Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Is this really the best year of MMOs EVER? Really???
xzyax
Member Posts: 2,459
Here is a simple table of the top 5 MMO scores given each year (from 2004-2009) here at MMORPG.COM
(I am including only original reviews, not re-reviews, or expansions).
| MMO Title |
Reviewer | Review Date | Score |
| Aion |
Sean Bulger | 10/15/09 |
8.7 |
| Pixie Hollow | Carolyn Koh | 07/02/09 |
8.5 |
| WAR | Michael Bitton | 04/23/09 | 8.4 |
| Free Realms | Sanya Weathers | 06/11/09 |
8.3 |
| Freaky Creatures | Carolyn Koh |
4/30/09 | 8.0 |
| Dungeon Runners |
Joe Iuliani | 04/08/08 | 7.9 |
| AOC (1-20) | Jon Wood | 06/19/08 | 7.9 |
| Hellgate: London | Joe Iuliani | 04/15/08 | 7.0 |
| Asda Story | Joe Iuliani | 10/09/08 |
6.0 |
| LoTRO | Donna Desborough | 06/18/07 | 8.5 |
| SotNW: Granada Espada | Adele Caelia | 08/06/07 | 7.4 |
| Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates | Donna Desborough |
03/30/07 | 7.4 |
| Vanguard | Laura Genender | 06/26/07 | 6.8 |
| Scions of Fate |
Adele Caelia | 04/09/07 | 5.1 |
| RF Online | Brian Perry Jr. | 04/07/06 | 7.6 |
| Disney's Toontown Online | Garrett Fuller | 01/24/06 | 7.5 |
| D&D Online |
Garrett Fuller |
5/29/06 | 7.3 |
| Dofus |
James Pittiglio | 01/10/06 | 7.1 |
| Auto Assault | Andrew Cranston | 6/19/06 | 6.9 |
| WoW |
Reed Hubbard | 4/13/05 | 8.1 |
| Guild Wars | David Souza | 06/07/05 |
8.1 |
| City of Villians | Laura Genender |
12/16/05 | 8.0 |
| EQ2 | Reed Hubbard | 01/03/05 | 7.9 |
| The Matrix Online | Richard Cox | 5/10/05 | 7.3 |
| DAoC | Mark Schembri | 4/13/04 |
8.4 |
| City of Heroes | Richard Cox | 08/20/04 | 8.3 |
| EvE Online | Reed Hubbard | 09/24/04 | 8.3 |
| SWG | Richard Cox | 06/04/04 | 7.0 |
| Ryzom | Reed Hubbard | 10/31/04 | 7.0 |
So, we are to believe (from the review scores above) that this is the BEST MMO year of releases EVER!
Cool... I guess. 
Just thought it would be interesting to see what other gamers take is on the "inflation" of Review scores. Are the MMOs really getting better and therefore deserve the higher scores?
Or, is there something else going on here?
(And yes I know, there are only 4 listed for 2008. I didn't feel the other reviews met my standard of being original, non-expansion, or a re-review... i.e. AOC was reviewed twice. I put in the first review. I also didn't include reviews done for the first time here on MMORPG.COM, but done quite awhile after the game was released... i.e. EQ and UO).
(If any mistakes are found, please let me know and I'll correct them asap).
Comments
I'll be honest, the staff has went from Professional to amateur in the last few years. That's mostly what has been happening.
Many reviews in the last two years have been terrible or really short on content. I usualy get more information from the community itself then from the staff.
I don't dislike the current team but in my opinion, it's greatly lacking.
I'm no journalist and I'm pretty sure none of these guys are paid so I don't really care but if wanted a reason, well here's one.
Don't be surprise, the games have went from awesome to pill of trash in the last few years as well.
Agreed. I like Jon Wood and some of the others the way they write, but I think their scoring is just aweful. I know myself and Jon have gone round and round on this issue, but in my heart I believe advertising dollars from the publishers and developers artificially inflats scores. A site to that is more favorable to games in general is going to get more business than a site that writes hard reviews with lower scores.
