Well, let's have it. -- Do you think this is the least prolific period in the MMO/RPG - Markets? I know it's always a sitaution where we the gamers feel like we are ALWAYS waiting for the next title to deliver.
- However, have we come full circle to both the realization there simply is no title worth waiting for, and we will always be left without what we desire. More over- What about what is currently out. I look over my rather impressive collections of MMOs, and only 1-2 even seem like something i would want to play right now (GW2, FF14) - And neither are games i really -want- to play, but rather in the void of having nothing else to play, they are sufficent time-wasters, i don't really care to play them or not. -- So what happened, do you feel like this is a down-trodden period in the MMO industry, do you think it will recover? -- I'm personally tired of the waiting on "xy" title, and becoming instantly disgusted with the poor tactics employed in the deployment of the game that ends up leaving me right back to waiting on the next title. Can we stick a fork in it, and call it done?
I think we are in a golden age for mmos. There are several recentish AAA mmo titles that each in their own way represent pinnacles of the mmo genre, successfully drawing on and refining elements of past mmos and adding something new to the genre.
If you think mmos are in a bad state now, pray tell when they were in their prime.
We have stated when. Generally, pre 2004.
And what new features have AAA MMOs brought to us? Pinnacle? What?
How can this be the best time to be an MMO gamer, if the only type of AAA MMO being made is the WoW clone, that ONLY appeals to people who like WoW/casual themeparks?
When was better? Gee, maybe when we had about 2 dozen AA projects all serving distinct niches, and slowly growing and pleasing their playerbases?
Publishers have bailed on this genre for a reason
Pre-2004 was basically the start of the mmo genre certainly not the pinnacle lol. I would even argue that nothing before WoW really qualified as AAA, at least compared to today's standards, and perhaps that's one reason why WoW dominated the landscape for so long. Everyone was just starting out and not many people even played mmos in that era compared to now. How can that be called the prime?
Also, what are these 24 mmos you speak of pre-2004 and if they were so good why aren't you and everyone else playing them? If they are slowly growing and pleasing the player base they must be huge now right?
WoW clones? Maybe FF14 could be called a WoW clone at a stretch, especially when I want to stir fanbois up, but please, some of the newer games totally push the bounds of traditional mmos in nearly every way.
Finally "publishers have bailed". Surely you must be joking. The past few years have seen a succession of great mmos released and more are on the way. It could be that the genre is peaking, but the peak is now, not back in the dark ages pre-2004.
Well, let's have it. -- Do you think this is the least prolific period in the MMO/RPG - Markets? I know it's always a sitaution where we the gamers feel like we are ALWAYS waiting for the next title to deliver.
- However, have we come full circle to both the realization there simply is no title worth waiting for, and we will always be left without what we desire. More over- What about what is currently out. I look over my rather impressive collections of MMOs, and only 1-2 even seem like something i would want to play right now (GW2, FF14) - And neither are games i really -want- to play, but rather in the void of having nothing else to play, they are sufficent time-wasters, i don't really care to play them or not. -- So what happened, do you feel like this is a down-trodden period in the MMO industry, do you think it will recover? -- I'm personally tired of the waiting on "xy" title, and becoming instantly disgusted with the poor tactics employed in the deployment of the game that ends up leaving me right back to waiting on the next title. Can we stick a fork in it, and call it done?
I think we are in a golden age for mmos. There are several recentish AAA mmo titles that each in their own way represent pinnacles of the mmo genre, successfully drawing on and refining elements of past mmos and adding something new to the genre.
If you think mmos are in a bad state now, pray tell when they were in their prime.
We have stated when. Generally, pre 2004.
And what new features have AAA MMOs brought to us? Pinnacle? What?
How can this be the best time to be an MMO gamer, if the only type of AAA MMO being made is the WoW clone, that ONLY appeals to people who like WoW/casual themeparks?
When was better? Gee, maybe when we had about 2 dozen AA projects all serving distinct niches, and slowly growing and pleasing their playerbases?
Publishers have bailed on this genre for a reason
Also, what are these 24 mmos you speak of pre-2004 and if they were so good why aren't you and everyone else playing them?
Oh god, you're one of them. Do us all a favor and get educated about the history of the MMO genre if you're going to try to debate it with people who lived through it.
