MMO's are not dying. They continue to grow as younger generations are accustomed to being connected on just about every possible platform (Tablet, Mobile, PC, MAC, Consoles, etc).
Similarly MMORPGs also are not dying, they are spreading onto other platforms like mobile and tablets where just 5 years ago they did not exist (or barely existed) and are much more accessible to individuals who couldn't play on other platforms. The only difference is that there are so many options now, so many games to choose from, so many payment options, that getting the same populations on one platform as WOW is EXTREMELY difficult.
None of that should matter though as long as a low populations don't subtract from the intended experience and the product is no longer profitable. I've always said that to me, it doesn't matter if the game has 50,000 subs or 5 million, as long as I'm having fun and the content continues to evolve.
Now your idea of what an MMO or MMORPG should be may be dying (or has been dead), but that doesn't necessarily speak to everyone else's opinion.
And what we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is a generation of burnt out gamers who refuse that they are indeed A) burnt out, not the center of the mmo universe anymore and C) far too invested in the 'good old days' to see anything beyond their nose.
Not all games have to appeal to you. That doesn't make them "trash" or "garbage." It makes it "not your cuppa tea." Unsuccessful games die. Period. Gaming companies aren't running a charity. A game that might be turning a profit could potentially die to make room for another cash cow, but there is no circumstance where a game that is a financial black hole would keep running for years on end.
Doesn't matter if it had to drop a subscription. Or merge servers (100% retention rate is a fantasy anyway). It's still running? Proclaiming it a failure is either intellectually dishonest, or hilariously subjective opinion.
I love how at first every 'new' thing was derided as being buzzwords and now here we are, years later where if games aren't sufficiently "innovative" (with absolutely no clue, hint or idea what that actually means) they are automatically "bad." Because. Something. Apparently.
"Sick of the gear treadmill of WoW!" Some cry. And yet when there are MMOs that do away with it entirely we get "There's no progression!" How ironic that EQ2, a game that actually has a fair amount of customization and end game progression via AAs and lauded for it is described in the OP as non existent.
"Don't want quest hubs!" And GW2 had to implement the Renown Hearts cause beta testers couldn't figure out what to do. And now we are at "Even bigger theme park than WoW" and "quest hub system." Can't win. Wildstar? Quest hub system. Any cries of WoW clone on that from the previous detractors of GW2? Bueler?
TESO that tries to emulate Skyrim in it's questing is a WoW clone and not a Skyrim clone though! You know, because people don't like the idea and Skyrim clone is too much of a compliment.
"Full targeting!" Cause the action combat that plain didn't exist in MMOs before (how's that for no innovation?) isn't good enough unless you have to manually aim everything. Except not if you suffer lag or latency. Or one of those complainers that don't like the "twitch based" gaming.
TL;DR The point is, either find something you enjoy. Design something you would enjoy. Build something you would enjoy. Or don't play. Stop puking subjective standards and vote with your wallet. Stop insulting others who don't enjoy the same things you do. Stop insulting the developers who break their backs in crunch time building these games. Stop insulting the people are are actually putting their money where their mouth is.
You're burnt out. Everything looks the same after a few decades no matter what it is. Deal with it.
Well said. Lets let this nonsense die. Until next weeks thread regarding the same thing.
My guess you will see more games like Star Citizen, Destiny and The Division where they aren't actually mmos but borrow some mmo elements to them. MMO sites will use these games to call them mmos because mmos need star power to push the genre forward.
MMOs not dying... but quite the opposite MMOs killed a generation of players. Scattered, lost, broken, unemployed, divorced, friendless (in RL) and old, these folks are just trying to pick up the pieces and live a normal life.
Sometime in the future, though, when a decent, new MMO comes out we all will give up our fruitless efforts at attempting a normal life and return to virtuality; and then who knows? lose our second wife, our new job, our new friend, etc.
MMOs not dying... but quite the opposite MMOs killed a generation of players. Scattered, lost, broken, unemployed, divorced, friendless (in RL) and old, these folks are just trying to pick up the pieces and live a normal life.
Sometime in the future, though, when a decent, new MMO comes out we all will give up our fruitless efforts at attempting a normal life and return to virtuality; and then who knows? lose our second wife, our new job, our new friend, etc.
