Almost all new MMORPGs in 2021 have failed and we gamers are partly to blame
2021 was the year of the new MMORPGs, because 7 new games were released in the West. At the end of the year, however, these are not doing well. On the one hand, this is due to problems in the games themselves, but on the other hand, it is also due to us players. Because many of us are too demanding and hope for a second first love, which however remains denied.
What did 2021 offer? A whole lot. A total of 7 new MMORPGs have been released:
- New World
- Crowfall
- Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis
- Swords of Legends Online
- Bless Unleashed
- Elyon
- Wild Terra 2
Actually, MMORPG fans should go out of the year in a good mood. But that’s not the case.
Many of the new games have been heavily criticized and have lost player numbers. Players and the press are hacking into New World as if it were the worst game ever released.
And of course there are legitimate reasons for criticism. All of the MMORPGs released this year had technical or content-related problems. But for me personally these problems are being exaggerated far too much. I have a feeling that a lot of gamers just approach new games with unrealistic expectations and write them off too quickly.
Who is speaking here? Alexander Leitsch has been writing about MMORPGs on MeinMMO since 2018. He has spent thousands of hours in games like GW2, ESO and Black Desert. In 2021 he tried every new MMORPG and sunk it for over 400 hours in New World alone. But he also played SOLO, Bless Unleashed and Elyon right through to the end game.
MMORPGs are in demand, but nobody wants to play the new games
What is the problem? With the exception of Crowfall, all new MMORPGs have appeared on Steam. That allows us to keep track of player numbers quite precisely.
The interest in new games is relatively high at the beginning, but none of the 6 games could hold their numbers for long, as these examples show:
- Swords of Legends started on Steam with a peak of 18,806 players. In the last 24 hours, 787 were still online in Peak. That left a good 4% of the players. But there is also a Gameforge client, so the real player numbers will be higher.
- Bless Unleashed even had 76,377 players in the peak when it was released, only reaching 7,000 in the last 24 hours. A good 9% of the players from the peak remained here.
- New World started with 913,634 players in the peak and last came to 122,808 players. Almost 13.5% of the players stayed here.
Elyon, PSO2 and Wild Terra 2 also lost a lot of player numbers after the release.
Crowfall himself doesn’t seem to be doing better either, because the developers have already revealed that they are making losses and are at least thinking about an attitude.
Why are the games rejected? There are various reasons.
SOLO, for example, was branded as a gritty Asia MMO because of the look and therefore didn’t get a real chance at the release. Mechanics such as destroyed equipment when upgrading or Pay2Win were completely dispensed with, which are sometimes the biggest problems of Asian games. A closer look at the game a month after its release also revealed that there was too little endgame content. The players had fun, but not enough to do.
Bless Unleashed also didn’t get a real chance from many because Bless was on the cover. The flop from 2018 burned itself into the minds of many MMORPG fans. Bless Unleashed did some things really well, such as the crisp world bosses with a real MMO feeling and the dungeons.
And New World is felt to be torn apart everywhere, whether in reddit, in forums or on other gaming sites. Above all, the rapidly decreasing number of players and the many bugs are always an issue.
What bothers me about this criticism? Basically nothing at first, because every player is free to criticize the games. And many points are absolutely justified, for example the boring introduction and the missing endgame in SOLO or the many bugs in New World.
However, these criticisms of New World and SOLO always remind me of the release time of ESO. Because the MMORPG was also torn up at the beginning. An unfamiliar combat system, a half-open world with phasing and somehow not enough endgame content. I also smiled at ESO at the time.
But today ESO gets a lot of praise and is one of the most popular MMORPGs of all. I like to play it because it has developed extremely well. And that is exactly my core criticism:
- No MMORPG seems perfect at release
- Neither of them had a good endgame straight away
- No game after WoW has withstood the huge hype about the release
I remember how many players left Guild Wars 2 just two months after it was released because there was simply too little to do. I remember reading the reviews of RIFT or SWTOR, both of which were labeled worse WoW clones. Even the developers of SWTOR criticize that they had to work too close to WoW.
But in addition to the problems of the MMORPGs themselves, the players have also become too demanding.
MMORPGs are the premier league of games, but the players destroy them
MMORPGs are the most complex games you can ever develop. You need several years of development, localization in several languages and a suitable server structure. During the development phase you don’t earn anything for several years and you sometimes even get criticism afterwards if the chosen monetization system is not right.
