I am so hoping you are correct, I want MOBAs to draw folks who enjoy arena and BG combat out of the MMORPG genre, so it can discard these features and return to more open world combat styles that I prefer.
As I said above, I only need a couple of decent titles out there, remember, I only play one at a time, and usually for multiple years, so doesn't matter to me if the selection is quite small.
You and your friends can go off and enjoy the ARPG's and MOBAs and we'll all be a bit happier.
I don't disagree with you. Fundamentally, we have very different gaming preferences, and it is logical to reason that different products should serve the different audience.
In fact, the ONLY reason I am back playing MMOs is because they are now more like ARPGs, and better games with less pretense of making "virtual worlds". If indeed Marvel Heroes, and STO, and future "MMOs" cut off all the traditional MMO features like long walks, and down-time, and become ARPGs, i wouldn't mind at all.
So after all, may be you will get your wish that future direction of gaming is that there will be fewer "proper" MMOs being produced. (Except of course the reason financial success of TOR may change that .. and personally i think TOR will be a much better game, one i would have played, if it is made SP).
Lets say what you say is true. The reason for all of the above is because the casual doesn't really care about the game at all. They just want something to jump in and out of quickly for a short entertainment fix. They will quickly consume all the content and move on to the next game (because that's how these games are designed). They don't even care they are being ripped off with cash shops. This is probably one of their many different hobbies (none of which they are really dedicated to at all considering how little time they make for them and small an amount of patience they have for doing things in a game).
I am your example.
I don't care about a particular game much, and i jump in for good quick entertainment. I do finished as many games as i can.
The only thing you get wrong is cash shop ... i play MMO for free, and i cannot be ripped off when i am not putting a dime into MMOs (although i do pay for, and play SP games).
And you are also right that i have many hobbies ... MMO is just one of them .. and not a very high priority one at that.
Originally posted by nariusseldon Originally posted by Foomerang
So you agree that MMOs are taking ideas from other genres because of their success? Will MMOs be more like MOBA in the future since MOBA is so successful?when a genre enjoys popularity, other genres borrow from it. any genre. is this new to you?No ... but a lot of people here seem to be under the impression that MMOs need to go back to old, tried, and unpopular ideas instead of trying something new and learn from other genres ... hence i think it is worth while to point this out. a lot of people? haha. a lot of people think all kinds of stuff. this is your reason? i feel a little bad for you sometimes. its gonna be ok buddy
So you agree that MMOs are taking ideas from other genres because of their success? Will MMOs be more like MOBA in the future since MOBA is so successful?
when a genre enjoys popularity, other genres borrow from it. any genre. is this new to you?
No ... but a lot of people here seem to be under the impression that MMOs need to go back to old, tried, and unpopular ideas instead of trying something new and learn from other genres ... hence i think it is worth while to point this out.
a lot of people? haha. a lot of people think all kinds of stuff. this is your reason? i feel a little bad for you sometimes. its gonna be ok buddy
Don't worry ... it is fun here .. particularly when you love to help spark more discussions in my topic. Keep up the good work!
So just cause something is more popular than something else.. I should just drop whatever Im playing immediately and go play that cause the masses play it? Thats like saying I shouldnt eat chocolate chip mint ice cream and should eat vanilla only cause everyone else eats it more than mint. Or the age old if masses jump off a bridge I should too? Sorry , the masses have quite poor taste when it comes to anything popular, Ill stick with MMORPGs , quality is more important to me than massive numbers that a lot of people on these boards equate= these games are only worth playing versus others.
Dont really need people telling me what I should be playing....or even preaching..I may go off and rant sometimes but everyone has their own tastes..and Ive learned to accept that. But Im not going to have mediocore or copy and paste games shoved down my throat or have to look at over hyped games that fall flat months later either...
So just cause something is more popular than something.. I should just drop whatever Im playing immediately and go play that cause the masses play it? Thats like saying I shouldnt eat chocolate chip mint ice cream and should eat vanilla only cause everyone else eats it more than mint. Or the age old if masses jump off a bridge I should too? Sorry , the masses have quite poor taste when it comes to anything popular, Ill stick with MMORPGs , quality is more important to me than massive numbers that a lot of people on these boards equate= these games are only worth playing versus others.
Dont really need people telling me what I should be playing....or even preaching..I may go off and rant sometimes but everyone has their own tastes..and Ive learned to accept that. But Im not going to have mediocore or copy and paste games shoved down my throat or have to look at over hyped games that fall flat months later either...
