The Future of MMO Games - Things Are About To Change Forever

the popularity of game genres Rises and Falls what initially starts out as Innovative and engaging quickly turns into oversaturated and played out and all of that can happen in the span of just a couple of years developers cling to the past and try and reinvent the future and in most cases doesn't work but one genre that's been humming along since the early '90s is set for a huge second Golden Age my name is Kodak this is Legacy gaming and today we'll explore MMO RPGs the genre I believe is about to experience a huge Renaissance if you're a 30-some yearold like myself then you most likely grew up alongside the MMO genre I vividly remember my cousin introducing me to EverQuest online and from that point onwards my brain wanted nothing more than to dive into the always online worlds developers were creating now fast forward 20 plus years later and that desire to recapture the excitement I first fell in my cousin's room still Burns within me and I'd argue that there are a lot of players just like me that are longing for the second coming of MMO RPGs there's a lot of reasons why I think the second golden age is almost upon us and for the next few minutes I'm going to try and lay out all of that for you it's a discussion and while I've played a ton of MMOs in my day there's no doubt a few of you out there have even more experience so feel free to jump into the comments at any point and share your thoughts I honestly love when our community takes the time to really crack into an issue so don't be afraid to speak your mind so my first point is this absence makes the heart grow fonder the further removed we are from the original golden age of MMO RPGs the more we want a Resurgence I think the clearest example of this is the absolute dominance games like wow classic have had on the genre it's not that the game is doing anything radically different but it's tapping into a time and place where we all felt immersed in our games you could say the same thing about RuneScape a game that still pulls in hundreds of thousands of players a month even though the game is decades old with that in mind you might be able to draw the conclusion that MMO RPG players just want what's familiar to them they're trying to capture the lightning in a bottle effect from 20 years ago and while I'd agree with you we also have to recognize that new MMO RPGs have managed to generate just as much hype but what happens after launch is often a disaster to understand that you just need to look at Gam games like Diablo I which is currently Blizzard's fastest selling game of all time think about that for a second that means it's the highest pre-launch unit sales ever on both console and PC everyone knows the name Diablo the franchise has incredible Name ID arguably the most valuable thing in this case however the decline of the game post launch is almost as impressive as the energy beforehand there's a great video by a small YouTube channel called comeback kids that I highly recommend you check out if you you want a full breakdown of just what happened after Diablo 4's launch it's a great look at all the decisions that happened or didn't happen in some cases that caused a mass Exodus of players all that being said though my point still stands the appetite for a huge new MMO RPG in almost any form be it a top- down or third person game is there my second Point has more to do with the gaming landscape than anything else 2023 was an absolute Banger year and we're working on a video right now that really helps highlight just how incredible this year has been for gaming but that's not exactly repeatable in 2024 and Beyond at least right now at the time of making this video looks lackluster sure there are some cool games on the horizon that will always be the case but most years there are a handful of games you know are going to resonate more broadly I'm talking about the Cyber punks or starfields of the world hundreds of thousands sometimes millions of concurrent players all flood to these games upon release in a fervor that's just not replicated with every other title 2024 by comparison is a scarce year and if you don't believe me just go check out our video where we cover close to two dozen games slated for a release sometime next year it's a good list but not nearly as impressive as some other years major developers are either in planning or deep development of other games we just don't know about and in that vacuum creates the perfect opportunity for a new or completely revamped MMO RPG to swoop in and steal the spotlight granted that is a finite window of opportunity because as we know new games are always in development so these teams have to strike while the iron is hot and that's almost impossible to do with a genre that requires so much time and resources to develop but still the opportunity is there my third Point has more to do with people than anything else and in this case I'm talking about Legends of the industry who are bursting on or back onto the scene which is caused enough for excitement the most not able is Chris Metson who made his presence known at BlizzCon 2023 returning to the company after his retirement back in 2018 this time as the executive director of the warcraft Universe menon's impact on blizzard cannot be understated and while a simple Google search will tell you all you need to know about his history it's his future I'm more interested in he's charged with leading Warcraft forward and that is a huge undertaking especially for World of Warcraft which is coming up on 20 years since its launch but we will talk about that in a little bit there's also Greg Street AKA ghost crawler who was the lead system designer for World of Warcraft from 2008 to 2013 arguably when the game was at the peak of its popularity Greg was instrumental in developing systems that players are still enjoying today Greg moved from blizzard to Riot games where he ended his tenure working on a still Tobe announced mm RPG we'll talk about this game more in the future but I do think it's going to be huge given the massive World build building that's going on at Riot what I think is most interesting is Ghost crawler's recent announcement that he's formed a new studio called fantastic pixel Castle recruited industry veterans that have extensive experience