Massivelys Better Of 2022 Awards
It's practically the tip of the 12 months, a time for merriment, camaraderie, and cynical analysis of all of the MMO triumphs and tragedies that 2013 offered us.
At the moment, Massively's employees honors the best of the most effective (and the worst of the worst) for the 12 months 2013. Every author was permitted a vote in each category with an anything-goes nomination course of. No MMO, company, or headline was off the table, as lengthy as it met the standards. Can WildStar make it to three years in a row at the highest of our "most anticipated" pile, or did its delay dampen our enthusiasm? Can SOE repeat its win for greatest studio? Which MMO is most prone to flop next 12 months? And simply what constituted the largest MMO screw-up of the last 12 months?
Enjoy our picks for the perfect MMOs, expansions, studios, stories, and improvements of 2013... and our most-anticipated for 2014 and beyond.
Finest New MMO of 2013: Ultimate Fantasy XIV: A Realm RebornRunners-up: Tie between Neverwinter and Defiance
Jasmine: Ultimate Fantasy XIV, arms down. This game managed to realize one thing I believed was unimaginable: Square-Enix took a recreation that I thought of the worst MMO I've ever played and turned it into something that keeps me logging in every probability I get.
Eliot: If you happen to had requested me two weeks in the past, I would have said Last Fantasy XIV with out reservation. Now don't get me improper; all the pieces good about the unique version is dropped at the forefront, and every part negative has both been eliminated or minimized. But the 2.1 update and the housing fiasco have driven dwelling the concept we're not out of the woods and that we're just looking at an period of bold new errors. If these issues get mounted, then I've excessive hopes for the longer term; if not, it will be a shocking instance of a stunning turnaround followed by a shameful crash.
Greatest Growth or Update of 2013: Guild Wars 2's Super Adventure FieldRunners-up: Tie between EVE On-line's Odyssey, EVE On-line's Rubicon, and Star Trek Online'sLegacy of Romulus
Richie: Guild Wars 2's Super Adventure Box patch stands out in such a profound approach as a result of many gamers thought it was nothing more than an April Fools' Joke. The official webpage was up to date with wonderful images from an 8-bit world accompanied by a hilarious, cheesy, '80s-type industrial. When i logged into the game and realized that SAB was really in the game, my jaw hit my desk. There have been three full ranges of this 8-bit world complete with secrets, puzzles, boss battles, unique music rating, and custom sound effects -- a full platforming adventure game neatly tucked inside of my MMO.
Brendan: I've written a good bit on why I love this yr's Odyssey and Rubicon expansions, but Rubicon's personal deployable constructions push it just over the edge. The Cellular Depot has made long-term exploration a extremely possible career by allowing tech three ships to refit anyplace in deep space, and Ghost Sites have added some extra reward for those scouring deep area. The change to warp acceleration has additionally fixed the disparity between small and large ships and enabled real hit-and-run fashion warfare once more.
Finest Non-Conventional MMO or Pseudo-MMO of 2013: Path of ExileDifferent nominees: Hearthstone, Dota 2, Cube World, Defiance, MUSH
Matt: Path of Exile gets my vote for this one. The folks at Grinding Gear Games have taken the time-honored motion-RPG components popularized by Diablo and twisted it up into an expertise that feels both contemporary and familiar. Eschewing conventional courses and development in favor of an nearly inconceivably big skill tree and allowing players to customise their capability loadouts by way of interchangeable gems are just two of the unique spins Path of Exile brings to the desk, and with its variety of leagues and competitions, there's something right here for the complete informal-hardcore spectrum.
Justin: Hearthstone. If nearly everyone's in beta, does it count? MINECRAFT say it counts. Blizzard's received a cash cow hit on its hands, and the mixture of World of Warcraft and Magic-lite is solely inspired. Plus, it is fairly fun.
Most Underrated MMO of 2013: NeverwinterRunner-up: Defiance
Larry: Neverwinter launched with a wide viewers and the hopes of being a full-fledged Dungeons and Dragons MMO. However alas, that is not what Cryptic had in thoughts for the sport, and gamers didn't admire Neverwinter for what it was: a fun game that you simply spend a couple of minutes to a couple of hours taking part in to unwind from the each day stress. When i revisited the game, I used to be really surprised at how a lot fun I had. I do not have to stress about rotations or builds or the standard MMO worries. I simply log in, pound via a few dungeons, then carry on with my day.
Tina: I think a lot of people boxed Neverwinter below the "extra of the same" class without giving it an opportunity. The standard charm is updated nicely via the 4th Version Dungeons and Dragons freshness.
Jef: Defiance isn't setting the world on hearth or anything, however I enjoyed my time in it, and that i keep it installed in case I would like some sci-fi shooter action with questing and a purpose.
