The MMORPG
of MY
DREAMS
What makes a massively multiplayer online role-playing game?
There are several components that constitute an MMORPG but almost all of them
fall short in at least a few of those regards. The most successful MMORPG to
date has been World of Warcraft which hit a peak of over 12 million subscribers
during Cataclysm but has since waned to as low as a recorded 5 million during
Warlords of Draenor. Reciprocally these value bounce back after each expansion
pack but the most recent (and possibly the last) publicly reported figures
showed a massive decline over a short period of time. With the horror show that
was Warlords of Draenor, flopping of various other titles (Black Desert Online
& Wildstar come to mind) plus the anticipation of the new World of Warcraft
expansion – Legion, this got me thinking. What would my perfect MMORPG be like?
What do I envisage in a 100/100, 10/10 MMORPG? We’ll delve into this for as
long as my words can hold.
I’ll start by talking about my own history with this genre,
my general views on it and some titles I’ve liked over the years. My first
experience with an MMORPG would have to Runescape back in the early 2000s; back
then I was still in primary (elementary) school and there was a general buzz
surrounding it. So, naturally, as with other curious kids I gave it a try and
little did I know at the time that this fantasy world would come to consume my
high school years. The game was so different than to everything else I had tried
first and foremost being multiplayer. The seemingly expansive world was so awesome
to behold in comparison to the single-player RTS and Flash games I was so used
to. What drew me in was the amount of content that was available and the fact
that I could roam the world at my own leisure while other games I played were
mostly linear in scope or defined by a rather small playable map. Years
progressed and I eventually picked up another MMORPG called Ashen Empires. This
game had a very classic feel to it with an isometric view and lots of similar
content to Runescape but it felt somewhat lacklustre beyond a certain point and
thus I stopped playing it after a while. The next MMORPG was none other than
Blizzard’s behemoth World of Warcraft. My first encounter with this juggernaut was on a private server back in
2007 around the time when I was starting to burn myself out with Runescape. It
was a deal-breaker and so drastically gobsmacking that I wished to continue
playing it, alas, I eventually stopped playing as the server went down and my
computer and internet connection weren’t able to handle it any longer. I
continued to play Runescape alongside DotA (which I had been playing on and off
for about 1-2 years at that point). It wasn’t until 2009, the year after I left
high school, that I was able to run World of Warcraft after perchance coming
across it while searching Battle.net while presumably playing Starcraft: Brood
War or Warcraft 3.
That first moment I stepped back into Elwynn Forest was magical. The rain had ceased (from at last I played) but the environment was still spectacular and grand. To be experiencing the full game for the first time was a blast! Everything I saw and did was just a breath of fresh air compared to Runescape (which I had burnt myself out by that point). The combat system was so much more fun that right-clicking and hoping to score big numbers (sorry Runescape). It probably helped that it was the first proper character I played so the novelty may have played a big role in exaggerating the feel of the game. The first PvP battleground I played was a joy (even though I was probably dead through most of it). The glory of slaying those damned Horde members was unrivalled! Unparalleled too were the dungeons which presented a massive challenge compared to the singular NPC entities within other MMORPGs that I had played. My favourite part though? The gathering; no, not Magic but the collection of herbs and ores was fulfilling that urge that Runescape and later Ashen Empires had brought upon me.
That first moment I stepped back into Elwynn Forest was magical. The rain had ceased (from at last I played) but the environment was still spectacular and grand. To be experiencing the full game for the first time was a blast! Everything I saw and did was just a breath of fresh air compared to Runescape (which I had burnt myself out by that point). The combat system was so much more fun that right-clicking and hoping to score big numbers (sorry Runescape). It probably helped that it was the first proper character I played so the novelty may have played a big role in exaggerating the feel of the game. The first PvP battleground I played was a joy (even though I was probably dead through most of it). The glory of slaying those damned Horde members was unrivalled! Unparalleled too were the dungeons which presented a massive challenge compared to the singular NPC entities within other MMORPGs that I had played. My favourite part though? The gathering; no, not Magic but the collection of herbs and ores was fulfilling that urge that Runescape and later Ashen Empires had brought upon me.
The years passed by and I suddenly found myself glued to
another game… Dota 2 (be damned). In late 2010 Icefrog, lead developer of DotA:
Allstars, announced that he was contacted by Valve which I was completely unaware
of at the time (lord Gaben forgive me). The excitement built up for a while as
I had always wanted to play that game in a less-confined platform. Months
passed and nothing new was broadcast so my attention was drawn back towards
World of Warcraft for the release of Cataclysm which was the first official
expansion where I got to experience the launch. Subsequent expansions (Mists of
Pandaria and Warlords of Derp) have had me from the beginning too. In early
2011 I discovered a new title called RIFT (one which I adore to this day in
spite of its massive decline). This game ticked all the boxes of having a
familiar WoW-esque feel but with its own spin on it. I will say that Vanilla
RIFT was probably my favourite MMORPG experience ever even trumping the first
WoW and Runescape encounters. So I played for months on end and loved the heck
out of it until one day I found out about Minecraft (Jebus Christ it’s always
these perchance encounters that draw me into something new). Minecraft is love,
it is life, it is crack... Minecrack to be exact (thank you gay son of Wildfire
guild master). At around the same time, however, a certain white water angel
introduced me to League of Legends (well, to play it anyway as I had known
about it for over a year). I actually really enjoyed it probably for the
novelty factor and because it was essentially an alternate DotA. I spent an
awful amount of money on that game ($180 to be exact although bested by Runescape,
RIFT, WoW and Dota 2… praise Gaben) It looked like I would be at LoL for a
while until that fateful day of August 1st 2011 when Valve had
announced a whopping $1.6 million unveiling of Dota 2 at Gamescom in Germany.
So over that past 3-4 years I’ve been mostly going back and
forth between WoW, RIFT and Dota 2. I’ve also tried Twelve Sky (bewbs), Last
Chaos, Eternal Lands, Eldavin, TERA, GW2 and more recently Wildstar, Blade
& Soul and Riders of Icarus. Most of them (bar Twelve Sky, Eternal Lands
and Eldavin) have had something new to share with me and I’ve liked individual
components of those games but they all seem to be lacking a lot more in
comparison to say… WoW or RIFT (or even Runescape but I’ve burnt myself out on
that).
So what now and where to? I’m kind of stuck in a crossroad
between being semi-burnt out on years of MMORPG gaming but also excited at the
upcoming releases of World of Warcraft: Legion, RIFT’s as of yet untitled
expansion pack and more recently the upcoming patch to Riders of Icarus.
<TO
BE CONTINUED, AND EDITED>
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