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Opinion: MMOs Really Aren't As Dead As People Think | MMORPG.com
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Opinion: MMOs Really Aren't As Dead As People Think | MMORPG.com
The MMO is dead. This is a mantra we hear constantly in the MMO-space, whether from community members thinking back to yesteryear or games media trying to find a unique angle to cover. However, Bradford argues that they aren't dead, in fact far from it, especially if this week is any indication.
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While there are plenty of MMOs around, the persistent virtual worlds I had expected them to evolve into never happened.
Pity.
"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
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No thanks, i'll walk or go by a bike, ty.
It's been mentioned many times the the "forced" community in older MMOs is what made them special and memorable. Now it seem they are all made to be played solo. Grouping is often an automatic function that can begin and end without uttering a single word to the people you were auto grouped with.
I think if (and that's a big *if*) VR takes off, or if (another big *if*) a developer gambles a little before it takes off, that VR is the next evolution for MMOs. What makes more sense than your perpetual world being one that you can step into and see first person?
There are some interesting ones coming up, including from AAA Studios.
..but, they were pretty much dead until, say .. last year!
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
Before all DAoC servers were made into one, you used to be fairly locked in to the realm that you chose. I remember a huge "social" aspect of that game was to get onto the VN boards. There would be thousands of posts a day talking shit, say "good fight", share templates, etc. I do miss that aspect.
What "used to be" would keep hundreds of thousands of players willing to spend $15 a month (many of which had more than one account) for years.
The games that have the "that is" aspect are lucky to keep 10% of their player base past a few months even though it's free to play.
New games just don't have it... or the people that loved the older games just don't have the time to sink into a new game with old school aspects... or both.
Right now I know of exactly one MMO in development which I actually want to try and that may change when I learn more about it. Yeah, my attachment to the genre is hanging by a thread and I'm not sure if I even really care anymore. I used to have such high hopes for these games but now.....I don't know, whatever.
They are solo games now. Most people just want to avoid group content now. Even friends of mine from back in the days of Anarchy Online and DAOC say the communities are just annoying to them now. But if they can solo then it's ok. And what old mmo's you played that forced you to play with others because I don't remember that?
Most older MMOs didn't "force" grouping, but many vital aspects were 100% impossible without a group. Many people refer to this as "forced grouping" because you had to group to progress... even though nobody held a gun to your head.
Even shooters are just sickening to see oen after another,grab a pistol grab a shot gun and pew pew.None of these developers are putting in the work to make scripted cotnent,instead they give us grinds and tons of monetization.
The worlds don't behave liek worlds they might as well be a giant unskinned box with a bunch of npc's or not jotted around.
Very little looks hand crafted but more so devs taking advantage of technology to do less work and just automate a lifeless world that we can't even interact with.
I don't want yoru stupid colored lights glowing off of loot,i don't want to pew pew other players and i don't want to take part in your stupid RANK systems,omg i need to get a better rank !!!,pffft.
GIve me real looking worlds,real AI,scripted content,give me games that look like some effort was put into it.
On that note VR is even more laughable,i have been waiting to see a developer give us the AAA game we deserve but instead of better games they try and sell us new gimmicks to make more money.
Here is a hint,learn to make a AAA game FIRST then we can start talking about over priced gimmicks.Design a game that looks like your own and not like someone else's game with new textures and a new title.
Great ideas devs,let's not make better games,let's utilize loot boxes and season passes and these so called COSMETIC cashg shops lmao,hey i know let's bring in blockchain,lol great ideas.../not.
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There are currently a handful of small developers making VR titles. If one of them is even a little engaging, they will probably have close to a million instant subs. VR people want a big, persistent, multi-facet growing world to hang out in. And MMO fits all of those. I think it will do well.
Well if you change the definition of MMO, then it will never die. Soon people will say 4 people in a lobby online game is a mass amount, therefore its an MMO. Or next up is a Mass amount of people playing single player online like No Man's Sky is an MMO..
Why even expand to MMO's on this site? Oh thats right MMORPGs are sucking so bad the only way to grow the website is to expand it out to MMO instead.
I haven't found any MMO I would put the time into that I used to and it's not because now that I'm retired I have less time.
I wish I agreed.... I really do.
I'll take alternate reality for $500 Alex.
"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 am so good, I backstabbed your face!
Calling the 5 man dev team behind Valheim AAA just goes to show how refreshing and impactful they made what was otherwise just going to be yet another survival game.
Crowfall is a poor example here. It released with abysmal player counts, and I give it a year or two before it goes offline. The market for players who want a game designed almost solely around PvP campaigns is tiny, especially as they have implemented it. The PvE is reportedly pretty sad and lackluster. Graphically, the game also looks extremely dated. I thought I had taken a time machine to 2008 when I saw footage of it.
Eve is also a poor example of a game that is supposedly in a good state. Its concurrent player count has dipped to 13k recently, and this is likely to drop off even further after the summer. The game has been continuously plagued by mismanagement, CCP being one of the more incompetent and tone-deaf developers out there in this space. It is also full of botters and simultaneous multiple accounts, meaning the player counts are that much more inflated. The actual concurrent player counts are probably half or less than that seen on their launcher. The player base has recently been up in arms over changes to the economy and manufacturing systems that have inflated prices across the board. I really don't think you have an accurate feel of the game state if you are using it as a positive example.
You would have been better to use Albion Online as a success story for MMOs. It launched with pretty low numbers, but they have pivoted to a F2P model with an optional paid subscription. The player numbers are from what I have seen through the roof to the point that people are saying certain zones and cities are TOO crowded. It seems like a game that combines a kind of casual UI and combat system with mechanics that support large-scale PvP and territory wars.
From my perspective, the genre has just become plain BORING. The minute I start a new MMO and I get a "kill 10 rats" type of quest as the introduction to the game, I feel like uninstalling. The medieval fantasy setting is also way, way, way overplayed (*cough* Ashes of Creation *cough*). At least New World is taking a slightly different direction with its setting, placing the game in a kind of imagined 16th or 17th century.
What I would like to see is MMOs that revolve around more than just combat. Is anyone else just completely sick of this "go kill the mobs and do quests to level up and get gold to kill more mobs and do more quests and get more gold" hamster wheel? How about some more interesting world and "sandbox" systems that revolve around more than just killing anything that moves?