The Unkillable MMO

Community General Discussion
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You know, it kinda FeelsBadMan that the MMO market didn’t take off quite as much as other game genres. A persistent world based around interacting with other people has so much potential, and yet as the excitement of the early internet died out, I guess the novelty of being able to play a game like this died out for a lot of people, leading to MMOs more or less dropping off the map as the 2010s dragged on.

Now that things have kind of settled where they are, it’s kind of bleak. WoW still sits at the top of the pyramid with somewhere around a million or two active players, still quite a bit above the next highest, probably FFXIV or maybe ESO.

And even though the quality of WoW’s expansions have kind of been on a landslide, Actiblizzion knows that they don’t really have to try anymore. The people who have stood playing the game for this long will probably play until the servers shut down, just because so much time has been sunk into this game that it will feel weird to start all over again.

At least, that’s a big reason why I find it hard to move on. I’ve played a ton of FFXIV, ESO, EVE, Wildstar, GW2… Each somewhat similar in conception, yet all more or less dwarfed by WoW. Well, maybe some of those aren’t a fair comparison. FFXIV and ESO have been standing well on their own, and EVE is kind of in a league of its own, offering completely different gameplay.

And that’s kind of what I want: some completely different gameplay. A lot of these MMOs (including ones outside of the few I listed) just feel like discount WoWs, down to how they play and how gearing and content works. Almost feeling like they were built off the same engine.

That’s why, as much as I distrust John Amazon, I kinda hope New World does something to either revitalize the market or shake it up enough to make things feel fresh again. From what I’ve seen, though, it gives off big “flash in the pan” vibes, another MMO trying to take a stake in the market only to get flattened under WoW’s bloated dying body like many others who came before.

…

There isn’t really a reason for me posting this outside of wanting to vent. I logged on today and just so happened to reflect on how I felt when I logged into the game for the first time. What a huge gap in feeling.

Sub expires in 50 hours… and I’ll probably be back once I start my new job.

Sigh… Is it bad if I already feel like I’m in the Shadowlands?

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World of Warcraft is the king and will never be dethroned by another game. The only way we’ll be dethroned is if we give the crown to someone else and shut it down.

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And that’s exactly why I’m upset. If WoW is never threatened, it will never change.

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It’s an ever-changing game. It changes all the time. Everyone here still enjoys it whether they want to admit it or not, else they wouldn’t be here and they’d be out the door like you said you are.

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It’s cause you guys keep buying those damn store mounts…

But yeah I too long for another great MMO. I like WoW, sometimes I hate it but it’s a nice chill game to relax with. I do wish I could be a new player to a brand new and thriving MMO-RPG again.

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I just want to go on simple, fun classic adventures. With High Elves.

Different strokes and all of that.

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But does it? Sure we get new obstacle courses to run through every now and then, and some new scenery sometimes, but I feel like I’m in the same place I was during Legion… and during WoD… and during MoP… It’s only just now that I’m realizing how long I’ve been in this situation.

It’s why I covet those who were around earlier in the game’s life. Kinda seemed like there were constant upheavals in both the story and the gameplay, what with classes being added somewhat consistently and the mechanics behind spells and talents changing, new features being added that weren’t stripped away at the start of the next expansion…

And then Actiblizzion found a combination that works (either from a monetary or an ease-of-development point of view, although from their lack of willingness to show us the sub numbers it kinda feels more like the latter) and the game hasn’t changed much since.

Me too. But I feel like I’ve been going on the same simple, fun classic adventure for the past 5 years. A little stale.

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Didn’t Classic bump the numbers up by alot tho?

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WoW’s success has been a blessing and a curse for the industry. It was good at first showing s more casual/solo/mainstream appeal was good. But now it’s stagnated the industry and little or no innovation can happen because WoW exists.

I lament that I didn’t get into MMORPGs in the 2000s. Hell I could have played Everquest in 1999 but didn’t. I only got into WoW in December of 2009 so I missed the “golden age”.

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Ik happy gw2 is still alive and kicking and with a new expansion on the horizon similar to one of their original expansions for the old guild wars. Heck even a revamp of guild wars1 would be nice as well. Thanksfully it’s still up and kicking compared to wildstar (r.i.p my cool houses).

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Wasn’t it up there at the 1M mark before Classic? Maybe I’m hallucinating.

Even so, the two may as well be two entirely different MMOs.

Sadly, the last I heard about GW2 is that it became decidedly pay to win a year or so ago. Sucks, because when I played it before the first expansion, it was a fantastic time with friends.

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The only competition WoW ever saw was from Club Penguin, but even that MMO couldn’t stack up to WoW.

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Yeah, nothing will kill WoW.

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It’s not pay to win all the cash shop stuff is cosmetic or qol items and that’s it. Its eofjer very casual or excessively grindy though that’s where it’s not as good. No middle ground and not much development on dungeons and small group content really. For being free to play it’s a very good side mmo for downtime from wow lol.

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I don’t think we’ll see another king MMO until we get really good VR.

Who knows how long that will take though, the screen in a headset doesn’t really cut it for me currently.

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This is the wrong way to go about things.

No MMORPG will compete with WoW, with the extraordinarily rare exception of FFXIV. Because Bfa was amazingly bad, and the extreme drop off due to WoD, we can only conclude that the only wow killer is wow itself.

WoW doesn’t need to worry about its competitors. It’s not massively losing out because other games are good, it’s because bfa is inherently bad.

Just look at Classic, they revived the game by releasing an over ten year old version of WoW. All they need to do is continue releasing previous expansion, and there would be no hassle for the current dev team to actually be competent.

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That got WoW some breathing room but a second bad expansion following BFA will probably leave it extremely vulnerable to FFXIV.

The developers are being extra diligent trying to give the playerbase what they want in Shadowlands, from more customization to alt friendliness to the removal of the timer in Torghast to professions mattering. In the past Blizzard devs would give extremely flippant answers … like ‘you think you do but you don’t’. It just demonstrates the state of the game and imo that it’s being threatened

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Doubled subscriptions, saved WoW

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I will play devil’s advocate here, even though I strongly hate retail wow.

I think Classic WoW gave the game overall more than just breathing room. Personally, and with the data I’ve seen from the Q4 report, Classic literally defibrillated WoW from outright dying. Azerite totally failed, and based on the drama we had from Lore a while back, they strongly implied that it was unsalvagable and they were working with what they had.

Though I do agree with you. We are suddenly seeing Blizzard be swiftly proactive by answering the community. Many things that would straight up get to the snide no (like high elves) are coming to reality because Blizzard cannot afford SL to fail as catastrophically as BFA.

That being said, if SL fails, do I think that another competitor will take wow? Not sure. I firmly believe that the release of old expansions is WoW’s emergency failsafe which will keep it going

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Burning Crusade Classic is going to be so popular :slight_smile:

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