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The current state of mmorpgs.
Deathbynoob
Member Posts: 30
Dear MMOrpg community,
I would like to share with you my personal thoughts.
I think it is quite obvious that there is a growing concern regarding the current state of mmorpgs including the direction they seem to be heading at. Free to play models, casually friendly catering are some examples that may appear to be positive aspects of the new age but underneath the skin there is a lot of dirt to cover. The issue is not what is considered to be the norm or the "mmorpg" entry but rather something else. To simply put it, the gaming genre is undergoing a gaming recession
From the king itself; World of Warcraft to niche games such as Aion, mmorpgs have got one thing in common; suffering from the same virus. The mmorpg industry is facing its biggest challenge so far under the name of Great Exodus; and that is the worst enemy for any online game; the situation of having a low, semi-active player base or active players which are eager to move to the new overhyped title after a couple of months of "nothing-else-to-play" attitude. That is detrimental to the scene which lead other genres such as First Person Shooters to dominate completely in 2012. By definition an MMO is a massively multiplayer online game and it appears that games over the years are not able to stand up to that definition and provide an active, constant, enduring environment.
Why though is every single MMOrpg out there bleeding from subscribers and active players? That is the question every company within the scene should be asking it self. Is there something to give us an answer? We can start by taking a closer view into the deep core issues of most recent MMOrpgs out there as well as the ones openly stating to be WoW-killers or even setting up new and unexplored standards that would redefine the online RPG experience as we know it.
Guild Wars 2 - Started off big, dreamed big and even introduced the idea of Esports for a while. Latest news incite that its player base is grinding to its teeth to remain loyal to the title. The general consensus in game and in forums is that the reason for having a player base is due to its PvE which the starchild of the company in terms of investment and attention. Its PvP is stagnant, linear and uninteresting. From world vs world to structured PvP Guild Wars 2 has paid the price and already a large amount of its Guild Wars 1 veterans have left the game permanently. Even its acclaimed professional players are starting to take the exit route with the latest being a player called Helseth; https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/pvp/pvp/Helseth-s-Rant-of-the-Week-PVP-Development
A game bound to dye out in the next few years.
World of Warcraft - There is nothing to say about the King of all mmorpgs. It was the game that showed the gaming community that they should pay more attention to mmorpgs and not wipe them out completely from the map of online multiplayer experience. Despite its ups and downs in which the latest figures pinpoint a significant drop of subscribers, it is still (?!) the number one game when it comes to having the most subscriptions. A game being at the top even though it has existed for almost ten years.
Therefore, the decline of its subscribers is natural. Blizzard have already announced their newest project called Titan in which some information mixed with some critical review of this genre can be watched in here; here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VagkCjerzg
Star Wars: The old Republic - Most of the sci-fi community of mmorpgers had put their faith in this franchise. Unfortunately figures suggest that talking about this game opens up old wounds and in some ways it has become beating up a dead horse regardless of efforts to revive it. The hype and patience for this game have long gone.
Tera Online - This article perfectly pitches what is wrong with this title and there is nothing else to add to my view; Why one gamer won't be playing Tera?, http://www.gamebreaker.tv/mmorpg/tera-fic-or-tera-ble/
EverQuest Next - Negative clouds have already gathered for this game. Some speculate that it will get washed away to the shore, the same fashion Guild Wars 2 will be. A mix and match of Guild Wars 2 and Minecraft gameplay makes one wonder. Where is pride and originally that EQ series would always be greatly remembered as? For an comprehensive insight feel free to have a read over here http://hypercriticism.net/2013/eq-next-first-impressions/
The Elder Scrolls Online - If Russian roulette couple be applied to a game, this would be it. A famously single player campaign game makes its debut to the online world. Everything about it can be souped up by mere speculations and whether it will stand tall or fall short still remains a question unanswered. One thing is for sure; footage so far is by no means something to be excited about.
Neverwinter Night - It has got one of the most boring gameplay. Everything about it seems unfinished and downplayed.
