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[jcorb]

I love MMO’s in general, but it has been a very barren landscape for many years now. It’s shocking to me that I cannot find a single Western-developed MMO in the works, except one small “early access” game with an ask up to $10,000, which is fucking insane to me.

I genuinely wonder if we’ll ever see another MMORPG that doesn’t seem like a constant cash-grab. Obviously never gonna see another AAA title, but I almost wonder if the smaller audience will lead to a better product?

For me, I think Asheron’s Call will probably forever be the “ideal MMO”, in that it truly embraced what it meant to be an MMORPG. It could be frustrating to deal with its skill system in the early days (they eventually added ways to change your skills; in the old days you literally had to delete your character and start over if you made a mistake), but I also loved that when they added a Housing system, your house ACTUALLY existed in the world. I don’t feel like most devs have the balls to say “there are finite resources of certain things, not everyone gets to have everything”.

Of course, if anyone else is aware of any MMO’s that look promising, by all means share.

 

[hybrid_birth]

Chrono Odyssey is a promising upcoming mmorpg for ps5 and PC.

Graphics are impressive.

 

[Guilty_AI]

I think the main issue is that MMOs are usually fairly expensive to make, so you won't see many devs willing to venture in the genre without the expectation to make lots of bank.

More passionate teams will usually just make more normal RPGs and maybe add coop, the gameplay loop stays mostly the same after all.

 

[Tams]

Guild Wars is probably the closest left, and is getting a new version.

It's a shame that I find the terrible character designs and voice acting to be very low quality. That and character clothing almost always skimpy, even NPCs. I love some skimpy stuff, but that farm girl NPC doesn't need a low cut top and mini skirt... leave that shit to Genshin.

I used to love RuneScape, but Jagex's greed (and in so introducing gambling) completely put me off. And probably for the better, as I think that game caused me some social harm in the end.

 

[Arsic]

There’s that new RuneScape like from one of the OG RuneScape devs coming. Idk the name.

The new mmo is a hybrid game with mmo elements. Games like destiny. Path of exile.

A full blown giga Chad mmo? Would need to be EverQuest 3, new FF mmo, or WoW2 to matter. Everything else is just cash grabs that are half baked.

 

[Pallas]

I don’t think you’ll find a MMORPG that lasts without cash shop, they need a constant stream of revenue.

 

[struggler_guts]

Ashes of creation

 

[Meicyn]

The in-development Riot Games MMO is the only one I’m really keeping an eye on, as they seem to have decided to go back to the drawing board, scrapping what progress they made. They reversed course because they didn’t want to release what they were cooking all this time, which they said was too similar to what’s already available to play right now. My guess is that they probably created another bog-standard tab target vertical progression MMO prototype with Riot Games‘ style and that would have had gamers running through the motions and inevitably moving back to playing World of Warcraft.

Hope they build something that makes players engage with the world akin to Asheron’s Call, Ultima Online, or even Eve Online. Tired of the Everquest model and all the derivatives.

 

[MagiusNecros]

Besides old classic MMOs like Everquest and FFXI I don't think you'll see any MMOs that will have a long life. I think cash shop, pay to win, no meaningful postgame activities(sorry folks your boring raids and your boring crafting ain't it), meaningless grinds has effectively killed MMOs. Or at least ones that you could stay engaged in playing. Nowadays it's very theme park centric in where you might spend a week to a month playing before you quit and come back next year for the new tourist attractions.

I see so many MMOs get announced and hyped up and they all fail, go to dev hell, are canceled, censorship up the ass, devs have eyes bigger then their stomach, PvPvE garbage, smokes and mirrors, some are rebranded 3 times before shutting down.

I think the interest in recent MMOS was more a result of there being arguably a small pool of single player RPGs and MMOs were filling in that gap because people wanted a RPG to get lost in and MMOs were starting to function as single player games with IMO a very small multiplayer component.

Gone are the days where community in these games matter since many have systems in place to make solo play more accessible then ever before.

 

[WitchHunter]

Fuck MMOs. MMOs got ruined by the internet and game sites that are effectively game guides. Go there, milk the cow, bring the milk to the crying dragon, feed the dragon, get a scale, bring the scale to the blacksmith, push the smith's right titty 3 times, get the platinum bar, shove it in your arse... Same with bosses.

And every retard tells you what to do, how to do. You can't experiment, you are rushed. Fuck these minutemen idiots.

We need a fucking big Solar flare to fucking kill the internet, fry the fucking dataminers and all the SEO nuthugger game guide sites and make parallel/serial PC2PC connection great again .

Let people experience Wizardry 7, give them a fucking checkered notebook to draw maps and visit 3 months later and check the progress. Mehehe, the results would be disastrous for sure.

 

[bender]

The only MMO I've played and stuck with was WoW. What hooked me initially was the massive world which was a joy to explore. What kept me around was the community. I stopped playing seriously before the first expansion though. Raids just took too much of my life.

 

[bbeach123]

I know its a old man yells at cloud thing but I hate costume/outfit in MMO .

In older mmo the feeling of wearing endgame gears was sooo much better . People just need to take one look at you to know you're the real deal . They can guess what your build is just by looking at you . You know you will lose to that guy just by looking at him .

 

[Griffon]

MMOs cost too much money to make and need a lot of expertise on the backend (server stability and security are permanent concerns that have to be actively enhanced and maintained all year long during the entire lifespan of the game).

It's completely out of reach for small indies. So all you have left are the scummiest AA/AAA devs.