Wives are a dime a dozen, same with jobs and friends.
From a business standpoint, the MMORPG genre has never been healthier.
If you want to know what the public will respond to, you need to rely on market research, like all the major companies do. Relying on what you personally want in a MMORPG will tell you nothing.
MMOs not dying... but quite the opposite MMOs killed a generation of players. Scattered, lost, broken, unemployed, divorced, friendless (in RL) and old, these folks are just trying to pick up the pieces and live a normal life.
Sometime in the future, though, when a decent, new MMO comes out we all will give up our fruitless efforts at attempting a normal life and return to virtuality; and then who knows? lose our second wife, our new job, our new friend, etc.
Wives are a dime a dozen, same with jobs and friends.
that's why you marry your best friend and start a career not a job
I personally think that the genre is slowly shifting back to the more "mature" crowd (1999-2006).
More "worldly" games are starting to emerge in response to all the WoW-clone hate, e.g., ArcheAge, EverQuest Next, Black Desert, The Repopulation, Pantheon, etc. Even Path of Exile decided to break from the "hold my hand" mold by releasing one of the most advanced character skill systems we've ever seen.
I think WildStar and Elder Scrolls Online will be some of the last major Theme Parks that we'll see for quite some time.
While I'm doubtful, I sure as fucking hell hope so. 11 years of the same old shit is really starting to drive me insane.
Originally posted by simsalabim77 Yep. MMO's are dying. The market has only been showing growth for like the past decade so clearly it's dying. MMO's are dying for a specific type of player i.e. the guys and gals who have been playing these games for 15 years who think it's the developers and games fault that they can't enjoy MMO's anymore.
Well hello Captain Assumption!
I have been playing MMORPG's since 1999 when I started playing EQ1. I've played MANY since then. But, I haven't played one in the past...eh, going on 2 years now. Why?
Because they are all the same themepark cookie cutter game to me. Nothing in them to grab me and keep me playing. However, I have been in a few betas lately and I must say that a couple of them have me eagerly awaitng release...and deciding which one I want to play. I haven't been this excited to play something SINCE EQ1...and that is saying a lot.
I've been playing MMO's since Meridian 59....if you can't find fun in the MMO genre...the problem is you, not the industry.
MMOs are not a genre, that is where your thinking is flawed. Also this topic has been done to death. Fundamentally game makers keep trying to either actively label themselves as an MMO or actively avoid it for the exact same reasons. All of the boons and burdens attached to that moniker...
Yet still, NOT a genre.
I was confused by your reply, if not a genre, then what?
But I did run across this really good explanation of what defines a gaming genre?
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
No, you are wrong. Each of the very first MMOs up to EQ1 could be soloed. NWNO, Meridan 59, The Realm, UO, Asherons Call 1.
The thing killing the genre is ultra hand holding themepark crap MMOs built off the DaoC/WoW model. That is where your jaded and bored MMO players are.
"People who tell you youre awesome are useless. No, dangerous.
They are worse than useless because you want to believe them. They will defend you against critiques that are valid. They will seduce you into believing you are done learning, or into thinking that your work is better than it actually is." ~Raph Koster http://www.raphkoster.com/2013/10/14/on-getting-criticism/
I can understand why the OP might think that the genre is dying but honestly, I don't see that in as much as I see a paradigm shift in what the gaming industry see's, overall, as the money making game engine from the theme park MMORPG to the MOBA and action roleplaying formats.
MMORPG's, like first person shooters,will never truly die. They will develop that same holding pattern that strategy games, platform games, puzzle games, racing games and all of the other types of games have held since the inception of their types. Meanwhile those companies that have always been the masters of the genre, Blizzard, Sony, will either consume or destroy their competition, holding out as the "Big Two" in that Coke and Pepsi fashion while the rest of the industry sits and waits for one of them to do something really innovative again so that they can hop back on board and make some quick cash.
Meanwhile, in the next few years, we are going to see more MOBA's and more action RPG's than any of us will care to see, and honestly, my prediction (if Ghostcrawlers move is any indication) is that it will be that format that will mutate into yet the next type of MMORPG that is going to get spammed at the community.
And worse yet, I will probably play it.
