MOBA's were brought up, I suppose also Battle Arena games as well would be included.
But this is a solid point, MOBA's have much better PvP then any MMO could hope to have, as MMO's are about Time Sinks, grinds, and often incremental progression, and PvP in a game about slow progression, is not really a good mix.
Where players looking for that high octane PvP challenge are going to play MOBA's, not MMO's, so, the PvP in modern MMO's comes across more as content filler, something to do at "end game" because they don't have the content made to entertain people for a long time, or worse, for Open World PvP games, it's more a troll magnet, where players use the feature to harass and annoy other player by destroying what other people worked to make.
Which, for the people that enjoy PvP, MMO's just don't provide. To use an example, before I played an MOBA, I thought the PvP in GW2 was decent, it offered a challenge and while the balance did feel like it needed work, it was still engaging. After playing a real MOBA, the PvP in GW@ came across as just really bad, the balance was so skewed it was painful to even entertain this was really a PvP game, as the classes had so much impact on how hard or easy it would be to win a fight, that, it was more a Build vs Build game then any kind of real Player vs Player game, and as I look over other MMO's I played, I can see that same situation across all of them, that is just not there with MOBA's, an MOBA is really player vs player.
So, that hurts their market as well, but as I said, they keep putting in these features and such to attract that crowed, as opposed to putting focus on what could and does make their game unique and great.
Just my feels on the situation.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
You know with only a few MMOs being released each year... Have you ever stopped to think you might have to settle for adequate instead of amazing?
No, can't really agree, too many games in other styles which are pretty amazing which I've yet to play instead of settling on an MMORPG which is merely "adequate."
I don't play games like many do, who are really tourists who bounce between multiple titles on a whim.
I focus on one game at a time, and only one, until I've consumed most of its content on its entirety, so it has to be great
That's a great way to fall into the trap being referred to in the post you quoted, and really not a great way to stay informed about what the market has to offer. If you don't play other games, then you aren't informed about them. Reading about them on a website does not inform you. Reading forum posts doesn't inform you. Playing them does. That is why game reviewers... PLAY the game when reviewing them (and that is really only their own, personal, review of it... not YOURS).
Human beings are fickle. Our likes and dislikes are fluid. Our preferences are fluid. Our moods are fluid. A game that was good today may get an update or expansion that makes it bad tomorrow. There is absolutely nothing wrong with jumping from game to game. Boredom and monotony are actual things that exist.
In most MMORPGs on the market, you can point to specific instances when the game got a huge update or a change in business model or development philosophy was made. Those can put players off and drive them to other games. These don't happen at the same time... They can bounce players around...
The reason why the players are bouncing around is because no one is offering anything that captures their attention for more than a few months. That is not their fault. That's normal human behavior. You don't waste your time consumer content in a mediocre game just for some completionist ambitious. Time flies when you're having "fun."
You'll be 5 years older before you know it.
I'd rather not :-P
I tend to be fairly quick triggered with games. If an MMORPG doesn't interest me within the first 5 hours of gameplay, I am not gambling the next 1-500 hours on the off chance that it "eventually will."
I'm not that stupid, anymore.
I have been called many things but "fluid" is not one of them, especially when it comes to understanding my personal preferences.
I actually can fairly accurately discern whether I will enjoy something or not from reading or listening to the opinions of others.
The more I know about their personal preferences the better I can hit the target.
Last summer I asked people here for their favorite single player games from which I boiled down to a list of 25 or so to play.
I might be 7 or 8 games into the list and so far I've really not missed on any of them and only one game did I not play until "finished." (My lack of hand eye coordination prevents me from getting past a certain point, quite a ways into the game)
Well, I haven't finished with NMS. set aside while I do my 5th playthrough of Fallout 4, in preparation for FO76 which I'm going to play in spite of what I've been reading. (I'll likely regret this decision)
So no, I am not concerned I'm missing out on much by not trying everything under the sun, I view my actions as being terribly efficient at choosing new games to play.
My use of the word fluid has nothing to do with the current politicized connotation of it, BTW.
We're all fluid in our preferences, to some extent. This fluidity is what enables us to compromise and cooperate.
There's a reason why games that people loves 10 years ago, they do not like anymore. We're all like this.
It doesn't matter whether you describe yourself as such. It don't change the facts.
