The month of December has come and gone, taking 2010 with it. Some say good riddance, some look back fondly, but no matter how you slice it, that puppy’s behind us and we’re all moving forward to 2011. For the team here at MMORPG.com, we’ve just got one tiny loose thread to tie up before we officially start the new year: We have to announce the winners of the 2010 MMORPG.com Reader’s Choice Awards!
This year, our categories were: Game of the Year, New Game of the Year, Most Innovative, Most Improved, Best F2P, Favorite Company, Biggest News Story, Most Anticipated, and the newest, and most dubious, addition to our prizes, Biggest Disappointment.
The rules were simple: For readers, look at the nominees and vote. One vote per person. We frown on cheating. For nominees: You may inform your community about your nomination, but may not otherwise unduly skew the voting by telling them who to vote for.
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Biggest Disappointment of 2010
This is the only category in our Reader’s Choice awards that celebrates the more negative aspects of the year. MMO players, apparently on a different level from other gamers everywhere, seem to be the most prone to disappointment about the launches of new games in their genre. Heck, it seems as though disappointment is the new expectation when players talk about games that they are looking forward to.
This past year has been accepted by many to be one of the worst years in MMORPG development, with a number of high profile games either failing to meet expectations or just outright failing.
So, after our five nominees were picked, the reader voting broke down like this:
| Mortal Online | 6.0% |
| All Points Bulletin | 7.5% |
| Star Trek Online | 21.7% |
| Final Fantasy XIV | 25.4% |
| 2010 in General | 39.4% |
So, the MMORPG.com voters decided (at least 39% of them) that the blame for what was considered a poor year shouldn’t be heaped upon one game alone, instead choosing to share the blame around the industry.
Each year it seems as though MMO players are becoming more and more disillusioned by the MMO genre as a whole. This year’s Disappointment award is a reflection of that frustration and we all hope for a bigger and better 2011.
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