with massive AAA titles and is planning on launching a new MMO RPG code name project ghost while announcing a new MMO and launching a new MMO are wildly different things Greg made it clear in the Project's announcement video that the game will be rolled out to the community early as he and by extend mention the team believe that a community developed experience is going to result in a stronger game long story short this is a project to watch competition is good whether it's professional sports consumer goods or in this case MMO RPGs the more legitimate projects that are out there the more the pressure is on on the developer side you hope that more competition means going that extra mile during the development process creating that one layer deeper that keeps players engaged on the player side comp competition means making a choice or multiple choices if you have the time and money the best games rise to the top and if they continue to grow and adapt to the changing needs of the player base they succeed my final Point As We Lay out the case for what's to come is simply this people are still playing MMO RPGs in droves and while specific data about the biggest games are closely held Secrets there's enough information out there to know the genre is still wildly popular looking at the most transparent source of data we have steam DB we can see a few mid-tier MMOs still performing well lost AR sees about 45 to 55,000 concurrent players throughout the day new world sees anywhere from 30 to 45,000 concurrent players Path of Exile has roughly 14 to 27,000 concurrent players on any given day and this list doesn't account for some of the biggest games in the MMO space including World of Warcraft Final Fantasy 14 and old school RuneScape but the issue with these games is that they're established and in many cases played Out For Better or Worse players want that shiny new object and a new expansion or DLC just doesn't have the same power as a new IP or a complete reset of an existing experience this is the foundation for why I think a second golden age of MMO RPGs is coming the lack of releases has made players hungry for something new and fully immersive there's little in the way of real crossover competition from other games and genres industry Legends have burst back onto the with bold intentions and MMOs are still wildly popular with millions of players engaging with the genre every day the table is set for something massive but before we get to what's coming we have to look at the current transformation of the genre and the development happening with MMOs that are popular right now MMO RPGs for better or worse haven't disappeared in fact they continue to rumble on doing everything they can to hold on to their existing communities while attempting often in vain to to bring in new players I wanted to quickly run down the most popular games and some of the latest enhancements in each of those games whether that be a recent patch upcoming DLC or something else entirely I would imagine that I like most of you have dipped in and out of a number of MMOs throughout the past couple of years attempting to find some sense of satisfaction don't lie we've all been there that being said there are some changes happening to the genre's biggest games so let's just take a quick look arguably the game with the most po set in motion right now World of Warcraft Just revealed the world Soul Saga a brand new set of three upcoming DLCs that will continue the story of Azeroth set in motion almost 20 years ago the first DLC the war within will take players to the center of Azeroth and after his years of absence andwin Ren is back as a central pillar once again as I mentioned before Chris medson now executive director of the warcraft Universe has near complete control over the direction the game game takes from here and in lock step with some of the new systems revealed such as delves small group World content that can reward endgame gear yeah there's a lot going on here another game that continues to add content as it tries to maintain its foothold in the genre is New World the game recently saw a small Resurgence in players thanks to a new DLC called rise of the angry Earth which introduced a new story line bumped up the level and gear score cap introduced a new weapon and gear Rarity tier and most notably introduced mounts I'll be honest the game has continued to surprise me with its heads down approach to pumping out content mounts although reportedly not implemented well is still a Monumental change for the game and if Amazon continues to invest money into the project who knows where New World will be in a few years the one game on this list I have no experience in is one that has been steadily dropping new content since its debut in 2014 Elder Scrolls Online The Game's latest chapter necron released this past summer and introduced The Arcanist added two new companions to your cause and advanced the shadow over Moro in Saga more recently the game introduced the endless archive free update which introduced a wave survival type event that players can take on Solo or with the group rewarding Collectibles achievements and new class set items the game has shown absolutely no signs of slowing down and while numbers on Steam aren't that impressive you have to remember the game also has a healthy fan base on both PlayStation and Xbox console and we couldn't forget about Final Fantasy 14 which continues to forge ahead after the success of end Walker as that story line concludes another begins and in the recently revealed expansion Dawn Trail players will head to turle the new world and the birthplace of Blue Magic the developers have revealed that three new jobs will be introduced in the expansion which includes the Viper a new damage dealing class already revealed there's a lot more coming to the game but as expected the Japanese Bas developers are waiting for their major FanFest event in January 2024 to reveal more these games are continuing to pour thousands of hours of development time into their worlds and these are just four examples throughout a genre that continues to try and innovate and excite and just for fun let's do a quick poll here if you're still playing any of these games drop a comment down below I'm curious to see who's still diving in years later the truth is this is all the