After lost ark I came to the conclusion WoW is probably the last MMO that will ever succeed. MMO genre has gone through some significant changes over the past few years. While there are still plenty of players who enjoy playing MMOs, it’s also true that the genre is no longer the dominant force it once was.
One factor contributing to this decline is the difficulty of making MMOs accessible to new players. The genre is notorious for its steep learning curve, and many new players find it overwhelming and frustrating. This can be a significant barrier to entry for those who might otherwise be interested in the genre.
Additionally, the rise of other gaming genres, such as battle royales, MOBAs, and open-world games, has drawn players away from MMOs. These genres offer similar experiences without the same level of commitment and time investment required by MMOs.
Despite these challenges, WoW has managed to maintain its position as the most successful MMO on the market. WoW was the first MMO to get many things right, and it has continued to evolve and improve over the years. This has allowed it to retain a dedicated player base, even as other MMOs have struggled.
Of course, WoW is not without its own challenges. The game has faced criticism for its aging graphics and mechanics, and some players have grown tired of the game’s formulaic approach to expansion releases. Additionally, some players have complained about the game’s lack of innovation in recent years.
There was never a point in humanity’s life where multiple mmos were big. It was always WOW being huge. Now it’s wow and ff. It’s quite normal. The genre is still doing great, it’s just people spread to many other games.
You can’t compare 2004-2009 to today’s internet. Back then there were not too many online videogames available so WoW was very popular. But then other games came, most of them being f2p which attracted lots of casuals, also people nowadays prefer to play faster games, and getting everything fast and fast. That’s why MMOs are not as popular as other game genres.
I went to a chess competition once. I told them the game is unnecessarily complicated, frustrating to new players, has a steep learning curve and it’s visuals are outdated.
I then reaffirmed my point that it’s a dying genre and walked out of the room.
mmos are actually resurging atm because people are so bored of moba and fps games that they look for mmos but there really isn’t a great option right now , some looks old , some are p2w, wow is filled with toxic people and it has a very limited end-game but i know that some really good mmos are on the way so they might help with this. the genre managed to survive
SW:ToR and Star Trek Online seems doing pretty well (even having a mini-renaissance actually, if you want my opinion)
GW and FF isn’t doing bad either
The genre is a survivor
So, there is this book by the name of Utopia by Sir Thomas More. In it, More outlines what a perfect society is, but unintentionally confirms that such a society can’t exist. In fact, from it comes the word dystopia. So, when Lord British created the Massively Multiplayer Online to outline what the perfect persistent multiplayer game is, he unintentionally confirmed that such a thing can’t exist. So, what I am arguing is that MMOs like a Utopia do not exist and will never exist.
Elder Scrolls is still a lot of fun. I think if WoW dies that’s where I’ll go. I think many will go to FF14 as well. And RIOT is making one, and on and on it goes. Loads of MMO’s coming up.
But no, I don’t think anything will ever be as successful as WoW was. And I don’t think it was because of the timing, either. It was just that good. Given comparable graphics for today’s era I think it would have done just as well. 50 zones, huge world, months of stuff in playing time to do, vibrant economy, etc.
With WoW Blizzard figured out something very fundamental and human about how we like to adventure. I mean the fact that people are on Classic right now torturing themselves by rerolling every time they die and they’re still having fun while you can’t find a soul leveling on retail really says it all. It’s just a great game.
I’ve lost interest in multiplayer games. Nowadays, I mainly stick to World of Warcraft since I’m already familiar with it, or I opt for single-player titles such as Grand Theft Auto or Pokémon. I don’t really want to invest time in learning new MMORPGs or MOBAs, as I have other obligations that take up my day. Perhaps there are others who share my sentiments.
I can see why younger gamers might prefer speedy gameplay rather than the traditional approach of gradually developing their characters, which appears to be outdated these days. Thus, I’m skeptical that World of Warcraft will be able to entice fresh players to join in, but instead will primarily focus on retaining its current player base and possibly welcoming back some previous players.
Well… i wouldnt say that. I think WoW, ESO, GW2 and ffxiv are to their own levels success.
The issue is, the market changed.
A online monthly sub fee, was normalised i WoWs age. By like 2014 odd came the “F2p hype” players wanted games to launch f2p.
Which kinda becsme the problem. Lol because this is when the p2w models arrived.
Rift, Wildstar, Aion, Tera, Everquest 2, BDO, GW2, ESO, Lost Ark, Genshin Impact. All jumped on this.
