Are MMOs still a thing?

[Daeudu]

So, I spent a lot of time in my teens on MMOs (mainly Runescape). I was wondering if anyone still plays them. It seems to me nowadays everything is a triple A title, indie game or an e-sport. If they're still any good, what are the most played ones?

[Bananasplit_00]

the only MMOs i have really botherd to play are BDO and miecraft. BDO was a lot of fun for a while but it just kinda stopped being fun pretty abruptly

[Zuccers]

Yeah MMOs still are a thing, probably Tanki Online, World of tanks... These are the games which i would recommend

[Khory211]

Elder Scrolls Online is doing pretty well. 

[Zuccers]

Just now, Khory211 said:

Elder Scrolls Online is doing pretty well. 

Yeah

[tatte]

Yes. Guild Wars 2 is still going strong, and the core game is free. If you're interested and have 17 minutes to spare, this video goes over all important aspects of the game. We're currently enjoying an 8-bit themed Super Adventure Festival.

[Fasauceome]

mmo lite is a big genre right now, with shooter looters like borderlands 3, destiny, anthem hitting the scene.

[porina]

FFXIV remains a timesink for me. Player base is still growing. Don't think it topped peak WoW, but it's on that kind of magnitude.

[Tsuki]

FFXIV, BDO, OSRS, and ESO are all still thriving communities.

 

there have been a lot of MMO's recently that came out and died pretty quick (lookin at you Bless).  honestly look into the older MMOs, they stuck around and stayed good

[Giganthrax]

WoW and Elder Scrolls Online are doing well. 

 

The rest, like SWTOR, Age of Conan, various Asian MMOs, etc. are pay2win or otherwise heavily gated behind $$$. 

 

Eve Online is also active as far as I know, but that's a special case. 

 

MMOs as we know them will never again be a mainstream genre, simply because the experience of having a massive open world and playing with other people has long since ceased to be viewed as new and incredible by players. Add to this that MMOs have, paradoxically, killed the social aspect of their gameplay, and there really is very little reason for the average player today to get into a MMO. 

[xAcid9]

I think you will like Guild Wars 2.

[Underi]

I still play RS3 and occasionally hop into SWTOR to level up my character.

[Paranoid Kami]

Guild Wars 2 if you want a casual game with a good combat system

Elder Scrolls Online if you want a casual grindy game

Final Fantasy 14 if you want a casual grindy game

World of Warcraft if you want a casual grindy game with extremely old graphics

 

All doing well and have their playerbases that are attracted to their games particular niche. GW2 core is free if you want to try it out and there are some trials for the other games I think.

[_Hustler_One_]

Any of https://wargaming.net

 

World of Tanks is the one which hooked me hard..

[_Hustler_One_]

10 hours ago, Giganthrax said:

killed the social aspect of their gameplay, and there really is very little reason for the average player today to get into a MMO.

I found about this in WoT as I'm paying attention to the player behaviour this far, is that the most toxic players are the average players, the bellow-average players are just clueless (doesn't have much to talk in game) and being object of toxicity the most by others.

 

While the above-average and the pro players are the group that tend to much more emotionally controlled and the most silent in-game.

 

It's the average players that are the cancers in World of Tanks. Too much talk and commander-wannabe of the team and when they lose they blame the others annoyingly.

[Franck]

8 hours ago, xAcid9 said:

I think you will like Guild Wars 2.

Did they really became an MMO or it's still a fake one ?

Last time i played was about 2 years ago and i couldn't even share quest with my wife.

You need to tell the other person which quest you take and each objective has to be achieved individually, No teamwork was possible.

Couldn't get into her class storyline quest as they were single player instance only.

90% of the maps were you do quest were instanced with max 6 or 8 players i think.

 

The only MMO part is one big chat room in the cities and travel maps had a dozen or so people to chat with.

[Bouzoo]

15 hours ago, porina said:

FFXIV remains a timesink for me. Player base is still growing. Don't think it topped peak WoW, but it's on that kind of magnitude.

To be fair, FFXIV according to all info has 640k-ish number of players. It is not even remotely close to WoW. It is still one of the most popular MMOs out there no doubt. 

 

And I don't see anyone mentioning Destiny 2. Trust me, it is so worth it. I'd recommend FFXIV and D2 since they are completely different games. 

[Rupe]

51 minutes ago, Franck said:

Did they really became an MMO or it's still a fake one ?

Last time i played was about 2 years ago and i couldn't even share quest with my wife.

You need to tell the other person which quest you take and each objective has to be achieved individually, No teamwork was possible.

Couldn't get into her class storyline quest as they were single player instance only.

90% of the maps were you do quest were instanced with max 6 or 8 players i think.

 

The only MMO part is one big chat room in the cities and travel maps had a dozen or so people to chat with.

You go through the world completing the objectives on the map so there are no quests in the traditional sense. If you and someone else is doing the same objectives in the same area you will both gain progress towards the objective so it's perfectly co-operative. Maps are not instanced with 6 or 8 players max never has been the case, places were rammed when the game came out, they are instanced in a sense but this only means you still find other players about if you choose to be in a populated instance. The world in WoW is now also instanced and no one would ever claim that not being an MMO

[porina]

36 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

To be fair, FFXIV according to all info has 640k-ish number of players. It is not even remotely close to WoW. It is still one of the most popular MMOs out there no doubt. 