People, including myself, have been making the claim for years that the MMORPG was going to die off, going to eat itself (my prediction), going to fail, but the honest truth is that as long as the human race doesn't die off, eat itself, or fail, there will always be those that are new and inspired to the genre and thus those that the genre can be marketed to.
Think about it this way. With all of the advancements in entertainment that have come since Marconi invented the Radio, we still listen to the radio. Maybe not as a family as it was back in those first days, maybe not even as a rebellion as many of us do when we are young, but we still listen. That shiz is still factory installed in all of our vehicles. We still read books and the newspaper in spite of all of the predictions for those things to fail, still use the mail, still listen to vinyl recordings.
The reason for this is simple. Because each of these things, like the MMORPG, fills a niche in society that when left unfilled creates a void.
And who is going to let a money producing void just sit there? Not anyone on this planet.
Hell, you can still go out and get a CB if you want one bad enough.
I am guessing the OP means MMORPG when he says MMO.
But even in that case all the statistics of the last years seem to show that the market is healthily expanding.
So I am guessing what he really means is "I am not in the target audience of the big MMORPG titles anymore and thus the genre is dying for me personally because I don't want to play niche titles."
I remember the scope of games back in the '90s, before MMOs. Back then, the "action/adventure" title was king. But by the 2000s, the action/adventure formula was just...tired. The publishers would just churn out overworked sequel after overworked sequel which we'd pay $50, play for a weekend, solve it, and run off to buy the next overworked sequel.
Is it any wonder, then, that MMOs took off like wildfire in the early 2000s? It offered something fresh and new; it was something that was a good value. You got more game for your dollar than you did from the console faire. It was something far more convenient than paying $50 for a weekend. Production values were just better in MMOs than in other games. Replayability was just better. Value was just better.
That has all changed in the 2010s. These days, the MMOs are the ones that are expensive and low quality; the single-player and lobby multiplayer stuff coming out on consoles and via Steam for the PC are just waaaaayyy better, more innovative, more convenient and less costly than the comparable stuff coming from the MMO publishers. And the apps and Facebook games are way less expensive and more convenient than the comparable stuff coming out of the MMO publishers. These days, production values are just horrible in the MMOs, dollar for dollar. Replayability is just horrible in MMOs, dollar for dollar. And the whole atmosphere in the MMOs these days has all the fashionable appeal of a cheap slot machine on the outskirts of Reno, Nevada: exploitive, transparent, and without any redeeming value. That's what it did when it went F2P: it became a bottom feeder for the vice-addled, one step above online poker in terms of its legitimacy.
And so, is it any wonder why we've had this slow decline? MMOs are just too expensive and don't give us much value, compared to all the stuff from action/adventure, sports, strategy, shooters and apps these days.
So to all you people out here who still thinks this genre has promise, in what ways is this genre still promising? We can get better housing elsewhere. We can get better cinematics in other game genres. We can get better value elsewhere. We can get better multiplayer elsewhere. We can get better action elsewhere. We can get bigger worlds elsewhere. We can get deeper roleplay elsewhere. We can get better PvP elsewhere. We can get better building elsewhere. So why, again, does this genre of massive multiplayer still have mojo?
__________________________ "Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it." --Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints." --Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls." --Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
I remember the scope of games back in the '90s, before MMOs. Back then, the "action/adventure" title was king. But by the 2000s, the action/adventure formula was just...tired. The publishers would just churn out overworked sequel after overworked sequel which we'd pay $50, play for a weekend, solve it, and run off to buy the next overworked sequel.
Is it any wonder, then, that MMOs took off like wildfire in the early 2000s? It offered something fresh and new; it was something that was a good value. You got more game for your dollar than you did from the console faire. It was something far more convenient than paying $50 for a weekend. Production values were just better in MMOs than in other games. Replayability was just better. Value was just better.
That has all changed in 2010. These days, the MMOs are the ones that are expensive and low quality; the single-player and lobby multiplayer stuff coming out on consoles and via Steam for the PC are just waaaaayyy better, more innovative, more convenient and less costly than the comparable stuff coming from the MMO publishers. And the apps and Facebook games are way less expensive and more convenient than the comparable stuff coming out of the MMO publishers. These days, production values are just horrible in the MMOs, dollar for dollar. Replayability is just horrible in MMOs, dollar for dollar. And the whole atmosphere in the MMOs these days has all the fashionable appeal of a cheap slot machine on the outskirts of Reno, Nevada: exploitive, transparent, and without any redeeming value. That's what it did when it went F2P: it became a bottom feeder for the vice-addled, one step above online poker in terms of its legitimacy.
And so, is it any wonder why we've had this slow decline? MMOs are just too expensive and don't give us much value, compared to all the stuff from action/adventure, sports, strategy, shooters and apps these days.
So to all you people out here who still thinks this genre has promise, in what ways is this genre still promising? We can get better housing elsewhere. We can get better cinematics in other game genres. We can get better value elsewhere. We can get better multiplayer elsewhere. We can get better action elsewhere. We can get bigger worlds elsewhere. We can get deeper roleplay elsewhere. We can get better PvP elsewhere. We can get better building elsewhere. So why, again, does this genre of massive multiplayer still have mojo?
This chart is the one from MMOData.Net, ya? The information from there is getting increasingly hard to get so he's shutting down.
v4.1 will be the final version of MMOData.net, and MMOData.net will close down on June 2014. That's right I am closing shop.
The biggest reason is that it is getting increasingly difficult to get any useful numbers. Also many of the subscription based MMORPG's went free to play, and their companies tend to not give out useful active accounts numbers.
So I would take his numbers with a grain of salt, especially since the MMO space is making more money year over year, not less.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
So I would take his numbers with a grain of salt, especially since the MMO space is making more money year over year, not less.
More money with less people; in other words, this is now a mature market that has to squeeze ever more dollars out of ever fewer customers.
The easy growth is over. Indeed, we've seen the effects: ever more dollars required to get ever less satisfaction. In the meantime, other genres not wedded to this massive format are more agile and can give better value to the consumer. That's what I've seen.
__________________________ "Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it." --Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints." --Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls." --Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
Humans always have been bad at accepting that they are not the center of the universe.
People who used to be THE target audience are now in a side niche. This can be hard to accept, thus "the genre is dying". Reduction of cognitive dissonance feels good.
MMOs will merge with other genres, exactly like RPGs have. RPG elements are in seemingly every modern game and most get tagged as in being in that genre, regardless of whether they are borrowing assets or are a pure RPG. Leveling systems for example are now standard in nearly every other genre and used as a tool to keep the player playing. It's only a matter of time till a developer decides to combine A with B.
The biggest trait of MMOs (at least in my view) is the social aspect and that never really was exclusive to the genre. Games are simply more enjoyable when played with others, be it split-screen in a shooter with your buddies or raiding the latest dungeon with your guild. In terms of persistent worlds, it really is only a matter of time till developers realize this as the ultimate tool for getting players to disregard Always Online DRM. However, it's costs to build and maintain are a big deterrent and rightfully so. Maybe ESO is actually Bethesada's experiment with the concept to try and find a reasonable way of doing Co-Op; or the Megaserver technology will be used in ES 6 to allow people to play together.
Comments
MMO's are not dying. They continue to grow as younger generations are accustomed to being connected on just about every possible platform (Tablet, Mobile, PC, MAC, Consoles, etc).
Similarly MMORPGs also are not dying, they are spreading onto other platforms like mobile and tablets where just 5 years ago they did not exist (or barely existed) and are much more accessible to individuals who couldn't play on other platforms. The only difference is that there are so many options now, so many games to choose from, so many payment options, that getting the same populations on one platform as WOW is EXTREMELY difficult.
None of that should matter though as long as a low populations don't subtract from the intended experience and the product is no longer profitable. I've always said that to me, it doesn't matter if the game has 50,000 subs or 5 million, as long as I'm having fun and the content continues to evolve.
Now your idea of what an MMO or MMORPG should be may be dying (or has been dead), but that doesn't necessarily speak to everyone else's opinion.
There Is Always Hope!
Well said. Lets let this nonsense die. Until next weeks thread regarding the same thing.
Actually, in the small print WoW and SWToR are "primarily subscription driven" which means that number is not even half of what SWToR is making.
..and I don't even think that includes the monthly fees from people that choose to sub.
besides that...in response to the OP...