norm the status quo if you will and if we are to usher in a second golden age of mm RPGs something big and I mean really big needs to happen as we've discussed the board is set the piece is strategically placed in the right positions but in order for the genre to come roaring back you need the right game and I think one or a combination of a few upcoming games deployed around the same time might just be the final piece to the formula that being said there are a number of issues that have absolutely dogged the genre for some time and all of the games we're about to talk about about will have to combat these things for starters going into a game cold with no World building done at any point pre-launch is a huge blunder one that has seen the demise of a number of games add on to that a lackluster World which is the other side of that coin you're creating a massive sandbox and for the most part the world is your oyster so make it interesting upcoming games will also need to strategically navigate how to monetize is the era of the paid subscription over or would players be willing to pay so long as they're not Laden with in-game stores battle passes and other tropes that have worn our patients paper thin of course there's also the dreaded patch cycle which isn't just a Content problem but a logistical and resource intensive one as well do you speed up the launch of new content but thin out the offering or do you extend the window of time between major updates and really make them meaningful and of course there's always the issue ever present in the genre of player Behavior how do you combat cheating grief in harassment and all the things the games in this genre have had to Grapple with and have had years of experience addressing all of these challenges and more are going to be subject for a lot of discussion as new MMOs come onto the scene I have no doubt about that they can't afford not to take these issues seriously but let's put the worries of Tomorrow aside and focus on the projects themselves the games that could be the next Ultimate Experience first is the riot games unannounced MMO RPG which which was first revealed back in 2021 if there's a company that understands how to World build in the modern sense it's Riot think of characters like Jinx which have transcended games altogether and spun off into a variety of multimedia projects including the hit show Arcane every new piece of art short video or bit of lore is helping develop the world of R Tera which is already incredibly vibrant in the minds of fans considering that League of Legends started as a MOA and has expanded into an entire company dedicated to Bringing its Champions to life in new ways you can easily connect the dots to understand why and how in MMO RPG would be successful you also can't discount the fact that MMOs take a vast amount of time and resources to develop and while we're all working from the same clock it's fair to say Riot has more than enough money to pour into this massive undertaking Greg Street who we talked about before and we'll talk about again in a minute was leading this project for a few years and even his initial guidance when helping get the team in place and philosophies aligned is monumentally valuable the biggest issue I foresee with Riot's MMO is how you pull all of those threads together Riot deploys almost too much worldbuilding content there are dozens if not hundreds of characters each with their own lore and connection to the world of Runa trying to piece all that together is a hurdle but if the team manages to fight off the urge to go massive from the start and really create core systems around the characters and worlds that players already love I think the game has a chance to be a huge success a pretty big shock to the system was when Greg Street who we've talked about a number of times already announced he was leaving Riot games no stranger to talk into the Gaming Community he quickly announced that he was forming a new studio which was revealed in November fantastic pixel Castle is a brand new studio led by Greg and backed by net EAS their ambition is to create a new fantasy IP with players and community at the Center the goal is to talk early and talk often with players about the type of game they want to see the developers create that's something that Greg has been Adam in about well before announcing his team there's already a bit of information about the game on the Fantastic pixel website which I think many will find pretty interesting this one passage about the world of ghost gives us the clearest vision of the game at this point in ghost you travel to World shards to power up your characters bring back resources and build your fledgling Civilization by growing and supporting the city's diverse and everchanging factions in turn you'll see the city grow and evolve over time based on the choices and actions of players just like you as an epic story unfolds season over season in our game you'll alternate between private Realms that we call Blue shards for you and your friends and more public red shards that deliver a more traditional massively multiplayer experience at the onset that sounds interesting but we all know that good systems Aren't Enough when it comes to MMO RPGs and without a compelling story and an array of ways to fully immerse players in the world a new IP will just be another blip on the radar that's honestly what I think project ghost will struggle with the most at least at the start a new IP means building Your World characters and systems from the ground up and while I'm sure that's thrilling to the right team it's also daunting and an uphill battle in the fight to grab players attention nevertheless with a talented team supporting the studio and the financial backing of net ease project ghost is sure to be a game to keep an eye on we've already talked at length about World of Warcraft but there's one element of the game's future we haven't touched upon Microsoft with the recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard there's no telling what direction Phil Spencer will take the franchise and the studio his presence alone on stage at this year's BlizzCon speaks volumes for the future of the brand desperate in need of a reset now what does that mean for World of Warcraft no one knows but the combination of Phil Spencer plus