The 2008 MMORPG Year in Review

Czzarre

Hey all. I just finished writing an article called

The 2008 MMORPG Year in Review: What happened, and what didn't happen.

Read it here.

The article focuses on the 2008 happenings for mainstream games in the industry. I held off on the F2P game changes for a future article. I welcome all comments both pro and con. I enjoy criticism, so long as its constructive.

Thanks

Joliust

Nicely written

Evasia

Its nice that you made a review on your personal experience how 2008 was for you and i can't argue with that hehe.

About AoC you where for most part right but this game failed in so many other areas(PVP)things that you could fill up several page hehe.

WAR i dunno not played but from what ive read it wow copy in so many ways only more towards pvp and to simple to casual.

Your obvious a wow fan thats is why your review failed a little in my personal view but dont take it personal ok:).

Not in so many words you hope all look like wow and you cleverly try avoid it but did not succeed entirly hehe you hope that there come a mmorpg that can be like wow but better:(

2008 was a huge succes for all who love casual carebear games like wow AoC WAR RoM(i mention this one it seems very succefull for f2p mmo by copying wow).

But its was a terible year AGIAN for sandbox hardcore with deep game gameplay and hardcore pvp.

But future looks BRIGHT with Darkfall on horizon and fallen earth earthrise SANDBOX have maybe a bright future so im looking towards 2009 with hope for sandbox and hardcore pvp/rpg/pve:)

Darkfall (my last hope)only mmo that truly have nerf to swim upstream agains all odds I APPLAUS THIS!!!!

 

Have nice 2009 game year:)

Czzarre

Originally posted by Evasia



Your obvious a wow fan thats is why your review failed a little in my personal view but dont take it personal ok:).
....

Darkfall (my last hope)only mmo that truly have nerf to swim upstream agains all odds I APPLAUS THIS!!!!
 
Have nice 2009 game year:)

 

Hey Evasia, Thanks for your input.

I dont believe I am a WoW Fan. I cannot take playing that game any longer (See my old char Awned below). But I have to give credit where credit was due. I may not want to play it, but WOTLK was a solid expansion.

As for Darkfall, Ive my eye on that too. I plan to give that a good try and see. It promises a lot and I do worry it may end up like AoC. But Im hoping otherwise.

x_rast_x

After seeing so many games come and go, I'm starting to doubt there will be much of a market for theme park style games other than WoW (and whatever else Blizzard makes in the future) for quite some time.

WoW at launch wasn't a whole lot better (or worse) than a lot of the newer games coming out now.  I know - I was there.  I suffered through lagtastic servers, the odd crash, the game being unplayable for up to a week after a major patch, the class imbalances, the occasional broken quest, and all that.

But it was the first game of it's type that was pitched at a mainstream audiance, a strategy that has paid off in spades.  And WoW has been steadily refind since launch and is currently at a point, in terms of polish, content, and user-friendliness that is completely impossible for a newcomer to match.  Nevermind the fact that a great many people play WoW because their friends play WoW - if they switch to a new game they either all go or not at all.

WoW is a great game, one that I enjoyed for a good long time, but it's an anomaly.  It had a one-two punch of initial users from having a big-name, respected IP behind it, as well as millions of battle.net users who already played games online.  This meant that the average Blizzard fan (and yes, I can still be a Blizzard fan as a post-WoW player, they make great games, that's hard to deny) was far more likely to stay and play WoW than, say, the average Star Wars fan, or the average LOTRO fan, neither of which was (is) likely to have played games online before.  Once the game hit a certain critical mass of users, it started becoming acceptable in the mainstream (I once read an article, it was about social networking but it can be applied to mainstream culture - basically things that are 'big' have increased social opportunities, mainstream people seem to value beinig social and thus things that are big will tend to remain big.  I'm not very social so I don't really understand this at a fundamental level but this seems to make sense to me) despite the fact there was nothing to do at end-game other than run UBRS for your T0 set unless you happened to be a raider (which was always a hardcore activity, even for WoW).

Future MMOs need to look to the past - start small, and grow up.  LOTRO is a great example, as is DDO and Eve - all three cater to different audiences than WoW and all three are doing fairly well when rated on their own merits and not against the juggernaut.

Czzarre

I wonder if even looking to the past is enough. Because of WoW, I think many MMO players have reset the bar as to what is an acceptable MMO. To an unachievable level for any new MMO.

Cik_Asalin

www.massively.com/2008/12/29/gamerdna-and-massively-look-back-at-the-mmo-year-in-review/ 

Above is an even better review.  How long until WAR or AoC go the way of Tabula Rasa; who cares really. The 3 of em or as disapointing as heck I think.

ficrubutka

The review seems to be too litte in scope since atlantica online and other good MMOs was never even mentioned. Well written but the content of it is lacking. Games are briefly introduced with such expansion x and update y for this MMO z. It generally failed to give a comprehensive review of 2008 MMOs. (In my opinion).

Drafell

I prefer Yahtzee's review.