Asmongold Reacts to "Why Are MMOs GROWING Again?" | By Josh Strife Hayes

the rebirth of the mmo i do believe that uh mmos are on the comeback uh i think that mmos have been on the comeback for a while it's just that people they they're not on a comeback i think good mmos are on the comeback but we'll go ahead and we'll talk about it afterwards in the past few months the mmorpg genre has experienced somewhat of a renaissance the status quo has been shaken up and the dominance of the old guard is being challenged new studios are bringing out new games new players are flooding in and discovering the joys of the mmo well old players are questioning long-held beliefs about game design is the mmo about to have a rebirth within the gaming landscape i think ladies and gentlemen welcome i'm josh dryface the mmorpg is a fantastic genre with millions of players around the world players enjoy the mechanics of the mmo creating a character leveling dungeons raiding leveling up your skills and having your own adventure online and yet many people have been so good things that's around the best 16 the genre has been going downhill is that about to change was it true at all i think that it honestly i feel like a lot of the the thing is that there have been so many mmos that were released between like burning crusade to like final fantasy 14 like a realm reborn there were just so many of them that were bad that's all there is to it there were just a lot of bad mmos that were released and i think that a lot of people just didn't want to play them anymore let's have a look yeah and they're all like they're all contextualized around wow and see if we're going through somewhat of an mmo renaissance before we begin if you want to support the channel for free you can like the video or sub for more mmo stuff ring the bell for all the future notifications and a special thank you to all those who support via patreon or twitch more on how you can do this at the end for now let's begin back in february 2021 mmorpg youtuber the lazy peon put out the excellent video the absolutely we watched this video it's so funny for me to see these videos and it's like oh i remember reacting to this oh i remember reacting to that state of the mmorpg genre in the video he laments the financial support that's been shown to other genres such as battle royales and first-person shooters while the mmo has sadly been left behind but why is this well back in 1997 the world was introduced to ultima online then two years later in 1999 everquest arrived and thus began one of the greatest gaming rivalries the mmorpg had two franchise titans and everquest and ultima actually remain surprisingly close to each other in popularity for many years i thought dude i thought everquest got way better it was cool to challenge them both and while never taking the crown it did experience oh yeah well then more games arrived and the mmorpg had a healthy real world gaming meta no one game dominated no one style exactly superior the game selection was smaller than today but the player base was stable between all of them then came the mmorpg boom world of warcraft runescape guild wars anarchy online ragnarok online final fantasy 11 eve toontown online lineage 2 second live city of heroes the mmorpg gold rush had begun companies knew there was money to be made in the mmo rpg landscape but as of yet the specific design structure wasn't known fantasy or sci-fi action combat or tab target combat please they had so many old mmos like especially before wow everybody was trying to make their own mmo to like really capitalize on it because like back then people wanted to play mmos just simply for the reason that they would get to play with other people in the world that lived in completely different places like the idea and the novelty of it was still super fresh because the internet was new back then player or player versus environment yeah the meta of the mmorpg design hadn't yet been sold completely random and this meant there was lovely creative chaos when there is no structure for how to design something for the biggest financial gain then creative people just throw multiple ideas out and see what works you have to take the risk when there's no blueprint to copy and it's this risk that leads to fantastic interesting creative situations we don't know what we're going to get something might work it's the same as when an mmorpg releases a new patch or a new dungeon or a new update players don't know what works we don't know what the best item to use is we don't know what the best setup is and if this i wish that was the case the the fact is like now i think a lot of the reasons why mmos and people got bored of like wow especially is that they did know what was going on everybody had every idea of what was going on because you would just you would just data mine everything and the day the patch came out people would be expected to know uh boss mechanics on day one and just completely have already watched a guide from like you know the 15 different videos that were made on the ptr it it just kind of sucked lovely chaos this beauty of the unknown that allows us to be so creative it's taking the risks that gives us the creative rewards absolutely everyone had been thrown into companies didn't know what to design and the meta of the mmo design hadn't yet been solved this gave us so many different games the early to mid era of the mmorpg was similar to the early to mid era of the mobile phone companies were throwing some crazy designs at the wall and seeing bro this one right here this one here was like a it was a nokia phone and then you could also play video games i think it was called like the engage or some [ __ ] and then it was these that you could flip up and down yeah and it was super expensive too my dad had this one which was one like he had the original nokia brick phone the one that still isn't broken and still can be used today yeah he had that one and like all of these were so much different nobody had an idea of like what the actual phone was what worked what the public would actually respond well to if you were a kid in the late 90s mid-2000s like i was you'll probably remember everyone having a different mobile phone with a different operating system and a different charging cable it was a wild tyrant design and these are special grounds for creativity when no one knows what will work or when you've got multiple styles all working equally well people are driven to find unique solutions ideas and styles it's a designer's paradise when the correct choice financially isn't known and then the risks they take start to pay off but one paid off more than the others world of warcraft slowly one mmo emerged as the king and began to make all the money now from a design standpoint the emergence of a single dominating system means one thing the clones are coming when the audience i think also like people like mmos in general trend towards being a winner take all system and the reason for that is because people want to play the game that everybody else is playing it's kind of like