I don't think it's so much that they don't work. You have to design the games from the ground up to be a virtual world. They take an expansion beyond what you need in single player to make it really playable as a MMO. But GTA online is hugely successful.
If RDR 2 another similar game actually took its game model on a larger scale and allowed you to ranch, farm, heist, craft and etc it would likely be huge. Slapping multiplayer on the base game just turned it into a giant deathmatch and with a few missions.
ESO online is still heavily dosed in WoW in its purpose thus doesn't capture the feel of the offline games. Not sure an online game could get that feel right.
GTA as being 'hugely' successful is a loaded statement. Its like how Atlas or ARK are 'hugely' successful (maybe not so much Atlas but it has potential as a game). OFFICIAL servers are not close to 'successful' let alone 'hugely' so. Modded and private ones are. Because they incorporate mods and apps and scripts that try and add some of the things I listed into the base game. Most games, not just MMOS are like that actually. The list of the 'best' games for the most part all include add ons or scripts or mods. The 'vanilla'/unaltered versions of just about every game out there suck.
Basically they have decent foundations, although with ARK and Atlas many would argue (due to performance and optimization issues) that their foundations isnt very good at all.
But a lot of games do a lot of things well none of them come close to doing enough well let alone 'everything' well. Obviously a lot of that is personal opinion, but at MMOs players most people have a fairly;y straight forward agreement on most things. Sure some outside the box idea might pique some interest but when it fails most people go back to old school line of thinking. The ones that like the outside the box thinking are generally the ones who exploit it the best i.e. Guild traders in ESO rather than an outright Auction House. I have always said tyhat was a decent idea but should have been implemented sort of how Pirates of the Burning Sea did it. Separate pick up locations but the same overall AH. Or at least public access. What Beth/Zen did was water down another fundamental MMO cornerstone (guilds) and allowed people to belong to 5 of them simultaneously. Which sort of defeats the purpose of what a guild used to stand for. But was a work around for people who just joined guilds to access trading.
Players know what they want and like, and when you look at the games that DO allow modding and apps and add ons you can get a very concise idea of how most gamers think and feel by looking at the amount of downloads each mod or app has and even across different games the same theme always shows up. Which is why i say as gamers and players of games we all have a general understanding and opinion of what 'improves' a game. We can differ on some particulars but for the most part if a mod or an app does something that should be a 'no brainer' then its downloaded by 80% of the people who own the game.
There are about a dozen decent MMOs out there that have yet to be created. And probably never will. Because of short sightedness and fear of not making money. Also because the new generation of kids coming up, not just gamers, all have sever ADD and instant gratification 'training' built into them. Thats why BRs and quick hitter games that either kill you off fast or have relatively quick finishing results are doing so well. MMOs and 'epic' type games are relegated to us old guys who grew up with pencil and paper games, and maybe some of the late 20s early 30s people who cut their teeth on Wow as kids and have grown up hoping for something like it to come along again. Thats why now you get the same derogatory comments guys who didnt like WoW are now saying about people playing Fortnite 'its a kiddie game'. SO same mentality different time. But fairly accurate in its simplicity. Not to say 'older' more 'refined' gamers werent playing both its just the general consensus of 'serious' gamers is theyre not/werent 'worth' playing, at least for nay length of time.
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Basically they have decent foundations, although with ARK and Atlas many would argue (due to performance and optimization issues) that their foundations isnt very good at all.
But a lot of games do a lot of things well none of them come close to doing enough well let alone 'everything' well. Obviously a lot of that is personal opinion, but at MMOs players most people have a fairly;y straight forward agreement on most things. Sure some outside the box idea might pique some interest but when it fails most people go back to old school line of thinking. The ones that like the outside the box thinking are generally the ones who exploit it the best i.e. Guild traders in ESO rather than an outright Auction House. I have always said tyhat was a decent idea but should have been implemented sort of how Pirates of the Burning Sea did it. Separate pick up locations but the same overall AH. Or at least public access. What Beth/Zen did was water down another fundamental MMO cornerstone (guilds) and allowed people to belong to 5 of them simultaneously. Which sort of defeats the purpose of what a guild used to stand for. But was a work around for people who just joined guilds to access trading.
Players know what they want and like, and when you look at the games that DO allow modding and apps and add ons you can get a very concise idea of how most gamers think and feel by looking at the amount of downloads each mod or app has and even across different games the same theme always shows up. Which is why i say as gamers and players of games we all have a general understanding and opinion of what 'improves' a game. We can differ on some particulars but for the most part if a mod or an app does something that should be a 'no brainer' then its downloaded by 80% of the people who own the game.
There are about a dozen decent MMOs out there that have yet to be created. And probably never will. Because of short sightedness and fear of not making money. Also because the new generation of kids coming up, not just gamers, all have sever ADD and instant gratification 'training' built into them. Thats why BRs and quick hitter games that either kill you off fast or have relatively quick finishing results are doing so well. MMOs and 'epic' type games are relegated to us old guys who grew up with pencil and paper games, and maybe some of the late 20s early 30s people who cut their teeth on Wow as kids and have grown up hoping for something like it to come along again. Thats why now you get the same derogatory comments guys who didnt like WoW are now saying about people playing Fortnite 'its a kiddie game'. SO same mentality different time. But fairly accurate in its simplicity. Not to say 'older' more 'refined' gamers werent playing both its just the general consensus of 'serious' gamers is theyre not/werent 'worth' playing, at least for nay length of time.