Most Anticipated for 2014 and Beyond: EverQuest NextRunner-up: WildStarOther nominees: EverQuest Subsequent Landmark, ArcheAge, Destiny, Pathfinder Online, TUG, The Elder Scrolls On-line
Brendan: There are some nice MMOs on the horizon, however the one I am looking ahead to essentially the most is EverQuest Subsequent. I'm an absolute sucker for sandboxes, and the idea of a fantasy sandbox with a voxel-based and utterly destructible world has me completely excited! The large financial success of Minecraft has impressed a deluge of voxel-based mostly games lately, however no game has yet achieved the characteristic justice. EQ Subsequent promises to be as far from those blocky worlds as potential while retaining much of the identical sandbox gameplay.
Bree: The day I discovered Star Wars Galaxies was closing, Smed reassured a teary-eyed me that SOE was engaged on an even bigger and higher sandbox. That sandbox turned out to be EverQuest Subsequent. I'm banking on SOE's potential to parlay the whole lot it realized from SWG -- particularly the errors -- into EQN. There are other good sandboxes on the horizon, absolutely, but nothing as likely to thrive as Subsequent.
Justin: Progressive sandboxes or massive fanbase followings aside, I am rooting for Carbine to drag off a wacky sci-fi themepark in WildStar. I almost hope it would not launch super-massive in order that it might grow from phrase-of-mouth as a substitute of developer hype.
Richie: I'm looking ahead to WildStar. Ever since I give up World of Warcraft, a part of me has missed having a few nights each week as scheduled hangouts with my associates. I am itching to raid again, and it appears as if WildStar will have the most effective endgame options of the 2014 MMO crop.
Most Likely to "Flop" in 2014: The Elder Scrolls On-lineRunner-up: Dust 514
Anatoli: "Flop" is a extremely loaded term in the case of MMO. I don't suppose ESO will make much of a splash. I doubt it will fail as a game or as a enterprise, however I predict that a lot of people will decide that it did when it doesn't set the whole world on fire.
Bree: I think ESO will launch just effective and acquire loads of field and sub fees initially, however long-term, it is in trouble. MMORPG fans are sick of story-pushed single-player themepark MMOs, console fans can be mystified by subs and a 3-approach PvP endgame, and Elder Scrolls followers will wander back to the lore and mods of their solo sandboxes. I am actually unsure for whom the game is meant, and i say that as a TES fanatic.
Matthew: I'm not likely a fan of The Elder Scrolls series, so perhaps I'm biased, but I can not see the online version having the success of the only-participant installments.
MJ: If I had been forced to hazard a guess, I would say ESO. Nomad feels as if there is a darkish shadow of "can't meet expectations" hanging over it.
Finest Studio in 2013: Sony On-line EntertainmentRunner-up: Trion WorldsHonorable Mention: Tiny Speck
Beau: SOE continues to churn out video games, but the studio does so by itself phrases. Adore it or hate it, you can't deny that SOE has performed many, many issues which have changed the course of MMOs.
Mike: SOE appears just like the studio that has the very best hold on what the market wants. It keeps releasing engaging new content material for its present properties, and EverQuest Subsequent appears like the primary fantasy MMO to actually try anything new since Ultima On-line. SOE additionally has a solid fame for making huge promises and failing to deliver, but I'd say it had an excellent 12 months. No question all eyes are on EQN in the approaching years.
Toli: Glitch's shutdown final yr was downright tragic, but Tiny Speck has made each effort to keep the spirit and community alive, going so far as to release the game's property into the general public domain only in the near past. That is preposterous, and i mean that in the absolute best means.
Largest Story of 2013: The reveal of EverQuest Next and LandmarkRunners-up: Tie between Star Citizen's Kickstarter success and Final Fantasy XIV's relaunch
MJ: EverQuest Subsequent Landmark grabs this one because the game got here literally out of nowhere! There was not a single whisper, trace, leak or something to suggest there was a second recreation on SOE's horizon. In this trade, that is simply unheard of.
Tina: EverQuest Subsequent. Everyone simply went nuts, and for good purpose!
Matthew: EverQuest Subsequent. Since the announcement, it seems as if the whole future of the trade is colored by comparisons to our new savior. I am not going to disagree. I'll go out on a limb as far as to say I suspect Blizzard went back to the drawing board on Titan due to EQN.
Jef: Star Citizen. You could not need to play it, and also you could also be uninterested in the Chris Roberts hero-worship, but you cannot deny the affect that it is had and continues to have on the way video games are made.
Largest Disappointment of 2013: Mud 514Other nominees: Defiance, Warhammer's sunset, the Kickstarter craze, Age of Wushu, Neverwinter, uninspired MMO design, conventional subscription fashions, no EverQuest Next at SOE Stay, the gloom and doom surrounding World of Darkness, and Guild Wars 2's residing story.
