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2012: Overall, it's been a pretty good year for MMORPG's
Kyleran
Member LegendaryPosts: 43,498
At least for me. Not saying that any new MMORPG title is the be-all, end-all fully featured virtual world that I'll always on the lookout for, but I will confess to enjoying myself so far.
I started out January playing SWOTOR, and while much maligned, I enjoyed the Sci Fi theme, the story line content that I participated in, and it was worth the money for the three months I played it.
Then came TERA, and while its action oriented combat model was really the only thing of interest to me, it was enough to level up at least one character to max level and an alt to the low 40's. Again, I got another couple of months out of it.
Now I'm playing TSW, and while its too soon to tell, overall I'm enjoying the theme (love killing zombies), the stories are entertaining, and the skill wheel intrigues me.
On the horizon, of course, Guild Wars 2 which is sort of the icing in the cake, and I don't recall a year in quite some time where I had such a choice of titles to play and enjoy.
Yes, I know, each of them has some 'horrible' faults that make them "run of the mill, standard theme park games" 
but I've learned by focusing on the fun parts, I do enjoy these games, even if they aren't the MMORPG I'm really looking for.
Cheers, and to all those who aren't have as much fun as I am having, I hope you find your game soon.
"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
Comments
I wish I could say the same. For me, 2012 has been the year of going back to old mmorpg's.
I'm beginning to think I"m the only person who isn't excited about GW2.
My mmorpg future rests on either ArcheAge or World of Darkness.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
Its been a funny year for me to say the least.
As a college student I soon found out I couldnt decently run SWTOR so my run on that was postponed pretty early.
After a long journey of gaming on xbox(minecraft indie games, LA noire, Battlefield 3) finally as summer began to approach I began to work in order to save up some $$$. Found out later by personal experience I couldn't even install Diablo 3 to my anticipation. But I set about finally making my bad ass gaming PC.
So now a little past midpoint 2012, I find myself unsure if I want to even go back and try SWTOR and Diablo 3 just by the garbage I hear. I've digressed back into playing DAoC and the time I'm offline I spend playing Age Of Empires 2.
I should go back and give those games a chance, but as of the moment I'm installing Arma 2 and Day Z, dreaming about Planetside 2, and just wondering if there will be another mmorpg I'll like.
Haha interesting year....
It's a mixed bag. First we have singleplayer oriented WoW clones with one solitary gimmick being praised for some reason (TSW) or WoW clones with some slightly modern combat (Tera)being praised despite other more interesting games having better combat, as well as actual massively multiplayer features.
But then we have the news of actual MMOs coming down the pipeline with Planetside 2, and Vanguard going FTP.
And possibly the best MMO news... SWTOR sinking like the Titanic, as it should have. Possibly forever proving that you cannot make a good singleplayer game AND a good MMO. Maybe we can have developers stop trying to clone WoW and focusing more on socializing? Though if TSW survives, despite being almost entirely instanced, we may not see that at all...
Oh well, I've got Planetside 2, Vanguard relaunch, and Darkfall relaunch to look forward to. And maybe GW2 will be kind of neat. That's more hope than I've had for this sorry genre in a long long time.
I haven't been impressed. Tera looked interesting for awhile, but I didn't get it at release, and now that i've seen more livestreams of what the average gameplay is like, i'm a little glad I didn't.
I knew long before TOR was out I wouldn't like it, and I haven't really bothered looking much into TSW. I'm going to wait 6 months before I consider buying GW2.
For now, i'm thinking picking up where I left off in Istaria. Maybe after I finish all these steam sale games I just bought anyways.
I think 2012 will be looked back as a watershed year in which the genre started to diversify again.
So yeah, a good year really.
Still, I wish there had been actual more MMORPGs for me personally to play... but it is what it is. There have been plenty of other good single games to keep me going.
Me too, but so far we've only gotten singleplayer lobby games with optional coops and "MMO" slapped on them to justify the monthly fee.
I for one have been very happy with the 2012 MMO year, and it will be complete and perfect with the release of GW2 and FFXIV 2.0 at the end of the year XD
For me personally there is only one great game coming this year, however overall it has been a strong year for the mmorpg and many gameless players have found a game which is more than in most recent years..
Playing GW2..
Too early to tell for me, duh. But from what i've seen and am expecting, it is indeed a good year for mmos to me.
TSW and GW2 fill my non wow clone desires. Don't know about their future, but just for the experience, it'll probably be good.
Planetside 2 is the only one i see doing pvp well. I'll probably play it for a long time for multyple reasons.
In the mean time, all of this is so good becuase of the further future is looking even better with Archeage and The Repopulation.
Of course, this is all predictions. I hope this does come true.
I'm not excited for GW2 either. If there's one thing I've learned about MMO's, popularity and hype are clear indicators of a short lived game.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
Whaaaaaaaaaat?
It has been pretty good, it could be a lot worse like the last few years but thankfully it wasn't. And there are still a few on the horizon to look forward to like PlanetSide2 for me, GW2 for others.
However, there is still no MMO that I can make my new "home" in. I'm still going back to the old but true MMORPGs sometimes.
Eh, I guess it's been alright for me for one reason:
I have not went back to WoW.
Usually I always end up going back but I haven't since SWToR released. Unfortunately, ToR lost my interest like two months back and I have barely bothered to log on except for a pvp match here and there. Yeah, I'm giving them free money though that will end for certain next month with GW2 releasing....if not sooner.
So for me not going back to WoW after being disappointed by one MMO or another is an achievement. It's so easy to return what you know the most but I think I have finally had enough of the same ol' treadmill that is WoW. I have no interest what so ever and the expansion of pokemon and pandas hasn't really made me want to change my mind.
