Good grief OP, that's half the industry on your list.

Here's my Readers Digest list:

1. Games trying to beat WoW at themepark, but just end up inferior to it.

2. Dev / Publishers who talk up their games, sell a few million boxes, then everyone realizes it's crap.  They don't care, they laugh to the bank with box sales money.

3. Dev / Publishers who think that MMOs can run themselves, and don't need customer service or rules enforcement.

4. Innovation that's not desirable.  Change for the good is good.  Change for the sake of change is just risky.  (See also #1 and #2).

5. Dev / Publishers who release lame expansions that piss off existing players, trying to grow the playerbase in a different market segment.

and last but not least...

6. Trying to convert SP game players into MMORPG game players by converting MMORPGs into single player games.

How's that?

BTW: Happy New Year (where applicable)

I think everyone can agree that everyone has their own point of view when it comes to what is bad and what is good, neither is right nor wrong.

When i see people say * what is the best game to play?* or * what is the best character to roll?*  i tell them  try it and see for yourself  because what you may like and other with hate. Of course when it comes to games that are sub orientated then that can get a little tricky. Mind you the way the trend is these days just wait 6 months or so and the games go f2p anyways.

yes i played SWTOR from closed beta onwards got several sith chars to 50 and went err ok next... and i quested all the way with a bit of hutt ball inbetween awesome  i thought , never took it seriously could have had so much going for it but thats just me :) 

yes played AOC  not from launch though  but still i loved the game not so much the end grind to get gear but  i loved it .

yes i play TSW from closed beta onward  loved it  loved the way it made you think look up stuff investigate and the like the game that mad you stop READ and think. Mind you it was the only game i thought yes as soon as i have the money i will be a * lifer* then a couple of weeks later after i had left i found it went buy to pay and im like errr ok glad i didnt fork out over $300 to be a lifer then LOL

yes played FE too loved that game  as well.. especially the crafting of the weapons and ammo and stuff . left for a break and found out it went f2p then looked at the sub and went err not paying up to $50 for something i used to pay $15 for .

played EVE awesome game in itself.. mind you you could never catch up to the ones that had been playing for years and ammassed the kind of ships and weaponry. Did not like the idea of someone blowing me out of the stars after 6 months of hard work i put in. yes i could stay away for 0 sec etc ... so i decided the best was to say thanks great game just not prepared to lose it all in a matter of minutes.

have played others but for the life of  me i cant remember them all  been playing all kinds of mmorpgs for the best part of 10 + years now i do not in anyways shape or form profess to be a * know it all* i just know the kind of games i like and dont for my own reasons and will not go out there and go DONT get this cause i think its so and so  or YOU HAVE TO BUY THIS  * because i think its so and so .. i think ya get my meaning lol

the most ever online and i cant even bring myself to say an mmorpg causein my opinion  it isnt ! was SL * Second Life* i spent what 4 years give or take in SL meet some awesome people did some amazing things made some pretty cool things as well  fishtanks with *swimming fish*  and the like .. houses mansion  hehe even tried my hand at making hair as well back in the day when everything started with a square * ahh memories* lol

i do so wish people would stop calling it an mmorpg cause it isnt its a platform  like THERE  and others similar, you have an avatar there are no NPC's no specific storyline * only the one you make up if you want to go and enjoy a rp sim* and there is no questing or rewards. It is in essence SecondLife.. you are only limited to your imagination in SL the amount of stuff  you can do and create is just at times overwhelming. Dont get me wrong Sl too has its flaws then again what doesnt :) 

anyways  i have rambled on enough .. looks like i was beginning to write a novel  and not just my own point of view to this thread.

I am sure i will be flamed but meh it happens i guess lol

everyone enjoy your game whatever  its have a safe and awesome new year ! 

Game on ! 

I don't see how you can consider Perfect World a failure.

Isn't that one of the most profitable and populated mmos out there? Not my cup of tea but appears to be for many others.

Just because you don't like something doesn't make it a failure.

Everyone wants to focus on failures. Why is "Fail" such a huge buzzword these days anyway. I blame the WoW kiddy Culture fir this.

Instead of all the things that sucked about MMO's recently, I'd rather talk about stuff they are doing right, and what they should continue to progress so that the industry as a whole moves forward... not stays stuck in a rut glowering over mistakes made.

My top 3 non-failures from last year:

FFXIV rebrand:
Be it good or bad, this is probably the first time I've seen a publisher actually take responsibility for a poor release, and turn around and completely reboot the game as something different. APB came back from the dead, yes, but it was largely the same game that came back. FFXIV-ARR will be totally different. Now, it could equally suck as bad as the first incarnation - but that isn't my point. My point is that a developer stood up, acknowledged something was wrong, and is doing something different to fix it. Now, this rebrand did start a while ago - early 2011 before we really got details on it, but this year was the rubber meets the road - FFXIV shut down (for the most part), and we all wait for FFXIV-ARR to come back up in it's place.

GW2:
There are a lot of things to talk about in this title. No, it wasn't the second coming of Jesus that a lot of people were preaching, but it was a good game, and broke from a lot of old conventions: some in a great way, others could still use some tweaking. Dynamic events are good - they still need some evolution, but it's definitely a very nice change from the WoW-style quest hub (which in and of itself was a nice change of pace from the very hidden and arcane quest style of EQ1). The removal of the trinity has shaken things up a good deal (it was hardly the first game to do so, but one of the most prominent). The 3 distinct play styles inside of a single game: PvE, Wv3, and sPVP - and how they influence but not interfere with each other. The payment model: again, not unique (since it was from GW1), but showing the industry how F2P and Sub aren't the only 2 models out there, and proving it by succeeding. Content rollouts with limited-engagement world events: some worked well, others flopped, but they are evolving. And I could keep going on... All in all A-Net had really shaken things up, this game may not be ambrosia incarnate, but it's a welcome change to what had otherwise become a stagnant field of WoW-Clones.

SWTOR:
I think there is some good to come from SWTOR last year. We can safely say that IP alone won't generate subscriptions, or a return on investment. We can safely say that the subscription model isn't a surefire revenue generator. We can safely say that a big budget doesn't necessarily mean a great game. I hate that SWTOR has mostly undeperformed - sure it's still around, but not as they had originally intended. But I think it was a good thing: it gives a huge boon to smaller publishing houses and indie developers (investors see that the big budget isn't always the sure win, and will be more willing to diversify their portfolio with smaller projects), it shakes up the industry away from the traditional WoW-model MMO and Bioware-model RPG (I don't know what the fallout from this will be, change is always somewhat scary, but without it we won't get anywhere), and it allows other new IP's to come to the forefront. Similarly, and sadly, the closure of 38-Studios is in the same vein, but hopefully from the efforts of both Bioware and 38-studios we'll see something better bloom from it.

Guild Wars 2 will enter the history of MMORPG as a game with good potential completely destroyed by the managing ArenaNet Staff.

Originally posted by Ridelynn

Everyone wants to focus on failures. Why is "Fail" such a huge buzzword these days anyway. I blame the WoW kiddy Culture fir this.

Instead of all the things that sucked about MMO's recently, I'd rather talk about stuff they are doing right, and what they should continue to progress so that the industry as a whole moves forward... not stays stuck in a rut glowering over mistakes made.

Definitely agree with this approach, and is similar to how view MMOs: enjoy what a game has to offer, and don't get hung up on what it doesn't have. You'll never enjoy any game if all you want to do is gripe.

That being said, there is nothing wrong with requesting new features or changes for games that you play, but when those things (or the lack of them) upset you, it's time to move on.