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I see a lot of threads on various gaming forums all exclaiming that MMOs are dying and they use the examples of the recent fail MMO releases of ESO, Wildstar and Archeage to back up their argument. They usually site that these games failed because people just aren't interested in MMOs anymore. But having played each one of these games at launch and spending god knows how much time in que just to play these games near release I'd totally disagree that there is a lack of interest. I mean even WoW a 10 year old game had an unexpected sub bump with their recent release of their new expansion. I remember the devs at Blizzard citing the launch issues that had were due to a huge influx of players that they really didn't account for since interest in the game has been waning the last few years. I think a lot of players flocked backed to WoW because the marketing for the new expansion kind teased a return to the former glory days of BC as well as a lack of new MMO that was actually decent.
So my question is do you think the MMO genre is dying or is it just a sheer lack of innovation that has permeated the market that has made it seem like there is no hope for this genre?
I personally think gamer's are really starved for a new quality MMO and most of the crap we got the last few years has really not been able to deliver.
Comments
Yes and No. There is no right answer because it is different for everyone on a personal level on what is fun for you. For myself, I would say there are no games out this minute that I enjoy playing in this genre. The last game I had fun playing and felt engaged in the world for a good period of time was Darkfall Unholywars. Now this game had many problems and was nowhere near perfect or even great, but they did some things well enough to make me want to log on for about 6 months. I was not a fan of the original game one bit, I liked the idea of it but tried it way too late in the development to get started. Starting off at the same time as everyone else though was great fun in DFUW.
Actually it wasn't even the game I was logging on for, as much as it was my clan mates and the "group content" feeling that the game had. I think that is missing for me in most of the AAA games that have come out the last few years. There is nothing in a PvE game for me anymore, I do not really feel any sense of accomplishment if I run the same instance 200 times to get a purple gear or down a world boss and get a orange sword. I long for PvP and all it brings to the game in itself that PvE could never try to imitate.
I myself like more to a game than fighting brain dead npc mobs and the bland fetch quests that are all too common in just about every game today and in the past. I always liked the Open World PvP side of games because of the unpredictability of it all. I also like the politics side of games like DFUW, you cannot have that in an PvE game unless you are talking about inter guild drama. Alliances, backstabbing other guilds, strategic wars, spying... stuff like that is only possible in a PvP based game.
I tried AA and that game just fell flat on what I wanted from a game. Not even going the bashing the cash shop route (which was a huge turn off in itself) the PvP felt like it was missing depth. I also tried ESO which I could just not get into at all. The PvP was about engaging as GW2, keep trading and zerg blobs moving around the map 24/7.
I'm glad to see these indie studios coming out with more PvP focused games instead of more PvE, so maybe in the near future I can find a quality game for me. Camelot Unchained and Crowfall are types of games I'm interested in playing. CU more so because it is going to have a more persistent world. I hope the concept that MJ was describing with the land masses being able to be owned by factions will not change hands as fast as keeps in ESO and GW2. That would get old really fast. I would rather have a long battles with strategy needed to obtain things than a quick roll over of property. Crowfall sounds like its going to be a more quick turn over style game, get in the action real fast and turn things over and over. I will probably get burnt out of that style game faster than a long strategic battle style game. Eh, enough rambling but you asked :P
no people dont feel like grinding in game like archeage alot of people left because of this and how there was no attainable end game content. I didn't play eso but the casual elderscrolls players were the type to give it a shot. Eso wasnt made by someone with experience in building mmos and i heard the majority of people quit in the first month. The company basically admitting their wrongdoing so much that its no longer pay to play.
And wow its a fact that its in a downward decline of subs. Every year wow sells an expansion and 3 months later a huge chunk of the playerbase 25-50% quit. Well now the amount of people returning is getting so bad that wow threw in the towel. Wow is now accepting free to play people to make up for the 3-4 million so people in china that left the game and expecting someone else to pay for them. And again wow is not the biggest game if you want to include the asian market theres plenty of games with as much as 10 times the playerbase as wow. I still stand by my belief that there's probablly 1-4 million people at most in the us. And even then wow is a game for casuals that don't know about good game or care to find a new game. Thats why the play the same turd for 10 years that was never worth playing ever.
There are new games coming out and yes the gaming population in mmos is dwindling. Less and less people are willing to do the same boring mobs grinds they've done for years. With all the new game people want to rush threw the little content the game provides on easy mode and move on to the next game 3 months later which just helps the population never acheive high numbers. 10 years ago there were only like 3 mmo, everquest, wow, and lineage the one i played the asian one.
My ps4 is just as bad a year later killzone 4 never released the clan support it should have had on day one that made killzone 2 such an awesome game. Killzone 4 is now so bad you need to pay for ps plus year sub to play with bots online. They sold like 2-4 million copies of the game but you can't even get a full room a year later in the only exclusive for the "next generation "system. I find this similar thing true with every game. Even battlefield 3 is empty and has been empty for a long time. I'll buy a bunch of games on steam for example like 3 months later for 5-10 bucks and there won't be a single person online to play with for game like mortal kombat and wutnot.
skyforge cbt next week , and Teso going b2p is going to fix that for a while.
im still playing FFXIV however once im done with the content (need to beat the last boss only) i think i gonna stop until expansion.