Personal Preferences can change. In MMORPGs, this is problematic, because you are trying to gain and retain customers. It is not hte same as putting ads on Amazon.com to sell soap to someone... soap they may not prefer or even like a month later. Those sales are instant and full. An MMORPG needs people to stay on the game for months - years, even - at a time in order to really capitalize off of them.
Keeping people for a couple/few months is NOT enough.
We have seen this happen with tons of MMORPG launches (Vanguard, Warhammer, Age of Conan, etc.). This usually causes an MMORPG to fail, because they didn't factor in - enough - the fickle nature of human beings.
This is why the business model of MMORPGs is changing more to a "lock-in" model. Either they lock you in with time investment (you have played/grinded so many hours in the game that leaving isn't an option), or with economic investment (DLC, P2W Cash Shops, etc. - you have spent so much that you don't want to "waste your money" so you continue playing the game).
Subscription games are actually quite cheap compared to the cash shop games, these days. ESO is as (and probably more) expensive than a subscription game, given the rate at which it releases content; for example.
The reason why threads like this exist is due to what I have referred to. Otherwise, we'd have all gone back to the first games we started on (like EverQuest), and wouldn't still be looking for other games to play :-P
Things just don't work that way in the real world.
Also: "I might be 7 or 8 games into the list and so far I've really not missed on any of them and only one game did I not play until "finished." (My lack of hand eye coordination prevents me from getting past a certain point, quite a ways into the game)..."
No one cares, because this is expected in the single player game market. People buy games they barely play and never finish ALL THE TIME. The business model of single player games is to be fun or attractive ENOUGH so that you buy the game. They make their money off of the game sale. The business model has only recently drifted into "DLC Mania," and those are usually the AAA titles that wouldn't have issue selling copies, anyways, because they are very reputable brands (Dragon Age, Witcher III, Far Cry, Elder Scrolls, Halo, Uncharted, Killzone, etc.).
MMORPGs were (are) a different beast because their business model depended upon years-long retention of players... Players who get older, who have changing life situations, etc.
A player who started playing WoW at release could have been 15 years old living with mom and dad, and currently be almost 30 years old with a college degree, a husband/wife, and children.
If you don't think a person's preferences in gaming aren't going to be fluid across such a vast time frame, with so many changes in their life... then you probably haven't lived long enough to find out.
I'm not really interested in what you call yourself. You can call yourself anything you want, but that does not define what you are ;-)
Also: "I might be 7 or 8 games into the list and so far I've really not missed on any of them and only one game did I not play until "finished." (My lack of hand eye coordination prevents me from getting past a certain point, quite a ways into the game)..."
No one cares, because this is expected in the single player game market. People buy games they barely play and never finish ALL THE TIME. The business model of single player games is to be fun or attractive ENOUGH so that you buy the game. They make their money off of the game sale. The business model has only recently drifted into "DLC Mania," and those are usually the AAA titles that wouldn't have issue selling copies, anyways, because they are very reputable brands (Dragon Age, Witcher III, Far Cry, Elder Scrolls, Halo, Uncharted, Killzone, etc.).
MMORPGs were (are) a different beast because their business model depended upon years-long retention of players... Players who get older, who have changing life situations, etc.
A player who started playing WoW at release could have been 15 years old living with mom and dad, and currently be almost 30 years old with a college degree, a husband/wife, and children.
If you don't think a person's preferences in gaming aren't going to be fluid across such a vast time frame, with so many changes in their life... then you probably haven't lived long enough to find out.
I'm not really interested in what you call yourself. You can call yourself anything you want, but that does not define what you are ;-)
Contrary to "popular belief."
Haven't lived long enough eh? Best comment of the day, thx.
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
The reason MMOs suck is no one pays for them anymore, and most only play cash shop MMOs that "some" people actually spend more than a subscription MMO.
MMOs became about making as much money as possible, which in turn makes the game design go from FUN to MONEY.
But many other game genres have fallen into the same trap
Its why indie devs for most part have seen far more success (minus the scams and legit crappy games), because they still mostly go by the old way of doing things
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
The Golden Age for me started with UO, declined a bit through EQ, DAOC, back up a bit for Shadowbane, then some decent times in others like WoW, EQ2, Age of Conan, then countless other lackluster to nowadays soulless crap. A few in there have had a few gleaming specks of potential, like Archeage, but got covered in the turds of mediocrity, p2w, and asian grindfest.