Wildstar - The real deal. The anticipation for this game is electrifying and I believe it is for one reason and one reason alone; gamers are ready to leave the era of WoW-generation behind them and move on wards. But is it a WoW clone? This video answers that question which is really a very compelling collection of arguments for that game as well as explaining what exactly is a wow-clone; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6oVX4jPkSY
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn - Do not even bother. It is one of those games where its hardcore base has given up dreaming of having a decent representative title of the mmorpg industry. The material that was publicly showed failed to deliver once again and it seems history will repeat it self but like Martin Luther King, we still have got a dream. Just do not dream about it now.
Star Citizen - Angry Joe serves justice for this game and with a good cause; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlfZi1eq_88 Will it be the ultimate space combat experience? Here are a couple of reasons trying to tackle that question; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06Un1pEr5tA
Lineage Eternal - "What Diablo III should have been". Need I say more? Didn't think so as well.
Blade and Soul - If there is ever a time for niche games which are either catered for the mature gaming audience or Asian Market to blossom globally, this game is aiming to do that. The most anticipated mmorpg for hardcore PvPers and you can expect a large influx of players from GW2, Aion, EQ as well as others to join in when the time finally comes.
To sum it all up, even though there is still some light for this genre next year I am still extremely skeptical and disappointed. Taken into consideration the vast majority of mmorpgs which I have not mentioned it is not a surprise that there is definitely something wrong, something fundamentally wrong with the environment of MMOrpgs. This industry needs to get back at its feet and stop trying to find cheap solutions and subpar inventions to create hype that doesn't last. More substance and less youhaveneverseenthis bull.
Thanks in advance.
Comments
Not smaller, just more diverse.
wow .. wall of text. Plus, it is totally off the mark. The MMO market is actually growing in revenue.
http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/107218/video-game-retail-sales-decline-digital-up-in-july
This is JULY data.
"Free-to-play subscriber base slightly declined to 45.8 million from 46 million in June. Average revenue per user (“ARPU”) was approximately $40 much higher than $27 reported in June."
"Subscription based MMO revenues declined 9.0% on a monthly basis to $76.0 million. Subscriber base declined to 5.8 million from 6.3 million in June. This was much anticipated due to the loss of 600K subscribers for Activision’s World of Warcrafts (WoW) in the recently concluded quarter."
If you do the math, f2p goes from 46*27M = $1.24B to 45.8*40 = $18.3B. Sub-only MMO lost a bit (9%) to $76M. In total the market grew a lot (devs probably figure out how to get more whales, or get the existing whales to pay more).
Not to be a jerk, and i actually don't entirely disagree, but you're saying whats been said 1000x already only with way worse spelling/grammar/syntax. If you expect someone to read that much text, consider proof reading it before you post it. Its hard to take this seriously when you say dye instead of die.
I think you missed the point of his post. He isn't talking about the amount of money that the MMORPG genre is making he is talking about the quality or the lack of quality in the MMOs being put out these days.
I love how people harp on people's use of grammar on the internet. You can see he/she was trying it isn't like he/she was doing this "Howe cum dose gies no make gud mmo no mo."
You know what this guy/gal meant when he said dye instead of die, stop being an asshole.
The genre has become more popular, which is never a good thing when it comes to quality or innovation. It holds them back from progressing forward because if they change too much they risk losing, if they keep stamping out the same old mold they at least will retain some sort of crowd to eventually break even.
I do apologize for the errors.
When I wrote it I was exhausted. I tried to edit it and make it readable as much as possible. I hope I did a better job this time.
Anyhow, I am off to bed since I can barely type.
http://massauthority.blogspot.co.uk/
+1 +1 +1 +1 +1
I can't read posts that poorly constructed anymore.
I hate them enough that it makes me want to take the polar opposite position just out of spite.
It is a general rule that we rarely get any solid info on how many subscribers a subscription-based MMOrpg has or the amount of active players for free-to-play models which are becoming thus far the driving force of this genre. In general, I would have liked more transparency from this information posted.
Also I never talked about revenue.
