The death of the MMORPG?

[procyan]

Before anyone freaks out, this is in response to this article I just read:

http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/122/1225088p1.html

I sorta skipped some of it towards the end, but basically, the state of MMOs as we know them is a dying breed. That nothing today captures the "magic" that MMOs used to. Community used to be a central, important aspect in games and for the most part that is dead today. I'm not sure if MMOs will die out, but the points he makes are valid. Especially the generation gap between older players and newer ones. I'm not trying to flame younger players, but this is the environment they were most likely introduced to when they started playing, for example, WoW during WotLK when the LFG tool was introduced. What are your thoughts?

[Deleted]

I agree with his points, but I don't think it will die, just that it will be different. Free to play for a start, more focus on new ideas and technology as the Big Behemoth that WoW poses slowly falls to its death - we're seeing it already but the MMORPGs developed and released in the future will have less and less of WoW in them.

[Defaulty]

Before anyone freaks out, this is in response to this article I just read:

http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/122/1225088p1.html

I sorta skipped some of it towards the end, but basically, the state of MMOs as we know them is a dying breed. That nothing today captures the "magic" that MMOs used to. Community used to be a central, important aspect in games and for the most part that is dead today. I'm not sure if MMOs will die out, but the points he makes are valid. Especially the generation gap between older players and newer ones. I'm not trying to flame younger players, but this is the environment they were most likely introduced to when they started playing, for example, WoW during WotLK when the LFG tool was introduced. What are your thoughts?

Nothing more than a nostalgic egotistical (old school) gamer posting about his/her shortcomings on interaction with more people.

Missing the touch of old MMO design? Please. If anymore the community has grown and because you fail to make base with any of the far reaches of members within World of Warcraft or any other MMO for that then it's not the end of the genre. Far from it, the MMO world is advancing and growing, far from dieing. Difficulty is vast with varying modes for the casual (I have 15 minutes to play) to the "no-life" gamer who has all the spare time in the summer to smash out new bosses and claim world first.

And holy crap has this guy only played one MMO and claimed death to the rest of the realm of the genre?

Choose Your Own Adventure

The challenges of the group content ensured that we forged our own stories -- stories more memorable than the predictable fantasy drivel that makes its way into almost every game -- and that fact alone highlights how strong a prevailing sense of community and working together was in those days. For me it sprang from PvE raiding; for you, it might have been PvP. Regardless of how you approached it, there existed a sustained sense of depending on other players whom you knew well and contributing original ideas to strategies. I no longer find this feeling in today's MMORPGs, and I have serious doubts that the current model can survive in its absence.

I'm sorry that you've only played World of Warcraft and its a super casual game, have you tried EVE Online. Let me show you all that you can do. And remind you every inch of this has something to do with another player in SOME fashion, without any other players in the game this list wouldn't be possible in some way.

http://swiftandbitter.com/eve/wtd/
Stories happening in the game: http://www.evenews24.com/

ITT: Screaming the sky is falling, when it's only expanding.


In an MMO for something to happen you have to make it happen, or just cry on the forums that there's nothing to do now.

[procyan]

There is some merit to the article though. It is very true that communities in WoW are a thing of the past. Thanks to the random nature of LFG and LFR, the only real interaction you have in the game is in your guild, people on your friends list, or trade (if you are into that sort of thing). Even guilds are slowly dying out. Some of that might be end of xpac woes, but the community hasn't been the same since LFG came out. Nostalgia maybe, but the points are valid.

[jmacphee9]

i would say it is evolving more then it is dying. alot of people dont want to play a mid-evil version of secondlife with bosses, even at the cost of a tight-knit server. they would rather run dungeons or pvp, at the cost of spending an hour to get a dungeon group together.

[Deleted]

As they bluntly say in the EVE Online forum: "Adapt or die"

[vizzle]

Silly writer.

[Ooldoong]

It's interesting how I come across people want to play an MMO but don't do stuff with others, then complain that no one is on. Or say their guild is dead, but nobody wants to take the initiative to get something together.

[Fishyface]

I played ultima online starting back in 2001 so im going to speak from experience there, the mmo culture has changed and not for the better.

The communities of old were small and tight knit which allowed for same people to play with/against each other over and over which formed friendships both in and out of the game. It was incredibly easy once you got into the loop to get things planned and start a group activity.

Now a days the community is so vast that you cant have that tight knit bond anymore. In todays world where a majority of people use the random dungeon finder and raid finder to do their contnent as well as random pvp queues to pvp the community cant form those basic connections like doing a dungeon or grouping up for pvp to break the ice because it is not encouraged.

