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[Column] General: 5 MMOGs That Seriously Disappointed Me
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Video games almost always fail to measure up to the hype they generate during development. It's pretty unusual to see one that under-promises and over-delivers. Indeed, relatively few even manage to meet the expectations they promote. To be fair, this isn't entirely one-sided since many of us tend to look at upcoming titles through our rose-colored glasses. Naturally, relative to how we think or hope they'll turn out, some disappoint more than others.
Read more of Richard Aihoshi's The List: 5 MMOGs That Seriously Disappointed Me .
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Comments
I agree.
Most people look back on SWG with reverence. I look back and see the buggy mess it was.. especially at launch.
AoC failed me on so many levels. Same with FFXIV.
I left DCUO after the first month, and even going back I rarely stay more than a few weeks at a time.
I didn't expect Lego, and honestly, I kind of expected that space to be SWTOR and the budget that seemed wasted there. SWTOR has made some improvements but most we a bit too late for most.
SWG was one of the best MMO's in my opinion and probably played that more than any other MMO. Had fun messing with things like playing music and being part of a player made town, can't say any other MMO had anything remotely like that.
The other MMO's listed didn't appeal to me enough to even give them a try.
SWG was okay when I did play it, but I was stuck on Anarchy Online then WoW the entire time, so never really got around to playing extensively.
AoC, although the worst of the Funcom trio (AO, AoC, TSW) was not a bad game at all. People set their expectations in a direction that was destined to fail them. It’s one of the few games where I had multiple toons at max level. 4 prior to offline leveling and 2 more after. I think the combat was pretty good, but can see how action gamers would think it was a fail…but it’s an MMORPG…not an action game. The finishers were amazing and never got old for me. The greatest part of AoC were the dungeons…some of the best I’ve played in any game. One of the most innovative and helpful parts of the game were the vast array of solo dungeons you could do…helped leveling alts quite a bit.
FFXIV original version was the worst game I’ve ever played across any platform…yeah, worse than E.T. on the Atari :P
Lego Universe was the 2nd worst game
DCUO was awesome, but it didn’t have staying power…I played closed beta and 30 days into launch, but then I’d seen everything I came for and didn’t feel like playing anymore. It was a VERY fun game though.
SWG had bugs sure. They (SOE/LA) would have done a better service if they had fixed those instead of trying to release new content, that just introduced more bugs. However, it was still an amazing game. Player made cities, non-linear game play, theme parks inside a sand box. All great ideas. To say it was disappointing, well if you are speaking to after the combat upgrade, then I agree. Prior to that, nah, no way. I have to ask; you think that and call yourself a gamer?
AoC - lol people set their sights way to high for that title. It was a good enough game and that is about all I can really say about it.
The rest of the titles, I never even touched. why would I?
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
SWG on this list made me LOL. That is flamebait, especially putting it first. Really, with all the bad games that have launched? Sure, SWG had some bugs, but every game does, nothing launches very smoothly. It was still a fun game, with lots of things that people liked that no game has offered since. Non-com classes, good crafting, player cities/houses non-instanced, non-node harvesting, etc. It was a pretty awesome game til the CU then just got worse from there. It still sits as the only game that got close to doing it right on my list of games (pre-cu/pre-village) even with all the bugs and anything else wrong with the game.
~I am Many~
Lego Universe and AoC I agree with. The first was just far too limited in terms of content and the second fell to pieces after the starter area.
I personally would have had GW2 and TSW on there. GW2 because I felt they just broke too much of what made GW1 so much fun and TSW because they seemed to neglect the combat to the detriment of the entire game.
Warhammer Online, came out half finished
Wildstar Online, came out half finished
FFXIV, came out half finished
Rift, came out half finished
GW2, came out completely different from GW1
That is the correct Top 5 Disappointing MMOs.
Purchased the CE of FF XIV, and it was uninstalled within about two weeks.
While the game worked as designed, the design itself was so broken that it made the game essentially unplayable. Multiple menu-clicks to open your inventory, no keyboard shortcuts for anything, etc. Every single action you wished to take involved multiple steps.
To this day I cannot wrap my head around why it was designed the way it was.
Boxes aren't required to do anything. Also if you were a sub member you didn't need keys. Just saying! People forget DCUO is F2P all the box stuff was pure cosmetic unlike NeverWinter.
You're mistaken. Collecting cosmetic styles in DCUO advances your characters skill points. Matter of fact it's one of the major ways to progress your character.
"How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?!"
SWG WAS a buggy mess to be sure, there's no argument there from anyone. But MAN was it fun! For me at least, as a social gamer and SW fanatic, it was nirvana. And those 'barriers to entry' were a double edged sword. It may have stopped you from getting into it, but it kept me hooked. some of us enjoy complicated systems.
Glad to see SWG on the list.
I think SW fans are a lot like Apple fans...
Wrap a turd in brushed aluminum, slap an Apple logo on it, and they will buy it.
Wrap a crappy MMO with SW lore, slap a Star Wars logo on it, and they will play it and claim it's the BEST EVAR,
Some people have an additional distortion filter installed on their rose-colored glasses. :-/
Too late for what exactly? To be one of the top 5 grossing MMORPGs? It could be the top 3 F2P MMORPGs. Actually if we're talking about MMORPGs specifically, it's probably the top grossing F2P MMORPG. WoT doesn't really count since it's not REALLY an MMORPG.
Either way, point is, yeah it must be really sucky to be one of the best. I actually think that there is a lot that can be learned from SWTOR, because it was a mess in the beginning. However, I think that they were extremely successful in merging the sub and F2P model in a way that maximizes their user base and profits at the same time while maintaining a fair revenue model.
Crazkanuk
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I self identify as a monkey.
Why Wildstar is not in this list?
STFU n00b !
"This is not a game to be tossed aside lightly.
It should be thrown with great force"
wow - at launch a mediocre mmorpg with limited features, boring gameplay and toxic community. it was, it is, a game for the masses. easy to play, easy to handle and with a engine that was outdated but ran on every pc. and that was its success. nicely done, blizzard, kudos for that smart move.
atlantica online - unique and fresh perspective on the genre. even if its a 'grinding hell' this game does have its flair. but the cashshop is an absolutly no go. wonder why no company ever tried to copy this game with a better payment model. it was one of ndoors main income mmogs at the beginning.
archeage - good ideas and a lot of very promising features implemented. but its like cooking a meal. you have ten ingredients, but you have to follow an order to get a good dish. xlgames instead took all the ingedrients at once, stirred around a bit and wondered why no one loved it (65% memberdrop after the first two months after release in korea). and with the change to f2p the state of the game got even worse.
defiance - oh, so many things trion promised us about how extraordinary this game would be. how players does have influence on the ongoing tv show and vice versa. during early alpha i asked two developers on the gamescon fair in cologne (germany) if and what will be added to this game, what we can expect. and they told about so many things that are still not implemented in the game. wonder why.
AoC and DCUO sections are a bit odd... especially since the title is _seriously_ disappointed.
AoC: "the game disappointed me because it dashed my hope that it might stand out."
DCUO: "SOE's game didn't live up to the shining peak of hope I briefly had for it."
Those are your _serious_ disappointments? I somewhat envy you
However I agree with putting the original FF XIV onto the list. That wasn't simply a "felling off the hype-train" issue like the two above (no offence
), the game had serious issues, and needed a full relaunch. The original release was a mess, sadly.