 

[Ozzie666]

Not sure anyone has time in their lives for games like this anymore. The social aspects of Everquest have been replaced by other social media and discord. Most MMO's end up going extremely easy mode and geared towards casual players. Times have changed so much since Ultima Online, Everquest and War Craft Vanilla. We still have games hanging on and being milked beyond belief like Rift, DC Universe amongst others. For every successful games, you have Wildstar and so many failed attempts, way to much risk. FFXIV and ESO are pretty much the outliers.

 

[Kumomeme]

MMO is expensive. be it the development cost or service maintainence cost. it is also very risky with no guarantee return back of money and usually it need to be large in scale for people to take notice. thats why lot of big company not dare to take on the bussiness-wise risky challenge. perhaps why we stuck with same big MMO for years and even top MMO today are come from already well known, established IP instead of a completely new franchise.

constant maintenance and new content all need money. nothing is free and it is reflected by its bussiness model.

every bussiness model available play role to shape the game design and its on going life service quality. however, each bussiness model all has pro and cons. how it gonna perform also depend on the money flow toward the game(new quality content update and maintenance).


F2P is most popular out there however there is huge catch with it. since it is 'free', the devs need to recoup the budget with microtransaction shop. thus this impacted the game design with how good content is hidden beside cash shop and sometimes the cash shop also shoved on player's face. most of MMO with htis issue are largely due to F2P nature. worse case, it would 'evolve' into P2W. once the publisher taste the money potential, some of them wont stop even if the devs team has different intention. in the end developers also need to eat and development has a cost especially for MMO which is way expensive.

lot of player nowdays also wont play a MMO if it not 'free'. there always gonna be a price. nothing is free especially if someone expecting a constant content and quality update. while for developers, it could bite them back if they too generous.

people hate monthly sub, but compared to F2P, the developers can expect steady amount of money stream each month and can less rely on microtransaction shop which is affecting steady schedule of maintenance and content update. however this add a barrier for player who need to pay each month.

game like Guild Wars has freemium model where it is free but has paid content. it also has buy once model where player buy the game one time and free afterward. ofcourse, this also has different result on the money their made toward development and overall profit.

there is also gacha element like Genshin Impact.

depend on bussiness model and developler/publisher, it would reflect the game design. for example the game would introduce FOMO element that would make sure fans to rush and pay money so they can avoid get left behind. the game progression design also would encourage player to keep playing as long as they can. basically suck their time, and money. this is why certain MMO has heavy grind element. some case the game end up like secondry job for players IRL. some game end up locking cool looking cosmetic behind cash shop. some game end up unlocking progression or gear that has impact on gameplay behind shop which is basically pay to win.

some country has different culture. asia and america has different view toward stuff like P2W or grinding for example. Korea alone has different take on P2W culture and this affected their MMO design.

personally it is not easy to balance between gamers need, developers ambition, bussines profit side and game longevity. everything has its pro and cons and everyone has their preferences.

 

[jcorb]

I almost wonder if there is a space for a smaller team making an MMO for a much smaller base, but at an increased subscription fee. Like $30 per month. If your audience was only a few thousand players, I would *think* a super small, dedicated team could keep the lights on? With that smaller focus, you could theoretically make something that your audience, small as it is, could truly *love*.

But aside from super broad statements of "this game cost X amount of dollars to make", I really have zero context for what a small team is really spending before marketing.

I really just miss having a "world" to log into, where may and my friends and fam could hang out, and be able to "show off" the cool stuff we'd gotten. Instead, that aspect has been almost entirely monetized in virtually every MMO, and it kind of sucks.

I still think FFXIV is doing a bang-up job; even with their cash-shop, it still feels like anything "cool" is still in-game, the cash-shop items are mostly forgettable or past holiday items. Blizzard is doing a pretty good job at fucking up WoW, and their next expansion looks boring as shit if I'm being honest, but it still *played* great when last I played.

 

[Zug]

I always end up coming back to Everquest. Private servers since the official ones are now riddled with microtransactions.
Did some Project 99 a few years ago, and now Project Quarm which is in the same vein but with more QoL changes for functional adults that can't stay online 24/24.

Don't try to find the "old school" MMO feeling in newer AAA MMO's, it's long gone ...
This smaller scale project is to be watched closely though : https://monstersandmemories.com/

 

[diffusionx]

I feel like Guild Wars 2 was really, really good and super interesting. I want to see what they do with #3.

It's definitely possible to make a great MMO but a lot of the tendencies of modern vidya - funnelling you to micro transactions/cash shop, making the experience frictionless and smooth - fly in the face of that. Like, when you played UO, you landed in a city and it was like... Ok I guess I'm going to go hit rocks for 5 hours to build up my mining. Or I will go into the woods and get murdered by a goat if I'm lucky and a PK if I am not. EverQuest was absolutely inscrutable, so grindy, you lost XP if you died, you camped to get spawns for quests and had to make deals with players to get them, by modern vidya standards it was a disaster but so, so good.

 

[killatopak]

I'm gonna get flaked for this but I love the grind.

Actually makes location+music memorable. So many MMOs nowadays just make you zoom fast from map to map via fetch quests or just kill 10 of these. It also helps if every enemy has an ultra rare drop so the grind can have dopamine explosion.

Best case I can remember is Ragnarok Online with card drops. Actually makes grinding weak ass mobs worth it depending on card effects. 50% of my opinion is nostalgia but that's what I like about MMOs. Location atmosphere, mobs and music.

As a side note, I observed most of the MMOs today trend towards single player experience rather than a shared one. Usually that's reserved for end game meanwhile back then, parties were the standard mostly due to DnD roots.