Is the MMO genre dead?

Henriquejr found this article on PC Gamer:

For MMO diehards, there's only one conversation: is the genre dying or already dead?

As the genre becomes set in its ways, a few holdouts on r/mmorpg honor the past and predict a bleak future.

There was a time, not long ago, when the residents of the r/mmorpg subreddit spoke of things in the present tense. You too probably remember those days. The MMO boom period, where it felt like the frontier of gaming was in massive online worlds, packed with millions of people. But now the sun has set on this nation. "Is this a dead genre?" wonders a user named Eldrek, whose post is currently near the top of the subreddit.

"Where can I find a contiguous, massively multiplayer experience? Not a solo experience. Not instanced. A living breathing economy, a world to exist in. I've been chasing this since I first experienced MMOs with RuneScape and WoW in 2004," they continue. "Does it exist? Am I just missing the shining diamond in the pile of dirt that is this whole genre? … Everywhere I look, it seems people are burnt out on the modern MMO experience, yet where is the alternative? Where is my simulated massively multiplayer world? Emergent gameplay? … Why don't MMOs exist anymore?"
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An interesting word… Diehards. Should be written - addicts.

MMO as genre is not dead. No genre can die really. The decadent approach to mmos post WoW, trying to kill the very same WoW by ruining the genre through atrocious microtransactions, still can't kill it.

However, a person can make a statement: "MMOs are dead to me".

It isn't completely defunct, not yet, but unless you have a core group of folks that you play with, they don't seem to endure very long for most people. I saw this very scenario play out for many others before it happened to me.

joxer said:

"MMOs are dead to me".

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You don't know what an MMO is, though. Even though I tell you several times every year.

I don't think MMO is "dead", just not as popular as before. I still play Destiny 2, which I think should be classified as MMO.

It's just I don't have time to really dedicate myself to play MMO - so I don't do raids, PVP etc, just hop on to Destiny 2 to do a number of world events and one dungeon, that's really about it.

Another thing is, I find it difficult to find a good group of people to enjoy MMO with - which is why I left WoW and don't plan to play the classic version either.

People have far shorter attention spans these days compared to 10,15 years ago - before the advent of smartphones and content being designed for 5 minute sound bites. See Late night talk shows.

I don't think the genre is dead, but it's a victim of this design. Just how much longevity can you squeeze out of a game set up to give the player anything and everything within the first couple weeks of play?

"Is the MMO genre dead" is a very good question. We've actually been discussing this in my WoW guild: We're a bit tired of WoW, and there are a few alternatives (ESO, LotRO, SW: ToR etc), but nothing new on the horizon. Publishers have lost their faith after too many failed attempts at taking WoW's throne.

I do hope something else comes along, but it's not looking good at the moment. I'm sure it'll be revived at some point, but it could be quite some time.

I don't think it's dead, several games have been around for years and are still receiving new content, and new ones are coming (Funcom). But it is suffering, and I'm to blame (and many others like me), playing them mainly as large single- or should I say solo-player games.

Another part is the death of the subscription model which now is optional in every game other than Wow. Microtransactions are the result of that. (Wow has them, but they're not many, and strictly cosmetic.)

Yet another point is that people having played the same game for years usually will eventually get tired of it, so there will be a lot of disgruntled" Wow-players, LOTRO players and such. It's not the only reason for disgruntledness (correct English?), of course. Wow has for instance become much more streamlined/simplified (I'm spending some time with it now) - I guess that's the reason for launching Wow Classic. But I think that the age of the games has something to do with it.

pibbur who can't guarantee that he knows what he's talking about.

PS. So why am I wasting my time on Wow, now. I don't play it much, but it is "mindless fun", and due to my state of mind the last couple of months, that is what I have been after. Games with more substance and lots of - ugh - choices have been out of reach. DS.

pibbur who said:

I guess that's the reason for launching Wow classic.

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The main reason for WoW Classic was that Activision shut down a very popular emulated private server. The owner of the server said that many people would be happy to pay to play the original but there was no option to do so, therefore they had no other choice but to play illegally. The server was popular enough that Activision decided there was likely money to be made in providing that option.

I think the only MMORPG on the horizon is New World being made by Amazon. It's supposed to incorporate trendy survival and building mechanics and appeal to players of games like Ark, Rust, etc.

For those interested. (I didn't bother to watch it.)

