The games chosen reflect the unwillingness of MMO companies to try anything new as much as they do the games themselves. But I think the list is spot on in identifying those companies that have tried something a bit different.

Though not my cup of tea, Free Realms was probably the biggest hit of the year. I honestly think online gaming releases have pretty much sucked since 2008. You can rate Darkfall slightly above vaporware because it actually did somewhat release. The gaming industry didn't need another Super Hero game ie Champions. As many of us have found out the older or should we say dated games are far superior to anything thats been released in the past 3-5 years. Ala DAOC for one.

So many  "mmos"...99% of them are crap, some of them are not even mmos..more like single player ultra instanced games with online support, only 1 or 2 are worth playing...the rest are a poor excuse for a game...but hey..if people still play crap..they will give us crap...

It never occurred to me to look at Darkfall's launch in that perspective. Quite interesting :)

Originally posted by Dante1313

Depends on your tastes..

You do realize MMORPG isn't designed solely for you right? You know they cover MMO's in general all MMO's not just the ones you like?

I personally love Runes of Magic and F2P games and hate P2P so half the list to me is Crap or a Griefer fest but hey you like being all He-Man in a Video Game Grats to You ... You guys are welcome to throw your Egos/Epeens at one another in Darkfall.

Of course it does, this is an opinion/discussion site....one that clearly has such a history of covering things you cared about that you're a six-post wonder after how long?

This site has been drifting hard towards covering F2P stuff though, so perhaps you will be more motivated to post eh?

When you can't find significant news about current titles here, what's the point of reading it? 

BTW since you seem a little challenged, this wasn't a column about liking or disliking games, he was making a case for "interesting" as in important to the genre or industry, in which I think he was grasping at thin straws...because none of these were terribly important.

Darkfall was a soap opera of epic failure that finally reached a pinacle...big deal. It got talked about a lot, but I don't see that it revealed any great new trend in the industry or "showed" anyone anything.

Champions? Puh-leez...this has been a non-story almost from the moment Cryptic announced it. All they have shown is that you can badly and quickly rip off an existing product, even one you made lol, and people will still buy it.

Free Realms...yeah there's an industry shocker...lotsa kids on the internet who will play a free game that launches with a decent ad campaign...couldn't see that one coming in a million years without being a genius or something.

The others? Just the latest installment of the "F2P borg will devour you all" BS that is becoming the norm around here. Games most people in the P2P market never even heard of.

Darkfall was a soap opera of epic failure that finally reached a pinacle...big deal. It got talked about a lot, but I don't see that it revealed any great new trend in the industry or "showed" anyone anything.

/signed

To file Darkfall as #1 shows clearly, why I shouldn't read the articles here any longer. Once upon a time, they have been good...

Originally posted by ericbelser

BTW since you seem a little challenged, this wasn't a column about liking or disliking games, he was making a case for "interesting" as in important to the genre or industry, in which I think he was grasping at thin straws...because none of these were terribly important.

Did the title read "Most important games of 2009? 'Cause I was writing about games that were, for wahatever reason, interesting. If it said important, it was a typo. I wasn't making a grand statement about their importance. Darkfall was ranked number one because I thought it provided me the most interest in its launch and lead-up.

Suggestion for future: Read and comprehend whole article before yelling at others and accusing folks of grasping at straws. I'm sorry, but you couldn't have been further off in your assumption.

Hope that clears things up for you.

Thanks for the good read!

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by ericbelser

BTW since you seem a little challenged, this wasn't a column about liking or disliking games, he was making a case for "interesting" as in important to the genre or industry, in which I think he was grasping at thin straws...because none of these were terribly important.

Did the title read "Most important games of 2009? 'Cause I was writing about games that were, for wahatever reason, interesting. If it said important, it was a typo. I wasn't making a grand statement about their importance. Darkfall was ranked number one because I thought it provided me the most interest in its launch and lead-up.

Suggestion for future: Read and comprehend whole article before yelling at others and accusing folks of grasping at straws. I'm sorry, but you couldn't have been further off in your assumption.

Hope that clears things up for you.

>shrug< Try it yourself too

I was directing that at the poster who seemed to think the article was a qualitative assement or popularlty poll..."Interesting" and "Important" are pretty interchangeable when you are basically talking about industry "buzz" and what players were talking about or watching.  Sorry you felt I was somehow misinterpreting or misrepresenting you.

You found Darkfalls'  launch "interesting" because it was like watching Oprah....I found it pathetic, predictable and boring...not to mention that no one I know was "talking about it" outside of a few very specialized forums like this one...None of my gaming friends ever even heard of it, never saw it talked about in OOC or on guild sites etc.

My gosh, "interesting" and  "TCoS" in the same paragraph?

Wow, this is one of the worst articles I have seen on this site. Darkfall?? Seriously? You forgot the part about all of the hackers and the way people got ripped off. The way probably 50% of the population quit within 2 months. One of the worst billing systems in history and a release that was just laughable. I was really looking forward to DF too, such a disappointment.

*Edit

I forgot the part about the servers crashing every time there was a large scale city siege. Yes, very interesting. All the things promised at release that are finally finding their way into the game. Character transfers to the US servers as promised??

Originally posted by metalhead980

Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

This list shows the sad state of MMOs today.

 

Yes I've heard Runes of Magic is very nice and is a quality MMO in a f2p package, so that is the bright spot on the list.