Chris medson is a powerful Dynamic and many myself included believe a true reset or sequel to World of Warcraft could be coming there's no denying the game needs to be brought into this generation in terms of graphics and some systems but obviously a game of that caliber takes time my guess is that blizzard was in a bit of a holding pattern as the Microsoft deal was being finalized this is a wild hot take but the world Stone Saga could be the final three chapters in the lifespan of our world award Warcraft as we know it today giving the team time to develop something huge like World of Warcraft 2 another game that has the potential to massively shake up the genre is ashes of creation which was originally started as a Kickstarter back in 2017 the game is largely crowdfunded and has amassed millions as players have backed and continue to support the development of the game throughout its constant stream of supporter releases the game has seen a lot of attention over the last couple years with well-known MMO creat like asmin gold and lazy peon covering some of the major milestones in the game's development I'll be honest I am just still not there with this game there's a lot of ambitious ideas out there such as nodes which are preset points in the world wrapped in a zone of influence and as players participate in the node the content of the world will react to that engagement with those in control of the node's government having more control over things like diplomacy and the ability to modify building types and constructions it's a system that feels Vaguely Familiar to the ter atories in new world but more Dynamic that being said it's just an idea at this point and while there is plenty out there to read about systems like nodes seeing it in action on a massive scale is a more distant reality what we have seen are a lot of mounts some gameplay and various subsystems within the game that will ultimately feed into the overall vision for ashes of creation like all these upcoming games ashes is faced with its own challenges in many regards it'll encounter much of the new IP Growing Pains that project ghost will grapple with but there's also the prolonged impact of crowdfunding a gaming project when you ask players to pay to support the development of a long-term project there's an element of community erosion that occurs the longer the project drags on in the case of Ashes the game has been in the public eye for over 5 years and while MMO RPGs historically take a long time to develop everything that happens from here on out will be scrutinized by the community since they are technically investors in the game success it's a tricky situation one we're seeing play out in other parts of the industry as well with games like Star Citizen so how ashes manages to navigate those Waters only time will tell but the developers recently revealed that Alpha 2 would be coming in early 2024 and that they're also stopping all pre-launch packs so things are trending in the right direction I wanted to end by highlighting some of the Eastern MMO RPGs that are also coming down the pike and while I haven't really cracked into them that's because they're just not real and tangible for a lot of us outside of South Korea there's no denying it games like genin impact and lost AR have helped bridge the gap between Eastern style MMOs and a western audience those types of games did have a foothold in the west before but it feels like now more than ever they're becoming mainstream three games blue protocol archage 2 and thrown in Liberty are titles I think are worth keeping an eye on each presents different ideas but they take concepts of fantasy and high fantasy and pack package them in a way that many Western players will gravitate to games like blue protocol are set to feature Dynamic action combat deep character customization and is free to play which has its own pros and cons as we all know other games like thrown in Liberty promise seamless open world exploration massive scale pvpve and high fantasy elements on a scale we've come to expect from Eastern MMOs there is simply no shortage of new games on the horizon but these games will face their own tests namely the grind and pay to wi Goa systems that are synonymous with Korean games heck it's the reason so many people I know burnt out of lost Arc it was a slog and for any of these games to find an audience in the west it's a problem the developers need to account for who knows if they will but having multiple games from both East and West dropping in harmony is going to put a lot of attention on the genre which will be exciting so what do you think is the second golden age of MML RPGs on the horizon there's no no doubt the genre continues to be a pillar of The Gaming Community but after decades in the spotlight MMOs have just quietly pulsed along and those major disruptions that used to cause fervor amongst Gamers and just everyone just doesn't exist anymore I think that's all going to change but I really want to know what you guys think leave us a comment down below and let me know what it's going to take to bring you back into an MMO RPG guys this is a very different type of video than you're used to seeing from us so if you appreciate the work that went into writing producing and editing this project drop us a like and consider subscribing to the channel your support means we can keep Schmo on the payroll for a whole another month so help us out of course you can always join us on Discord if you want to take part in Daily giveaways or just talk to the team about new and upcoming games that link as always is below my name is Kodak and from everyone here at Legacy gaming thanks for watching and play [Music] on [Music] he

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Keywords: Legacy Gaming, mmo, mmo games, mmos, mmorpg, new mmos, new mmorpgs, new mmo 2023, new mmo 2024, new mmorpgs 2023, new mmorpgs 2024, best mmorpg, best mmo, riot mmo, world of warcraft, world of warcraft 2, new world of warcraft, riot mmo game, runeterra mmo, ashes of creation, intrepid studio, fantastic pixel castle, greg street, chris metzen, best new mmo, best new mmorpg, are mmos doomed, are mmos dead, new mmo, new mmorpgs to play now, new mmorpg 2023 pc

Id: J0-gzNLlp0g

Length: 24min 4sec (1444 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 21 2023