Good point and that leads to another old saying. If all your friends jumped off a bridge then would you too?
Originally posted by nariusseldon Originally posted by FoomerangOriginally posted by nariusseldonOriginally posted by Foomerang
So you agree that MMOs are taking ideas from other genres because of their success? Will MMOs be more like MOBA in the future since MOBA is so successful?when a genre enjoys popularity, other genres borrow from it. any genre. is this new to you?No ... but a lot of people here seem to be under the impression that MMOs need to go back to old, tried, and unpopular ideas instead of trying something new and learn from other genres ... hence i think it is worth while to point this out.a lot of people? haha. a lot of people think all kinds of stuff. this is your reason? i feel a little bad for you sometimes. its gonna be ok buddy Don't worry ... it is fun here .. particularly when you love to help spark more discussions in my topic. Keep up the good work!
No prob. But you probably shouldnt take credit for this discussion since all you really did was quote someone else in your original post. Thanks for the interesting link though
Don't worry ... it is fun here .. particularly when you love to help spark more discussions in my topic. Keep up the good work!
No prob. But you probably shouldnt take credit for this discussion since all you really did was quote someone else in your original post. Thanks for the interesting link though
I took credit for "help spark discussions" .. which is exactly what i did by quoting an interesting article. Thank you for your interests .. and your thanks certainly will encourage me to do more of the same in the future!
Originally posted by Apraxis Just wait until the Dungeon/Raid Instance Single/simple Multiplayer games appear to deliver that experience.. you really don't need a MMO for that bullshit.
ARPGs are already the dungeon instance experience without the MMOs .. and they are popular. D3 sold 15M copies, and many are playing PoE, and TL2.Personally i like this kind of "focused" games more than MMOs.
I wish MORE players would realize this and leave the MMO genre altogether so we could have our games back.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
Originally posted by Apraxis Just wait until the Dungeon/Raid Instance Single/simple Multiplayer games appear to deliver that experience.. you really don't need a MMO for that bullshit.
ARPGs are already the dungeon instance experience without the MMOs .. and they are popular. D3 sold 15M copies, and many are playing PoE, and TL2.
Personally i like this kind of "focused" games more than MMOs.
I wish MORE players would realize this and leave the MMO genre altogether so we could have our games back.
I think you have it wrong .. the problem is not with the players. They just play what they like.
Your "problem" is with developers who want a piece of this ARPG audience. It is not the players who want to come into the MMO genre, it is the developers who are making MMOs more like ARPGs to lure them in. And why shouldn't they ... if the games are to their likings?
I said that many times. I am not looking for a traditional MMOs. The only reason i came back to the genre is because it is now more like ARPG lobby games ... and i don't really care if it is so .. because i have plenty of other choices. But if devs want me here, and want to cater to my preferences .. hey .. i will give them a chance. There is no reason not to if the games are fun (to me).
"What I found intriguing about the interview was just how much time players are spending in MOBA titles now, compared to MMO games. Over the last 10 financial quarters (June 2011 – December 2013), the MOBA community has been spending at least 600 million more hours playing per quarter than the MMO community. Even more alarming, the gap during the last year has widened dramatically, with MOBA players spending almost 4 times as many hours playing than MMO’s in Q4 2013."
"It speaks a lot to just how the online PC market is headed, but also just to what companies are trying to capitalize on. Blizzard Entertainment are looking to jump in on the market with a MOBA called Heroes of the Storm with, at the very least, a beta this year. It is odd to see the kingmakers of the MMORPG following the trends instead of creating them. Additionally, it does not forebode well for upcoming PC and console MMORPG Elder Scrolls Online, which has been in development for years and with hundreds of millions of dollars in costs."
I hope this makes you realize you have been wasting my time by playing my games when you don't even like them. I hope this makes you go back to where ever you came from because you admit you don't like mmorpg.
the genre will get better when the fps FINALLY leaves and the moba just gfto because they a minor annoyance who should have played GW1, it was the best MOBA ever.
Originally posted by Apraxis Just wait until the Dungeon/Raid Instance Single/simple Multiplayer games appear to deliver that experience.. you really don't need a MMO for that bullshit.
ARPGs are already the dungeon instance experience without the MMOs .. and they are popular. D3 sold 15M copies, and many are playing PoE, and TL2.