What I was trying to state is that we have got a situation where;
World of Warcraft - still being the number one subscription-based MMOrpg in the traditional sense after ten years. This is insane, it is plainly stupid no matter which way you look at it.
Star Citizen - https://robertsspaceindustries.com/funding-goals That is outstanding considering it was rejected by major publishers. A project funded by fans has reached funding of $17 million.
Minecraft - Estimated 10 million active players. For what it is worth I still do not understand why a game like that is successful as it it (graphics, combat system) but it has send a very strong message.
I am not comparing how MMOs were in the past with now nor do I not applaud the diversity but from what I have gathered thus far it is that overall, numbers of active players and subscriptions from quicker than expected. It just seems to me that when the hype goes dry (which is a couple of months) each mmorpgs' player base goes down the hill.
2014 appears to be indeed more promising and I do expect a better overall performance by this market.
http://massauthority.blogspot.co.uk/
I should have clarified more. Not necessarily leaving the genre per se, since evidence so far suggests that the genre is become more and more popular, but rather being in a place where it has become a trend or it is quite common for a large influx of players (we are talking about big numbers according to the overall number of players playing that game) to leave a specific current title for something else within a couple of months (minimum three and maximum six).
And you are straight on point with your other statement. It is just hard for me to understand what exactly is so wrong with mmorpgs these days that it is exceptionally difficult for them to capture a loyal player base for years. However with my limited knowledge [not limited with experience], incentive is the biggest issue right now. Newest mmorpg titles suggest that within again a couple of months most players complete most of the content and then they are forced to sit and wait to get "fixed" with one big hit; aka expansion.
http://massauthority.blogspot.co.uk/
ITT:
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
May be you should. Money is what driving the market.
I don't think "player base" drying up is either accurate nor important. Many F2P titles gained back a big healthy pop. Even TOR rebounded because of F2P.
Secondly, so what if some games have dwindling pop. There are so many of them. The market is big and at least for me, there is always something fun to play.
Isn't that simple?
Consumers prefer not to be loyal to any one game. There is a notion called "variety seeking" in marketing. People like new stuff. Why should i be "loyal" to one game, when i can experience 10?
Personally i game hop and i welcome this new development. I don't plan to be loyal to any game (or any entertainment) and will consume as many different one as i have time for. It is more fun for me.
Deathbynoob casts "Cloud of Bad Excuses"
Saving throw d20 = 2
:-(
lol. Ouch. Dice gods are not in your favor, sir!
First point to address is the size of the market. We've an overall increase in revenue as well as new technology being introduced. Not every game follows the WoW model as they did around 2007; games are taking a chance with new ways of playing. See Neverwinter and Guild Wars 2.
Secondly, the market is more diffuse. There are more games out now, and in coordination with the growth of the f2p business model, more money is flooding into the genre and because of that it's increasingly attractive to developers.
The source of the genre's woes is not easily defined. However, I can say most MMOs I've tried have been bad games. Either lacking clean systems to interact with, poorly named classes, clunky systems, or rocky launches contribute to my personal discarding of games. If a game is lacking content, that's fine for a while. However, if fundamental systems cause me any frustration, I discard the game. On the player's side, it seems our expecations put developers in a catch-22. Games are labelled as derivative, but then those familiar with a WoW-style game eschew the game when it doesn't reach their expectations.
I wish i could copy/paste this and send it to every investor/CEO/Game developer and just say "See! This is the audience your making games for. The ones that dont give a shit about product loyalty and will leave at the drop of a hat."
Wanna know why the MMO genre is in the proverbial crapper? There is your majority of modern day MMOers right there.
I don't think Aion would considered a niche game, because it is successful in eastern market. There is no western MMORPG currently besides WoW that makes more money than Aion(And AIon is not even the most successful game of NCSoft, it is Lineage 1, while AIon makes $5-6 million USD a month, L1 makes $25-30 mi USD a month).
I highly doubt devs don't know about this.
In fact, the evolution of MMOs is precisely a response to all this. And "crapper" is only your point of view. I don't see a problem. I am too busy enjoying gaming.