Anyone else think the genre is in a terrible state right now? I don't mean the state of current older games like wow, eve online, gw2 etc as they are still popular and some people love to play them still. What I am talking about is 'newer' mmorpgs that have come out in the past few years. The amount of decent quality 'newer' mmorpgs in the past few years has been pretty terrible.
There are a bunch of promising ones on the horizon... They really need to be released! It is strange how they seem to all be releasing around the same time, that none were in development and releasing in the past few years. At the moment, we are stuck in limbo with a bunch of spiritual successors in the works. (Pantheon, Camelot Unchained, Crowfall particularly come to mind).
I really think that this genre has a lot of potential still but these titles need to shake up the paradigm a bit. Mmorpg's provide a large living world where you actually get to play with and/or against dozens if not hundreds or thousands of other people... I think this is something that will always capture the human imagination... Something that will never go out of fashion. It is just it's execution that really matters, very difficult to get right, but now we have a few less technological limits like we used to a decade ago.
Perhaps at some point it will go full circle and someone will innovate and make a great successful title which reinvigorates the genre. I think at some point this will definitely happen, it's just a matter of time, but it could very well actually be a very long time from now, perhaps even a decade or two, hopefully not.
Personally I am waiting for three main types of mmorpg's specifically with regard to theme.
-An mmorpg with a theme similar to dark souls, so a mature dark fantasy themed mmorpg,
-A mature high fantasy themed mmorpg, a style that is a bit closer in style to the real world but in a fantasy setting like lotr (but a more serious and mature graphical style than lotro).
-Also one based on something similar to or actually using the 40k universe. A dark and mature sci-fi universe like warhammer 40k, especially with the the super rich lore it has is a perfect match and a very cool theme.
What kind of style of mmorpg would you love if you could have? Themes or gameplay mechanics?
Started playing mmorpg's in 1996 and have been hooked ever since. It began with Kingdom of Drakkar, Ultima Online, Everquest, DAoC, WoW...
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Oh and with some honourable exceptions most MMOs are well, no longer really MMOs.
The mmo genre had its run but its fading from mass appeal. Look at the games that are popular today. Games like Fortnite are the new rage. To young people mmo's are old people games now. They want fast and quick game play. And a lot of older people are just not into the new mmo's coming out. And lets not forget dealing with player communities either. You could say Wow was great for the mmo but it also was bad too. Look at all the people still playing Wow over the new games that keep coming out. These people see no reason to quit Wow over any other mmo.
- 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
Seeing such a simple and easy design to mimic is why the market became flooded with these clones,even easier with modern day engines and tech.
These titles,AL of them since Wow have very few systems and the FOCUS of the games has remained a very simple one>>level fast and kill bosses for loot,,YEAH so much fun...sigh.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
You have the Golden Age for Old School vets who played as a hobby
who got screwed over by
WoW Age for Millennials who played for entertainment.
who got screwed over by
Mobile Games for Gen Z who play while waiting on nude Snapchat pics to download from the girl in their math class.
I think a 40K Warhammer MMO could be a big success, but it is seen as too risky, so we may never see one. The gaming industry, not just MMOs has shoe horned itself into a box that is very hard to break out from.
I think devs are in a flux. They see WoW, but fail when they try to duplicate it. They try to do other types of games, but they don't stick around long. They're learning, too slow IMHO, that most peeps don't like P2W or "bad" lootboxes or being nickled and dimed from their games, but they still haven't found the happy medium yet.
I wish they'd get away from the shallow flash and get to an epic journey/story/lore. I wish they'd learn to incorporate all of our tech into games to give us more options on how to consume its content.
Stop using shallow game mechanics as filler, Devs, because "it's a MMORPG so ____ has to be in there." Give things more weight and meaning, damn it! Provide us with a mountain of customization options for all aspects of our game, so we can use the tools you provide to cater our gameplay to our liking, instead of force feeding us what you think we want.
Modders have been taking what you make, and turning it into something better forever, or adding lots of gameplay that you didn't even think of, so why the hand holding? Give us the world and the tools, and get out of our way, but the keys to the kingdom still belong to you and thanks for giving us a safe place to flex our creative muscles and play!
Gamers are your greatest resource, and we'd provide a lot of services out of love for the game...for free.
Gut Out!
What, me worry?
Imagine Skyrim with a bunch of friends? People have been wanting this stuff for so long, but it doesn't happen.
Instead we get half assed MMORPGs that leave a lot to be desired.. and just can't compete with the decade old titan that WoW is. There's so many QoL features needed in MMORPGs these days that having everything there on launch is practically impossible. Hell, popular MMOs like FFXIV have tons of missing QoL features and archaic restrictions, yet it's still one of the top played MMORPGs today.
Technology has vastly improved over the last 20 years. We can have open world full action combat games. Sure lag is a problem in giant countries like NA compared to where these types of games are developed (Korea), not to mention infrastructure differences, but it's fully possible now when it wasn't before. We can have tens of thousands of people on the same server. We can simulate impressive AI ontop of having hundreds or thousands of people playing.