 

The rest of the list is filled with games that either aren't doing well or are so utterly casual (and f2p) that they aren't really that interesting at all.

 

I'm really starting to wonder if my MMO days are over, as the qualtiy games get old enough to start closing down and all the new games are so unintersting and so simple a caveman could beat them in a month, maybe it's time to step out of this genre.

People talk of the fall of the mmo genre all the time. I disagree however.

THe best thing about this genre is all of the games that started this wonderful genre up are still going. You could complain the the new mmos aren't that great but whats stopping a player from playing UO, EQ or AO again? don't say population because every one of the older games has atleast one full server with a busy community.

This is the greatest genre ever, I've recently gone back to UO and can;t believe how awesome it is with actually active players filling the majority of the shards.

With the exception of a couple games like E&B, Pre-CU and SB the genre is still totally intact with older much more satisfying games.

I could never walk away from this genre its older games are freaking epic.

 

I play AC to this day for that very reason. But I also an aware that at some point in the future, probably at least a few years still, those original games will not be profitable enough anymore and will be dropped. So when I don't see anything in the works to be released in the next few years that fills that gap it is disappointing.

Originally posted by Reborn17

My gosh, "interesting" and  "TCoS" in the same paragraph?

Why not ?

Maybe not as interesting as watching a piece of art , a firework show or one of the 7 wonders of the world ; but more like "interesting" alongside the lines of watching a car crash or some other similar imminent catastrophe without being able to interfere..........not the most beautiful sight but definitely draws a crowd.

Other than maybe Champions Online or perhaps Runes of Magic, I don't see anything interesting about any of the other mmos mentioned other than the fact they are just horrible mmos that should not have been made.

Yes, Most Intersting but far from best.   What ever its an opinion, everyone has one.   CO, imo kicks ass im almost every direction you can take an mmo.   But then again you know what they say about opinions, like that oriface we sit on while reading this screen.   Everyone has one.    We really should Thank the hard working Devs, etc for giving so many mmo's to choose from.   Interesting or not.  they are there.

This article brings up an issue: the low quality of mmos released so far this year and still to be released.

Even Aion, the most polished of the bunch, is garbage compared to the potential of FF14, GW2, ToR, APB...ect.

2009 is bad for MMOs...and most things, really.  2010 should be better. *crosses fingers*

Could not agree more, The other 4 are not my cup of tea, but I love darkfall, and it was a refreshment from the clone mmo's thats been coming out. I played SWG and EVE in the past, and runescape prior to that, so Darkfall is  a gift from god to me.

MO, global agenda look like some good upcoming games, but not going to be darkfall.

Fallen earth was a game I was interested in until I found out that there was a pvp radar installed in the game lol, and it was all PVE pretty much. No risk in PVP.

[Mod Edit] - removed OP off-topic portions.... not the right forum to attack or defend any game in excessive detail

I've only played Runes of Magic, and I must say you have an interesting definition of "interesting."  Runes of Magic is about as interesting as a brown paper lunch sack with a little potato chip grease soaking through it.

Originally posted by Alienovrlord

Not exactly the definition of 'interesting' I would choose.

That definition would make Paris Hilton and the Swing Flu 'interesting' as well.   

maybe train wreck interesting?

Kidding aside, the list is pretty good. I'd have to generally agree with it . Otherwise, it's an opinion piece.  Sure, others might have a different "5 most interesting", but I think the reasoning in the article was pretty sound, stated in an articulate manner, and made for a good read.

The list is more like "Top 5 MMOs with unrealised potential"

Or perhaps "3 train wrecks, 2 nothings and a pizza place"

Or better yet "Another awful article because Im not really a writer but MMORPG.com seems to think I am"

Here, I'll list the things that are actually interesting about the MMOs listed in the article:

TCoS - how quickly it came and went

RoM - how much the hardcore players are willing to spend

Champions - how much differenve a patch can make

Free Realms - SOE made an above average MMO for kids

Darkfall - the frothing maniacal fervor of the fans

I honestly don't think Darkfall qualifies as a sandbox game. If it does, you can call any mmo a sandbox. Everything in the game is static, and players don't really have the tools to do much of anything. If anything it's a persistent low budget medieval fps with a few RTS elements.

i cant stand microtransaction based games. they are going to be the death of the mmo genre. f2p games always suck ass, and monthly subs with a micro shop is pure greed.

Darkfall, my favorite mmorpg number 1 yay!

Originally posted by MrBoots

I honestly don't think Darkfall qualifies as a sandbox game. If it does, you can call any mmo a sandbox. Everything in the game is static, and players don't really have the tools to do much of anything. If anything it's a persistent low budget medieval fps with a few RTS elements.

"Everything in the game is static"

What? Have you even played Darkfall?

Anyway, on topic - Darkfall gained my interest in 2003 due to my love of Ultima Online and more aggressive games such as Quake, UT, CS etc. I've never had such an interest in any game to date; this is due to the social and political side of the game where anything can happen as well as the brutality of the combat and the ability to shine through with player skill rather than character skills. I'd now consider the game to be my favourite MMORPG. This is down to one hard fact: I have never had more fun in any game than I've had in Darkfall Online.

At least we don't pay for time cards...yet.

I actually pity the asian market for such a reason...sure, the super casual gamers save a few bucks, but everyone else is paying double or more just to keep playing.