Which basically get masses to play via F2p. Enter a ton of micro transactions (some games more p2w then others) and then minimalise content added to the game to keep the whales playing.
Its less that the genre is dying, its more that we have yet to have a new release make major success.
I would disagree.
Lost Ark had a metric load of players running into the gates, and only bled hard once severe p2w methods were put into place to generate income.
Alot of younger players are looking for Releases which is the issue. The mmorpg catagory are run by games that are older then themselves.
Maybe riots mmorpg will change that, its looking to be the most hopeful realistically.
I’d probably play only FF if it had a big seemless world like wow, without the boxed in small zones with constant loading, wow-like better pvp (ff bg are a absolute trash meme) and a proper slider for effects and sounds. Few small things but they are actually huge issues.
After 65+ dungeons get really bloated with cosmic interdimensional magic blasts and effect vomit that floods the screen and things get really obnoxious.
There’s only 3 settings for effects, off-low-full but it literally translates into off-on-on.
A lot of the sound effects are also pretty harsh, sharp popping and slicing annoying stuff. Could have worked on making them much softer, odd for sony, a studio that oughta be known for a audio company first.
That “bling blong asian arcade hall pewpew” high fidelity visual gigaparticle effect/ sound design aspect is seriously draining. If they had fixed all those things + bg pvp + seemless world, I would 100% play it instead of wow.
And a few years ago literally every single game, from an RTS to an FPS to bloody Tetris, had to have a long form leveling system.
Not to mention all these mobile games - they all have XP or currency systems and then they entice you with ways to skip them…
If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s people talking about human psychology as if it has a fashion cycle. It doesn’t - fashion is one of 2 things:
The latest greatest thing that spread around by word of mouth, whatever that is
A cyclical marketing ploy to make consumers spend more money on things because their existing things don’t “look good” instead of when they’re worn out
Nothing else. What’s fun now was fun 10 years ago was fun 100 years ago, and what was fun 100 years ago is still fun today. We have monkey brains. They’ve hardly evolved for tens of thousands of years. They respond the same way they always did.
Whenever the zeitgeist shifts towards what’s the “best thing nowadays” it’s because someone figured out how to take a niche genre and do it so well that it seems to appeal to all. WoW did exactly this - it said let’s do an MMORPG where we have this long leveling game with tons to see but the heat only rises - we’ll have no mechanics where people get stuck, regress, have to play all the time, fall behind (hence rested XP) and let’s make it look good unlike all the other MMORPG’s that looked very dated at the time.
Oh and let’s use a franchise for it which everybody is using to make their own games via the map editor so literally half the internet is familiar with it. Warcraft was like our generation’s Minecraft or Roblox or LEGO or whatever else - something where everybody’s building their own thing using a popular brand.
That’s all it is. WoW just did MMO so well that it felt like the MMO era. That’s it. The genre isn’t dying and it isn’t dead, and if anybody figures out how to catch that lightning a bottle again it’ll come roaring back.
Alot of people seem to have invested their hope that its riots mmorpg that will manage it.
Its pausible its done alot right on the way to build up a playerbase before its even launch.
With the success LoL, to have already sooooo much lore and design under the belt + the roaring success arcane was, it will defintly have traction with alot of audiences.
But nothing can be spoken prior the launch of the product. Wouldnt be the first mmorpg to be massively hyped to then flop.
I truly hope so, as the continued success of the genre would drive Blizzard’s developers to stay on top of their game due to their competitors. As a result, we would likely benefit from an improved game experience overall.
This is the key. Most people are familiar with it and comfortable. Rather the devil you know than one you don’t. I agree though the game needs an update on the world and it needs an easier entry barrier. I still think with so many expansions they should allow new players to level fully in the new one they joined. They have the option to go back and play others. this would make it easeir for new players.
I’ve played both of those. Rift was pretty cool while it was still on a monthly subscription model and had some really innovative dungeons and raids at the time. I still remember how heroic dungeons were set at a time after you’ve been there before and actually had different paths, mobs and bosses to reflect this.
I really wanted to love Wildstar. All the characters and the player models just oozed style. The gameplay was fast and fun. But holy moly, the devs really misjudged their audience. When I hit max level there was so little to do without a hardcore guild, and when I hit the brick wall all the sexy world and character design couldn’t hold me. I hear it’s gotten better later on, but no one returned… shame, really. Such a promising game, if only they hadn’t made it “for hardcore only” it might still be around today.
