Is the tired cliche argument I’ve seen from a lot of people when they’re asked about attracting new players to WoW.
I’m sorry but the millions and millions (Yes Millions not mere thousands or hundreds) of players playing WoW and other MMORPGs beg to disagree with you and prove your point wrong.
The reason why people aren’t finding the MMORPG genre good these days is because you have very few of these games which are actually good and not just all fluff with mobile type payments.
The genre is still going strong. When you have the likes of Amazon investing their money into this and the likes of FF 14 and WoW still holding millions of players, your argument is as worthy as last years donut.
This genre will stay on even after the likes of el cheapo battle royale copypastas die out eventually. This genre is built upon experiences, memories and most of all: a lifetime of friends. This isn’t dying anytime soon.
We need better experiences and better games. Not invalid arguments.
MMOs are popular, but when there is competition, there needs to be competitive integrity. RPGs are popular too, but they usually feature the opposite; gaining strength over your enemies. Hence, MMORPGs that move into eSports put themselves into a weird spot.
No, they are, they just arnt a power house for you.
MMOs are a power house still, the problem is, we dont have any MMOs out there any more that get enough support or main stay. WoW was the biggest one for the longest time because it was one of the most popular settings, and it came out and it just worked.
If you’re talking about MMOs then there are way more games out there you probably don’t play which have a strong playerbase like Destiny, Warframe etc.
If you’re talking about MMORPGs in specific, then yes it has seen better days.
By what metric? MMO are still vastly popular the issue we have is that the only MMOs out there have lost most of their RPG mechanics, wow has gone from an MMORPG into an MMOAction RPG basically diabo 4 online at this point.
You have FF14 which is blowing up and surpassing wow in popularity, so the idea that MMOs are not popular is just out right wrong, other wise the entire genre would have been abandoned years ago.
MMOs are still very popular, the problem is the core aspect of what most people enjoy in an MMO, the RPG element is being cut more and more each year which is hwy you are seeing more people drift away because its not an RPG any more.
If you are talking about MMORPGs loosing popularity, then yes, i would agree, but its not becuase people are tried of them, its because there is no real good MMO RPG out there. The only notable one i can think of that has retained in RPG aspect is EVE online, and thats a special flavor of RPG you gotta have or you never will.
It is the current entries in the genre that are no longer popular.
None of them are even attempting to capitalize on the potential of the genre, and most are simply tired of playing the same game over and over since the original EverQuest.
That’s different enough from the framework I’m referencing to be considered separate. EverQuest was not the first MMO, but it is blatantly the one that inspired WoW more than any other, and it is WoW that virtually every MMO has been copying since.
There comes a point at which, no matter how well you execute that formula, people are going to be tired of it.
Sucky thing is, Activision is big enough to support them as a standalone feature.
They just showed us that exact capability with Torghast, much as I dislike it. You can have a specific part of the game in a bubble. They could balance the game outside the 1%ers for the majority of their player base to have fun, and then have a competitive mode for eSports where tournament specific rules apply.
Add buffs, templates, and/or a separate talent tree or something that is specific to the “competition mode” and has absolutely zero impact on the base game balancing.
I think its no so much that the formula is the problem, is that they have drifted to far away from the original formula and its no longer an RPG.
I mean look at current wow, put out all notions of the state of the game, and ask you self, is this really an RPG?
You dont worry about stats any more, you dont have skill checks, you dont have really any exploration or quests that are not part of the main driving story, your character no longer “levels up” in that they get stronger with each exp they simply just get less crappy.
WoW has lost what made it an RPG, its now just a action skinner box that has a warcraft theme to it. And imo thats why you see people leaving it, and why for example you saw people flocking back in droves to classic, because it has more of those RPG elements to it then current wow does.
They have focused in on the core of the formula that they lost everything on the periphery.
It’s like… salt and pepper make a good base for seasoning. But when you leave everything else out, even salt and pepper can begin to sound unappetizing.