Well, let's have it. -- Do you think this is the least prolific period in the MMO/RPG - Markets? I know it's always a sitaution where we the gamers feel like we are ALWAYS waiting for the next title to deliver.
- However, have we come full circle to both the realization there simply is no title worth waiting for, and we will always be left without what we desire. More over- What about what is currently out. I look over my rather impressive collections of MMOs, and only 1-2 even seem like something i would want to play right now (GW2, FF14) - And neither are games i really -want- to play, but rather in the void of having nothing else to play, they are sufficent time-wasters, i don't really care to play them or not. -- So what happened, do you feel like this is a down-trodden period in the MMO industry, do you think it will recover? -- I'm personally tired of the waiting on "xy" title, and becoming instantly disgusted with the poor tactics employed in the deployment of the game that ends up leaving me right back to waiting on the next title. Can we stick a fork in it, and call it done?
I think we are in a golden age for mmos. There are several recentish AAA mmo titles that each in their own way represent pinnacles of the mmo genre, successfully drawing on and refining elements of past mmos and adding something new to the genre.
If you think mmos are in a bad state now, pray tell when they were in their prime.
We have stated when. Generally, pre 2004.
And what new features have AAA MMOs brought to us? Pinnacle? What?
How can this be the best time to be an MMO gamer, if the only type of AAA MMO being made is the WoW clone, that ONLY appeals to people who like WoW/casual themeparks?
When was better? Gee, maybe when we had about 2 dozen AA projects all serving distinct niches, and slowly growing and pleasing their playerbases?
Publishers have bailed on this genre for a reason
Also, what are these 24 mmos you speak of pre-2004 and if they were so good why aren't you and everyone else playing them?
Oh god, you're one of them. Do us all a favor and get educated about the history of the MMO genre if you're going to try to debate it with people who lived through it.
While he may be ignorant to how many mmos there were pre-2004, you're just as ignorant for thinking pre-2004 was the pinnacle of mmorpgs.
It's interesting that all those 'golden oldie' mmorpg are still here today along with many many others, and yet some people think the old times were the best. I loved the music in the eighties, I still have them. Nothing wrong with nostalgia if you don't have you head in the sand.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Well, let's have it. -- Do you think this is the least prolific period in the MMO/RPG - Markets? I know it's always a sitaution where we the gamers feel like we are ALWAYS waiting for the next title to deliver.
- However, have we come full circle to both the realization there simply is no title worth waiting for, and we will always be left without what we desire. More over- What about what is currently out. I look over my rather impressive collections of MMOs, and only 1-2 even seem like something i would want to play right now (GW2, FF14) - And neither are games i really -want- to play, but rather in the void of having nothing else to play, they are sufficent time-wasters, i don't really care to play them or not. -- So what happened, do you feel like this is a down-trodden period in the MMO industry, do you think it will recover? -- I'm personally tired of the waiting on "xy" title, and becoming instantly disgusted with the poor tactics employed in the deployment of the game that ends up leaving me right back to waiting on the next title. Can we stick a fork in it, and call it done?
I think we are in a golden age for mmos. There are several recentish AAA mmo titles that each in their own way represent pinnacles of the mmo genre, successfully drawing on and refining elements of past mmos and adding something new to the genre.
If you think mmos are in a bad state now, pray tell when they were in their prime.
We have stated when. Generally, pre 2004.
And what new features have AAA MMOs brought to us? Pinnacle? What?
How can this be the best time to be an MMO gamer, if the only type of AAA MMO being made is the WoW clone, that ONLY appeals to people who like WoW/casual themeparks?
When was better? Gee, maybe when we had about 2 dozen AA projects all serving distinct niches, and slowly growing and pleasing their playerbases?
Publishers have bailed on this genre for a reason
Also, what are these 24 mmos you speak of pre-2004 and if they were so good why aren't you and everyone else playing them?
Oh god, you're one of them. Do us all a favor and get educated about the history of the MMO genre if you're going to try to debate it with people who lived through it.
So you can't tell us the names of these 24 mmos pre-2004 that were the best of the best in terms of mmos? Instead all you can do is revert to insults, nice. How about you calm down and just tell us the names of these 24 pre-2004 mmos that you claim are the best mmos ever and explain why only a few are still being played if they were so amazing.
