Do you think that the MMO-genre can still make a comeback?

[Lotus Victoria]

Hello, champions! Good to see you all.

So, it's easy to see that the MMO fever died down in the last years. Almost every MMO that comes out tries to be the WoW killer and that ends up being it's own demise - most of them try to replicate WoW to then add a gimmick or two that gets old very quickly, instead of trying to make a new MMO with new mechanics.

That and a lot of other things made the MMO-Genre get very stale - We still have the Titans of the Genre - WoW, FF14, GW2 and others,but still, the fever has died down for a bit.

With that in mind, do you think that the MMO-Genre can still make a big comeback? Revolutionizing the genre just like WoW did in 2004?

I'd like to hear your opinion!

See you soon.

[GennGreymane]

Yes
/10chars

[dope_danny]

No. Persistent online multiplayer and virtual online communities are not a novelty anymore. What does an mmorpg have to give it unique mass market appeal anymore?

[Shanden]

Actually the genre is not in such a decline as people want to believe. The players are divided between more mmorpgs than ever and the biggest competitor is actually the moba genre. You can use google trends and compare the most popular mmos against each other (they did not steal that many players from each other) and the upcoming of mobas to see some correlation. Enough "off topic".

Do I believe the mmorpg genre could have another big entry played by millions? Sure. The reasons for stagnation is pretty simple: high development costs and no courage to risk the investment with some fresh gameplay.
Nearly all mmorpgs play the same and follow the same basics formulas. Holy trinity (*yawn*). Static Bossfights (memorize guide and go brain afk). Epic loot for everyone. Simplistic class specialization (one class is the same for different players). Gearscores to make people feel superior (even though they are not). Abysmal gaps between high level/gearscore and lower players. Boring Leveling. Next to no Story. No involvement in shaping the world. No player influenced content. Shallow crafting/job systems. Gear dependend PvP. No feeling for a huge world. Focus solely on raids. No "mmo" elements (>100 players) anymore.

Will there be another huge mmorpg? Absolutely not. You can make decent money by just throwing boring gameplay around. Mmorpgs lost their soul long ago and have nothing special anymore to compete with other genres.

[Vintersol]

Gimme some sort of destiny or division with a fantasy setting and i wouldn't need a full MMORPG.

[Schattenlied]

I believe they could, if they bring back the things that made them actual MMOs(stop encouraging people to be anti-social) and actual RPGs, and (in WoW's case in particular) stop dumbing them down/removing depth, and sure, they could make a comeback.

In other words, they can make a comeback if they appeal to the people that actually want to play an MMORPG, not everyone else... Right now they are mostly trying to appeal to everyone else.

[Bigbazz]

There needs to be a breakthrough of some sort, until that happens then it will be stale bread going forward.

[Deleted]

Not while the current big ones exist.

People aren't gonna quit WoW or Final Fantasy for good and start over

They already got all their good shit, their guild and their 7 years playtime on their main beast mastery hunter

[Coldkil]

I think they can still ahve a place but they need to fundamentally change endgame structure since big group/hours long type of content (like raids) simply doesn't attract anymore a lot of people - old players mostly have moved on IRL so they don't have the actual time, new players are used to completely different stuff. You need something that rewards a long term commitment but that can be easily split into "mini tasks" to accomodate a lot more schedule types. Also smaller groups are easier to form and manage. The persistent world part must stay instead, because it gives the game a completely different feeling.

Not while the current big ones exist.

People aren't gonna quit WoW or Final Fantasy for good and start over

Also this. The genre has become more niche and most people jumps or already is into the big exsisting ones.

[Eleccybubb]

Not while the current big ones exist.

People aren't gonna quit WoW or Final Fantasy for good and start over

They already got all their good shit, their guild and their 7 years playtime on their main beast mastery hunter

Eh I've always stated if WoW or FF14 do some really shady garbage then I'm out. It's the reason GW2 and Rift are not on my pc anymore among other things.

An example would be paid lootboxes.

[Deleted]

I if recall right, there is more people playing MMOs (not the butchering word that includes freaking lobby games), than there ever has been in the past; so in a sense it is where you are describing it. However, there is a likelihood that it doesn't retain the percentage of the marketplace that it used to hold.

But for what it would need, I mean it would need to make engaging gameplay, meaningful quests, story and lore, it would need a good theme, it would need a system that would be capable of making a hard balance between getting people engaged in social aspects and not scare them from doing content because of grouping. And lastly, it would like need a billion dollar marketing plan.

Suffice to say, it likely ain't going to happen, most likely because it would have to be such a perfect storm and resources that it is an endevour that would be hard to take on.

[Deleted]

it's not a case of 'decline', it's the fact that the mmo genre is the most backwards when it comes to technological and gameplay advancement. a lot of the top tier titles are pretty outdated in terms of the largest parts of their titles - be it combat, storytelling, graphics or physics. when an mmo wants to really improve on either of these things, they fall really short on the rest, as proven by titles such as the old republic or black desert online.

imo the biggest reason for that fact is wow. wow has been the de facto 'king of mmo's for years and its' status of an outdated game has started to really show since cataclysm. while it still looks surprisingly good, that's due to the unique art approach blizzard has. the rest of the game falls flat on its face, but thats no surprise if blizzard borrows heavily from other titles (that are pretty outdated themselves) or their older games (see the multiple diablo 3 mechanics added in legion). while blizzard's storytelling has improved a bit in legion, its still a far cry from other games, even other mmos.

i do wonder what the prime reason of this issue is, though. games have seen a tremendous amount of advancement in multiple genres. while i won't say that mmo's haven't been advancing at all, they still have done so at a much slower pace compared to other genres.