Personally i like this kind of "focused" games more than MMOs.
I wish MORE players would realize this and leave the MMO genre altogether so we could have our games back.
I do not think the end result would be what you think it will be.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Originally posted by Apraxis Just wait until the Dungeon/Raid Instance Single/simple Multiplayer games appear to deliver that experience.. you really don't need a MMO for that bullshit.
ARPGs are already the dungeon instance experience without the MMOs .. and they are popular. D3 sold 15M copies, and many are playing PoE, and TL2.Personally i like this kind of "focused" games more than MMOs.
I wish MORE players would realize this and leave the MMO genre altogether so we could have our games back.
I do not think the end result would be what you think it will be.
MMORPGs did just fine before this massive influx of new players that never liked the genre in the first place.
They may have to make cutbacks in their games, like voice overs, cut scenes, long drawn out single player stories where they save the world (just like all the other 1000's of players) that require "special instances to affect the world for that particular moment", and put that time and money BACK into their world design. We may have fewer and fewer MMORPGs made every year. So what? Most of us "old timers" just need one good MMORPG to spend time in.
Yea, it would be terrible. Losing millions of players that HATE MMORPGs and making games that are actually virtual worlds again would be just awful.
Even in nariusseldon's responses he uses a WHOLE OTHER GENRE for his arguments, "ARPGs", which is wrong because there is RARELY RPG in these games today. What he speaks of are Action Games" alone. No RPG. He, and millions of other players, have NO interest in RPGs. They just want to "beat the game" and move on. And even though he states all the time "I am not trying to change genre, he CONSTANTLY posts links to what he believes the genre should be changing into.
If tens of millions of players left the MMO genre, maybe we would get back to the RPG roots that started it all. Maybe, as you imply, MMORPG as a genre would fall of the face of the earth. I highly doubt that, though.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
They wouldn't fall of the face of the earth but they'd probably go back to looking like they where drawn by a 6 year old with a crayon and the feature list would dry up pretty fast. People say graphics don't matter but they always seem to be saying it while standing in line for the next big blockbuster mmo.
There are lots of indi games being made that try for "old school" but very few people actually seem to show any interest in them. The big name KS's may get a lot of people talking about them but we'll see how many stick with them.
Yea, it would be terrible. Losing millions of players that HATE MMORPGs and making games that are actually virtual worlds again would be just awful.
Even in nariusseldon's responses he uses a WHOLE OTHER GENRE for his arguments, "ARPGs", which is wrong because there is RARELY RPG in these games today. What he speaks of are Action Games" alone. No RPG. He, and millions of other players, have NO interest in RPGs. They just want to "beat the game" and move on. And even though he states all the time "I am not trying to change genre, he CONSTANTLY posts links to what he believes the genre should be changing into.
If tens of millions of players left the MMO genre, maybe we would get back to the RPG roots that started it all. Maybe, as you imply, MMORPG as a genre would fall of the face of the earth. I highly doubt that, though.
would be awful for those who do not care for virtual worlds in MMOs. Given how pervasive instances are in MMOs and how much people just stand in city and queue for watever, i would say that is the majority.
You are confused about my posts. They are about what MMOs are changing into, not what they SHOULD be changing into. I stated many times, it is MMO devs who want to cater to me .. and i do not really care that much since i have other stuff to do.
And yes, ARPGs are NOT traditional RPGs .. the core is action combat, and i do not apologize for my preference, neither should you. They are just preference of entertainment products. It is very simple, if MMOs want my business, make it more like ARPGs, if not .. that is fine .. i will just play ARPGs. The market decides ... the notion of what they "should" do is flawed.
But at the same time, it is fair game to point out what i like, since many point out what they like too. The difference is that they pretend they have some claim on the genre, and whine if the market goes the other way.
Probably not helping that there haven't been any real good MMO's released in nearly a decade. We had WoW, then a few that looked like they might do OK with niche audiences (LotRO, CoH, etc), but then the industry went F2P and we've have nothing but shallow crap since.
And lets face it: if you want F2P and don't care about story or lore or immersion or anything like that, then MOBA's are pretty much exactly what you're looking for anyway.
And lets face it: if you want F2P and don't care about story or lore or immersion or anything like that, then MOBA's are pretty much exactly what you're looking for anyway.