EVERYTHING IS ON IT'S WAY TO DYING.
In that case, i would venture to say that TOR probably has recoup the initial investment, and is making a pretty bundle now.
So much for the fantasy that it is a financial failure.
Heck, i don't like the game, and i don't play it .. but you can't deny success.
MMOs not dying... but quite the opposite MMOs killed a generation of players. Scattered, lost, broken, unemployed, divorced, friendless (in RL) and old, these folks are just trying to pick up the pieces and live a normal life.
Sometime in the future, though, when a decent, new MMO comes out we all will give up our fruitless efforts at attempting a normal life and return to virtuality; and then who knows? lose our second wife, our new job, our new friend, etc.
Wives are a dime a dozen, same with jobs and friends.
From a business standpoint, the MMORPG genre has never been healthier.
If you want to know what the public will respond to, you need to rely on market research, like all the major companies do. Relying on what you personally want in a MMORPG will tell you nothing.
that's why you marry your best friend and start a career not a job
Main Game: Eldevin (Plat0nic)
2nd Game: Path of Exile (Platonic Hate)
While I'm doubtful, I sure as fucking hell hope so. 11 years of the same old shit is really starting to drive me insane.
I've been playing MMO's since Meridian 59....if you can't find fun in the MMO genre...the problem is you, not the industry.
I was confused by your reply, if not a genre, then what?
But I did run across this really good explanation of what defines a gaming genre?
http://www.examiner.com/article/video-game-genres-a-list-and-the-definition
Still not sure what classification MMO's are vs other gaming types.
"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
Oh look, this topic again.
No, you are wrong. Each of the very first MMOs up to EQ1 could be soloed. NWNO, Meridan 59, The Realm, UO, Asherons Call 1.
The thing killing the genre is ultra hand holding themepark crap MMOs built off the DaoC/WoW model. That is where your jaded and bored MMO players are.
"People who tell you youre awesome are useless. No, dangerous.
They are worse than useless because you want to believe them. They will defend you against critiques that are valid. They will seduce you into believing you are done learning, or into thinking that your work is better than it actually is." ~Raph Koster
http://www.raphkoster.com/2013/10/14/on-getting-criticism/
I can understand why the OP might think that the genre is dying but honestly, I don't see that in as much as I see a paradigm shift in what the gaming industry see's, overall, as the money making game engine from the theme park MMORPG to the MOBA and action roleplaying formats.
MMORPG's, like first person shooters,will never truly die. They will develop that same holding pattern that strategy games, platform games, puzzle games, racing games and all of the other types of games have held since the inception of their types. Meanwhile those companies that have always been the masters of the genre, Blizzard, Sony, will either consume or destroy their competition, holding out as the "Big Two" in that Coke and Pepsi fashion while the rest of the industry sits and waits for one of them to do something really innovative again so that they can hop back on board and make some quick cash.
Meanwhile, in the next few years, we are going to see more MOBA's and more action RPG's than any of us will care to see, and honestly, my prediction (if Ghostcrawlers move is any indication) is that it will be that format that will mutate into yet the next type of MMORPG that is going to get spammed at the community.
And worse yet, I will probably play it.
People, including myself, have been making the claim for years that the MMORPG was going to die off, going to eat itself (my prediction), going to fail, but the honest truth is that as long as the human race doesn't die off, eat itself, or fail, there will always be those that are new and inspired to the genre and thus those that the genre can be marketed to.
Think about it this way. With all of the advancements in entertainment that have come since Marconi invented the Radio, we still listen to the radio. Maybe not as a family as it was back in those first days, maybe not even as a rebellion as many of us do when we are young, but we still listen. That shiz is still factory installed in all of our vehicles. We still read books and the newspaper in spite of all of the predictions for those things to fail, still use the mail, still listen to vinyl recordings.
The reason for this is simple. Because each of these things, like the MMORPG, fills a niche in society that when left unfilled creates a void.
And who is going to let a money producing void just sit there? Not anyone on this planet.
Hell, you can still go out and get a CB if you want one bad enough.
I am guessing the OP means MMORPG when he says MMO.
But even in that case all the statistics of the last years seem to show that the market is healthily expanding.
So I am guessing what he really means is "I am not in the target audience of the big MMORPG titles anymore and thus the genre is dying for me personally because I don't want to play niche titles."
The total aggregate number of customers in this industry peaked in 2011. It has been in decline ever since:
http://users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/TotalSubs.png
I remember the scope of games back in the '90s, before MMOs. Back then, the "action/adventure" title was king. But by the 2000s, the action/adventure formula was just...tired. The publishers would just churn out overworked sequel after overworked sequel which we'd pay $50, play for a weekend, solve it, and run off to buy the next overworked sequel.
Is it any wonder, then, that MMOs took off like wildfire in the early 2000s? It offered something fresh and new; it was something that was a good value. You got more game for your dollar than you did from the console faire. It was something far more convenient than paying $50 for a weekend. Production values were just better in MMOs than in other games. Replayability was just better. Value was just better.
That has all changed in the 2010s. These days, the MMOs are the ones that are expensive and low quality; the single-player and lobby multiplayer stuff coming out on consoles and via Steam for the PC are just waaaaayyy better, more innovative, more convenient and less costly than the comparable stuff coming from the MMO publishers. And the apps and Facebook games are way less expensive and more convenient than the comparable stuff coming out of the MMO publishers. These days, production values are just horrible in the MMOs, dollar for dollar. Replayability is just horrible in MMOs, dollar for dollar. And the whole atmosphere in the MMOs these days has all the fashionable appeal of a cheap slot machine on the outskirts of Reno, Nevada: exploitive, transparent, and without any redeeming value. That's what it did when it went F2P: it became a bottom feeder for the vice-addled, one step above online poker in terms of its legitimacy.
And so, is it any wonder why we've had this slow decline? MMOs are just too expensive and don't give us much value, compared to all the stuff from action/adventure, sports, strategy, shooters and apps these days.
So to all you people out here who still thinks this genre has promise, in what ways is this genre still promising? We can get better housing elsewhere. We can get better cinematics in other game genres. We can get better value elsewhere. We can get better multiplayer elsewhere. We can get better action elsewhere. We can get bigger worlds elsewhere. We can get deeper roleplay elsewhere. We can get better PvP elsewhere. We can get better building elsewhere. So why, again, does this genre of massive multiplayer still have mojo?
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
This chart is the one from MMOData.Net, ya? The information from there is getting increasingly hard to get so he's shutting down.
v4.1 will be the final version of MMOData.net, and MMOData.net will close down on June 2014.
That's right I am closing shop.
The biggest reason is that it is getting increasingly difficult to get any useful numbers. Also many of the subscription based MMORPG's went free to play, and their companies tend to not give out useful active accounts numbers.
So I would take his numbers with a grain of salt, especially since the MMO space is making more money year over year, not less.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
More money with less people; in other words, this is now a mature market that has to squeeze ever more dollars out of ever fewer customers.
The easy growth is over. Indeed, we've seen the effects: ever more dollars required to get ever less satisfaction. In the meantime, other genres not wedded to this massive format are more agile and can give better value to the consumer. That's what I've seen.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
Humans always have been bad at accepting that they are not the center of the universe.
People who used to be THE target audience are now in a side niche. This can be hard to accept, thus "the genre is dying". Reduction of cognitive dissonance feels good.
Herald of innovation, Vanquisher of the old! - Awake a few hours almost everyday!
Those are usually the one left behind by progress.
MMOs will merge with other genres, exactly like RPGs have. RPG elements are in seemingly every modern game and most get tagged as in being in that genre, regardless of whether they are borrowing assets or are a pure RPG. Leveling systems for example are now standard in nearly every other genre and used as a tool to keep the player playing. It's only a matter of time till a developer decides to combine A with B.
The biggest trait of MMOs (at least in my view) is the social aspect and that never really was exclusive to the genre. Games are simply more enjoyable when played with others, be it split-screen in a shooter with your buddies or raiding the latest dungeon with your guild. In terms of persistent worlds, it really is only a matter of time till developers realize this as the ultimate tool for getting players to disregard Always Online DRM. However, it's costs to build and maintain are a big deterrent and rightfully so. Maybe ESO is actually Bethesada's experiment with the concept to try and find a reasonable way of doing Co-Op; or the Megaserver technology will be used in ES 6 to allow people to play together.