Why Is The MMORPG Genre So Stale? Is it Really Dead/Dying?

A pretty common thing you'll see online, the mmorpg genre is dead. This is my take on it, why that statement is right in ways and wrong in others, why the genre may seem stale and continue to be so for the near future and where the genre is headed.

Video background footage is mostly just random clips I threw together for something to look at and timestamps for games shown will be in a pinned comment once I get around to it.

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#mmorpg #dead #genre

[KiraTV]

0:00 Ashes Of Creation
0:27 Black Desert Online
0:54 Runescape
1:08 Albion Online
1:26 Blue Protocol
2:07 Bless Unleashed
2:58 Book of Travels
3:34 World of Warcraft
4:31 Project BBQ
4:48 BDO
5:15 Odin: Valhalla Rising
7:04 Broken Ranks
7:23 Archeage
7:58 Project Ragnarok
8:36 New World
11:13 Unreal Engine 5 Trailer
11:54 Ashes of Creation

[glenndiddy]

I don't care if zoomers call it a boomer take, but I much prefered MMO's that weren't designed to nickle and dime me into paying more.
If a game sells bag slots, they will make sure you never have enough bag space at the start.
If it sells EXP or other progression boosts, you'll be forced to grind for 500 hours just to achieve the same as spending 10 bucks making the achievement shit either way.
If it sells cosmetics, the base cosmetic looks of the game will often be quite tragic and bleak.
And worst of all, if a game sells straight up power, you will always get fucked over by someone with a bigger wallet than you.

I'm against microtransactions as a principle. I think they are always harmful to the game they are in, no matter the circumstances.

[laoch]

the problem is mmo's were supposed to be online communities in a virtual world, they have now become box ticking online games

[zahreel]

It's not just the MMO(RPG) genre. I'd say 90% of the gaming industry is brain dead. Most games are a mess of bugs, micro transactions, loot boxes or similar mechanics, and filler galore. I fully agree that indie developers have become the lifeblood of this industry. Innovations doesn't come from big companies, that's for sure.

[letheas]

Offc the MMORPG genre isn't dying, there's Dreamworld, E2 is also some kind of MMORPG I've heard. We're so blessed!

[gerg]

For me personally, the monetization system of most mmo's is what killed them. Making a game free to play makes the game feel worthless. Making an outfit for a character cost as much as my rl outfits feels like it's stealing from me. Getting it from both ends of this late stage capitalism hellscape INSIDE of my attempt to escape from it is why mmo's are a dead genre.

[vyntarus]

The innovation in the space has mostly all gone into monetization and "engagement metrics". Truth is the MMO was always a niche genre, it doesn't need millions of players to be successful but it does if the company behind it is focused on profit.

[IndiePatron]

True true, the variety in older MMOs was neat, if you go through Steam's upcoming MMORPGs you'll find several that are being revamped and being recreated from the 2000's, it's really interesting.

[harlunmorvair]

I don't know if this counts for anyone else, but my increasing boredom with MMO's stems from the fact that physical technology has advanced so far yet the games still have the same guts, just prettier wrappings. They only stretch the tech in one direction.
Using a table top comparison, I started with D&D when it first came out and that was fine. But after a while rolling D20 to hit, to do 1d4 damage to something with 60hp got boring and was definitely unrealistic. Then, Chaosium bought out Runequest and suddenly you could dismember your opponents, bypass armour with crits and be able to use any items/magic you liked because their were no classes. Shadowrun used d6's for successes and failures whilst others used charts; some even being dice-less. Rule systems changed and evolved.
MMORPG's still use the equivalent of D&D. See a health bar - reduce it to zero to make the target dead.
Secondly, using tabletop RPG's again as a comparison, what you did as a character, no matter what genre you played had an impact that could possibly last the entire campaign. Nothing you do in MMO's matters. Sure, your the saviour of the world/universe, but it sure would make a refreshing change to lose and have everyone try to claw their way back out of darkness once in a while. A global event with game wide consequences such as evil winning would be an improvement over prettier graphics.
So, I wouldn't say the genre is dead... just stagnant.

[kevadu]

I continue to not understand why anyone would even want to play an MMO on mobile. Even if the game was good (and let's be honest...they're generally not), it's such a terrible platform for the kind of immersive experience I want.

[edwin]

I don't get how people love playing games designed to drain their pockets.

[DJ_Treu]

Before I watch: MMOs in my personal opinion arent dying, The community aspect of them is - and when youre told half of the fun is the community and there isnt one / its as toxic as the one in wow; then you get turned off from it real quick. I think this is why FF14 has become a bastion / second home to many wow players.

[AZzalor]

The point you make at the end is one of the main reasons why I don't enjoy mmos anymore. they often start as a great idea with a vision but then they don'tr get enough players/money or the devs get greedy and then turn a good niche game into a basic mmo like any other. It really hurt me to see a game like BDO which i really enjoyed at the start being slowly moving away from the more pvp focused survival towards the casual themepark mmo. Then add all the p2w on top of that and it just is not fun anymore.

[BlackbeardKNAC]

I agree innovation is dead in MMOIRPG's, it was finite from the beginning. There are only so many ways to create massively multiplayer content in an open world. It might be a better option right now to "refactor" current MMO's that were successful once and redesign those that never hit the mark.

[TheJungaBoon]

MMOs are just too big generally to have much in the way of experimentation. They're too costly to try and deviate from what's been proven. Compared to other genres like FPS where solo devs can whip up a prototype in a day, MMOs don't have the same sort of luxury

[No-vqiv]

They became obsolete once the live-service model became common practice in every genre, when every game delivers constant updates and squeezes players with microtransactions there's nothing left to define the MMO except the large player count which is slowly becoming popular in other genres as well.

[Chronomatrix]

I don't understand why zoomers like playing on mobile so much... the screen is small, you gotta worry about the battery, controls are uncomfortable and very limited, etc. The only advantage is being able to play anywhere, but how often does one have time to play outside anyway? I refuse to believe there's no market for PC mmorpgs anymore.

[SteelAnchor]

While I do agree that the vast majority of MMOS nowadays are stale and the genre is kinda "ehh"....Final Fantasy 14 is amazing and has revitalized my love for playing an MMO recently. Some people say the early leveling/ story is a turn off but i say try it out and just play it slow. It really captured me, personally.

[wuotisheer]

It's suffering from its own success. Just like many other entertainment industries, once the potential was realized, the MBAs took over and forced creative game-loving developers to take a back seat in the process.

[lifewater]

Watching this makes me feel so old. I grew up on Everquest 1, and further down the line Final Fantasy 11, so I have a soft spot for oppressively grindy, non-quest, non-instanced, community focused MMORPG's. In fact I just started OSRS, since I somehow completely missed this as a kid. I long for these kind of games, but its likely they will never come back. Part of it because they aren't a profitable niche, and also because its not what gamers want. For me the MMO genre I'm nostalgic for is probably dead forever, I just have to learn to accept the good parts of the MMO's that are out there now.