I think you are right on .. given many MMO players will just stand in cities queuing for pve or pvp instances .. obviously few cares very much about story/lore or immersion ... particularly when people are repeating stuff .. there is no story to it.
Given MOBA is giving MMO player even more of that ... do you think MMOs will now move their design closer to MOBAs?
All I can say is that I dislike MOBA's greatly. Their communities are replete with the foulest and most elitist snobbish group of gamers that they are a cancer to the gaming communities. Now with Blizzard making an official MOBA I fear this will get worse.
Hopefully we'll see a future where MOBA's distance themselves from other gaming cultures and MMO's get designed with absolutely ZERO PvP so we can differentiate the 2 genres. That way players who want PvP can go to a MOBA. MOBA's have been a huge detriment to the MMO scene for far too long.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
And lets face it: if you want F2P and don't care about story or lore or immersion or anything like that, then MOBA's are pretty much exactly what you're looking for anyway.
I think you are right on .. given many MMO players will just stand in cities queuing for pve or pvp instances .. obviously few cares very much about story/lore or immersion ... particularly when people are repeating stuff .. there is no story to it.
Given MOBA is giving MMO player even more of that ... do you think MMOs will now move their design closer to MOBAs?
I think they already have, with the current crop of MOBA's. Remember, MOBA's started out as an RTS subgenre. I think the real question is is MMORPG's will ever make a comeback, or if the industry really has shifted to just MMO's.
MMO's used to be all i played, PVP in the open world was brilliant as it took advantage of the MASSIVE, detailed environment of the game and you never knew when or where you would encounter a foe.
Then MMO's went all small scale in instances, instances which were often accompanied by rewards, rewards that basically gave you a prize for simply turning up. So a new age of PVP in MMO's was born... the instanced PVP grind for gear - so you could be more competitive in... instanced PVP? Joy! I mean, like the PVE / Quest grind wasn't enough?
This is when i started looking at other genre's, mainly FPS.
Then one day i noticed DOTA 2 in my list of owned steam games, and well, lets just say it's hard to go back to MMO PVP now. Sure, if a world PVP MMO comes along i'll check it out, but instanced PVP in MMO's is just so shallow and repetitive in comparison... add to that the huge gear discrepencies between players (which often forces you to grind PVE raids to be competitive), the lackluster MMO combat (autohoming spells and what not), and the often terrible matchmaking and yeah.
I used to put up with the stupid MMO AI and being a errand boy (aka 'hero') for quest givers in order to gain access decent PVP, but now with MOBA's i don't have too... so personally I can see why the MOBA genre is becoming so popular.
With all that said I still prefer RTS's, but it seems that genre has gone the way of the dodo. And if MMO's keep copying the tired old WOW formula I wouldn't be surprised if they too went the same way.
I'm personally glad they are around as it is weeding the casuals out of MMORPG's, hence the reason I believe we are starting to see some more old school elements finally starting to make a return, we are getting back slowly, but the experiments the genre has cashed in on I believe has possibly hurt it more than helped it, many MMORPG players won't come back no matter what as the genre has a tendency to let people down. Though if done 100% right I would say they could get alot back, first and foremost they should make a statement with MMORPG's and get a seal of approval that says "we will not dumb this game down....we promise".
I hope this is not true, we will have no MMORPG's if casuals start going to other genres in big #s.
I think MOBA is the only game genre I tried but just didn't like playing but think they could be great for those into that type of playstyle. I like my PVP in FPS and RTS games. I play or atleast want to play MMORPG's for all the things I just can not get out of other genre's.
I actually think most other game genre's are more popular then MMO's.
Comments
I don't disagree with you. Fundamentally, we have very different gaming preferences, and it is logical to reason that different products should serve the different audience.
In fact, the ONLY reason I am back playing MMOs is because they are now more like ARPGs, and better games with less pretense of making "virtual worlds". If indeed Marvel Heroes, and STO, and future "MMOs" cut off all the traditional MMO features like long walks, and down-time, and become ARPGs, i wouldn't mind at all.
So after all, may be you will get your wish that future direction of gaming is that there will be fewer "proper" MMOs being produced. (Except of course the reason financial success of TOR may change that .. and personally i think TOR will be a much better game, one i would have played, if it is made SP).
I am your example.
I don't care about a particular game much, and i jump in for good quick entertainment. I do finished as many games as i can.