*Gasp* I knew as i soon as i wrote that you'd responde with an answer like that, but oh well, it is a topic.
Yes, to me, TSW and GW2 (remember how i also meantioned it) are still themeparks, but i find them to be alittle bit more open eneded than normal TP's. Also, while of course not 100% unique, i find the differences they have to be enough to not be considered wow clones in my eyes.
You disagree and that's fine. To each their own.
popularity is an indicator of a short lived game?
And what hype?
noun
from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hype
Everything until know wasn't exaggerated
Nor was it a swindle, deception or trick. The mechanics they promised are actually in the game and thus aren't questionable -_-
"Isn't a raid plundering villages in WoW or something like that?" - Robert Desable
TSW is nothing like WOW ..LoL (well unless your the type that thinks a watermelon and a cheeseburger are identical because you eat them both .. (or that checkers and chess are the same game because they both have boards and peices) but I digress)
2012 (well technically included end of 2011) was the year I discovered EVE ... yeah I know, funny guess it was more the year I finally ditched the carebear in me and learned to Love a Sandbox PvP game ... where have you been all my life ?
So what that says to me anyway , is yeah there have been a lot of the same from MMO games this year. And after many years of being an avid gamer and MMO junkie, I find my self yearning for something New & Different.
Rift was my primary focus before EvE, and I still think of the "WoW clone" variety theme park, it is probably my favorite and IMHO the most polished in the space. Was Raiding HammerKnell, when the death Knell for my Guild, was the core raid team leaving to Play SW:TOR and the disintegration that occured after. Guess that also colored by view of SW:TOR, not really playing it more than a few days, even though I should have given it a little more of a Go.
TERA held high hopes for me, as I was a huge AION fan (The game I ditched WoW for good for....) but ultimatley the super-ezmode PVE and the Imbalanced PvP left me dry. TERA was super fun for a couple weeks, but the Hack and Slash, and lack of interesting story telling wore me out fast .. . and I just couldnt get comfortable with the caster and ranged classes to make alt-itis keep me any longer.
TSW, is actually a pleasant surprise and one that I am currently enamored with . Now dont get me wrong, I see its faults too, mainly being too "Single-player"-ish , and I do see that the character creation & combat animations are somewhat less-than-what-they could be .. honestly the graphics aside from that , and the mood, soundtrack & effects are out of this world. Odd that the Character graphics are only mediocre, because the rest of the models are brilliant compared to other MMO space grahpics.
The overall setting, storytelling and fact that "you actually have to use your brain" , and the skillwheel, makes TSW different *enough* to have my attention for now. I do not know what holding power it will or wont have .. but right now I cant stop playing it (between my EVE cycles)
So I had high hopes for GW2, but have avoided BETA, and kind of lost interested a tad. I think the main reason is the over-Hyping. Seems to be the trend for MMO now, everyone hypes the shit out of upcoming games, going on and on about the death of every other game out there at the hands of "NewShinyMMOX" only to transition into total disdain and hate for said game once it releases, predicting its death and picking a new yet to be released "NewShinyMMOx" to be the saviour.
that whole process just really turns me off, but I will definitley be buying a Copy When it Releases.
I personally am more enamored with the Sandbox these days , and If I had to pick a future title I am watching, it would be Archeage ...(crap did I just do it)
tl;dr
(Played EQ, EQ2, DaoC, WOW, Rift, WAR, AION, CoH, DCuO, AC2)
(Currently Playing: EVE, TSW)
2012 - more of the same, bored with TP and found EVE, liking TSW but not sure of long term status.
its a good year for different titles -- around 5 new titles will be launching
last time there was this many new commercial (not f2p) mmos was back in 2003
Eve Online
Everquest Online Adventures (console only)
Final Fantasy XI (North American launch)
Horizons
Lineage II
Second Life
Shadowbane
Star Wars Galaxies
EQ2 fan sites
I'm in the same boat. I was actually really excited about Guild Wars 2 but I the main attraction really was WvW, which I think may get pretty old after a few months. It's still a themepark..so..I'm focused on Planetside 2 (enjoyed the Dust 514 beta and PS2 should be 10x better), ArcheAge, The Repopulation. I've just come to the conclusion that themeparks just will never do it for me.
GW2 has plenty of exaggerated publicity. If you can't see that, you're approaching the subject with bias. Also, popularity is a huge indicator of a game being a pile of shit, because most people are mouth breathing morons who enjoy garbage. I'm not saying this holds sway for every gamer, but it's proven to be the case time and time again for the last five or more years with games like Warhammer, AoC, Aion, RIFT, and TOR to name the best examples. All hugely popular at release, all carrying a considerable amount of hype. Where are those games now? Who even cares?
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
What the heck, who knows, by year's end we might actually have Dark Fall 2.0.
I may give it a try this time around.
"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
everquest did the *same* thing for 5 years from 1999-2004, no game could touch Everquest for US/EU subs
wasnt until WOW launched in Nov 2004 that EQ got dethroned
plenty of quality mmos came out during EQs reign at the top (example: the 2003 mmos i listed earlier)
but couldnt exceed EQs playerbase -- it doesnt mean those other games were crap
EQ2 fan sites
Right! And neither is LotRO, or AoC, or Rift, or SWTOR!
Quantity is great, quality... not so much.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
Must have been awesome MMO's - they managed to keep you playing for two months each on average.
It's a buy2play game. Exaggerated publicity is exactly what that type of payment model encourages, which is why it's been no surprise that they've been hyping their game so strongly.
I'm not really critical of Anet (I loved GW1) but I really don't like that payment model because it encourages the wrong developer motiviations and suckers players into spending money based on the hype, not based on the gameplay.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver