start into.
Yeah sure, first couple of weeks might be boring a bit, but tbh, I think you get that with most games. As for most of other games I played this year, Fallen Earth I liked, more for it community spirit more then anything else, and AOC which I played not long ago, was not as bad as I been warned to expect.
For 2011, I take it as it comes, but guild wars 2 does sound like one to look out for.
I tend to agree with that list, except maybe for Aion which does not bring anything really new to the MMO world. I would add Fallen-Earth for its original background & ideas. Yet 2010 was not a great year to say the least.
The one thing I would have to disagree with is looking forward to 2011. I'm sure in 2009 it would be possible to have said looking forward to STO and APB and the other games that didn't live up to the expectations. So while I have to conceed that GW2 looks amazing and will no doubt be the next step in the MMO. Till a game is out you can't know if its going to be any good. So looking forward to 2011 cause some big names have games coming out is some what hopeful.
Well, even in Pandora's Box there was hope at the end! It's a short and accurate list for the year.
Yay someone recognized that the freemium model is significantly different than standard f2p. Too bad your normal f2p columnist has not figured that out yet.
The article is pretty much right on except for one thing. Aion is still far from being a decent game. NCSoft has done a horrible job with that game, even with the recent changes and does not deserve accolades in any shape or form. Their game support is abysmal and has not improved.
My disappointment with STO actually seems to grow as time goes on. I can see that in some sense the game might be better now than it was at launch. But that's not the issie for me. I thought there was a chance for something fresh, and for something that conjured up some of the atmosphere of the original Star Trek TV series, or at least NG. But...no.
I put some time in with DDO and Vindictus (among others). OK for a while, then just failed to hold my interest. On the positive side I am currently in the Rift Beta. And I do look forward to TOR and GW2. Some day some body has to get something right...don't they?
Pretty good article, I agree with just about all of it. To those who question, Aion HAS become a really good game, as long as the PvP isn't what you were looking forward to. It really doesn't happen very much anymore, which is actually good news to a lot of people on this side of the world. It was steadily improving before I left, and in fact the only reason I quit was because of the terrible item grind which was addressed with a huge increase in the drop rate. It was mentioned that within 20 trips through one of the endgame dungeons they left with tons of legendary and epic items between them all. People who played Aion know how huge that is, where prior you could grind your entire career and never see an orange item drop let alone be the one to get it.
The problem is most, like me, were burnt pretty bad on Aion. So, even if it has gotten better, the interest in it is still just as lost. With MMOs, there's just so many that these days you only really get ONE chance to make a good impression on your audience. Once you mess that up, it's over. No matter how much you improve, how much you put into your advertising, you'll always have that stigma. People still swear WoW is for kids based on quests as they used to be instead of the challenge the end-game holds now (so I'm told, I don't play), people swear Aion's still a Korean grinder (which I can say first hand, it is not), people swear Champions is a snooze fest with zero content even though it's improved so much it's not even the game it started as anymore. Do I neven need to bring up Age of Conan? Let alone Final Fantasy 14.
You just can't recover from a stigma once you have it, because the choices are too varied. Sometimes that's a shame, and other times it's well-deserved.
Sounds like you have been away from AIon a while. Pvp is almost exactly what it was before the rift nerf.
I was shocked at how many people there were in both Heiron and Eltnen after the nerf but the numbers have shrunken considerably with the return to open PVP in leveling/quest areas. The grind is pretty much gone. You can't level overnight but leveling happens now.
Waiting and hoping for GW2.
WOW.... Never played it but the people running it are doing the right thing in that it is very very profitable and is still #1. Sorry wow haters but its a business first and its doing one heck of a job at both attracting new players and keeping old one. Might actualy try it someday....or not :P
I read the words 'you should give them a try'. So I went back and looked at the games in the 'best' sections: LOTRO, AoC, WoW, Vindictus, GA, and Aion? I should play them ALL? When as I supposed to eat, sleep, work, exercise, and maybe play a little XBox???
In all seriousness, I don't think 2010 was 'slow'. In fact, I think there are WAY too many choices, even within sub-genres like Fantasy and Sci-Fi. Can someone pick a game for me, level me up to 85, and then tell me I had fun???
Cataclysm and GA... the only two games left in my hard drive after trying the games that came out. I know WoW has been that bajillion pound gorilla since release. People have been talking about what we all want in MMOs years after we all got tired of WoW. Seriously, there must be over a million hungry players out there that will play that anti-WoW mmo. WHERE IS THAT MMO? DAMNIT! I'm already level 85 and on my last set of quests!!!!!! AAAAIIiiiiieeEEEEE!!!
I didnt like GA personally (I guess it's not my style even though I really like FPS?). Vindictus is kind of boring since its all instanced dungeon crawling(again not my style). I do like Aion even though it is still kind of a let down and hard for me to up and pay money to a game that failed me a year ago (my first regretted preorder). FFXIV was a laugh that they released the game so incomplete though I hear its doing better. I wont even get into allods...