Pretty much every mmorpg that comes out tries to take wow's pie and fails. I dispise World of Warcraft, not because its a bad game, its actually not that bad, but I dispise it because of how it single handedly destroyed the genre. While the themepark design in and of itself is not bad, the problem is devs get lazy and just bascally take wow, pop a new skin over it, then release it. The most recent flop was wildstar, once you get over the combat system, all you are left with is bascally wow clone #7252452, same for Tera, Aion, pretty much any mmorpg released in the last 10 years. The reason they flop is because most of the people who quit wow, don't wanna play another game exactly like wow, if they wanted to play wow they would still be playing wow.
Its the worst period because as we all know all were getting still is more and more games trying to be exactly what wow is. The genre has become a stagnant cesspool, and I blame wow wholly for this.
There also is factor 2: mmorpgs are becoming less mmo more single player, lets face it in most mmorpgs the last 8 years or so, you can pretty much do most of the game solo, there is no real need to socilize or do stuff with other players until level cap or the odd dungeon while leveling. MMOrpg's today I would call them single player games with a irc chatroom to simulate real multiplayer. Hell, dot hack gu, and sword art online: hollow fragment are single player games that feel more like a mmorpg should than an actually mmorpg does, how pathethic is that?
The last real mmorpg was FF11, but a few years back they casualified it and ruined what it was, i've never gone back since, I tried once, but it just felt like it became a joke and a empty shell of what it used to be, everyone solos now since partys have been pretty much obliterated by squaresoft. Todays rule of thumb for mmorpgs is: if people aren't forced to group up, they usually won't. Most mmorpgs these days are designed around this, its why they have become a single player game with a irc chat room.
I used to be a hardcore mmorpg player but I haven't touched them in months, due to every single one feeling like the exact same game
There are more MMO's available to play currently than at any time before in history. Not only are there more, but the actual variety is also the greatest. So if you like PLAYING MMO's, then this is the best time ever to be around.
However, if you prefer to be IMAGINING WHAT IT WILL BE LIKE TO PLAY a new/upcoming MMO's, then this is one of the driest periods in years.
for me I feel the last 2 years in MMO have been aweful.
Many kickstarter campaigns giving half baked games in pre alpha nad technical demo and what not.
Other there were potentially good games but were ruined either by constant hacks or Game companies milking the playerbase dry with RNG monetization crap ( Archeage).
If I look at the amount of money I have spent on MMO games and have not received any satisfaction.
Archeage $150 ( 6 months in beta and 3 months after launch)
Wildstar $100 ( premium closed beta buy).
Repopulation $40 . Played 5 hours in total
TSW - went to Buy to Play option $40 . Havent installed game in 6 months yet.
SWTOR - 6 months subs - $190 in total.
Age of Conan - $ 150 ( actually liked this one )
GW2 - $75 Playing for last 2 years - Fully ascended armor and working towards legendary
World of Tanks - did not spend a dime and have reach Tier 8 tanks - Casual 10-15 plays in betweens still enjoying
EVOLVE $100- Kicks himself - installed not played last 3 weeks. ( looked lot of fun on youtube).
Skyforge $25 - closed beta had so much expectations - Less the said better.
There are so many more MMO games that I have feeling of total letdown
Pre-2004 was, for many, the pinnacle of MMOs because it was the early days. Each MMO at that time was noticeably different from the others even if they were of the same general type (high fantasy).
EQ, AC, AO, DAOC, SB, SWG: All were distinctly different from each other, and yet similar enough that if you played one you could pick up any of the others and get cracking very quickly.
Now a lot of people feel that many/most new MMOs are all too similar to each other. No one is innovating any more. The accountants saw how much money WoW made and they want that. None of them seem to realise that just because WoW did that well they will too. So they (the accountants, the publishers, the execs, whoever) are reticent about taking too many risks, deviating too much from the 'proven' path to success.
Unfortunately this reticence is then borne out when someone does finally try something new and the hordes of players that were introduced to the genre by WoW fail to swap to this new game. Many of today's gamers want new, but still the same. "I'm bored of WoW", they say, "but this new game isn't like WoW in this way, and that way, and why isn't this more like WoW?!?! But I'm bored of WoW...".
Now, with the coming of crowd sourcing, devs with the urge to create truly new things, innovative things, different things, can do so without necessarily having to worry about what the publisher thinks. They can aim for games with a development budget that means they only needs 80,000 - 100,000 players. Not the millions of players the so called AAA games would need to make a big enough, fast enough return on investment for the publishers. Sure, many still fall flat on their faces. But they tend to be the ones being attempted by people who lack experience. Either in creating MMOs or in running a company, period.