Darkfall should be in there somewhere but was really a big letdown.
The golden age of MMORPGs is from 2022-2027. Mark it on your calendars.
I wonder if I'll even be around then!
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
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
The late 2000's was the most exciting time for MMO's in my memory. There were a handful of good titles on the market at the time that were all still pretty hot, but the new ones on the way showed a ton of promise.
I remember in 2008 there were many fantastic games already on the market, LOTRO and Tabula Rasa had just been released a year earlier and we were all looking ahead to titles such as:
Aion (Still going) Warhammer Online (Closed) Age of Conan (Still going) Jumpgate Evolution (Cancelled) Huxley (Closed in Korea, closing everywhere else soon?) Pirates of the Burning Sea (Closed?) Darkfall (Closed, resurrected, closed again, resurrected again... who knows) The Chronicles of Spellborn (Closed) Fallen Earth (Still going) Hero's Journey (Game Cancelled, but the Hero Engine is still being sold) SUN (Still going?) Star Trek Online (Amazingly still going and even receiving regular expansions) Stargate Worlds (Cancelled)
The hype for new MMORPG's was seriously strong. Not the "Oh, a new MMORPG is being announced... it'll probably fail" kind of hype, but a good positive vibe about most games being announced.
Very few people at the time thought that the MMO train was going to come flying off the rails and have a horrific wreck. Tens of millions were dumped into some titles that were essentially DOA such as WildStar, Tabula Rasa, Titan, Firefall and Age of Conan.
For me, that was the best time for MMO's but probably because I was too naive to see that the deluge of MMO title's was unsustainable.
The late 2000's was the most exciting time for MMO's in my memory. There were a handful of good titles on the market at the time that were all still pretty hot, but the new ones on the way showed a ton of promise.
I remember in 2008 there were many fantastic games already on the market, LOTRO and Tabula Rasa had just been released a year earlier and we were all looking ahead to titles such as:
Aion (Still going) Warhammer Online (Closed) Age of Conan (Still going) Jumpgate Evolution (Cancelled) Huxley (Closed in Korea, closing everywhere else soon?) Pirates of the Burning Sea (Closed?) Darkfall (Closed, resurrected, closed again, resurrected again... who knows) The Chronicles of Spellborn (Closed) Fallen Earth (Still going) Hero's Journey (Game Cancelled, but the Hero Engine is still being sold) SUN (Still going?) Star Trek Online (Amazingly still going and even receiving regular expansions) Stargate Worlds (Cancelled)
The hype for new MMORPG's was seriously strong. Not the "Oh, a new MMORPG is being announced... it'll probably fail" kind of hype, but a good positive vibe about most games being announced.
Very few people at the time thought that the MMO train was going to come flying off the rails and have a horrific wreck. Tens of millions were dumped into some titles that were essentially DOA such as WildStar, Tabula Rasa, Titan, Firefall and Age of Conan.
For me, that was the best time for MMO's but probably because I was too naive to see that the deluge of MMO title's was unsustainable.
Those are all terrible MMOs...You mustve come to the party late if you thought those were good games.
my opinion is that game quality started trending down hill once the industry switch to the f2p model became full swing. after the initial few decent and successful f2p games the industry took it too far. now its basically making a cash shop and developing a game around the cash shop instead of the reverse.
The late 2000's was the most exciting time for MMO's in my memory. There were a handful of good titles on the market at the time that were all still pretty hot, but the new ones on the way showed a ton of promise.
I remember in 2008 there were many fantastic games already on the market, LOTRO and Tabula Rasa had just been released a year earlier and we were all looking ahead to titles such as:
Aion (Still going) Warhammer Online (Closed) Age of Conan (Still going) Jumpgate Evolution (Cancelled) Huxley (Closed in Korea, closing everywhere else soon?) Pirates of the Burning Sea (Closed?) Darkfall (Closed, resurrected, closed again, resurrected again... who knows) The Chronicles of Spellborn (Closed) Fallen Earth (Still going) Hero's Journey (Game Cancelled, but the Hero Engine is still being sold) SUN (Still going?) Star Trek Online (Amazingly still going and even receiving regular expansions) Stargate Worlds (Cancelled)
The hype for new MMORPG's was seriously strong. Not the "Oh, a new MMORPG is being announced... it'll probably fail" kind of hype, but a good positive vibe about most games being announced.
