Is the MMORPG dead or dying?

spudbynight

spudbynight

spudbynight

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The news that Wildstar and its publisher are shutting down got me thinking. Is the MMORPG dead or dying?

I remember 10 years ago, the genre was still in rude health. World of Warcraft had over 10m subs, now it has half that. The other big names have gone from large numbers of subs and frequent updates to either FTP and life support or death itself.

The only MMORPG that seems to have kept itself alive is EVE and that is kind of a special case. Even EVE has seen a fall in subscriber numbers.

Is the world of MMORPGs something that has been and gone?
 
Only two that are generally still going strong are WoW and Guild Wars 2 as they cater to different playerbases.

All the others that have come and gone over the years haven't last long at all before the playerbases drop off.
 
spudbynight said:
The only MMORPG that seems to have kept itself alive is EVE and that is kind of a special case. Even EVE has seen a fall in subscriber numbers.
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WoW has still millions of subscribers, I can't see that disappearing anytime soon.

Never rated EVE, played BETA.
 
EVE developer CCP got acquired the other day by the Black Desert Online people, so arguably that's dead too.

Yes I think the MMORPG is dead. It's too easy to design a game either:
- to take a load of time to make you subscribe for longer
- to make you want/need micro-transaction items
..or both.
 
chroniclard said:
Simply, no. Its one of the biggest PC money makers.
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based on one? it's probably tiny compare to non mmo f2p games.

but it depends on what you are calling an mmo, to some people world of tanks is an mmo even though it's basically like calling counter strike an mmo when it's just a multiplayer game.

What big mmos are in development ? probably almost none

everyone tried to copy wow, people don't want that they can just play wow.

mmos became f2p with micro transactions, now there's a lot of almost mmos with micro transactions.

seems like a dying genre
 
No more than it's ever been really.

I've played a load of MMOs since even before WOW. All of them have come and gone (at least on a large commercial scale). It's always only been WOW and GW really. Nothing else has been able to successfully infiltrate the market (except for arguably Elder Scrolls online and FFXIV which I believe are both doing as well as they ever have been).
 
I think as much as anything the problem is developers who often don't seem to know what it takes to both capture and keep a player base for these kind of games - especially when any one developer gets too much leg room to run with their agenda unchecked without proper consideration for the broad player base of the game.

A lot of lessons could be learnt from looking at The Division and Eve Online - TD had massive initial interest and uptake and still keeps ticking over but a few things condemned the game to being only a shadow of what it could have been and Eve started to see a massive decline (though some measures have significantly slowed the bleed) when individual developers got to run with their agendas and ignoring the needs, etc. of not-insignificant percentages of the player base - the game could easily be running at twice the activity levels it is today.
 
The F2P cash grab killed the genre, so the devs themselves and the money men behind them are to blame.

I am sure their will be a another decent sub MMO in the future, everyone that goes F2P dies quickly.
 
Based on my Twitter feed it seems SWTOR is still going too.
Played Legend of Mir, City of Heroes, SWTOR and Guild Wars 2. Think I've sort of burnt out on MMOs after that.

There did seem to be a time where it seemed like every other game released was a MMORPG. Apart from a few they seem to struggle to last. I think a lot of companies think/hope they're making the next WoW and when it fails to live up to that they seem to pull the plug and move on.
 
MMORPGs went down the wrong path when they started trying to appeal to the entire userbase instead of specialising, when you consider the truly great MMOs of the early days, UO, EQ, Daoc, they appealed to a specific audience and excelled at delivering to that audience, it should also be pointed out that those MMOs were highly social affairs where it was difficult to do much solo and socialising and working together were necessities to success. IMO, the MMORPG genre needs to go back to those early days and make titles which are aimed at a specific target audience instead of trying to appeal to everyone. Its much easier to deliver what one audience wants than what everyone wants.

This is where I think upcoming titles like Pantheon are going about things in the right direction, no it isnt a title which will appeal to everyone, in fact there will be a lot of people who will complain loudly about it but thats because its not really aimed at their marketbase and I think thats what MMOs need to do again, go back to being a selection of titles each aimed at a different market. Then, providing they are done well of course, we will see some successful MMOs back on the horizon.
 
I miss a good MMO tbh, but refuse to play anything that is F2P Bring back the days of subscription, Conan and secret world was great till it went mental.
 
A new MMO in today's market could definitely still work with a strong IP behind it along with realistic expectations of market capture.

I'd love a new sandbox MMO even though I wouldn't be able to invest the same amount of time as I did when I was younger. I often see the argument from people I know who used to play games like Everquest or Star Wars Galaxies just don't have time to devote to a MMO now they are in their 30's and 40's with families, yet they still game for 30+ hours a week often hopping from one new game to the next never really satisfied from their experience.

Build a solid game with depth which involves strong social gameplay and known IP and it'll sell. Hell give me SWG2 and I'll buy a yearly sub, sorry SWTOR but I never wanted you.
 
I'm looking forward to MMORPG's that are more niche instead of broad themeparks.

My looking forward to list:
1. Pantheon; a modern take on EQ.
2. Camelot Unchained; obviously a modern take on DAoC.
3. Star Citizen of course, but this is many years down the road.
 
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Played UO, EQ, and DAoC. DAoC was the pinnacle of mmorpg in my mind... after that I stopped playing them as I just couldn't see where the genre could go to improve on it.

WoW always just looked like a Camelot rip-off.
 
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