MMORPGs are a big risk and therefore many big developers are rather reluctant. As players, we have a huge part in that.
What’s wrong with us players? MMORPG players are the biggest bitches in the gaming world. No group of players can be made more difficult, which is also due to the fact that there are simply dozen of different types of players, including:
- Solo players who like to experience everything alone, but still want to meet other players
- Casual gamers for whom the content shouldn’t be too difficult
- Hardcore raiders for whom the content can’t be heavy enough
- PvP fans who would like to have a ranking arena
- Hardcore PvPers who would like to have full loot in the open world
- Sandbox fans who would like to build an economic empire
In between there are a number of nuances and other types that would go beyond this list. Getting them all under one roof is absolutely impossible.
In addition, every player has certain criteria by which a game is immediately excluded without giving him a chance. Some basically don’t play Asia games, simply because of the look. Others never touch sandbox games because there are often no real quests. Sometimes these prejudices are even based on bad experiences with a game.
This is exactly what makes it so difficult for new MMORPGs to get a foot on the ground at all, because players are at the heart of this genre. No MMORPG can survive long without a player.
“WoW killers almost killed MMOs” – the developer explains the problem
Players hope for a second first love
What also bothers me are the often exaggerated expectations of a new MMORPG. Because you compare the feeling of gambling with the good memories you had of your first game.
Back then everything was perfect, the problems in the game weren’t serious enough and the content was still so new and undiscovered. But the memories of the good moments of the “first love” mostly overwrite the problems this game had.
I started Guild Wars 1 in 2006 and have spent over 10,000 hours of gameplay there. I associate my best gaming memories with this game. Again and again I wish to relive the time from back then.
In doing so, I completely ignore the problems of the game, such as the lack of PvE content, the sometimes real dull story, the many invisible barriers in the game world or the fact that the balance was total nonsense. And I got in when Guild Wars 1 released the first add-on and was about to release the second expansion.
I became really aware of this in 2014 when I played the predecessor again with friends from Guild Wars 2. They didn’t know Guild Wars 1 and basically tore up everything about the game. And rightly so.
On the other hand, I only had the beautiful moments in mind, some of which are also connected with the people and simply my life situation at the time. As a teenager, I was able to gamble a lot more during my school days, it was much easier to make friends online and it didn’t matter if I went through a night.
YouTuber Josh Strife Hayes described a similar phenomenon in a video in which he explains why players no longer enjoy MMOs these days:
The best cost-benefit ratio and still grumbling
What gave me the rest personally in 2021 were players who gave New World back after 200, 400 and sometimes over 500 hours of play. Amazon was accommodating due to the many bugs and the 40 euros were refunded.
But I cannot understand exactly such behavior. If I’ve spent over 500 hours in a game, I must have at least had a bit of fun. How can I not allow the developers 40 euros?
Buy2Play and Free2Play MMORPGs in particular have the best cost-benefit ratio of all games for the player and probably the worst ratio for developers. Nevertheless, the demands here are the highest.
Demands down and sometimes look to the right and left
How can you find fun in MMORPGs again? I generally recommend that you not turn down new games just because someone else said something bad about the MMORPG.
Especially with New World you have to make your own experiences, because it is not a classic theme park MMORPG, but rather a lot of survival and some sandbox elements mixed in. It’s not a copy of WoW or ESO, but it doesn’t want to be either. But many have hoped for something like that.
Besides New World, I had the most fun this year with Bless Unleashed, even though I got out after almost 60 hours of play. But that was completely sufficient for a Free2Play game and a temporary solution over the summer.
In addition, it can be worthwhile to try out rather unknown MMORPGs, such as Swords of Legends or Project Gorgon, one of the most popular MMORPGs on Steam.
In the end, you always have to make compromises for MMORPGs, because the perfect game does not exist and never will be in the future. This is also because developing new games is a huge risk. As gamers, we would do well not to directly demonize every new game and to scare off the developers. Because the last few years have shown that bad games like ESO and FFXIV can turn things around, even at the beginning.
Incidentally, it can also be worthwhile to give the already established MMORPGs another chance. Because for me there are currently too many good games and I find it really difficult to choose:
I didn’t think I’d say that, but: “We have too many good MMORPGs right now”
Reference-mein-mmo.de