Very few people at the time thought that the MMO train was going to come flying off the rails and have a horrific wreck. Tens of millions were dumped into some titles that were essentially DOA such as WildStar, Tabula Rasa, Titan, Firefall and Age of Conan.
For me, that was the best time for MMO's but probably because I was too naive to see that the deluge of MMO title's was unsustainable.
Those are all terrible MMOs...You mustve come to the party late if you thought those were good games.
I think their point was "games sucked back then too, take off the rose colored glasses"
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
Those are all terrible MMOs...You mustve come to the party late if you thought those were good games.
I think you misunderstood me. I know those MMO's were mostly terrible and that's why they failed. My point was to say that the last time I really felt excited about the MMORPG market was in the late 2000's when tons of titles were being announced and released, but no one knew how they would turn out yet.
Now I'm much more cautious and even a little pessimistic about new MMORPG's being announced, or even that the ones in development will actually make it to market.
I there are or were a loot of good MMO's out there, the problem with most of them is they they seldom stay true to what what made them "good" to start with, and end up trying to be like other games to attract those players, as opposed to focusing at being great at what they are good at.
Case in Point: GW2, was a good game, really could have been a market trend setter, and then with HoT they put in raids, and role based class like situations, and all in all had undone many of the things that made their game 'good' to start with.
Another example would have been DDO, they really had a good DnD feel to that game, and then they went all "generic mmo" and made the game feel more like a DnD Skin (like Neverwinter) then the really attentive creation of a 3rd edition DnD game into MMO format that it was originally.
So there are a lot of good MMO's out there, but, a lot of what makes an MMO good is also what makes it unique from other MMO's.. after all, if it was not unique in some way, it would be generic.
This. Should be stickied somehow. The problem is the reason they do this is financial. It can't be avoided. They're trying to attract gamers from other games to keep their game profitable. The investors in teh game are a big reason this occurs. They want it to be profitable. Another reason is as the game ages the new players are increasingly alone, so the game maker increasingly enables leveling players to solo. This can dramatically change hte game if it's based on interdependence, for example. But it can also change the gameplay, since the entire system might be simplified, thereby affecting everyone. An aging game is also a more desperate game, so there's further reason to "generify" to attract other gamers to the table.
Those are all terrible MMOs...You mustve come to the party late if you thought those were good games.
I think you misunderstood me. I know those MMO's were mostly terrible and that's why they failed. My point was to say that the last time I really felt excited about the MMORPG market was in the late 2000's when tons of titles were being announced and released, but no one knew how they would turn out yet.
Now I'm much more cautious and even a little pessimistic about new MMORPG's being announced, or even that the ones in development will actually make it to market.
Ok gotcha...Sorry I misunderstood what you were getting at.
I liked most of the MMORPGs from WoW back to EQ, but I didnt feel I should have to pay $15 a month just to access them. The MMOs now I wouldnt even consider it but i will chip in a few bucks here and there if I like something enough.
MMOs NEED a continual source of revenue to keep functioning. They aren't single player games where the player's PC completely runs them. It takes a huge investment just to keep the servers on. So you either have to pay a monthly sub. or get stuck with Free 2 play games where people complain about Pay2Win because the companies need to add incentives for people to buy stuff from the cash shop.
Honestly with the new Lotro Servers I am pretty happy with the mmo genre. We are having a ton of fun and questioning why we ever left lotro in the first place. I would say my first love is still swg and if a game could ever capture that it would be great.
The dying breath of the AAA mmorpg era produced a few good ones, they are still ticking. I think personally GW2/FFXIV/ESO even wildstar were great mmorpgs. Problem for me was that by the time they hit i was so dreadfully bored with mmorpg mechanics as a whole.
Looking back at it all, the first generation of mmorpgs were the best, not technically (as in technology) but people back then were more interactive with eachother, VOIP hadnt become a thing so everyone chatted. I cant tell you how many of those first gen games id have bored of in a month if it wasnt for the community banter and fun keeping me in game allowing me to get over that grind hump that would have otherwise drove me out. Also its more fun reaching the highest tier of gameplay when theres a community around to strut your stuff in front of.
