Game developers moving away from categorising their games as traditional "MMOs"

[Ebonheart]

Well there does seem to be a trend with game developers seemingly keen to be moving away from categorising their games as traditional MMOs. The two big name IPs, Destiny and Elder Scrolls Online have already moved away from the traditional "MMO" tag.

Destiny has been categorised as an online FPS that incorporates MMO elements. Similarly with ESO, they seem to be moving away from the MMO tag, and are now "more of a multiplayer Elder Scrolls game than an MMO". For those that have not heard of the upcoming game, "The Crew"; even the developers seem to be categorising the game as open world racing with large scale multilayer elements. Even Blizzard's upcoming "Titan Project" has been rebooted.

I think MMOs as a genre has come a really long way from a niche market of closet MMO gamers to mainstream gaming. Massively Multiplayer Online Role Play Games can be very broadly defined, but the essence has always been a player assuming the role of a character in a persistent online world and living and experiencing the world through that character. That is what Ultima Online and the older games were built around. It gave you freedom to be who you wanted to be.

Now this is a very subjective opinion, but regardless the popularity of World of Warcraft in the MMO scene, I think its had a lot of negative impact on the MMO genre as a whole and probably the biggest game to hurt a single gaming genre. The MMO genre has always been a very niche genre. For the longest time it had been a haven for folks looking to get lost in a fantasy world, looking to escape their mundane surroundings. You could be whoever you wanted to be in this world. You were not Jack the accountant, but were a 2-H wielding dragon slayer, or a wizard highly proficient in the arcane arts. Therefore a lot more time and dedication was required compared to other genres and it had a niche market.

However, with World of Warcraft, the MMO genre went main stream which isn't a bad thing. But the choices Blizzard made have hurt the game and the genre. The introduction of LFD/LFR, the PVP Queue system and loot handouts and many other changes to make the game more accessible has hurt the genre. Any game developer/studio planning on releasing a new MMO has to have their games made so easy and accessible to even be able to compete with WoW. All the MMOs that have come out in the last few years, were forced to implement or launch with a LFD queue following subscriber feedback and angry rants. So games are already at a disadvantage if they don't release something similar. Now this was never expected before LFD was introduced in Wow, but it has become something already of a must have. Even games like Tera had to go through massive levelling nerfs to make the game more accessible.

Over the last few expansions, since WTLK, Blizzard has slowly been shifting its direction to end game content. Levelling has been made easier and quicker, while more and more effort seems to be put on end game content and a lot of levelling content in regards to balance has been ignored. However, raiding is a very old school concept in MMOs. Sure you still have a hardcore bunch of raiders and guilds, but raiding has been at its lowest since the launch of the game when you take out LFR.

Even ZMO has confirmed that they will not be having any large scale raids in their upcoming game. They have their own variation of adventure zones with smaller groups.

So my point being that it is actually hard competing in the MMO genre when you have the genre at its knees. It would take something totally drastic and revolutionary and a willingness to take a big leap of faith for a game studio to come out and categorise their game as a MMO with the state of things the way it is today.

And that is why major game developers are moving away from the MMO tag because it only seems to hurt the game more due to gamers unrealistic expectations and demands.

[Ferocity]

And that is why major game developers are moving away from the MMO tag because it only seems to hurt the game more due to gamers unrealistic expectations and demands.

Nay, it's because we are currently experiencing long 2nd downfall of video games in general (first one was crash in 80s). Games were art, now they are mostly just soulless means of making money.

[Edge-]

So wait...other than TESO, which other developers are dropping the MMO tag?

Destiny doesn't seem to be designed as a proper MMO, though they have talked about how it resembles MMO design on multiple occasions. Part of this is obviously due to the fact that it's a console only game atm (no confirmation on a PC client) and console players are far more familiar with the multiplayer terminology than the MMO terminology. Many will instantly think of WoW, and that's not the direction that Bungie is taking with Destiny, so they're being very careful how they message it to their current target audience.