Mid-Year Evaluation of preset major MMO titles: Which MMOs have to die

2011 is half gone (good riddance, already!), so I wanted to look at the fate of the major MMO titles and see how they are running. One of the things of MMOs these days is: There are WAAAAY too many. The result is: the playerbase is split over dozens of MMOs, people practice MMO hopping and the MMO interest group which would suffice to run a handful of titles is getting more and more spread thin. It is my firm believe that some of the major MMO titles just have to die. Period. Better a terrible ending than a terror without end. I mean, if we HONESTLY look at the currently running MMOs, we KNOW that some titles can not be saved. They will linger on in shadow existences like some undead zombie (Hello Vanguard), and no matter if they would be worth saving or not, they would need such a huge investment of money and time, and even then it would be highly doubtful if they ever recovered. So far, we haven't seen a real recovery of a fall from grace MMO ever. And I assume in a fast living industry as games we never will. That may be highly unfortunate, I am sure some MMOs really deserve a ressurrection. But alas, truth is that gaming industry just doesn't work that way. So some have to die to make way to better games. Just like in evolution inferior species had to make way to suprior species and like in technology inferior systems were replaced by better ones, so some bad MMOs just must go. Let's take an honest look at the bigger titles.

 

(1) AGE OF CONAN

It's hard to judge. AoC has remained to be a broken title, and while the expansion has made some good moves, the game just didn't really recover. There still is something very clumsy about the gameplay. I had made the experiement some months ago and while the new content is nice and fine, I could not help but feel to play an aged MMO concept. I'd say AoC still deserves to life, maybe a F2P transition would help, but I just don't see the game will ever recover. It will slowley dwindle into obscurity like Vanguard. VOTE: 6/10

(2) WARHAMMER

I sense WAR has essentially been given up by EA, and boy, I can't blame them. Does anyone still play this? I'd really like to hear from people who play this how it fares. Last time I checked was last autumn on a friend's account, and it was basically the same lame old. Nothing had really changed. It's a pity because there are so few real PVP MMOs. But I don't see EA really cares anymore. I sense they leave it on "tag along" mode. Also would benefit from F2P, but the fate will be the same as AoC, a slow descent into meaninglessness. VOTE: 5/10

(3) LORD OF THE RINGS

On the contrary to the previous, LOTRO fares pretty well. I think they made a great transistion into modern times with the mix of paid VIP and Freemium, which brought and kept a stready income of new players and old times. I recently returned to LOTRO after Rift kind got boring, and I am quite happy with LOTRO. The mix of classic MMO virtues of wonderful stories still catches, it has much greater variety to level and play than Rift and IMVPO is FAR the superior game than Rift, or essentially almost all existing MMOs. While clearly still a 2nd Gen MMO, LOTRO remains for me one of the best, if not THE best MMO out there to play. Yeah, I am serious. VOTE 9/10

(4) CHAMPIONS ONLINE

I still think CO is better than people claim, and ever since PWI took over, there seems to be a regular influx of new quests in form of story-adventures, which really is a good thing. With the F2P and Gold member mix it has gone the same road as LOTRO, which I see as a good road for aged MMOs to keep their place. I always thought CO was quite better than DCU, but then it's highly a matter of taste. With the existing payment mix and if PWI keeps the funding for ongoing new content I think CO might actually have a real future. Much to anyone's surprise, and due to the one-server concept you see lots of players still and CO Zone Chat is VERY active. VOTE: 7/10

(5) DCU

Has to die. Period. It's a SHAME for the grand IP which is DC, and SO DAMN BROKEN on so many levels. It would need about 5-10 times a much content, a total revamp of the UI and an entire legion of patches and revamps. SOE just is incapable of such a major rework, so it could just as well die. It's a pity. The idea of action combat wasn't so bad and the stories are fun, also the cities look really great, but the repetivive button mashing combat is just SO nauseating. I recently looked back because SOE gave us some free days, but I was so bored from the mindless button mashing. No chance in hell this game will recover with it's felt 20 players remaining. VOTE: 3/10

(6) FFXIV

I never played that game, so I just tell about my feeling: I't dead, Jim. I think the developers are making a valiant effort to revive it, and I dunno about the Asian MMO market, but in the west one can clearly say FF14 is dead. IMVPO they should close it and start over from scratch. Just my 5 ct. VOTE can't say, never played

(7) STO

Dead. Can't be saved and I am not gonna waste time on even writing about it. It was a DAMN disgrace for Star Trek! End of story. VOTE: 1/10

(8) FALLEN EARTH

Aww well... Fallen Earth... I played it for a while, and it was a lot like SWG nostalgia. All these wonderful sandbox elements. But alas, the game is so complicated, the UI so old fashioned, there is just little chance this game will ever get out of it's super tiny niche. FE has a really nice community, as it's usually the case with Sandbox MMOs where people depend on each other, but the sense of aimless walking around just overcame me after 2 months and I could not bring myself to keep playing. Maybe I have outgrown this sort of Sandbox gameplay and I got too lazy and convenient. I think as super niche game since we have so few sandbox games, it deserves some existence, but like all Sandboxes developed in the last few years, it just is too much lacking direction and quality. I don't see it anywhere else than where it is now. VOTE: 6/10

(9) RIFT

I guess most things have already been said about Rift. It has some great qualities and some serious letdown. The two greatest letdowns for me are: the gameplay is SO dull and repetitive. The combat is uninspired, the quests are dull and once you have played through once you have seen it all. That all contributes to the factor that after 6-8 weeks I just had enough of it already. Second: Rift just followed the same terrible WOW model of endgear grind. GAWD how I hate that! Grinding the same 5 dungeons OVER AND OVER AND OVER for little tokens for tier 1 then tier 2 asf... good riddance how I hate that. I don't know how any sane being can stand the sheer boredom of doing that! And now what do they add? RAIDS! Well, welcome to WOW 2. And guess what, you need that Tier 3 gear to do the raids. Fun. Or not. I'd say Rift is ok for a one time play through, but I am VERY concerned for Rifts long time future. I just can't for anything see how Rift really can survive in the long run. Probably may be in troubled waters in a year or so. VOTE: for the first play through 8/10, after reaching max level with one char: 5/10

 

I guess I make a break here. May someone else continue with MMOs he/she/it knows. Or bring your own mini reviews instead