Black desert is decent , but lacks what make themeparks good , and the sandbox part while cool , will not save it. i cant say anything about pvp since i didnt even tried it yet :P , still beta so who knows
Luckily, its only a select few in dark corners of the internet.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
"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
Usually most just stop at 'they're lazy', but it's always good to see someone willing to go full retard now and then. Bravo, Enbysra! O7
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Skyforge???
"Inspired by the best console action games" , well I live in Australia and have already hit 60 so no not interested in something that requires lightening reflexes and near zero lag. Also not interested in console games because of their play style anyway.
"One click to change class" I want to play characters and part of that character is their history and training (their class) so this is the antithesis of what I am looking for, tried something similar in Rfit and that is what drove me from that game.
The site says the game has PvP, I could not clearly see if this was optional but if it wasn't optional that would be another red light for me.
If the above points are positives for you and you like the game have fun. But for me it is one more game I am not interested in.
I'm a gamer who went dev, but after what I have seen from a lot of communitys, people tend to be more selfish than 10 years ago, so a lot of people are moving on. Devs can make better games and make more money with less hassle with console for IOS, Android, so there are a few reasons why..
Also saying a game fails because people don't like it, yet it makes millions, I would love to make millions and people say my game failed.. I would laugh all the way to the bank.. TODAY gamers, people are to different everyone wants what they want, and they lose interest fast.... That's the issue, I ran a guild for 16 years and retired as I notice the amount of whining more so in the last few years, people whine about everything and anything and are never happy, this ruins it for everyone else to..
So again, I been saying it for years, MMO's are dying, I worked for some, and I would never again. its not worth the hassle, this is coming from a gamer who went dev sad to say to...
a game fails now because u live in AUS? ok
u have to level the class from lvl 1 u know plus u have to open the atlas from that class in order to open the skills, tratis , ultimate and whatnot.
pvp is optional , since isnt a fully open mmorpg , its a instanced based mmorpg, but has open zones with quests , and u can go to the instances with others players .
inform yourself a bit before talking -_-
A little arrogant aren't you? I did not say the game would fail, I even said: "If the above points are positives for you and you like the game have fun." The game will succeed or fail without me, but it will be without me.
But thanks for the one bit of information in your post "PvP is optional".
All good, Enbysra. All good.
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There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
I don't think it's a lack of interest in mmo's that's causing this lull. I think a large part of it is that games have been moving away from the socialization aspects that mmorpg's used to have and have instead become more like single player games. Another reason for the current state of mmo gaming is this bizarre phenomenon of companies charging players for "Alpha Testing" the game and then not following through with completing the game and providing a polished product. It seems like people have no concept of what "alpha" and "beta" phases of development are supposed to be for...
If a game is fun and polished, people will play it.
What till he goes full metal retard and quotes Brad McQuaid as a seer, creative intellectual.
Players are older and less prone to go on compromises.
Significant part of early adopters and core players are tired of being used - mmorpg's tend to change in order to attract more casual gamers and early ad. and core pl. don't want that anymore.
tl ;dr
Many players want AAA quality AND less mainstream game that more closely fit with their tastes and expectations.
Well, we are the consumers. We SHOULD only be happy with stuff we really like. Playing whatever is given to us is pretty much the best way to reduce MMO quality even more.
Not a good idea!
MMOs finally replaced social interaction, forced grouping and standing in a line while talking to eachother.
Now we have forced soloing, forced questing and everyone is the hero, without ever having to talk to anyone else. The evolution of multiplayer is here! We won,... right?
The "only happy with stuff you like" part only works if you only comment on games that you are in the target audience of.
Most of these threads boil down to people complaining about games that weren't directed at them in the first place, thus the threads are irrelevant. Ofcourse they won't like stuff that was tailor made for a totally different market segment, that is to be expected and not worthy of lengthy compaints.
Yah, and theres where disconnect happens, expecting someone to make 100-200 million $$ game tailored to just you and your small niche is.....amusing.
If you have such specific taste, indie developers are all over the place, its always amusing to see certain specific niches whine all over the forums that mainstream games are - mainstream lol
Well, the number of good MMOs releasing have dropped and far too many of the games are way too similar (heck, most people believe that a levelbased quest grinding fantasy themepark is what makes a game a MMO).
Lack of innovation and new good games (there a few released in the last 5 years but nowhere near enough) have hurt the popularity of the genre, it havn't killed it or anything but I think there are fewer MMO players around now than 2008.
And I don't think it is the themepark thing that is the problem here but the setting and standard quest grind.
Why are almost all MMOs fantasy? Almost all other genres have a far wider variety, the only one that is almost as bad is turned based fantasy (3X). Why aren't there any AAA Musketeer MMOs? Or Victorian AAA MMOs? And so on, there are few space and zombie MMOs and TSWs modern horror but that is about it.
As for the questgrind constantly killing 10 mobs and doing short FEDEX quests means that you tire pretty fast on the game, most of use have been doing this in games for years. If you want to have quests you need to put more work in them so they are more fun and varied.
99% of all MMOs focus on a single player type (fantasy loving casual questgrinders that PUG now and then) and while there is nothing wrong with them the genre needs far more variety to not slowly shrink into a small niche genre again.
The publishers need to stop just copy and paste eachother and take a chance on some devs that want to do something different.
That doesn't mean they should focus on FFA fantasy PvP sandboxes but try new settings, new mechanics and delivering a game expeireince that isn't the same as 99% of the comptetitors. That is the thing to do if you want the genre to start growing again.