The only thing that will draw significant numbers of WoW players away from it is the closure of WoW itself. And even then, how many of those would on to another game rather than simply quit? Even Blizzard stopped developing another MMO. WARNING: Pure conjecture incoming: Perhaps they realised the same thing? Realised that sinking millions into developing another full-on MMO would ultimately be a waste? Now they're trying to pull a WoW on the FPS genre.
So to answer the question "Worst period to be an MMO gamer?" I would have to agree with others and say "Now. Now is the worst time to be an MMO gamer".
That may well change in the next 2 or 3 years with games like Star Citizen, Crowfall and Camelot Unchained in development. If they prove themselves to be successful and profitable then other companies may follow suit and start making smaller, more 'niche' games. Frankly I'd be very surprised if someone like EA weren't already planning creating kickstarters for games via proxy companies with the intent of then "buying them out" if the end product turns out to be successful. They can get us schmucks to fund the vast majority of the development costs for them...
More players playing than ever? Check. Function of time, and doesn't positively impact me in anyway, so, irrelevent.
More games available than ever? Check. When all the games are bad, this makes no difference. Next.
More variety in setting and style? Check. Incorrect. Before 2004, I had about 10 radically different AAA MMOs to pick from, each filling its own niche. Now, if I want to play a AAA MMO, I have to play a WoW clone or just not play.
More options in payment model? Check. And many of these payment models are leading to games designed to annoy you into paying more. So.
More platforms to choose to play MMOs on? Check. Doesn't impact me at all.
Yup, sounds terrible.
Nice try.
Just because you aren't happy doesn't mean the MMO genre as a whole is not in a good place.
Nice try!
It's like saying, "oh man, they opened up 13 new restaurants, 10 chains and 3 unique, local "ma and pa" places - but they closed the one old diner I loved to go to. The entire restaurant industry in this town is awful and worthless!"
Does that make sense? Nope.
Except that analogy is broken. It'd be more of "Oh, they closed all the restaurants I liked, and opened 13 McDonalds in their place.
The points you brought up to defend why we're in a good place as a whole were shot down, and you don't seem to have any other AMMO.
Hell, it's not just a bad place for gamers, it's bad for publishers and devs too given how many studios have collapsed as their WoW clones go FTP and fail.
More players playing than ever? Check. Function of time, and doesn't positively impact me in anyway, so, irrelevent.
More games available than ever? Check. When all the games are bad, this makes no difference. Next.
More variety in setting and style? Check. Incorrect. Before 2004, I had about 10 radically different AAA MMOs to pick from, each filling its own niche. Now, if I want to play a AAA MMO, I have to play a WoW clone or just not play.
More options in payment model? Check. And many of these payment models are leading to games designed to annoy you into paying more. So.
More platforms to choose to play MMOs on? Check. Doesn't impact me at all.
Yup, sounds terrible.
Nice try.
Just because you aren't happy doesn't mean the MMO genre as a whole is not in a good place.
Nice try!
It's like saying, "oh man, they opened up 13 new restaurants, 10 chains and 3 unique, local "ma and pa" places - but they closed the one old diner I loved to go to. The entire restaurant industry in this town is awful and worthless!"
Does that make sense? Nope.
Except that analogy is broken. It'd be more of "Oh, they closed all the restaurants I liked, and opened 13 McDonalds in their place.
The points you brought up to defend why we're in a good place as a whole were shot down, and you don't seem to have any other AMMO.
Hell, it's not just a bad place for gamers, it's bad for publishers and devs too given how many studios have collapsed as their WoW clones go FTP and fail.
^Thread ended here. Game, set and match.
Except it didn't because WoW is not McDonalds and WoW clones are not McDonalds. WoW clones are called clones, but they're actually shitty renditions of clones in terms of content, and overall level of polish and thats not even counting shitty monetization.
There's still plenty of non shitty WoW clones around, and there's still plenty being released. We don't only have McDonalds(even though in the analogy it doesn't fit to begin with) and there's even more variety now than there used to be.
People left all the real mmos for World Of Warcraft. You should have never left and supported the games you were playing. Now you are getting exactly what you deserve.
