Where Does the MMO Genre Sit With You? a Column at MMORPG.com

SBFord

Where Does the MMO Genre Sit With You? a Column at MMORPG.com

The MMO genre is the one that I play the most and the one I predominantly choose to write about. What has become apparent however, certainly over the last year and irrespective of which MMO website I choose to read, is the sense that massively multiplayer games are no longer the golden goose for developers. In fact, there’s a growing sense that they’re largely finished; the lack of upcoming AAA MMO’s combined with the rise of the MOBA is testament to that.

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FelixMajor

Very slowly it seems the genre is retreating back to what made it shine. Unfortunately I think a lot of big publishers and companies might have felt burned with their attempts at scoring what Blizz did, and we are seeing a lot of the good ideas put out by smaller teams that do not have the resources to make it big. Not yet at least.

SEANMCAD

For me MMOs used to be the land of huge amount of content. That is no longer the case. With so many single player games that also have MP in them having huge amounts of content I tend to play those instead.
More over, if more games like Wurm simply sell a single player version of the entire code base then that is a thing.

In short many people who used to play MMOs appear to me to be playing hosted server games 

SEANMCAD

FelixMajor said:

Very slowly it seems the genre is retreating back to what made it shine. Unfortunately I think a lot of big publishers and companies might have felt burned with their attempts at scoring what Blizz did, and we are seeing a lot of the good ideas put out by smaller teams that do not have the resources to make it big. Not yet at least.

I think managers of these very large companies need to understand that by the time there is a measurable model for a succesful game that is usually an indicator that said model is about to expire. 

In other words they need to look to do what WoW (for example) is NOT doing rather then trying to copy. That pattern is not just with WoW but everything. once its repeatable, its likely a model that is now longer exploitable by new parties.

SpottyGekko

I occasionally play a month or two of ESO, but other than that I'm not playing MMORPG's at all.

Most of my multiplayer time goes into War Thunder. This year has had a bumper crop of SPG's that have kept me almost fully occupied.

I'm still idling here, however, waiting for that magic moment when someone will invent "MMO 2" or whatever the next gen of MMO's will be collectively known as. Who knows what it will be or what it will look like ? No idea, but I've a feeling we'll know it when we see it !

Razeekster

Like others said, I think the MMORPG genre is fine, it's that the big AAA+ publishers are mostly done trying to make MMORPGs after not meeting with the same success as WoW. I don't want investors interested in the MMORPG genre, that's what ruined the genre in my opinion. Maybe now we can get back to having some unique ideas instead of copy/paste MMORPGs.

SEANMCAD

SpottyGekko said:

I occasionally play a month or two of ESO, but other than that I'm not playing MMORPG's at all.

Most of my multiplayer time goes into War Thunder. This year has had a bumper crop of SPG's that have kept me almost fully occupied.

I'm still idling here, however, waiting for that magic moment when someone will invent "MMO 2" or whatever the next gen of MMO's will be collectively known as. Who knows what it will be or what it will look like ? No idea, but I've a feeling we'll know it when we see it !

Over the past 2 years or so my entire gaming universe revolves around early access now.

The 'news stories' i look forward to are things like 'Medevil Engineers just released Planets' or 'Kerbal Space Program (one of my favorite games of all time) is now out of Early Access' or '7 days to die A15 is about to be out'

but sadly none of those stories make press but they are examples of where I get hyper hyped.

If I expand my list at all it would be Stranded Deep and The Forest at this point but what I have now is more than enough as it is

Foncl

I haven't cared less about MMORPGs since I discovered the genre than I do now. Not only are there few games that interest me but the monetization of MMORPGs in general has gone in a direction that ruins most games for me and it only seems to get worse. I play some Warhammer online on a private server every now and then but other than that I spend my gaming time in other genres.

I still believe there's a lot of potential for a good MMORPG, all it takes is one good game to change the genre. Until that game appears I'm spending my time and energy elsewhere.

Dullahan

It sits in the toilet and WoW is the only floater.

xxtriadxx

A little too lost in the story instead of the worlds those stories reside in.
~

Once upon a time, you didn't play an MMO to finish it.

waynejr2

SEANMCAD said:

For me MMOs used to be the land of huge amount of content. That is no longer the case. With so many single player games that also have MP in them having huge amounts of content I tend to play those instead.
More over, if more games like Wurm simply sell a single player version of the entire code base then that is a thing.

In short many people who used to play MMOs appear to me to be playing hosted server games 

I agree with the land of huge amount of content.   Blame the bean counter mentality and those teaching game design.  Bean counters want to cut out anything that isn't a place where you have encounters and click on things.  So those nice looking but empty spaces need to be cut out. 

Those teaching game design are basically an echo chamber of ideas.  This design is good that design is bad.  Experimentation might lead to interesting things but also bad design. So experimentation gets cut at a time when it is needed most.  So you end up stagnation.