As for WoW I totally agree as long as it has it's claw on the MMO community we will never progress.
Comments
As long as players pay the freemium cashshop for stuff, the model will continue. They lure you in with the first thrid of the game free then give you a taste of a few "premium item freebees" and bam...people are all over them as "must haves" I stopped playing Atlantica because raiding guilds require you to use cash shop items and I refuse to spend money just to dungeon raid.
IMO the only true free to play out there right now is Guild Wars. Does it have an ingame shop? Yes BUT and this is what makes it different--- the ingame shop contains NO potions, NO game altering weapons, NO health scrolls, NO game altering anything. What you do find in there are character services (appearance and name changes) , costumes, all the available chapters and expansion, extra storage slots, extra characte slots, skill unlock packs and pet unlock packs for those too lazy to go out and get them for free themselves..a pvp only version of the game and a pvp only item unlock for those too lazy to earn the item unlocks through pvp or pve. With the exception of the Games themselves NONE Of the rest of the shop items are manditory to play the game in its entiriety nor required by guilds to dungeon raid or pvp. I have played GW for 5 years counting beta time and can tell you..the best weapons are not found in the ingame shop..they are made by players who customize their weapons or by the bosses we spend hours killing to get that weapon. Wanna bit of an armor buff ? Go farm a few compoents and see a chef or consumables crafter. All max level armor-- availalbe to everyone all they gotta do is have the game gold and components. Guild Wars is a TRUE FREE TO PLAY in my opnion...the rest are just Free-to-Start-So-We-Can-Nickle-and-Dime-You-the-Rest-of-the-time
Sadly, Cataclysm was the best thing that happened to MMORPGs this year. I agree with the author on this, it sickens me too...
On the other hand, FFXIV clearly deserves the WORST first place.
Really hoping that something good and unique will see the light next year... Good luck to all of us and Happy New Year!
"Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted.
Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world."
Hans Margolius
I don't share the enthusiasm for 2011... or really for 2010.
I am impressed with the LOTRO business model. I think more games will follow, with the down side being a blur between subscription and F2P games.
I see a strong trend towards MMORPGs becoming single player games with community lobbies. Seems to me that anymore there are only two types of games... "quest grinders with cut-scenes" and FFA (or guild based) PvP games.
What happened to freedom oriented PVE games?
Aion?? You have GOT to be kidding! Its still the same old gankfest game that its always been. In fact, from what I understand they have changed it to be even more gank friendly. As for World of Warcraft, its a good game up to 85, the same as it was to 60, then 70, then 80... Then its mainly raiding and or PvP. But a more polished game one is unlikely to see these days. I just wish it wasn't so much the World of Ghostcrawler as it has become. That fellow has a SERIOUS fixation on spread sheets and data mining.
I am afraid I am a hybrid. I am bored with WoW, do not hate it, but still like some WoWish games (even now they are freemium - which I ignore and just subscribe).
I'd tend to agree about that. But APB is out of business, and FFXIV is still in the process of losing its subscribers. It remains to be seen if SE can salvage the game or not. It should never have been released in the state that it was. Outside of the core of True Believers, the game has been savaged by just about every major game site there is.
I think Perpetuum deserves a spot on the list.
Besides a single 6 hour rollback there were no major bugs, issues or broken mechanics upon release. Unlike many many other supposedly 'AAA' releases.
Whatever you may think about the game I believe that's something that deserves some credit and a mention on a list such as this.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's the single greatest game of all time or anything like that. But a game that's released in a bug-free and polished state with devs that actually listen to the community is something that deserves some recognition. Especially in the current environment where games are rushed out of the door as soon as budgets grow tight and devs spend more time hyping their games then listening to their gamers.
We are the bunny.
Resistance is futile.
''/\/\'''''/\/\''''''/\/\
( o.o) ( o.o) ( o.o)
(")("),,(")("),(")(")
I very much doubt that 2011 is going to be a spectacular year for mmos, in fact, I'd have to argue that it won't even be better than 2010 (the amount of games released does not equate to a great year for an mmo gamer). Until the genre shifts into the 3rd generation, you're going to see more and more new 2nd gen mmos fail. The current game mechanics are tired. It's a bad investment, so there will be little funding. The current mmos that have slipped (e.g. SWTOR, DCUO, etc) are going to lose subscribers after the first few months of launch. MMO gamers are tired of the same ol' same ol', and that's generally the reason why so many people are still playing WoW. It's a polished 2nd gen game with lots of content.
The genre doesn't need a new feature here and a new feature there, it needs a completely different paradigm, and I don't think it will be Blizzard who creates it. Blizzard is known for perfecting already defined genres. 3rd gen mmo will come from a sleeper dev. and then other studios will follow.
I'm more of a gaming junky than mmorpg junky so I have no clue what the "allods" debacle was anyone that an shed any light on that??
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
The reality is that Blizzard continues to make MASSIVE profits from a game thats now six plus years old. Its player base is still growing, when the industry norm is a sharp spike at launch, and then a decline in the player base. Only EVE online and a tiny number of others have managed to side step that process.