Originally posted by Mikeha People left all the real mmos for World Of Warcraft. You should have never left and supported the games you were playing. Now you are getting exactly what you deserve.
Actually, most of WOW's players came from outside of MMOs. From Starcraft and the like. Most MMO gamers returned to their games, by and large. The "real MMOs" didn't start dying until companies saw how big MMOs could be, and started changing their gameplay to be more like WOW, alienating their core audience.
Originally posted by Bladestrom It's interesting that all those 'golden oldie' mmorpg are still here today along with many many others, and yet some people think the old times were the best. I loved the music in the eighties, I still have them. Nothing wrong with nostalgia if you don't have you head in the sand.
The MMOs we love don't exist anymore for a number of different and complex reasons.
You want to be reductionist and say "Well they're still there go play them!" or "obviously they all sucked or they'd be huge right now!" but you're just constructing distractions to avoid the debate entirely. I guess this is the only tactic you have left when confronted by people who actually lived through the time period you're trying to debate.
No one in their right mind would argue that RIGHT NOW there is more variety in MMOs made by experienced developers with decent budgets, than there were in 2004, when the closest thing we had to clones were FF11 and EQ.
If you think this is the worst time in MMO gaming then you aren't old enough. Compared to now I would rather deal with too many mediocre titles then when this was the shit ...
Sadly, I am so disappointed in the current Market of MMO's that I have gone back to a MUD, Sector13. LOL The one I am playing has its own client, and is way more developed than what we saw in the early to mid-90's, but it is still a text-based game.
The problem that I see with today's MMO's is that they are, most of them, trying to cater to a fickle crowd that game hops every few months. They put less and less time into depth, story, lore, mechanics, etc in order to cut costs because "they know people will leave." Unfortunately, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy in gaming: "If you continue to make shitty games with no depth, people will continue to leave earlier and earlier." I can't say that this will help, or even fix, the problem, but I would love to see some depth. EQ1, EQ2, WoW.... They spent as much time on Lore and background as they did on mechanics, and they still maintain a strong playerbase, over a decade later. They have to be doing something right...
Keep your ill informed generalisations to yourself pls. I have played since the 80's, I still return to vanilla wow every year or 2, gw 1, eve. I also play gw2 and eso regularly and I do consider them to be far superior to the older games (eve asside). There are of. Many other recent titles.
Some people are quite capable of wearing the nostalgia glasses to hav fun, but can also take them off and play new games and have fun. Some people can't face up to th fact that they gave grown out of a genre, and cling hopelessly to the past and blame the world and the dog for their own tastes changing.
Proof; what is the probability that all old games are better than new games? I.e somehow no lessons learned, somehow technology not taken advantage of, games somehow getting more basic over time (wow mess asside)
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
The problem that I see with today's MMO's is that they are, most of them, trying to cater to a fickle crowd that game hops every few months.
Very true.
Originally posted by mikuniman Speak for yourself, I'm still enjoying more mmos than I did 10 yrs ago. Bouncing between Vindictus, GW2, SWTOR, Tera and WoW.
Case in point.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do. Benjamin Franklin
Comments
Pre-2004 was basically the start of the mmo genre certainly not the pinnacle lol. I would even argue that nothing before WoW really qualified as AAA, at least compared to today's standards, and perhaps that's one reason why WoW dominated the landscape for so long. Everyone was just starting out and not many people even played mmos in that era compared to now. How can that be called the prime?
Also, what are these 24 mmos you speak of pre-2004 and if they were so good why aren't you and everyone else playing them? If they are slowly growing and pleasing the player base they must be huge now right?
WoW clones? Maybe FF14 could be called a WoW clone at a stretch, especially when I want to stir fanbois up, but please, some of the newer games totally push the bounds of traditional mmos in nearly every way.
Finally "publishers have bailed". Surely you must be joking. The past few years have seen a succession of great mmos released and more are on the way. It could be that the genre is peaking, but the peak is now, not back in the dark ages pre-2004.
Oh god, you're one of them. Do us all a favor and get educated about the history of the MMO genre if you're going to try to debate it with people who lived through it.
While he may be ignorant to how many mmos there were pre-2004, you're just as ignorant for thinking pre-2004 was the pinnacle of mmorpgs.
Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
So you can't tell us the names of these 24 mmos pre-2004 that were the best of the best in terms of mmos? Instead all you can do is revert to insults, nice. How about you calm down and just tell us the names of these 24 pre-2004 mmos that you claim are the best mmos ever and explain why only a few are still being played if they were so amazing.