Overly complicated and difficult games with active text chat communities and a vibrant playerbase that wasnt obsessed with one game being better than the other and turning the mmorpg community into some political party contest. Obession with wow ruined a lot of it, despite if i could go back and redo it all id have downloaded WOW and not messed with anarchy online (which i loved dearly) because well WOW is still ticking and for all its flaws i would be able to go back to one and have a game vs a dead game for my nostalgia.
The difference between first generation mmorpgs and the last generation of AAA games was that its was all mechanically the same, minus the fun communities, minus the difficulties...but they sure look pretty i guess. I just wasnt able to appreciate helping some lazy ass NPC who was voice overed draped in good graphics for the billionth time, knowing it was a slog until endgame overly stressed raids and assembly line pvp where nothing mattered....all to grind for slightly better gear so i could do the next mini game down the line. It was all fresh first generation and playing with other players was so new and welcomed.
i really gotta stop writing these long winded rants that no one will bother to read lol.
TLDR: bitter mmo vet thinks shitty old mmorpgs were best.
@Cybersig211 I didn't read the rest of the posts here (you came up on the post feed) and am in no way responding to the OP's topic, however I share a similar sentiment as you and as such I encourage you to check out Worlds Adrift, which with all its faults is still, personally, the best thing I have found out there.
I have to say I loved my early days of playing MMOs. Those MMOs fit my personality very well at the time. I was quite anti-social and enjoyed chaotic environments/grueling grinds/exploration with no maps/strange leveling mechanics like having one race/class level slower than another/spending most of my time in game/etc. Ioved logging in and seeing people chaotically fighting with each other for resources in game and andgameandto be the first to reach x level. There were so many funny things that happened due to ignorance and lots of raging going on. I was probably one of the few who was into that type of what would be now called a toxic atmosphere, but it was a lot of fun at the time IMO. UO and EQ were my favorite games. I played WoW and had fun in it, but it wasn't quite the same experience. I'm not sure I would be looking for that type of experience again, but it was fun at the time.
Comments
But this is a solid point, MOBA's have much better PvP then any MMO could hope to have, as MMO's are about Time Sinks, grinds, and often incremental progression, and PvP in a game about slow progression, is not really a good mix.
Where players looking for that high octane PvP challenge are going to play MOBA's, not MMO's, so, the PvP in modern MMO's comes across more as content filler, something to do at "end game" because they don't have the content made to entertain people for a long time, or worse, for Open World PvP games, it's more a troll magnet, where players use the feature to harass and annoy other player by destroying what other people worked to make.
Which, for the people that enjoy PvP, MMO's just don't provide. To use an example, before I played an MOBA, I thought the PvP in GW2 was decent, it offered a challenge and while the balance did feel like it needed work, it was still engaging. After playing a real MOBA, the PvP in GW@ came across as just really bad, the balance was so skewed it was painful to even entertain this was really a PvP game, as the classes had so much impact on how hard or easy it would be to win a fight, that, it was more a Build vs Build game then any kind of real Player vs Player game, and as I look over other MMO's I played, I can see that same situation across all of them, that is just not there with MOBA's, an MOBA is really player vs player.
So, that hurts their market as well, but as I said, they keep putting in these features and such to attract that crowed, as opposed to putting focus on what could and does make their game unique and great.
Just my feels on the situation.
We're all fluid in our preferences, to some extent. This fluidity is what enables us to compromise and cooperate.
There's a reason why games that people loves 10 years ago, they do not like anymore. We're all like this.
It doesn't matter whether you describe yourself as such. It don't change the facts.
Personal Preferences can change. In MMORPGs, this is problematic, because you are trying to gain and retain customers. It is not hte same as putting ads on Amazon.com to sell soap to someone... soap they may not prefer or even like a month later. Those sales are instant and full. An MMORPG needs people to stay on the game for months - years, even - at a time in order to really capitalize off of them.
Keeping people for a couple/few months is NOT enough.
We have seen this happen with tons of MMORPG launches (Vanguard, Warhammer, Age of Conan, etc.). This usually causes an MMORPG to fail, because they didn't factor in - enough - the fickle nature of human beings.
Subscription games are actually quite cheap compared to the cash shop games, these days. ESO is as (and probably more) expensive than a subscription game, given the rate at which it releases content; for example.
The reason why threads like this exist is due to what I have referred to. Otherwise, we'd have all gone back to the first games we started on (like EverQuest), and wouldn't still be looking for other games to play :-P
Things just don't work that way in the real world.
