Opinion: MMOs

Vox, Nagafen, Cazic-Thule, Ragnaros, Nefarian.  When I first started playing Massively Multiplayer games, raiding was a mission only the most hardcore of players could undertake.  In the outset of EverQuest, 72 players could join together to surmount otherwise insurmountable odds, and were rewarded as such.  Pick-up groups were extremely rare and those that existed, were almost doomed to fail.  For a brief gaming history of mine, here it goes.  I grew up in the twilight days of the NES, games like Captain Skyhawk, Contra, and Track and Field taking turns rotating in and out of the console.  Since then, I have owned (at least for some time) every major console manufactured by the big three, as well as a couple of others.  I tried the XBand internet gaming system, I was in line for the original Mortal Kombat (although, being 6 at the time, only came out with Aladdin).  My love for RPGs and epic boss battles began with Chrono Trigger and Earthbound, from there it evolved to Final Fantasy 7, Legend of Legaia, Grandia, and so on and so forth.  EverQuest was my first introduction to the MMORPG genre, and after 3 months of declining offers to try it, I finally sat down, and was immediately hooked.  2004 rolls around, and the new heavyweight, World of Warcraft was released, and for a time, I was playing both of them.

I long for a time before Dungeon Finders and Companions, where the only way to find a group was to shout in a populated zone.  The first raid I ever went on was against Trakanon in Old Sebilis, and to date, I cannot think of an encounter that raised my heart rate as much as that one.  There are many memorable ones however, namely the bosses that I listed in the introductory paragraph.  Those days are long gone, replaced by Dungeon and Raid Finders, and in-game or modified "standards" of gear.  Star Wars: The Old Republic, was my latest hope for a new, interesting, and immersive game, and while it delivered on the first and third aspects, it only maintained its interest for a short period of time; the voice acting became old and tedious, much like quest text in World of Warcraft.  After clearing all of the raids on Hard Mode within 2 months of release, I quickly became burned out and started to play other titles that I had available.

One of my classmates wrote previously, that Massively Multiplayer Games were on their way out.  I am disinclined to agree with this, but the signs are definitely there.  The World of Warcraft juggernaut is still there, but for how long?  How many more games will switch to a free-to-play model in order to stay afloat and ultimately, sacrifice features and support for those who have been there since the beginning?  I would love to believe that there is still life in the genre, and I am crossing my fingers for PlanetSide 2, Guild Wars 2, and Tera, but for now, I see nothing extremely game changing on the horizon.  It appears to be the end of an era.

-DM

(Image from hyperhighway.com/bilgehunter)