Jef: Mud 514. I might be beating a useless horse here, however console-solely plus identical-previous-shooter-gameplay equals meh. And CCP hyping the crap out of the EVE Online connection wasn't significantly clever since there really isn't one.
Mike: This may be a cop-out, but I am pinning this on the entire MMO genre. The 12 months was ruled by numerous re-treads of familiar fantasy worlds and a number of uninspired work from builders that ought to really know better (Trion, I'm looking at you). With the road between MMO and non-MMO getting blurrier by the minute, MMO developers need to get their acts collectively if they're hoping to remain aggressive. And they need stop asking for handouts via Kickstarter.
Eliot: Kickstarter. We have had a number of funding drives for video games, some profitable, some not, with almost every single certainly one of them promising the same primary gameplay philosophies, none of which has been backed up by precise finished MMOs. Not less than one of those studios has gone again to the well and requested for more cash from Kickstarter backers, and I don't imagine it will be the first. It isn't a development I'm blissful to see, and one which I've already written about at size. There's some nice stuff on Kickstarter, but this year's glut was unpleasant.
Biggest Blunder of 2013: Subscription models for Elder Scrolls On-line and WildStarOther nominees: Console MMOs, All the things ESO does, LucasArts' closure, Blizzard's lore sexism, Star Wars: The Previous Republic's space fight, FFXIV's launch woes, CCP's World of Darkness layoffs, Guild Wars 2's horrifying PR campaigns, and Diablo III's auction home fiasco.
[Update: We discuss extra about this award and the rationale behind it in December twenty sixth's Ask Massively.]
Eliot: WildStar's enterprise mannequin no less than appears to be taken from a e-book written by someone with the vaguest data of business trends, but ESO's appears to have been designed with the assumption that each different game that went free-to-play after launch (also referred to as "pretty much every recreation that has launched throughout the past four years") was a worse sport than ESO shall be. Can we please cease pretending which you can launch with a subscription now?
Mike: I believe, in the long run, putting a subscription charge on The Elder Scrolls Online will become a reasonably unhealthy thought. Bethesda will make piles of money before it is compelled to shift to free-to-play, but I am not sure what the price will be in terms of loyalty to the brand. If followers feel burned or taken advantage of, the Elder Scrolls franchise will suffer. A subscription charge primarily says, "You'll quit World of Warcraft/EVE Online/Closing Fantasy XIV for this," and that is exceptionally daring from a studio that's never made an MMO.
Tina: I truthfully don't see how CCP can keep its commitment to complete World of Darkness whereas regularly chopping the staff. We have to see some strong leads to 2014 to prove in any other case.
Biggest Innovation or Pattern of 2013: The return of sandbox gameplayRunner-up: Defiance's transmedia synergyDifferent nominees: Oculus Rift, Guild Wars 2's cadence, streaming video games, blurring style lines, actiony MMOs, voxels, and Warhammer's sunset.
Toli: I like that traits are swinging back toward a variety of gameplay options this yr. Voxels! Sandboxy issues! I flip round and out of the blue MMOs are launching with housing once more! Holy smokes!
Matt: I'm pleased to see extra studios tapping into the sandbox market. From heavy-hitters like EverQuest Subsequent and Star Citizen to much less-hyped titles like Pathfinder On-line, the sandbox genre is gaining a lot of traction.
Larry: Defiance was a disappointment as a sport, but as a product it broke the mold. I actually loved the tie-in launch of a tv collection with an MMO. I do not suppose other games need to repeat this model exactly, but I do assume that tie-ins, crossovers, and multi-media launches add value to a product. And that i additionally believe that outdoors-the-field thinking needs to be inspired in MMOs, even if it does ultimately flop.
Justin: Oculus Rift: Could VR come back to be an actual future for MMOs? It is a possibility, and what teases we're seeing this 12 months have whet my want to strive it out for actual.
Shawn: Closing Warhammer On-line. I mean, the game was kinda fun at first, however can we stop with that precise method now? Thanks. (I am already placing my vote in for 2015's Biggest Trend to be "the end of voxel-based on-line games.")
Most Improved in 2013: Ultimate Fantasy XIVRunners-up: Tie between Star Wars: The Old Republic and RuneScape 3
Jasmine: Ultimate Fantasy XIV. It improved a lot from 1.0 to 2.0 that it plays like an almost entirely completely different game. I don't assume you will get much more improved than that.
Beau: RuneScape 3 brought a lot to the older game that it really is a special sport. It's always been dynamic and felt like a dwelling world, however this relaunch made it that significantly better.
These are our picks. Howsabout yours?