So much stuff is possible that wasn't before (or not without extreme sacrifices). But it feels like things haven't progressed anywhere near like we'd expect.
I'm always hopeful a new titan will come out, but.. it's more often than not letdowns year after year.
Regardless, I just really wish we had more singleplayer-like multiplayer games. More co-op in games; no throwaway horde modes, but full on open world campaign co-op with story and everything. These games are rare.. notably on PC, and especially with online multiplayer.
A story like most single player games have boggles my mind in a multiplayer set up. This was a huge reason I was very skeptical of ES:O.
I can see the appeal, though. Having friends in your party and interacting with them makes the game seem more "human." I can totally get this part. It just doesn't grab the old "party RPG" games of old (Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic ! & 2, all of the old Gold Box D&D games, Bard's Tale, etc.).
Now, maybe if the game was like the old "Gauntlet" arcade game, where there was little to no story, maybe. Just go out and kill things, together with friends. That'd be a cool tag line!
What appeals to me in single player games gets lost in multiplayer games. I get to decide what to do and when. If I see a shiny, I can go right at it. I don't need to consider anyone else's playtime. The story is built for me only, not a party. I can take the time to roleplay if I want to, or read books (TES). That's just me and my opinion, though. I know many other players agree with you
Maybe it's just 'cause I ain't got no friends...
- 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
I think people that play MMORPGs as a hobby are different than people who play MMOs for entertainment.
Sadly, I don't see MMORPGs ever being made again for the hobbyist.
Remember when Devs played their own games? Remember when GMs would spawn a rare boss in the middle of a city/town?
Now, MMORPGs are called "products", made by a studio filled with no-name devs that only care about deadlines from the publisher and earnings reports for investors. LOLWAT?
MMORPGs went from being a hobby to an industry. And it shows. Badly, depending on what kind of player you are.
Gone are the days where you can truly enjoy the leveling part of the game, because it's all half-baked. Developers now know the part that matters is the endgame for a majority of MMO players (RPG or otherwise), so they put all their effort into that while putting barely any into pre-endgame content. They reason, "we'll just offer an level boost when there's more endgame grind since players won't enjoy our leveling content anyway", and they're probably right.
Which is all fine if you're one of those players who enjoys gear treadmills, or is all about endgame dungeons and raids, but for those of us who liked the feeling of adventuring in a world filled with other players it makes MMOs feel not much different to playing something like Left 4 Dead - join a match (a group doing dungeons/raids) and play against the challenges you face. Fun sometimes, but completely lacking any sense of adventure which drew us to MMORPGs for the RPG part.
Unfortunately it's all lead to MMORPGs perverting RPG progression concepts into being the core game loop, to the point where some players don't even realise these RPG mechanics weren't originally meant to carrot-and-stick you all the way to endgame, but be a measure of your character's progression (hence the term) throughout the adventure.
Another great loss to modern MMO development trends is any depth to character creation and development. Each class will simply have a handful of skills to choose from which must all be balanced in the interest of endgame parity, if possible. At best you'll have a choice of a few skill trees or sub classes which have one defining mechanic change.
I yearn for an MMORPG which doesn't make me feel like I'm being taken on a tour of a world not even the developers care for on the way to the endgame grind, and actually feel like I'm adventuring and developing a character. You know, sort of like an RPG.
Isn't that basically games like Diablo, Torchlight, Grim Dawn, Titan Quest, and Path of Exile? Story is present, but basically can be ignored and the main attraction is killing a whole lot of monsters for their sweet, randomly generated loot.
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I'd want a deep and complex rpg system and character development.
I don't want gimmicks like finding collectables tied to any significant chardev systems like in DCUO. I don't understand achievements and would prefer a game the focuses on gameplay and rewards clearing content with something tangible and sensible and not something only kids understand or want.
I don't want scaling content like in ESO.
I definitely want a real auction house and not the gimmicky nonsense in ESO.
I'd prefer reticle system instead of tab-targeting.
I'd like a sci-fi world with tons of item slots and implants and nano-tech like in AO.
Different servers for different pvp and pvp-loot rules.
I definitely don't want it to be a single character can train and do everything type of game like Ryzom and Shroud of the Avatar. I like alts. I like restricted, rewarding crafting too and hate everyone can train all resource collection professions and all crafting professions and craft everything.
Definitely have an arena with 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5.
Definitely have challenging baseline content that can be solo'd but is much easier/faster grouped. No Wildstar level difficulty for dungeons and raids since everyone will rage-quit the game and blame the game for being bad instead of themselves for being baddies.
Just stressing again no auction system that requires you to run all over the place and waste all your game time buying and getting one upgrade as an excuse to force you to look at player cities or a player's house. Grown men don't care about and definitely don't want to be inconvenienced to highlight a Barbie doll house system of the game.
No housing system or player city system at all to keep the undesirables out and as payback for all the time these people and their Barbie doll house love has caused me to have wasted over the years.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey