Comments on: The MMO Industry Isn’t Dying, It’s Just Evolving

By: Rhetoric mmorpg | Ranksintl

Rhetoric mmorpg | Ranksintl — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:33:19 +0000

[...] The MMO Industry Isn’t Dying, It’s Just Evolving | We Fly Spitfires …Jun 10, 2012 … A blog about MMORPGs like World of Warcraft (WoW) and Everquest 2 …. Getting to the rhetoric and past the simplistic negative / positive spin: … [...]

By: Simon

Simon — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 15:08:13 +0000

I guess it depends on what you call dying, it certainly appears to be in worse health than it was a few years ago. It no longer appears to be actually growing, WoW lost a chunk of subs, SWTOR pretty much failed (yes it sold well, but then managed to lose a lot of subs very quickly), Rift is down a fraction of the servers it once had & at lower populatins, LOTRO logins have consistantly been falling since the inital bump in figures when it went f2p, and where are these people going, doesn’t look like Tera or TSW, EVE is trundling along, even once strong f2p games like ROM are looking very empty.

This is even more apparent if you just consider it from a western perspective, where games like WOW have had their sub numbers held up by Asia.

By: Shadow

Shadow — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 21:35:18 +0000

I can only hope you’re right. Also, I’d love to see a strong and powerful divergent offshoot from the branch of themepark, quest-hub, coin-slot design. Hell, if DayZ can introduce innovative sandbox style elements into a SHOOTER of all genres, MMOs can do better.

We deserve better.

However, I feel there is a very significant point of contention that needs to be laid down. One that I think you and Syp both miss by a good measure.

So many games are NOT MMOs. And no, Diablo could not be classified as one. It is just barely multiplayer, and by no stretch of the imagination is it massive. DDO only just squeaks by on the MMO authorization chart, seeing as how it’s 90% instance-based.

Beyond just an evolution of the genre, I think we’re also seeing a…buttoning down, of sorts, as to what the genre actually is. I think we’re in the middle of figuring out what it means to really be an MMO. There’s a lot of other games out and about that are multiplayer games, but astoundingly fail the litmus test of a virtual world, and only slightly blues the paper of an MMO.

By: 5 Visions of an MMO Future | afk5min

5 Visions of an MMO Future | afk5min — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 23:54:48 +0000

[...] pretense of a terrible gaming future, while others hold out hope that the future is still bright. Gordon at We Fly Spitfires had a wonderful piece about how the MMO genre is poised to progress in the years to come, while Scott over at Pumping [...]

By: Imakulata

Imakulata — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 02:20:38 +0000

@Rog, I’m not sure whether I read it well, but is it “the industry is dying because it sounds cool”? I understand it might be why some of the people claim so but I really don’t think it’s right…

By: Fumbles

Fumbles — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 21:56:03 +0000

The second person in the evolution diagram is out of step with the rest. Just sayin’

By: John

John — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:26:25 +0000

I agree. I welcome all the innovations and changes that are taking pace right now in the MMO gaming world.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 21:24:52 +0000

I agree with what you are saying. Ever since Everquest 1 days, MMORPG's have stuck to the same design and news games are just trying to polish and improve that. I think WoW did it the best, they mastered that type of game of the era but its time for something new. Its kind of like how japanese rpg's were the thing to create for PS1 and PS2 but now FPS own the market. Its time for a change in style to give people what they want. The game I think that will be able to do it is The Elder Scrolls Online. The Elder Scrolls game is very popular for being an RPG because they do something different. No linear questing line, no limiting players characters because everything is preset. Allow people to develop their characters freely and explore the world without invisible barriers is what people really want.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 01:35:35 +0000

MMOs aren’t dying, because dying is a loaded term. It implies that in x years there will be no more MMOs. For an analogy, take Japan. In the 80s Japan was going to take over the world, there was no stopping them. And then the 90s hit, the economy ground to a halt, and all that hysteria faded away. But it isn’t as though Japan went back to mud huts or something…the narrative is what died.

Similarly with MMOs. Ever since WoW, the narrative has been that MMOs were the way to make a huge amount of money with a given IP. Single player games are limited, since people only buy them once–MMOs are where the action is. But SWTOR has, I think, killed this narrative off for good. There will be more MMOs but they will be smaller in scale, and the investers will ask tougher questions.

By: Rog

Rog — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 23:25:03 +0000

Adding to that (and yes, I’m intentionally trying to be perverse to make a point): The reason the 38 Studios debacle brought about this rhetoric is that it smells like disruption. The kind of disruptive change that many of us are not-so-secretly hoping for.

Instead, you’re probably right. It probably just means some tightening of the purse strings while MMO development continues to follow the same (tired) paths.

Now I’m really depressed. Thank you. =P