Iselin

Good article as usual, Lewis.

It seems to me that MMO development has been suffering an identity crisis for a number of years. This was never a type of game with mainstream mass appeal, WOW notwithstanding. They were and still are very much a niche not really meant for the crowd that plays games but doesn't really think of themselves as "gamers." But casuals is precisely the crowd they have tried to attract in pursuit of the crazy profits that some games have managed to achieve.

In recent years with the rise of quick-match gaming and their obvious profitability many MMOs, even WOW itself, have modified the game play to make it more appealing to the quick-match crowd. IMO this is a fool's errand that seeks to attract those who reject MMOs in favor of MOBAs and FPS in the first place. It's an "if you can't beat them, join them" design mentality.

The irony is that by going this route they have neglected to advance MMOs in any meaningful way that might have attracted more players organically simply by offering an improved version of themselves instead of just snippets of what other genres offer.

Their motivation is understandable. The market is dominated by companies that once upon a time were very creative, took risks and advanced the genre. The success they experienced when they were up and comers turned them into (or they were acquired by) major entertainment corporations and inevitably they started behaving differently and making design decisions simply to maximize profits - they no longer feel a need to make a name for themselves and instead choose to cash in on their past glories.

Obviously this has created an opportunity and led to a proliferation of MMO developer wannabes: some of them with great ideas and the ability to develop them but many more who just spout the nostalgia-invoking keywords and have no ability to deliver the "back to the roots" promises they make.

This is where I think the genre is right now. On the one hand those big studios who even bother to cater to this type of game aiming them at non-MMOers, and then a bunch of startups with great sounding ideas but very few deliveries aiming their projects at the core MMO-loving fringe.

SEANMCAD

waynejr2 said:

SEANMCAD said:

For me MMOs used to be the land of huge amount of content. That is no longer the case. With so many single player games that also have MP in them having huge amounts of content I tend to play those instead.
More over, if more games like Wurm simply sell a single player version of the entire code base then that is a thing.

In short many people who used to play MMOs appear to me to be playing hosted server games 

I agree with the land of huge amount of content.   Blame the bean counter mentality and those teaching game design.  Bean counters want to cut out anything that isn't a place where you have encounters and click on things.  So those nice looking but empty spaces need to be cut out. 

Those teaching game design are basically an echo chamber of ideas.  This design is good that design is bad.  Experimentation might lead to interesting things but also bad design. So experimentation gets cut at a time when it is needed most.  So you end up stagnation.

bean counters want to control every action the player takes, force them into a story, show lots of cut scenes and only if there is 5 years worth of metric data that shows people want this.

I dont know what your talking about though

Deasant

If we all at once just go play Age of Conan and flood them with population and revenue, we could force them to continue with it and make it the last bastion of GREAT MMOs with challenging GROUP and RAID content (as well as challenging solo content). I know if people reply it'll be a mix of yay and nay and "Funcom did me wrong". I get that, trust me. But it truly is the last great MMO, in its CURRENT STATE, not with rose tinted glasses.

waynejr2

SEANMCAD said:

waynejr2 said:

SEANMCAD said:

For me MMOs used to be the land of huge amount of content. That is no longer the case. With so many single player games that also have MP in them having huge amounts of content I tend to play those instead.
More over, if more games like Wurm simply sell a single player version of the entire code base then that is a thing.

In short many people who used to play MMOs appear to me to be playing hosted server games 

I agree with the land of huge amount of content.   Blame the bean counter mentality and those teaching game design.  Bean counters want to cut out anything that isn't a place where you have encounters and click on things.  So those nice looking but empty spaces need to be cut out. 

Those teaching game design are basically an echo chamber of ideas.  This design is good that design is bad.  Experimentation might lead to interesting things but also bad design. So experimentation gets cut at a time when it is needed most.  So you end up stagnation.

bean counters want to control every action the player takes, force them into a story, show lots of cut scenes and only if there is 5 years worth of metric data that shows people want this.

I dont know what your talking about though

Minimal gaming.  What is the least we can do.

SEANMCAD

waynejr2 said:

SEANMCAD said:

waynejr2 said:

SEANMCAD said:

For me MMOs used to be the land of huge amount of content. That is no longer the case. With so many single player games that also have MP in them having huge amounts of content I tend to play those instead.
More over, if more games like Wurm simply sell a single player version of the entire code base then that is a thing.

In short many people who used to play MMOs appear to me to be playing hosted server games 

I agree with the land of huge amount of content.   Blame the bean counter mentality and those teaching game design.  Bean counters want to cut out anything that isn't a place where you have encounters and click on things.  So those nice looking but empty spaces need to be cut out. 

Those teaching game design are basically an echo chamber of ideas.  This design is good that design is bad.  Experimentation might lead to interesting things but also bad design. So experimentation gets cut at a time when it is needed most.  So you end up stagnation.

bean counters want to control every action the player takes, force them into a story, show lots of cut scenes and only if there is 5 years worth of metric data that shows people want this.