The only thing you get wrong is cash shop ... i play MMO for free, and i cannot be ripped off when i am not putting a dime into MMOs (although i do pay for, and play SP games).
And you are also right that i have many hobbies ... MMO is just one of them .. and not a very high priority one at that.
when a genre enjoys popularity, other genres borrow from it. any genre. is this new to you?
No ... but a lot of people here seem to be under the impression that MMOs need to go back to old, tried, and unpopular ideas instead of trying something new and learn from other genres ... hence i think it is worth while to point this out.
a lot of people? haha. a lot of people think all kinds of stuff. this is your reason? i feel a little bad for you sometimes. its gonna be ok buddy
Don't worry ... it is fun here .. particularly when you love to help spark more discussions in my topic. Keep up the good work!
So just cause something is more popular than something else.. I should just drop whatever Im playing immediately and go play that cause the masses play it? Thats like saying I shouldnt eat chocolate chip mint ice cream and should eat vanilla only cause everyone else eats it more than mint. Or the age old if masses jump off a bridge I should too? Sorry , the masses have quite poor taste when it comes to anything popular, Ill stick with MMORPGs , quality is more important to me than massive numbers that a lot of people on these boards equate= these games are only worth playing versus others.
Dont really need people telling me what I should be playing....or even preaching..I may go off and rant sometimes but everyone has their own tastes..and Ive learned to accept that. But Im not going to have mediocore or copy and paste games shoved down my throat or have to look at over hyped games that fall flat months later either...
Good point and that leads to another old saying. If all your friends jumped off a bridge then would you too?
when a genre enjoys popularity, other genres borrow from it. any genre. is this new to you?
No ... but a lot of people here seem to be under the impression that MMOs need to go back to old, tried, and unpopular ideas instead of trying something new and learn from other genres ... hence i think it is worth while to point this out.
a lot of people? haha. a lot of people think all kinds of stuff. this is your reason? i feel a little bad for you sometimes. its gonna be ok buddy
Don't worry ... it is fun here .. particularly when you love to help spark more discussions in my topic. Keep up the good work!
No prob. But you probably shouldnt take credit for this discussion since all you really did was quote someone else in your original post. Thanks for the interesting link though
I took credit for "help spark discussions" .. which is exactly what i did by quoting an interesting article. Thank you for your interests .. and your thanks certainly will encourage me to do more of the same in the future!
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
I think you have it wrong .. the problem is not with the players. They just play what they like.
Your "problem" is with developers who want a piece of this ARPG audience. It is not the players who want to come into the MMO genre, it is the developers who are making MMOs more like ARPGs to lure them in. And why shouldn't they ... if the games are to their likings?
I said that many times. I am not looking for a traditional MMOs. The only reason i came back to the genre is because it is now more like ARPG lobby games ... and i don't really care if it is so .. because i have plenty of other choices. But if devs want me here, and want to cater to my preferences .. hey .. i will give them a chance. There is no reason not to if the games are fun (to me).
I hope this makes you realize you have been wasting my time by playing my games when you don't even like them. I hope this makes you go back to where ever you came from because you admit you don't like mmorpg.
the genre will get better when the fps FINALLY leaves and the moba just gfto because they a minor annoyance who should have played GW1, it was the best MOBA ever.
[mod edit]I do not think the end result would be what you think it will be.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
They may have to make cutbacks in their games, like voice overs, cut scenes, long drawn out single player stories where they save the world (just like all the other 1000's of players) that require "special instances to affect the world for that particular moment", and put that time and money BACK into their world design. We may have fewer and fewer MMORPGs made every year. So what? Most of us "old timers" just need one good MMORPG to spend time in.
Yea, it would be terrible. Losing millions of players that HATE MMORPGs and making games that are actually virtual worlds again would be just awful.
Even in nariusseldon's responses he uses a WHOLE OTHER GENRE for his arguments, "ARPGs", which is wrong because there is RARELY RPG in these games today. What he speaks of are Action Games" alone. No RPG. He, and millions of other players, have NO interest in RPGs. They just want to "beat the game" and move on. And even though he states all the time "I am not trying to change genre, he CONSTANTLY posts links to what he believes the genre should be changing into.
If tens of millions of players left the MMO genre, maybe we would get back to the RPG roots that started it all. Maybe, as you imply, MMORPG as a genre would fall of the face of the earth. I highly doubt that, though.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
They wouldn't fall of the face of the earth but they'd probably go back to looking like they where drawn by a 6 year old with a crayon and the feature list would dry up pretty fast. People say graphics don't matter but they always seem to be saying it while standing in line for the next big blockbuster mmo.