I'm aware of how much this reality makes the haters foam at the mouth and chew on the table leg, but one has to deal with reality. ^^ WoW is one of the most polished games around at this point. For all of its faults(which are legion...) it remains a good game all the way up to level cap.
I for one disagree on some of these, but really agree on others.. I'am not a fan of F2P/P2P hybrids, nor am i fan of F2P games like ALLODs that cheap you out of all you're cash for content.. I'am more of a person who likes one or the other; any other payment plan seems like they are playing both sides of the fence on ya'.
I also don't think AION or AoC improved enough to even be worth mentioning.. AION has a few features that have been in place since launch, and complained over and over again, but never changed.. Trust me, i lvl'd to 50 within the 3rd month.. And AoC is just plain terrible..
Other then that.. After reading this article i think i'am finnaly gonna give Global Agenda a shot.. I didn't like vindictus too much but i was happy to see a game that finnaly offered something a LITTLE different come to the market.
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
What's wrong with that?
Not everyone wants to play a completely pvp free game and there are people who don't care about beign ganked.
Looked, I'be been ganked in Aion. It's no big deal. And what is better is that you then can put out the APB and get others to track them down.
A game is not a bad game just because it doesn't fit someone's taste.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Totally agree with you. Perpetuum seems to have slipped under many peoples radars. Except for some LOS issues, its been one of the most polished releases I've seen in quite some time. Especially when one considers that there are only 10 Dev's working on it. Its in game chat reminds me of a certain space game, in so far as the GM's and Dev's actually take part. ^^
APB did make me so happy when i enterd the beta but it made me so sad that it was so infected with bad attitude and a community that was almost worst then WoW. But hey it was fun as long as it was in play...
Well personally Im looking forwards to the coming year of things predicted for EVE Online. Sure, not all of them might happen, but it looking like it gonna be interesting anyway. Now they taken out learning skills, and tweaked attributes so you all basically start off as if you learned it all, it a lot easier game for people to start into.
Yeah sure, first couple of weeks might be boring a bit, but tbh, I think you get that with most games. As for most of other games I played this year, Fallen Earth I liked, more for it community spirit more then anything else, and AOC which I played not long ago, was not as bad as I been warned to expect.
For 2011, I take it as it comes, but guild wars 2 does sound like one to look out for.
I tend to agree with that list, except maybe for Aion which does not bring anything really new to the MMO world. I would add Fallen-Earth for its original background & ideas. Yet 2010 was not a great year to say the least.
For me;
The best - Sto was going to be released.
The worst - Sto was released.
I was so......so so so, so so so so so so so so disapointed.
Well, even in Pandora's Box there was hope at the end! It's a short and accurate list for the year.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
/endthread
Yay someone recognized that the freemium model is significantly different than standard f2p. Too bad your normal f2p columnist has not figured that out yet.
The article is pretty much right on except for one thing. Aion is still far from being a decent game. NCSoft has done a horrible job with that game, even with the recent changes and does not deserve accolades in any shape or form. Their game support is abysmal and has not improved.
My disappointment with STO actually seems to grow as time goes on. I can see that in some sense the game might be better now than it was at launch. But that's not the issie for me. I thought there was a chance for something fresh, and for something that conjured up some of the atmosphere of the original Star Trek TV series, or at least NG. But...no.
I put some time in with DDO and Vindictus (among others). OK for a while, then just failed to hold my interest. On the positive side I am currently in the Rift Beta. And I do look forward to TOR and GW2. Some day some body has to get something right...don't they?
---------------------------
Rose-lipped maidens,
Light-foot lads...
I read the words 'you should give them a try'. So I went back and looked at the games in the 'best' sections: LOTRO, AoC, WoW, Vindictus, GA, and Aion? I should play them ALL? When as I supposed to eat, sleep, work, exercise, and maybe play a little XBox???
In all seriousness, I don't think 2010 was 'slow'. In fact, I think there are WAY too many choices, even within sub-genres like Fantasy and Sci-Fi. Can someone pick a game for me, level me up to 85, and then tell me I had fun???
Cataclysm and GA... the only two games left in my hard drive after trying the games that came out. I know WoW has been that bajillion pound gorilla since release. People have been talking about what we all want in MMOs years after we all got tired of WoW. Seriously, there must be over a million hungry players out there that will play that anti-WoW mmo. WHERE IS THAT MMO? DAMNIT! I'm already level 85 and on my last set of quests!!!!!! AAAAIIiiiiieeEEEEE!!!
I didnt like GA personally (I guess it's not my style even though I really like FPS?). Vindictus is kind of boring since its all instanced dungeon crawling(again not my style). I do like Aion even though it is still kind of a let down and hard for me to up and pay money to a game that failed me a year ago (my first regretted preorder). FFXIV was a laugh that they released the game so incomplete though I hear its doing better. I wont even get into allods...
As for WoW I totally agree as long as it has it's claw on the MMO community we will never progress.