SirJames said:

The main reason for WoW Classic was that Activision shut down a very popular emulated private server. The owner of the server said that many people would be happy to pay to play the original but there was no option to do so, therefore they had no other choice but to play illegally. The server was popular enough that Activision decided there was likely money to be made in providing that option.

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Thanks for the update. I probably should have written "the reason so many seems to welcome the launching of Wow Classic".

I think the only MMORPG on the horizon is New World being made by Amazon. It's supposed to incorporate trendy survival and building mechanics and appeal to players of games like Ark, Rust, etc.

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I thought that Funcom was up to something. Something "Duneish".

pibbur who still may not know what he's talking about.

PS. I piece of irony/paradox: One MMO that seems to have had a troubled history and currently receives very bad Steam reviews is "Otherland", based on Tad Williams books about an MMO world.. DS.

PPS. One piece of info: Originally I had a typo, calling "Funcom" "Fucom". I admit that may seem like a Freudian slip. I claim that it wasn't. DS.

pibbur who said:

I thought that Funcom was up to something. Something "Duneish".

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I'd definitely be interested in that! I hadn't heard about it, thanks for the heads up!

Doesn't appear to be much info, yet. But,

pcgamer said:

"We are very excited to announce an exclusive gaming partnership with Legendary Entertainment to develop a line of video games based on the works of Frank Herbert’s Dune," Casais said. "Dune is one of the world’s best-known science fiction universes and a personal favorite of mine. To work on Dune games is a dream come true for many of us in Funcom."

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I wonder if it will be more like Conan Exiles than a traditional MMORPG?

pibbur who said:

PS. I piece of irony/paradox: One MMO that seems to have had a troubled history and currently receives very bad Steam reviews is "Otherland", based on Tad Williams books about an MMO world.. DS.

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I never heard about this one, either. Did you give it a look? Any good? I'm not really liking the art style based off some youtube footage.

The more MMO/multiplayer games that die off the better. More focus on SP only games!

Philistine said:

The more MMO/multiplayer games that die off the better. More focus on SP only games!

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They're not really replaced by SP games though, but by games like Fortnite, PUBG, Overwatch and so on.

For a certain player it's dead. I would love to play a MMO like EQ with updated graphics. The Kickstarter for Pantheon was in 2014 and that game isn't even in alpha yet.

Now you have MMO's that are pay to win or you get to max lvl in a week. Even in EQ on the progressive servers, you can buy the gems for real cash and trade them for items in game. The gems give you one month subscription. I could out buy almost anyone in a MMO but what the hell kind of fun is that?

The company that runs the MMO Black Desert Online had a record breaking quarter. They get that by milking the 10% of people that are addicted to the game with their cash shop.

Maylander said:

They're not really replaced by SP games though, but by games like Fortnite, PUBG, Overwatch and so on.

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.... and they need to die too.

Philistine said:

…. and they need to die too.

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Now, that is an attitude I don't understand. There are people that enjoy MMO's, there are people that enjoys Fortnite. Why should I wish for them to lose the games they love to play?

There's no shortage of SP games, AFAIK.

pibbur

Well when one new mmo comes around per year, you could say its dying and it will continue. I dont have patience anymore for mmos, in the last 5 years only played eso and wow, plus secret world, but that you could count it as a sp almost. And i dont think the generation that comes love mmos; sure they want to play online but at a much smaller scale and with almost instant rewards.

I think the genre will continue though, wow classic looks like a huge success from what i read on the forums, plus you have other mmos that continue to get profits.

SirJames said:

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I never heard about this one, either. Did you give it a look? Any good? I'm not really liking the art style based off some youtube footage.

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No, I haven't tried it. I read the books and liked them. Initially I was looking forward to the game, but the developement was quite turbulent, so I lost faith in it.

pibbur

I'm really curious to see how Pantheon does, when it actually launches. I'm hoping to see a few old friends show up, and that would likely guarantee that I'd give it a full shot for at least a few weeks/months.

pibbur who said:

Now, that is an attitude I don't understand. There are people that enjoy MMO's, there are people that enjoys Fortnite. Why should I wish for them to lose the games they love to play?

There's no shortage of SP games, AFAIK.

pibbur

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No but I wish the resources used on MMO's were used on sp games instead: ESO applied to ESVI, SWTOR applied to KOTOR3, Fortnite applied to new sp Unreal, etc.