Case in point, look at the hype meter fron page. Other than the first two listed, I don't think 99% of the subscribers on the forums have heard of any of those games, but yet they rate over 8.0 on the hype meter. I guess I just don't understand it.
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
Reviews are one guy's opinion, so I never understood people who give them more than a passing glance. (Making a thread based on review scores falls in the "more than a passing glance" category.)
Reviewers' opinions aren't worth more than any random forumite's opinion. Do you hold random forumite opinions in high regard? No? Then why make a fuss about random reviewers' opinions?
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Best year if you like games that are pretty much identical to eachother
You are wrong and here is why.
Because, the reviewers are employees of MMORPG.com. As such, what they write and how they write it influences the revenue generated by the site. If they had hard nosed writers that wrote games down, it would drive advertisers and their advertising money away.
Just ask gamespot what happens to revenue when you have a writer that writes down a game about to release.
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
Hasn't been an MMO better than an 8 at launch in the past 5 years, no reason for any of the games on this list to have such scores.
Grade inflation is everywhere, and not just on this site. Look at the reviews that rate games in 9+ category.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
It's still the reviewers job to word the information and pass it on to his readers. I agree with what you say but you still have a certain vibe you want to give out. If you give 8.0 to every single games then how are your readers suppose to know when a really good game comes out?
Look at Rottentomato.com, it's a site that seems to just hate every movies in the world. I mean, seriously, some of my favorit movies have awfull ratings on that site. However, when you suddenly see a 90% positive rating, it's often a really good movie. In the sense of cinema though, perhaps not in my tastes but still.
Politics aside, expecting consistency from a host of reviewers may be a bit unrealistic. Many of the games listed are niche offerings and as such their scores should be viewed with some skepticism right off the bat. Editorial policy should demand greater consistency from scores in profesional reviews however, and those which the players can influence on each games miniportal really need a tweak so hyped fans dont have as much influence.
Regardless i thank you for bringing this up. Yes, this is something of an issue, but a reviews true value is to be found on the written text, not on scores or headlines which might be paying lip service to game developers.
Just to make things clear...
I speak for myself and no one else, unless i state otherwise mine is just an opinion. A fact is something that can be independently verified, you may challenge such but with proof. You have every right to disagree with me through sound argument, i believe in constructive debate, but baseless aggression will warrant an unkind response.
Man, you guys take this number way too seriously.
It's just a pointless number to me.
Nah best year of MMOs was the stretch of time where UO AC and EQ got released.
I think a lot of what folks here have said is true, but add that game dev's know how to play the reviews as well, or what reviewers are looking at and make sure thier games pass those marks even if thier are mack truck size holes in other areas.
"Nah best year of MMOs was the stretch of time where UO AC and EQ got released."
While I agree, its also true graphical MMO's were still new and shiny. We didn't know what to expect ie see EQ's epic horror of a death penalty and corpse runs deep in nasty dungeons, which would never fly in this day and age.
1999 was the best year of MMO's IMO.
AC1, EQ, both on the heels of the awesomeness that was UO.
The MMO world has been downhill ever since, again IMO.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
the best year of MMO´s has yet to come, in 2010, when SW:TOR will solo-capture the title for best year of MMO's !
:P
Don't want to start that whole debate, again, on these forums but I will say I would kill for a new MMO that had a severe death penalty.
All I have to say to this is : HA!
This site knows how to grade mmorpgs like I know how to grade a physics test, I hope they're at least getting paid for that.
edit: This year was even worse than 2008, MMORPG genre is in worst state ever.
World of Warcraft is a proof that MMORPG quality should affect schedule/budget and not the other way around.
Guild Wars is not a MMO.
Why wasnt Diablo on this list?
You people shouldn't give too much credit to the score anyway.
The reality is this is what happened. A random person like you and me applied to become a reviewer for a game on this site. The random person submit his review, MMORPG.com receive it, pays the reviewer some money, post the review. That's it.
The reviewer is just a random person like you and me who visist this websites. That's it.
The site has become more popular, and is generating more and more revenue over the years from advertisements as such. Could there be a correlation?