Always a difficult comparison given neither side gives details on active subscribers. What is a current estimate of WoW subscribers for comparison?

 

I was mostly going by a number thrown around in August 2017, shortly after the last major expansion, where FFXIV was said to have had 10 million cumulative players. This isn't active players, which is probably only a much smaller proportion of that. I saw a figure of 12M for the peak active WoW subscribers. Also how do you count active players? Like any established MMO, I know of people who only re-sub now and then to catch up but let it lapse between major content releases.

[tatte]

52 minutes ago, Franck said:

Did they really became an MMO or it's still a fake one ?

Last time i played was about 2 years ago and i couldn't even share quest with my wife.

You need to tell the other person which quest you take and each objective has to be achieved individually, No teamwork was possible.

Couldn't get into her class storyline quest as they were single player instance only.

90% of the maps were you do quest were instanced with max 6 or 8 players i think.

 

The only MMO part is one big chat room in the cities and travel maps had a dozen or so people to chat with.

Personal story is just that, if you don't make the same lore/race choices, this can happen. Living World and expansion stories are more open.

 

The open world is always open to co-operation and credit sharing. Online population of the game naturally fluctuates during the day and population of any given area depends on what's happening there and what's happening elsewhere. The game can unfortunately only have a limited amount of players in any given instance, and it favours balancing the instances rather than systematically filling one to the brim before opening another. I believe the instance size to be somewhere between 100 and 200 players, large squads (capped at 50) are a common sight on maps that have more than bunnies around. You can use LFG to hop between instances.

 

It sounds like you didn't play long enough to experience any of the good stuff. Even starting maps have world bosses, and they get overall very busy whenever one of them becomes the main daily achievement map. Outside of any particular events they of course can get pretty quiet, with just new players chopping their trees and occasional map completionists flying by. The world expands with expansions and LW seasons: there's currently 20 additional, unlockable maps in addition to the core game's 34 maps, and the game is of course growing. Most maps have open world content that requires the co-operation of a number of players.

[Bouzoo]

37 minutes ago, porina said:

Always a difficult comparison given neither side gives details on active subscribers. What is a current estimate of WoW subscribers for comparison?

 

I was mostly going by a number thrown around in August 2017, shortly after the last major expansion, where FFXIV was said to have had 10 million cumulative players. This isn't active players, which is probably only a much smaller proportion of that. I saw a figure of 12M for the peak active WoW subscribers. Also how do you count active players? Like any established MMO, I know of people who only re-sub now and then to catch up but let it lapse between major content releases.

Oh, it was never 10M players, it was accounts that were made altogether. The game probably didn't sell half of that much altogether if we take ARR, HW and SB combined. 

 

I use mostly FFXIV Census:

https://ffxivcensus.com/

 

And I can't remember the link for other sites people pulled on reddit. I honestly wish it were 10M active players, DPS Qs wouldn't be a bitch. 

I really wouldn't know about WoW sadly. I was never into it. 

[porina]

47 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

Oh, it was never 10M players, it was accounts that were made altogether.

I got that. It was cumulative accounts, and I believe even includes "free" accounts.

 

47 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

I use mostly FFXIV Census:

https://ffxivcensus.com/

Had to wonder how they got those numbers, then saw on github they scrape lodestone records. In one way, I think their numbers will be a bit low, as their definition of active is passing reaching 4.1. I know of many players who are grinding through from the start and haven't even reached SB yet. OTOH it may also be high as multiple characters per account is possible. I have 3 chars which are more or less up to date (still need to finish 4.56 MSQ on two).

 

A more useful measure might be to define anyone who has had an active subscription in last xx days. Probably not possible to obtain that outside SE. An indirect way might be to change the criteria. Like store the levels of a character from lodetone, and if any level has increased in last xx days then you know they were active.

 

47 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

I honestly wish it were 10M active players, DPS Qs wouldn't be a bitch. 

It probably wont help DPS queues. I can't heal or tank so know that pain also. It is the ratio of class players that is the problem. It will be interesting to see how the NPC system in Shadow Bringers will affect that.

 

47 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

I really wouldn't know about WoW sadly. I was never into it. 

Likewise, never got into it although I did the free trial on and off a few times.

[Bouzoo]

14 minutes ago, porina said:

It probably wont help DPS queues. I can't heal or tank so know that pain also. It is the ratio of class players that is the problem. It will be interesting to see how the NPC system in Shadow Bringers will affect that.

Actually you are right, though luckily I*have most jobs on 70 or swapping is a possibillity (that I don't prefer too much). 

[Giganthrax]

10 hours ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

I found about this in WoT as I'm paying attention to the player behaviour this far, is that the most toxic players are the average players, the bellow-average players are just clueless (doesn't have much to talk in game) and being object of toxicity the most by others.

 

While the above-average and the pro players are the group that tend to much more emotionally controlled and the most silent in-game.

 

It's the average players that are the cancers in World of Tanks. Too much talk and commander-wannabe of the team and when they lose they blame the others annoyingly.

Dude, we're talking about MMORPGs here. WoT is a competitive F2P game, not a MMORPG with a persistent game world and quests and raids and stuff. 

[_Hustler_One_]

4 hours ago, Giganthrax said:

Dude, we're talking about MMORPGs here. WoT is a competitive F2P game, not a MMORPG with a persistent game world and quests and raids and stuff. 

Ah.. My bad, because as I know WoT is one of MMO game out there.. LOL