There are lots of indi games being made that try for "old school" but very few people actually seem to show any interest in them. The big name KS's may get a lot of people talking about them but we'll see how many stick with them.
would be awful for those who do not care for virtual worlds in MMOs. Given how pervasive instances are in MMOs and how much people just stand in city and queue for watever, i would say that is the majority.
You are confused about my posts. They are about what MMOs are changing into, not what they SHOULD be changing into. I stated many times, it is MMO devs who want to cater to me .. and i do not really care that much since i have other stuff to do.
And yes, ARPGs are NOT traditional RPGs .. the core is action combat, and i do not apologize for my preference, neither should you. They are just preference of entertainment products. It is very simple, if MMOs want my business, make it more like ARPGs, if not .. that is fine .. i will just play ARPGs. The market decides ... the notion of what they "should" do is flawed.
But at the same time, it is fair game to point out what i like, since many point out what they like too. The difference is that they pretend they have some claim on the genre, and whine if the market goes the other way.
Probably not helping that there haven't been any real good MMO's released in nearly a decade. We had WoW, then a few that looked like they might do OK with niche audiences (LotRO, CoH, etc), but then the industry went F2P and we've have nothing but shallow crap since.
And lets face it: if you want F2P and don't care about story or lore or immersion or anything like that, then MOBA's are pretty much exactly what you're looking for anyway.
You make me like charity
I think you are right on .. given many MMO players will just stand in cities queuing for pve or pvp instances .. obviously few cares very much about story/lore or immersion ... particularly when people are repeating stuff .. there is no story to it.
Given MOBA is giving MMO player even more of that ... do you think MMOs will now move their design closer to MOBAs?
All I can say is that I dislike MOBA's greatly. Their communities are replete with the foulest and most elitist snobbish group of gamers that they are a cancer to the gaming communities. Now with Blizzard making an official MOBA I fear this will get worse.
Hopefully we'll see a future where MOBA's distance themselves from other gaming cultures and MMO's get designed with absolutely ZERO PvP so we can differentiate the 2 genres. That way players who want PvP can go to a MOBA. MOBA's have been a huge detriment to the MMO scene for far too long.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
I think they already have, with the current crop of MOBA's. Remember, MOBA's started out as an RTS subgenre. I think the real question is is MMORPG's will ever make a comeback, or if the industry really has shifted to just MMO's.
You make me like charity
MMO's used to be all i played, PVP in the open world was brilliant as it took advantage of the MASSIVE, detailed environment of the game and you never knew when or where you would encounter a foe.
Then MMO's went all small scale in instances, instances which were often accompanied by rewards, rewards that basically gave you a prize for simply turning up. So a new age of PVP in MMO's was born... the instanced PVP grind for gear - so you could be more competitive in... instanced PVP? Joy! I mean, like the PVE / Quest grind wasn't enough?
This is when i started looking at other genre's, mainly FPS.
Then one day i noticed DOTA 2 in my list of owned steam games, and well, lets just say it's hard to go back to MMO PVP now. Sure, if a world PVP MMO comes along i'll check it out, but instanced PVP in MMO's is just so shallow and repetitive in comparison... add to that the huge gear discrepencies between players (which often forces you to grind PVE raids to be competitive), the lackluster MMO combat (autohoming spells and what not), and the often terrible matchmaking and yeah.
I used to put up with the stupid MMO AI and being a errand boy (aka 'hero') for quest givers in order to gain access decent PVP, but now with MOBA's i don't have too... so personally I can see why the MOBA genre is becoming so popular.
With all that said I still prefer RTS's, but it seems that genre has gone the way of the dodo. And if MMO's keep copying the tired old WOW formula I wouldn't be surprised if they too went the same way.
I hope this is not true, we will have no MMORPG's if casuals start going to other genres in big #s.
I think MOBA is the only game genre I tried but just didn't like playing but think they could be great for those into that type of playstyle. I like my PVP in FPS and RTS games. I play or atleast want to play MMORPG's for all the things I just can not get out of other genre's.
I actually think most other game genre's are more popular then MMO's.
I think devs are very much aware of this fact. Otherwise, why would they be doing so much to cater for casual players.