social media websites where you had like back in like 2007 before facebook got super popular you had a million different social media websites like besides myspace and then once you had like one of them everybody just wanted to be on that one that one social media platform because that's where everybody else is and also people want to invest like mmos appeal to people that want to invest a whole lot of time into something and because they want to invest a lot of time into it they want that time to be meaningful and because of that that's why they want to play the game that the most people are playing because it's probably going to have the longevity because so many people are playing it does that make sense young and the design space is fresh risk is the best business strategy because the chance of success is equal roughly everywhere but when the audience is known risk becomes a terrible tactic if you want to make guaranteed money you'll just copy what works with warcraft dominating and everquest creeping ahead of ultima the standard was being set if you were a company making an mmo you likely wanted a third person fantasy game with classes tab target combat and grindy gameplay with end game dungeons and raids as your focus yep it was proven to work the formula had been found one of the worst things that can happen to a creative space is the design within it becoming solved once you know the best set of superhero movies steps to take to achieve a certain goal you'd be a fool not to take them in warhammer 40k if a certain army think about it all powerful and all dominant you'd be an idiot not to play the army exactly magic the gathering if one deck became unbeatable you'd want to play the deck in any mmorpg once the meta is known how to play your class you play your class in that way this is what happens creativity and designing a game that's no different once companies knew how to build an mmorpg for the maximum return on investment everyone did that if your goal is victory or profit you'd be a fool not to follow the matter yeah this you always design i'm not blaming this is the unfortunate thing right it's the reason metas exist for a reason and a big reason for that is because people want to have that meta they want to they want the thing that that meta represents it's not fake or anything warcraft specifically for homogenizing the genre if it hadn't been that one another game would have it just happened to be the game that found the specific combination of franchise recognition and design style that appealed to a lot of people and now designers knew that taking risks wasn't worth it risking success in a chaotic landscape with everyone else also risking is potentially lucrative risking when you've already got a guaranteed method of success is not appealing to most companies over the next few years some new mmos but most came and then went wildstar the secret world the matrix online shadow bane ashran's call 2 star wars galaxies the lord of the rings online some of these games found minor levels of success the mmorpg was an extremely expensive genre to make and since the majority of the player base was focused on a single game it had a relatively low chance of giving a decent return on investment you were unlikely to steal another game's players the major mmorpgs that did manage to rise in power were all offering something that warcraft didn't runescape didn't require a download guild wars 2 was a by once play forever game that was the reason i remember guild wars 2 that's why a lot of people wanted to play it is because you didn't have to pay regularly for the game you would just buy the game once and then you never had to worry about it franchises the elder scrolls online had skyrim final fantasy 14 had final fantasy and the genre settled into this stable position for a while yeah five major mmorpgs world of warcraft final fantasy 14 the elder scrolls online guild wars 2 and runescape were the titans of the genre with several smaller but still successful games floating around the edge star wars the old republic neverwinter dungeons and dragons online lord of the rings online terror and others sitting off to the side yeah i think people still play at least in the mmo rpg design space was finished and plucky young designers moved on to different less risky genres if you're a game development company at this point in time you don't want to make an mmo rpg they're incredibly expensive have a really long development time and a very very low chance of actually making any profit back when the gold rush was happening and people didn't know what would make money it was worth it but the research had been done the r d was finished people know what's going on now that a successful mmorpg took a hell of a lot of money to make that gold rush was now happening in that's i think another reason why we see so many micro transactions and [ __ ] like that because all these things are just that people want to make as much money as possible right they want to just get their make their money back from their investment which is really really disappointing to see but it's also not a surprise the games battle royales the mobile gaming market was making absolute strides and billions of dollars the mmorpg genre had been solved design-wise that gold rush was over right up until it started again by gold rush i mean the moment companies realize there's an excessive amount of money to be made and over the last six months in the mmo world we've seen some major movements from big companies and some interesting additions from smaller ones if a game is solved there's no point making any different moves like tic-tac-toe once the winning combination is known just copy it and this is true right up until the winning combination stops winning world of warcraft is falling final fantasy 14 is raising and this switch well the thing is like this is what i've said before right i said this years ago i said that the neckbeards for mmos aren't gone they're just waiting they're just waiting for a new game that's worth playing and that's always how it's been man power is a symptom of a major new era in the mmo world not every single mmo player wants to play a single game forever they want to play them until they stop having fun and then move on to another one variety becomes the spice of life players want new experiences and for the last few years this has meant players have cycled between the top five mmos occasionally trying the smaller ones but now we seem to be reaching a player boredom boiling point every mmo player has tried all the top games most of them have tried the smaller games and the companies are realizing the player base wants something new and are actually serious about playing a new game amazon are moving in with new world to capture the casual pvp crowd mortal online 2 wants the hardcore pvp player that game is entertainment ashes of creation is aiming to recreate that classic rpg feel bless online has just released league of legends is making i like how he says he gives like what each development team what each game is trying to do and