Thats one theory. Not necessarily mine by the way. It could also just be that the weight of a score has changed based on the community. Let me explain. How many gamers on MMORPG.com actually rate a game anything other than a 10 or less than 5? Far fewer than appropriate. Most people, if they like the game, will give it 10 to inflate the score. And those who don't like it find it satisfying to rate it a 1 or something else ridiculously low. The actually reviewers are perhaps trying to scale the weights of their rating system parallel to the general communty's.
I wonder how the scores of games by the community would change if they disincluded all ratings at 10 and 1? If they did this without telling anyone (so people couldn't just start doing 9.9's and 1.1's) I think we would have some pretty interesting - and more accurate - scores on the games here at MMORPG.com.
MMORPG.COM reviews are a joke.
They obviously get all their money from adds, if MMORPG.COM gives a bad review, would you want an add for your game next to it?????????
OF COURSE NOT, it would be money wasted.
That's why they don't have any honest reviews.
I agree with you (as well as most others who have responded).
Am I on a crusade because of the numbers awarded to the given MMOs in the table above?
Nope.
I just thought it worth-while to show for all to see how the scores have stacked up over the years. If the staff/admin here at mmorpg.com is fine with 2009 being the best year for MMOs EVER (going by the top 5 scores given)... that's great.
I don't think the caliber of MMOs released this year deserves that distinction, but it's not my site.
I just hope that 3-5 years from now we aren't seeing averages of 9.5+ given to "ordinary" MMOs. If the trend keeps up soon they'll have to raise the top score beyond 10.
I've stopped reading reviews these past few years. They've become more and more inaccurate. They all seem to want to give games raving reviews and never really take enough time to play the game to really know the games. It's hard to find reviewers that can list good, bad, and ugly in a fair way.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
That is part of the point.
In most years there are either no MMOs, or a single 1 or 2 that is in the 8+ range.
2009 is the first year to have 5 MMOs reviewed (new, original reviews) that received an 8 or higher, and we still have a couple months to go before the year is over. There could very well be another 2 or 3 in the 8+ range.
So, that is what I am trying to find out. Is the staff/admin and reviewers alone in the thought process that 2009 is the best year ever? I'm not seeing a lot of support for the inflated scores, and I'm not really holding out hope to hear any kind of "official" response.
I will be happy with the knowledge that at least I have made some aware that there is definitely a trend on this site (as well as others) to award higher scores on average when compared to scores given in the past.
Perhaps with that knowledge there might be a re-awakening for reviewers to be a bit more discerning for future reviews. Surely the reviewers and staff/admin here must realize that the average scores cannot keep increasing?
And you can make a difference. Click on the link above which says "Get involved! become a reviewer, correspondent, or moderator!". And you can become a reviewer!
I'd say the reviews have gotten MORE professional over the years when compared to other review sites.
Seriously, giving WoW a 8.1? Vanilla WoW's average score on metacritic is 93 with a lot of reviewers giving it a perfect 100. The 8.1 seems just out of place. At the time WoW at least deserved more. Then that same reviewer goes and gives EVE Online a 8.3 which at the time it was released had a serious number of flaws and generally received pretty average (70s and lower) scores on review sites. EVE might have appealed to the reviewer more, but reviewers should try their best to take unbiased approaches.
Then again the scores recently do seem rather high. I've never even heard of Freaky Creatures and Pixie Hollow and I don't see how if they were games truely deserving such a high rating I wouldn't have heard (considering I play or at least follow indie games that receive critical praise). Free Realms definitely doesn't deserve 8.3, it's a buggy game with in my opinion no minigames that have lasting appeal. I don't see how it can possibly be almost a point over Puzzle Pirates.
Warhammer and Aion also probably shouldn't have received such high scores, though they are reasonable enough. The scores don't make much sense compared to the score they gave to WoW though. After all Warhammer is fairly similar to WoW (with a more PvP oriented focus), but is plagued by far more problems than WoW had at release.
I think the scoring has become more liberal if anything. The scores shouldn't be that much higher of other MMOs during their release time. Though scoring will gradually rise because MMOs learn from eachother we still haven't seen a rise in quality like these scores indicate. Interesting point. Perhaps this staff will take a better look at their rating system. Is it just me or do they love the themepark, level based crap:P