Played-Everything
Playing-LoL
I'd say yes, and this youtube video shows why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ56Kia8dTU
Pretty much every mmorpg that comes out tries to take wow's pie and fails. I dispise World of Warcraft, not because its a bad game, its actually not that bad, but I dispise it because of how it single handedly destroyed the genre. While the themepark design in and of itself is not bad, the problem is devs get lazy and just bascally take wow, pop a new skin over it, then release it. The most recent flop was wildstar, once you get over the combat system, all you are left with is bascally wow clone #7252452, same for Tera, Aion, pretty much any mmorpg released in the last 10 years. The reason they flop is because most of the people who quit wow, don't wanna play another game exactly like wow, if they wanted to play wow they would still be playing wow.
Its the worst period because as we all know all were getting still is more and more games trying to be exactly what wow is. The genre has become a stagnant cesspool, and I blame wow wholly for this.
There also is factor 2: mmorpgs are becoming less mmo more single player, lets face it in most mmorpgs the last 8 years or so, you can pretty much do most of the game solo, there is no real need to socilize or do stuff with other players until level cap or the odd dungeon while leveling. MMOrpg's today I would call them single player games with a irc chatroom to simulate real multiplayer. Hell, dot hack gu, and sword art online: hollow fragment are single player games that feel more like a mmorpg should than an actually mmorpg does, how pathethic is that?
The last real mmorpg was FF11, but a few years back they casualified it and ruined what it was, i've never gone back since, I tried once, but it just felt like it became a joke and a empty shell of what it used to be, everyone solos now since partys have been pretty much obliterated by squaresoft. Todays rule of thumb for mmorpgs is: if people aren't forced to group up, they usually won't. Most mmorpgs these days are designed around this, its why they have become a single player game with a irc chat room.
I used to be a hardcore mmorpg player but I haven't touched them in months, due to every single one feeling like the exact same game
TL:DR Here is whats wrong with mmorpgs today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ56Kia8dTU
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
Either way, you can't lose! Try it out sometime!
The title of this post is quite hilarious !
There are more MMO's available to play currently than at any time before in history. Not only are there more, but the actual variety is also the greatest. So if you like PLAYING MMO's, then this is the best time ever to be around.
However, if you prefer to be IMAGINING WHAT IT WILL BE LIKE TO PLAY a new/upcoming MMO's, then this is one of the driest periods in years.
for me I feel the last 2 years in MMO have been aweful.
Many kickstarter campaigns giving half baked games in pre alpha nad technical demo and what not.
Other there were potentially good games but were ruined either by constant hacks or Game companies milking the playerbase dry with RNG monetization crap ( Archeage).
If I look at the amount of money I have spent on MMO games and have not received any satisfaction.
Archeage $150 ( 6 months in beta and 3 months after launch)
Wildstar $100 ( premium closed beta buy).
Repopulation $40 . Played 5 hours in total
TSW - went to Buy to Play option $40 . Havent installed game in 6 months yet.
SWTOR - 6 months subs - $190 in total.
Age of Conan - $ 150 ( actually liked this one )
GW2 - $75 Playing for last 2 years - Fully ascended armor and working towards legendary
World of Tanks - did not spend a dime and have reach Tier 8 tanks - Casual 10-15 plays in betweens still enjoying
EVOLVE $100- Kicks himself - installed not played last 3 weeks. ( looked lot of fun on youtube).
Skyforge $25 - closed beta had so much expectations - Less the said better.
There are so many more MMO games that I have feeling of total letdown
Pre-2004 was, for many, the pinnacle of MMOs because it was the early days. Each MMO at that time was noticeably different from the others even if they were of the same general type (high fantasy).
EQ, AC, AO, DAOC, SB, SWG: All were distinctly different from each other, and yet similar enough that if you played one you could pick up any of the others and get cracking very quickly.
Now a lot of people feel that many/most new MMOs are all too similar to each other. No one is innovating any more. The accountants saw how much money WoW made and they want that. None of them seem to realise that just because WoW did that well they will too. So they (the accountants, the publishers, the execs, whoever) are reticent about taking too many risks, deviating too much from the 'proven' path to success.