I dont know what your talking about though

Minimal gaming.  What is the least we can do.

you mean like The Order 1886?

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Alomar

Where this genre sits is in some rotten swamp miles away from the green pastures it was in a decade ago. It's been too bland, linear, repetitive, unimaginative, and down right miss managed by developers and corporate overlords. For too many years all we saw was WoW clones and mmo's with 1 or 2 alright features, but a slew of already done before and better features. No one took any risks or tried to push the boundaries. I honestly believe crowdfunding and the private funding of mmo's in recent years may be the saving grace that returns us to the mmo quality of old.

This would be where developer's can make a game without or with much less oversight, demands, and deadlines being put on them by publishers and owning companies. Let's hope we see a couple big hits in the next couple of years by these mmo's, because many are in development now, and then maybe all of the developers who are now directed by only maximum profit with minimum work may try to emulate it. Because we know mmo dev's love to copy one another cough"WoW Clones"cough.

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Slivver

I've stopped playing MMOs because everything I enjoyed about them has been systematical stripped out to make the games more accessible or generate more revenues.

I would consider starting a new MMO if it had all / most of the following features:

Subscription based
No in-game store
Sandbox
Trigger based event system
Holy trinity style play
Classes not balanced on 1vs1 combat
Unique class roles (no homogenisation)
Unique racial abilities
Open-ended skill based levelling
Slow / shallow progression curve
Challenging group play
Challenging crafting system
RvR combat
Flexible instance / raiding sizes

SEANMCAD

Slivver said:

I've stopped playing MMOs because everything I enjoyed about them has been systematical stripped out to make the games more accessible or generate more revenues.

I would consider starting a new MMO if it had all / most of the following features:

...
Holy trinity style play
...

deal breaker for me. I aint playing Holy Trinity let alone a class based holy trinity game that also calls itself a 'sandbox' oh hell no

mmoguy43

As much good as it was that the decade of WoW copying came to a close, there still isn't enough support behind Indy MMO devs. Many of the early ones have failed to deliver and I'm concerned that based on the heavy disinterest of KS and all other crowdfunding that the window for Indy MMOs is quickly closing. The costs and expectations for games in general is exploding to the point that even AAA-studios can't keep up or manage player's demands.

The mindset of player's has also changed so much since the old days of MMOs designed with social and cooperative play that I don't know if we can ever get back to that, regardless of the game. I'd love to be wrong but I'm still playing so many other non-MMOs to get better multiplayer based gameplay or SP RPGS games instead of MMORPGs.

I, and maybe developers too, feel like what's the point of massively multiplayer anything? How much better is a game with 50-500 players in the same place you are? How can you justify having so many players at once vs a better game experience with less? The old times of thinking "wouldn't it be cool if x game was an MMO?" are over.

SEANMCAD

mmoguy43 said:

As much good as it was that the decade of WoW copying came to a close, there still isn't enough support behind Indy MMO devs. Many of the early ones have failed to deliver and I'm concerned that based on the heavy disinterest of KS and all other crowdfunding that the window for Indy MMOs is quickly closing. The costs and expectations for games in general is exploding to the point that even AAA-studios can't keep up or manage player's demands.

The mindset of player's has also changed so much since the old days of MMOs designed with social and cooperative play that I don't know if we can ever get back to that, regardless of the game. I'd love to be wrong but I'm still playing so many other non-MMOs to get better multiplayer based gameplay or SP RPGS games instead of MMORPGs.

I, and maybe developers too, feel like what's the point of massively multiplayer anything? How much better is a game with 50-500 players in the same place you are? How can you justify having so many players at once vs a better game experience with less? The old times of thinking "wouldn't it be cool if x game was an MMO?" are over.

honestly I think any indie developer would instead do what Life is Feudal and others have done.

private servers and/or singleplayer

TheRabidsmurf

Mobas are the dollar menu side of gaming. WoW didnt do anything unique or original. Blizz adopted the fav bits of other mmos at the the time bing bang boom now its the baseline. That baseline hasn't moved in so long people grow bored. Short games get attention from most mmo fans cause they just want tide themselves over for "the next good mmo" which always seems to be in misty horizon.

SEANMCAD

TheRabidsmurf said:

Mobas are the dollar menu side of gaming. WoW didnt do anything unique or original. Blizz adopted the fav bits of other mmos at the the time bing bang boom now its the baseline. That baseline hasn't moved in so long people grow bored. Short games get attention from most mmo fans cause they just want tide themselves over for "the next good mmo" which always seems to be in misty horizon.

from what a player told me in 2004 when I had asked why he felt WoW would do better than EQ2 at the time his answer was 'PvP' my response was 'what is that'

for what that little bit of history is worth