Answer to OP:

The players

I know you were specific to what game but the players themselves are leaps and bounds much more of a disapointment then any of the games.

at least in my view

Originally posted by Waterlily

The genre in particular, instead of evolving MMO, they are devolving MMORPG into a never ending copy of UO and EQ.

The most recent let down is probably Aion and Vanguard, both trying something which EQ already did and did better.

i agree aion was the biggest letdown.i had high hopes for this game .but after playing closed beta .i must say this game sucks. other than graphics it has got nothing .

There's been quite a few - Asheron's Call 2, Vanguard, Age of Conan, Warhammer....but what I consider to be the All-Time biggest let down based on what the game should've been compared to what was released - would have to be HORIZONS!!!!  So sad.

DDO hands down.......I expected so much.....and they delivered such garbage.

Vanguard, it could've been that upgraded EQ1 with today's graphics that many have been waiting for.  We already have enough "clones" of other games, but we haven't had an upgraded EQ1.  And no, EQ2 isn't an upgraded EQ1, EQ2 is SOE's attempt at competing with Blizzard and their mass appeal.

Vanguard.

Oh, the list.

AoC- A mature (an no, not just boobs) game with realistic combat, huge guild battles, and gorgoeus directx10 graphics. Instead we got a perfect starting area and a bunch of bland, ugly open zones, horrendous lag, and so much instancing that the game felt empty.

Warhammer- Characters that grow and evolve, levelling by both PvE and PvP, City takeovers, the works! Too bad watered down graphics, cutting 60% of the content to launch faster, and a lack of players on both sides is going to slowly kill it.

Fury- Uber-realistic battles in where you could grapple with opponents, shift tactics on the fly, and full collison detection. What we got was a lousy clone of Guild Wars without the story, the graphics, or the fun.

Auto Assault- I was so hyped for this game, just because it was an interesting premise. But it was handled poorly.

Tabula Rasa- Finally, a sci-fi MMO that works and isn't an economics class.Unfortunately, it didn't.

The introduction of the "raiding" paradigm.  As far as I'm concerned, this mechanism has not only ruined what could be an amazing genre, but it continues to hold it back from progressing and appealing to the mainstream.

Originally posted by terrant

Oh, the list.

 

AoC- A mature (an no, not just boobs) game with realistic combat, huge guild battles, and gorgoeus directx10 graphics. Instead we got a perfect starting area and a bunch of bland, ugly open zones, horrendous lag, and so much instancing that the game felt empty.

Warhammer- Characters that grow and evolve, levelling by both PvE and PvP, City takeovers, the works! Too bad watered down graphics, cutting 60% of the content to launch faster, and a lack of players on both sides is going to slowly kill it.

Fury- Uber-realistic battles in where you could grapple with opponents, shift tactics on the fly, and full collison detection. What we got was a lousy clone of Guild Wars without the story, the graphics, or the fun.

Auto Assault- I was so hyped for this game, just because it was an interesting premise. But it was handled poorly.

Tabula Rasa- Finally, a sci-fi MMO that works and isn't an economics class.Unfortunately, it didn't.

plz add aion to the list .people who have already played aion china or beta including me  are saying its an epic fail.too much hype ,no results.

When I really think about it, none. I tend to have very low expectations (as can bee seen from previous... another story).

Golden rule when listening to pre game releases etc, from devs themselves, 'treat everything they say as though you are listening to a politician'. Read between the lines as though it was your govenment talking to you and the truth will become clear.

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E.g. "completely free gameplay where players do not only have freedom to sculpt their world but have no npc's or other in game mechanic telling them what to do at all. This game will never hold your hand and our game only rewards those working off their own innitiative. Our game has stats on gear but our combat will rely on player skill first. We want to release now as we know our loyal fanbase has been waiting so long and we feel obliged to let them get their hands on a game we're proud of."

Read: "this isn't an actual sandbox game as such, as they have rules. No, what we have here is there are no mechanics or design features within the game to help you with any of the features such as politics, bounty hunting (that's always a box seller, those boba fans eat that shit up), trade caravans, merc'ing, rp'ing, in fact any of the features we've been hyping for the past half a decade. We have no quests, at all, no missions nothing. We haven't had time to include a tutorial of anykind but it doesn't matter because in truth there isn't anything to really teach. There is no interactive quest log or hints on what to do next but since there isn't actually anything to do, hey, what does it matter. We sat down with this spreadsheet with stats for itemising the gear but Jesus, that shit was complicated, as a result we have decided to randomly generate numbers on the loot. At first this seems foolhardy, but you have to think outside the box, the genius here is the impact those numbers have are completely non existant. The stats themselves proved beyond our capability so we're going to say 'we'd like to leave some surprises for our fans' and then giggle as they stare in wonder at exactly what any of the stats do anyway, all the time knowing they don't really do shit and anyone that actually says anything will be canablised by the rest of the raging mob for having no skill or too stupid to understand (we took more than a littel inspiration from naked king dude on that one). Oh and we're shit outta cash so what little we've got left is paying for kegs and hookers at the launch party, we're just gonna release anyway and see what suckers we can keep on line before they see through the empty ficade of a 'game' we've just made.

See, simples.

Originally posted by xraetherx

Originally posted by darwa

Dark and Light.

 Definitely.

So far every MOSPG since 2004 has been a disappointment due to the fact the MMOs arent MMOs now its becoming passive watered down enterainment for the time handicapped so they dont have time to play ... So lets cut everything that is based on a principle of a MMO cause its a hassle or too much to fit in their 1 hr a day playtime its a rush to the end, gotto have the shinies first thing!!!... Its a ket down that devs wont try to make a game all playstyles will enjoy instead of catering to a group of people that wont even be there in a few months time and move on to the next big shiny MOSPG and ruin it as well...

When so many games started coming out carrying the MMORPG tag.
Sure, any online game where you control a virtual avatar can be called that now.
Does RPG even mean the same anymore with the MMO in front?

To answer the OP - everything after Everquest has been a let-down.

I'd have to say Warhammer Online for me. 1-10 was absolutely amazing, then after that the crappy reality of the game shown through.

I would have said Darkfall, but deep down inside I kinda knew it was gonna end up like a million miles away from what it shoulda\coulda been.

Vanugard

Without a doubt the greatest disaster in the history of MMOs was a game called 10six, now called Project Visitor.

10six/Project Visitor, easily takes the prize for the greatest pvp game design ever created, that was run into the ground with bad management.

Hardly anyone has ever even heard of 10six/Project Visitor, and even after like 10 years, the game is still freaken awesome.

http://www.projectvisitor.com/

The only reason I don't play this game more, is because it is so freaken awesome, once you start playing you can't even go to sleep at night. And all you can think about are "MDN Alerts".

Definitely Vanguard.  Darkfall, like Dark and Light, was a known bust before it was out.  With Vanguard people still had hope.

Age of Conan hands down. And amazingtard can argue all day but evrybody knows it.

There is someone that calls himself amazingtard??  Amazing...

Sorry but most of these mmos your talking about were more than likely going to be complete borefests.

Anyone who is truely serious about MMOS and has never played 10six/Project Visitor, has completely missed out on how awesome FFA pvp MMOS can be.

Dark & Light - Warhammer - Darkfall

For me personally anyway.

you ppl may laugh at this but GW pre factions was an awesome game so i declare the factions addon as the first ladder to hell.

careless pathetic

The biggest letdown was the SWG CU.  We were all expecting something better.

The SWG NGE wasn't a letdown, it was a kick in the balls.

The entire F2P genre.