then with bless online it just came out you know bless online came out too look at that that's crazy an mmo star citizen is probably releasing another pre-release ship to make more money it may want to exist it may not who knows the early days of the mmorpg boom were brought about because companies realized this new genre the mmo had an untapped player base and there was a lot of money to be made companies took risks several companies failed a few succeeded and the early days were won by everquest ultimate online asheron's call world of warcraft runescape guild wars these games rose to the surface some of them kept going for years and years after the risk was just too big to take now if you're a new company making an mmo would likely bankrupt you so the mmo sat back games companies enjoyed making vast amounts of profits and players slowly became bought the genre stagnated because it was too risky for any new company to enter and this yeah there's no good ideas that's the problem is like wow used to have like back whenever other mmos would come out wow would get better because it would steal the ideas from the other mmos and do those ideas better but now that doesn't happen anymore so it's like okay well they don't have any good ideas to steal anymore and then they try to think of their own and that didn't work out so now we're sitting dealing with this made it worth entering because players wanted a new game yeah they hadn't had a new game a new good game in a hell of a long time and suddenly the money was there to be made again the player base were crying out for a new game and the risk suddenly became worth the reward exactly a healthy truck solved meta is vital to the long-term success of anything competitive or creative everquest and ultimate were so close for so many years and this meant they both focused on being the best versions of themselves because something about them was appealing they didn't need to follow a known formula and become gentrified competition leads to innovation invention and creation once warcraft began to dominate design became do what works and copy that not do what we're good at or create something new suddenly the top five mmos are actually leveling out again and this is forcing them to all focus on what they are specifically good at not just copying a known formula because the form i wish there was i wish that we could go back to the time where there was just one dominant game that was just like way better than all the other games because i feel like that it's like i just like whenever there's just like one game that everybody plays that one game right like from back in the day i know some people don't like that but like back in our wow was like the big game right or like halo 2 was like the big game i miss being able to just main one game and play one game taylor isn't working as well as it used to but you're right competition is not good it's not good for composition renaissance means rebirth revitalization or a renewed interest in something it can be a slow burn change or a dramatic shift in most cases it's a combination of both in the mmorpg genre it's the slow creeping boredom caused by multiple years of industry dominance and solved gameplay design causing the player base to wish for something new combined with a sudden shift in the player base away from warcraft and toward other games such as final fantasy which has made companies realize the genre is being shaken up the gold rush is here again the risks are worth it world of warcraft solved mmo design for many years as far as player counts go clones were made to emulate the success and a lucky few managed to survive i think they still did i mean look at how successful classic wow is look at how successful burning crusade is after this i'll give you an example i'll show you why i think burning crusade and like why that stuff is still going to it can still stand on its own it became too much of a risk to enter was the royal games made more money for less risk mobile gaming was far more profitable but now the player base is bored the power has shifted and the companies have realized while mobile gaming is still the best choice financially the mmorpg genre isn't completely done no it's not all absolutely not companies once again are taking risks i have long believed the last year has been the start of a new golden age for the mmorpg but what do you think are we seeing the start of a renaissance or will these new games fade into obscurity like so many before them and will we sit back into the boring status quo let me know in the comments below thank you very much for watching another massive thank you to the supporters on patreon and twitch who keep the channel going you can support from only one pound a month check your videos to the patreon twitch twitter and our discord and as always have a great day so this is what i've thought too is that like a lot of these things and like these systems that they have and everything like that all that kind of stuff has improved however i do think the base ideas are good like if you go back and you look at ironforge pro right this is a website that shows so this is going to show like the populations for different servers so if you look at farolina for example look at the amount of people that are still playing on farolina and if this is ever going to load there are still a huge amount of people that are playing burning crusade and that look at that right there this is like after the game came out a month after the game came out even now the numbers for burning crusade are going up like there's still a lot of people still playing burning crusade bots um i'm sure some of them are bots yes absolutely but i don't think it's fair to say that all of these different servers and everything about it are all bots benediction is the biggest server now we have three layers going on on weekends but either way what i'm saying is that there are a lot of people who still play burning crusade so i i think that it's not necessarily that the old methods don't work it's that the only thing that is working now is the old methods and nobody is able to innovate on those old methods and make them better right stuck in the past i mean sure you can say that but there's plenty of people that play the original mario right many people still like the old game they still enjoy that etc i don't know why people are trying so hard to invalidate uh the idea that burning crusade could still be popular it's kind of weird to me to see that but uh it seems obvious to me that there are a lot of people that are still enjoying burning crusade and still play it uh it's not that insane at all and uh retail andy so i'm not saying it's like super popular and you know everybody is playing it all the time what i'm saying is that it still has its audience and it's been able to retain its audience very well in you know all things considered [Music] you

Channel: Asmongold TV

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Id: y1Um2ZV1pXU

Length: 21min 7sec (1267 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 28 2021