MMO Failures – Is Change Coming?
If you play games on a regular basis you will certainly notice that the choice of good MMOs out there has hit an all time low. With highly anticipated titles coming out and disappointing gamers for any number of reasons, they quickly get turned into digital download specials a mere month or two after their initial release. While this seems to have affected all genres of PC games in one form or another, this has been the case particularly in the MMO department as the high profile RTS and FPS titles that have been released in the past year have been well done but tend to have a short shelf life as far as repetitive play goes. Because of this, most PC gamers I know of tend to have their primary MMO and then the one or two other strategy or FPS games they fall back on to take a break or blow off steam.
Nomadic Gamers on the path to their next game.
This trend of failed MMOs in the market has resulted in what I like to call “nomadic gamers”, playing one game for a while before the initial newness and interest finally fades away and the inherent flaws of the game become unbearable causing them to move on. Usually refuge is found in an older game that they had played years ago and still has an active community (EQ2 or WoW) or perhaps just playing whatever their console, RTS or FPS of choice is until the next title surfaces.
From what I can tell this whole downward spiral started with the fact that, for whatever reason, titles started releasing in not just an unpolished state but with almost no content in the upper tiers of the game. Looking back, I would probably say that Tabula Rasa was really the first premier title that I can remember doing this so blatantly. The number of front end titles just stacks up to include almost every major MMO since then. Pirates of the Burning Sea, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Darkfall, Crimecraft, Global Agenda, Star Trek Online are the ones that stand out to me though there are certainly others to add to that list. Aion could really be the only exception to that list but let’s be fair, it had already been released for more than a year overseas before it’s American release.
Now I feel it is only fair to say that since their botched releases, most of the developers have come out and worked their asses off to try and make things right. For the most part they have been successful in maintaining a solid player base and even bringing back some older players that initially left due to issues with the game. While this is admirable on the part of the developers, it has become alarming that almost every major title released in the past two and a half years haven’t learned anything from the games that came before them.
Ever since the MMO industry started really taking off in the early 2000s, there have always been great games every other year or so with several decent games scattered in between along with a complete failure now and then. The last truly fun MMO that sucked me in was Lord of the Rings Online (this of course is a subjective opinion) which released in mid 2007. Since then we’ve seen nothing but semi-decent to decent and failure games that have managed to bust ass on release and then recover what they can by trying to pick up the pieces later. While I partly feel that this is somewhat the fault of the publishers and developers using Beta tests as marketing instead of an actual tool to improve their game, that is a subject for another article. As far as I can tell we are statistically due for a great game if you look at the ebb and flow of MMO game quality since they really gained popularity back in ’00 and ’01.
You may call that a stupid point but that’s the skinny of it. If that isn’t enough for you, take a look at these supporting points. Every great game that has come out of the past decade came from a company that dedicated itself to quality. Sony Online (Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest 2), Turbine (Asheron’s Call, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online), Mythic (Dark Age of Camelot), Square Enix (Final Fantasy XI), Paragon (City of Heroes/Villians), Blizzard (World of Warcraft) to cover some of the most notable ones. Okay so Sony Online and Mythic may be controversial but seriously, Sony Online makes great games but they just tend to break them over time and Mythic failed with WAR because of overhype and the fact that they sold their soul to a large publishing company.
Next we have to look into the near future and the games that are slotted for release there. Final Fantasy XIV is the next step up from Final Fantasy XI which was hugely popular and still has a decent player base 7 years after launch. Square Enix did a killer job with the production of Final Fantasy XI and (nearly) every game they have released. I have no doubt that their dedication to quality will continue with the next installment of the Final Fantasy franchise.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is being developed by BioWare and published by LucasArts. Considering BioWare’s impeccable reputation with producing some very excellent games, we should definitely have something good coming from them. Just take a look at some of the titles they have released that we all know and love like Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect and more recently Dragon Age. Backed by LucasArts as a publisher I think this is definitely a game that everyone is going to be pleased with.
Warhammer 40k is being developed by Vigil Games which is a subsidiary of THQ who have been making great games for many years. You probably know THQ for games like Red Faction, Dawn of War and Saints Row. Vigil Games itself recently released Darksiders earlier this year and if you haven’t played it I suggest picking it up. While Vigil doesn’t have a long list of well known games they have released I’m fairly confident that with THQ over them the final product should be something to look forward to.
We’ve just had a longer lull between the last good game and the newest one. I think here in the next year or so though that will be remedied and we can all have a game we can talk about excitedly without half groaning about the fact that we are playing it. So until then, I will continue to be a nomadic gamer and try to whittle the time away until that one great game comes out.
-Septumus (Currently playing Alien Swarm, Starcraft 2 and of all things… his XBox which hadn’t been touched in about 2 years previously.)
Please share what you are currently playing to pass the time in the comment section below!
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Nice Article. Thanks for the info.
I pretty much agree with Septumus. I believe the problem with companies releasing half finished products is two fold. 1. Expectation. Consumers want “new” game and they want it now. They want their new MMOs to function like they old ones after many months/years of patching. 2. Money. Follow the money and you will always find the problem. Companies don’t like spending money for years on end and not see immediate return. When a game is in development it isn’t making money. Solution; get it out the door and patch, patch, patch for forgiveness!