We can often hear the opinion that the golden days of MMORPG games have passed long ago and now there are no good games of this genre on the market. But is it true?
The MMORPG genre began its development several decades ago. Like everything else in this world, it has evolved. If a time machine existed now and a player from the distant 1994 could see modern Warcraft, he would not believe his eyes. Some people find this very embarrassing. For some reason, they believe that this shows that the genre is dying. However, even on the example of WoW, we see that games of this kind are more than alive. If we consider the Warcraft mentioned above, then there is still a huge number of players online. They complete missions, participate in raids as before, buy a subscription, kill enemies. If earlier players had to farm gold on their own for a long time, today they even have the opportunity to turn to game boosting companies, for example https://skycoach.gg/wow-boost/gold.
The game that gave birth to the very concept of sandbox MMORPGs was Ultima. Subsequently, many tried to repeat this legendary game, and some did it well. Further, with the release of Lineage, the Korean direction in MMO games began to develop. It was characterized by simplified PvE, but there was a large and developed social hierarchy and a lot of PvP content. And then came EveQuest, which created the so-called third branch of these games – they had extended PvE and dungeons.
Now imagine – while you are reading this article, Lord of the Rings Online is breaking its own online record, Warcraft is releasing new add-ons, millions of people are participating in raids at this very moment. Players read gaming news, looking forward to new updates and expansions. Does this mean that the MMORPG is dying?
It cannot be denied that there is some crisis of the genre. Games are now very dependent on donations, new projects often cannot boast of an abundance of interesting content. Many one-day games are released annually to the market, but such games are of poor quality and uninteresting. When the variety of MMORPGs was not so wide, gamers played everything that could have been run on a computer. Now people have become very picky. Poor quality content is immediately bombarded with many negative comments, the game’s rating drops and it goes into the annals of gaming history. Therefore, it may seem that the industry is dying, since projects are closed. But quality products live for many decades.
The MMORPG genre is still evolving. There are changes in the combat system. For example, if there used to be targeted combat mechanics, now non-targeting prevails. New game mechanics are emerging. Players complain that leveling up a character has become too easy. But in fact, this is false simplicity – now the game is not so much about the level of your character as your skills in the game. Mobile games are evolving too. They are very popular, hold competitions and make gift giveaways.
In the first decade, MMORPGs didn’t come out that often. Most were eliminated after the release and only a few games remained. Then the peak of the genre came and a huge number of ambitious projects from industry giant studios entered the market almost simultaneously. Users wandered from one game to another and it took a few years for the games to be tested by the majority of gamers. So the industry slowed down for a couple of years. But in fact, there are many successful projects – New World, Crowfall, Ragnarok and others.
MMORPG is a rather difficult genre to implement. Few studios are able to create a truly high-quality product that will appeal to a large number of spoiled users. Games are developed for years, especially when it comes to major global projects. The entry threshold for developers in these games is very high (compared to what it was twenty years ago). It is much easier now to implement a session game or a mobile one. Moreover, there is a big risk that the game will fail after the release and the studio will lose a large amount of money, since the development of such games is very expensive. But even now there are many good games for every taste. There are those where PvP prevails, there are games for PvE lovers. There are games that are attractive with their interesting storyline.
The past of MMORPGs revolved almost entirely around World of Warcraft. However, the genre began as an experiment by ambitious designers who tried to push the boundaries of what video games could do. Then one title came out and it was so popular that no one even tried to create something new. The temptation was too great, and most developers just copied the popular formula. Thus, World of Warcraft single-handedly created a whole army of fans and brought the genre to a new level.
Today, WoW is experiencing a decline in popularity. Maybe it will be temporary, maybe not. In the second case, the market will desaturate, which means that companies will begin to see the potential for earning in it. This means that we are waiting for a variety of new projects, which can only be rejoiced at.
Another confirmation that MMORPGs will never disappear is the fact that humans are social creatures. We always need communication, even in the virtual world. MMORPGs fully satisfy this need. Players meet each other there, communicate, find friends and enemies.
We can say that the MMORPG market is in stagnation, projects are not being implemented so quickly. But real fans are sure that the market will soon explode with some very cool projects. This genre will not disappear. It is constantly evolving, just a little faster at some moments, and slower at others.