The system in todays mmo simply does not encourage people to play together and meet new people anymore. If a group of people on the same server decide to do a dungeon it is most of the time with their guildies only.

You cant just tell people "Well if you wanna play with other people, just do it" because there are people who just lack the ability/ are shy/ or dont have a clue on how to make friends well with others. Remember this is an online world, you cant just take someone out for beers if you wanna make friends with them there are completely different set of activities you have to know how to approach.

[Vook]

On the part of "capturing the magic"-

I'd say that's nostalgia/rose tinted glasses. Of course MMO's aren't going to seem "magical" anymore, they're very common now, whereas 12 years ago, real-time MMO's were a new thing.

[Deleted]

Let me think, never. Want to know why? because there will be always new that people will want to try and they always will because as you said people are looking for something magic. They won't stop expanding till they find the magic.

---------- Post added 2012-06-17 at 03:18 PM ----------

and btw is not about magic here, people are like that and they don't realise they already discovered magic but they too greedy to see it. Im happy with wow and its magic to me so yeah, its just people who are desperately trying to make themselves happy but guess what, they never will.

[procyan]

I am sorry but the only interaction I had in WoW PRE - LFG and LFR was indeed also the guild and my F-list. Oh..and my RL friends I played with? Is there a source that you could quote on the staement that "guilds are dying out"?

There doesn't need to be a source. I have been playing WoW for a long time, on 2 servers for the entirety of my time. My current server has maybe a handful of the same guilds. Every single 25 man guild is gone, down to 10 man or spread across the million other guilds that pop up constantly. And yes, there was community pre LFG. I remember plenty of people I went to for help, plenty of people who came to me for help. Many people knew random people outside their guilds. You don't get those friend lists filled up without some kind of interaction. Some of the best friends I have now were from my original guild I joined 7 years ago. We still game together, whether it is still in WoW, other MMOs that come out, or even playing PS3 together. That rarely happens anymore.

If you play FF14, you can see that there is a community in that game. I recently started, and some random person came up to me, offered to help me out, even gave me in game money to make things easier. He friended me an said to call on him whenever I had questions. That doesn't happen in WoW anymore.

[Eroginous]

Before anyone freaks out, this is in response to this article I just read:

http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/122/1225088p1.html

I sorta skipped some of it towards the end, but basically, the state of MMOs as we know them is a dying breed. That nothing today captures the "magic" that MMOs used to. Community used to be a central, important aspect in games and for the most part that is dead today. I'm not sure if MMOs will die out, but the points he makes are valid. Especially the generation gap between older players and newer ones. I'm not trying to flame younger players, but this is the environment they were most likely introduced to when they started playing, for example, WoW during WotLK when the LFG tool was introduced. What are your thoughts?

The problem with MMOs isn't that the market can't support them, it's that the style of the genre is one that focuses on a 'living world' experience, and no matter which MMO you look at, they DO NOT have living worlds. To be clear, a living world is one that has it's own life completely separate of the players in it. An example would be a trek out into a forest area: you (should) see local life controlled by the computer doing its own thing. Animals playing, grooming, hunting, ect. One of the worst offenders of this is Wow, where you trek to Arathi Highlands and you see giant spiders and raptors randomly pacing back and forth all over the place.

Raptors are pack hunters, spiders are hermits. You would not see one spider every ten feet, you would only see one or two in the entire zone, and Raptors would be traveling in a pack, hunting players and animals alike. If MMOs offered a realistic world environment, you would see a huge surge in popularity as players noticed the quality of development put into the game, and could marvel at it.

As it stands, Wow is still the best MMO out there, and all others are still just imitators who try to innovate in quirky ways which don't really bring in players.

[Lilly32]

Yea MMOs are dieing thats why like 3 new ones come out each year and older ones continue to kick out expansions. Also trying to be innovative isnt always best. See SW:ToR. They tried to be different: a non fantasy (orcs and elves) type MMO with a great story behind your character where your choices either made you good or evil. But then they half assed the rest of the game. Your story actually matters for nothing. I got a seat on the Dark Council with my Sith Inqusitor but do I get called in for meetings? Nope. Also Im maxed out darkside. Do people cower in fear when they are in my presence like they do if you go evil in Fable? Nope. If you are gonna spend that much money on building a stories for every character you cant just scrap it once you finish the story cause then everything was for nothing.