No one cares, because this is expected in the single player game market. People buy games they barely play and never finish ALL THE TIME. The business model of single player games is to be fun or attractive ENOUGH so that you buy the game. They make their money off of the game sale. The business model has only recently drifted into "DLC Mania," and those are usually the AAA titles that wouldn't have issue selling copies, anyways, because they are very reputable brands (Dragon Age, Witcher III, Far Cry, Elder Scrolls, Halo, Uncharted, Killzone, etc.).
MMORPGs were (are) a different beast because their business model depended upon years-long retention of players... Players who get older, who have changing life situations, etc.
A player who started playing WoW at release could have been 15 years old living with mom and dad, and currently be almost 30 years old with a college degree, a husband/wife, and children.
If you don't think a person's preferences in gaming aren't going to be fluid across such a vast time frame, with so many changes in their life... then you probably haven't lived long enough to find out.
I'm not really interested in what you call yourself. You can call yourself anything you want, but that does not define what you are ;-)
Contrary to "popular belief."
"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
MMOs became about making as much money as possible, which in turn makes the game design go from FUN to MONEY.
But many other game genres have fallen into the same trap
Its why indie devs for most part have seen far more success (minus the scams and legit crappy games), because they still mostly go by the old way of doing things
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
Darkfall should be in there somewhere but was really a big letdown.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Of course, they say it's going to miss, but what else would they tell us?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis
"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
I remember in 2008 there were many fantastic games already on the market, LOTRO and Tabula Rasa had just been released a year earlier and we were all looking ahead to titles such as:
Aion (Still going)
Warhammer Online (Closed)
Age of Conan (Still going)
Jumpgate Evolution (Cancelled)
Huxley (Closed in Korea, closing everywhere else soon?)
Pirates of the Burning Sea (Closed?)
Darkfall (Closed, resurrected, closed again, resurrected again... who knows)
The Chronicles of Spellborn (Closed)
Fallen Earth (Still going)
Hero's Journey (Game Cancelled, but the Hero Engine is still being sold)
SUN (Still going?)
Star Trek Online (Amazingly still going and even receiving regular expansions)
Stargate Worlds (Cancelled)
The hype for new MMORPG's was seriously strong. Not the "Oh, a new MMORPG is being announced... it'll probably fail" kind of hype, but a good positive vibe about most games being announced.
Very few people at the time thought that the MMO train was going to come flying off the rails and have a horrific wreck. Tens of millions were dumped into some titles that were essentially DOA such as WildStar, Tabula Rasa, Titan, Firefall and Age of Conan.
For me, that was the best time for MMO's but probably because I was too naive to see that the deluge of MMO title's was unsustainable.
Now I'm much more cautious and even a little pessimistic about new MMORPG's being announced, or even that the ones in development will actually make it to market.
Refer to newest comment as I didn't even pay attention that I made a previous comment. kthxbai
Gut Out!
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Company Owner
MMO Interactive
Looking back at it all, the first generation of mmorpgs were the best, not technically (as in technology) but people back then were more interactive with eachother, VOIP hadnt become a thing so everyone chatted. I cant tell you how many of those first gen games id have bored of in a month if it wasnt for the community banter and fun keeping me in game allowing me to get over that grind hump that would have otherwise drove me out. Also its more fun reaching the highest tier of gameplay when theres a community around to strut your stuff in front of.
Overly complicated and difficult games with active text chat communities and a vibrant playerbase that wasnt obsessed with one game being better than the other and turning the mmorpg community into some political party contest. Obession with wow ruined a lot of it, despite if i could go back and redo it all id have downloaded WOW and not messed with anarchy online (which i loved dearly) because well WOW is still ticking and for all its flaws i would be able to go back to one and have a game vs a dead game for my nostalgia.
The difference between first generation mmorpgs and the last generation of AAA games was that its was all mechanically the same, minus the fun communities, minus the difficulties...but they sure look pretty i guess. I just wasnt able to appreciate helping some lazy ass NPC who was voice overed draped in good graphics for the billionth time, knowing it was a slog until endgame overly stressed raids and assembly line pvp where nothing mattered....all to grind for slightly better gear so i could do the next mini game down the line. It was all fresh first generation and playing with other players was so new and welcomed.
i really gotta stop writing these long winded rants that no one will bother to read lol.
TLDR: bitter mmo vet thinks shitty old mmorpgs were best.