Unfortunately this reticence is then borne out when someone does finally try something new and the hordes of players that were introduced to the genre by WoW fail to swap to this new game. Many of today's gamers want new, but still the same. "I'm bored of WoW", they say, "but this new game isn't like WoW in this way, and that way, and why isn't this more like WoW?!?! But I'm bored of WoW...".
Now, with the coming of crowd sourcing, devs with the urge to create truly new things, innovative things, different things, can do so without necessarily having to worry about what the publisher thinks. They can aim for games with a development budget that means they only needs 80,000 - 100,000 players. Not the millions of players the so called AAA games would need to make a big enough, fast enough return on investment for the publishers. Sure, many still fall flat on their faces. But they tend to be the ones being attempted by people who lack experience. Either in creating MMOs or in running a company, period.
The only thing that will draw significant numbers of WoW players away from it is the closure of WoW itself. And even then, how many of those would on to another game rather than simply quit? Even Blizzard stopped developing another MMO. WARNING: Pure conjecture incoming: Perhaps they realised the same thing? Realised that sinking millions into developing another full-on MMO would ultimately be a waste? Now they're trying to pull a WoW on the FPS genre.
So to answer the question "Worst period to be an MMO gamer?" I would have to agree with others and say "Now. Now is the worst time to be an MMO gamer".
That may well change in the next 2 or 3 years with games like Star Citizen, Crowfall and Camelot Unchained in development. If they prove themselves to be successful and profitable then other companies may follow suit and start making smaller, more 'niche' games. Frankly I'd be very surprised if someone like EA weren't already planning creating kickstarters for games via proxy companies with the intent of then "buying them out" if the end product turns out to be successful. They can get us schmucks to fund the vast majority of the development costs for them...
^Thread ended here. Game, set and match.
Except it didn't because WoW is not McDonalds and WoW clones are not McDonalds. WoW clones are called clones, but they're actually shitty renditions of clones in terms of content, and overall level of polish and thats not even counting shitty monetization.
There's still plenty of non shitty WoW clones around, and there's still plenty being released. We don't only have McDonalds(even though in the analogy it doesn't fit to begin with) and there's even more variety now than there used to be.
Try again.
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Actually, most of WOW's players came from outside of MMOs. From Starcraft and the like. Most MMO gamers returned to their games, by and large. The "real MMOs" didn't start dying until companies saw how big MMOs could be, and started changing their gameplay to be more like WOW, alienating their core audience.
The MMOs we love don't exist anymore for a number of different and complex reasons.
You want to be reductionist and say "Well they're still there go play them!" or "obviously they all sucked or they'd be huge right now!" but you're just constructing distractions to avoid the debate entirely. I guess this is the only tactic you have left when confronted by people who actually lived through the time period you're trying to debate.
No one in their right mind would argue that RIGHT NOW there is more variety in MMOs made by experienced developers with decent budgets, than there were in 2004, when the closest thing we had to clones were FF11 and EQ.
Sadly, I am so disappointed in the current Market of MMO's that I have gone back to a MUD, Sector13. LOL The one I am playing has its own client, and is way more developed than what we saw in the early to mid-90's, but it is still a text-based game.
The problem that I see with today's MMO's is that they are, most of them, trying to cater to a fickle crowd that game hops every few months. They put less and less time into depth, story, lore, mechanics, etc in order to cut costs because "they know people will leave." Unfortunately, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy in gaming: "If you continue to make shitty games with no depth, people will continue to leave earlier and earlier." I can't say that this will help, or even fix, the problem, but I would love to see some depth. EQ1, EQ2, WoW.... They spent as much time on Lore and background as they did on mechanics, and they still maintain a strong playerbase, over a decade later. They have to be doing something right...
Keep your ill informed generalisations to yourself pls. I have played since the 80's, I still return to vanilla wow every year or 2, gw 1, eve. I also play gw2 and eso regularly and I do consider them to be far superior to the older games (eve asside). There are of. Many other recent titles.
Some people are quite capable of wearing the nostalgia glasses to hav fun, but can also take them off and play new games and have fun. Some people can't face up to th fact that they gave grown out of a genre, and cling hopelessly to the past and blame the world and the dog for their own tastes changing.
Proof; what is the probability that all old games are better than new games? I.e somehow no lessons learned, somehow technology not taken advantage of, games somehow getting more basic over time (wow mess asside)
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Very true.
Case in point.Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
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