DOMO had already been funded and ready to launch, so the Kickstarter wasn’t to help get funds to get the game live. Look at the ridiculousness of the DOMO Kickstarter, for example. Now they’re catering to that same audience, older now, and with (presumably) more money to spend. Often they’re simply outdated, designed for a different era of online gaming which catered to higher latency, grinding as progress, and a younger audience with more time to kill. To be fair, revival MMOs aren’t always bad. Revival MMOs are simply republished games, if not given a little polish along the way. Note, I’m choosing to exclude revivals like Cabal II or Archlord II, and coming soon, Lineage: Eternal, which were newly developed and stand (or fall) on their own merits. These are MMOs whom have lost publishers over the years and suddenly emerge from the ashes, promising the same memories players had before. What are the “revival” MMOs? A few recent examples are Dungeon Fighter Online, Dream of Mirror Online, and Karos Returns. In both of those cases (Descent: Underground and Star Citizen, respectively), games are being built from scratch with modern gaming technology and desires in mind. Like most gamers, there are many games I remember fondly, and unsurprisingly many of them are seeing a revival in some form in the near future, including Descent and Wing Commander. Strap on your nostalgia goggles, because nothing gets the general gaming community excited these days like a return to their favorite games. Nothing wins Internet battles like discarding reality.
Camelot unchained gameplay 2016 free#
While I don’t think we’re free of the “MOBAMOBAMOBA” chant just yet, I think 2016 will see a strong decline in new MOBAs entering the market as more small MOBAs fail to sustain themselves, and the gaming community makes it clear a new MOBA is not what they’re looking for. What should seem obvious to game developers isn’t as flavor of the month sales has blinded their reason, despite the risk of high investment costs and low returns for new MOBAs entering the market. Smaller MOBAs generally can’t compete with this, and it takes innovation like Vainglory’s intuitive mobile interface and from-scratch design, or a twist like Smite’s third-person shooter camera angle, to make its own fortune. A good MOBA isn’t the best designed one it’s the one with a large community, a strong competitive player base, and support for eSports.
Big MOBAs stay big, and small new MOBAs (like Infinite Crisis and Rise of Incarnates, both fatalities in 2015) wither and die. Despite there being millions of MOBA players world-wide, they tend to fund very narrowly into a select few games. Two years later, while there’s no doubt League has lessened its hold, it’s assuredly still holding the majority share. The key factor is saturation.Īt GDC 2014, League of Legends had claim of 89% of all MOBA players, even if not their primary MOBA of choice. While there is exhaustion in the MMORPG market (more to come), it’s different to that of MOBAs. There are hundreds of classic-style MMORPGs and only a few dozen MOBAs. The real problem with MOBAs isn’t strictly numbers. I’ve had a sour relationship with MOBAs for a while, but even the industry is getting sick of them. League of Legends, the preferred MOBA of dogs. Maybe even my cold, dead gaming heart can be given a little life.įirst, let’s take a quick look at two examples of the problem: MOBAs and the “revival” MMO. 2015 was definitely a year of M’eh’MOs, but 2016 is showing some genuine promise. It’s led me to create a new phrase: M’eh’MOs ( meh-m-o’s, or m- eh-mo’s, depending on how you prefer to pronounce it). 2015’s MMO releases all felt like more of the same, worth little more than a look and a shrug. The culprit is mediocrity, a lack of innovation and creativity. What’s been smothering my passion for online gaming isn’t a matter of story, graphics, business model, or even design quality. Gaming tastes are diverse, and what I find appealing in an MMO is a matter of opinion. Now, even the hype of Camelot Unchained (which DizzyPW subjects me to at least once a week) doesn’t do anything for me. The last time I was genuinely excited about an MMO was WildStar, and that crushed my dreams as I kept adding to a long list of things I couldn’t do because they were bugged (some of those bugs still aren’t fixed, either). On a personal level, though, it’s depressing. It’s a good attitude to have as a member of the gaming press, as it fosters a more neutral and skeptical perspective when I report on games. As a veteran player of MMOs, I’ve grown slowly jaded after years of disappointments and drollery.