The List

In my previous list, I named four projects that I remember wistfully even though they never made it to launch. While thinking about which ones to include, the generally opposite thought also came to mind. There have been MMOGs that I feel should have been canceled before they entered live service. Listed alphabetically, here are five interesting ones that I believe were basically doomed to fall far short of the potential their publishers thought they had.

Last week’s list of The Top 5 Worst Types of MMO Players was so successful, we decided to listen to you guys and put together another list of the other worst types of MMO players. We took some tips from the comments and have five more for everyone to read about and, more importantly, try to correct in games. With the impending launch of ArcheAge so close on the horizon now, an influx of new players and elite players alike will surely shape that community quickly.

When people can hide behind an avatar and fake screen name, it’s easy to indulge in your darker tendencies. Sure, everyone engages in a little new-player grieving, or hogs the loot for themselves every now and again, but some people take things way too far. They may not always be annoying, or even something that you really notice, but the types of people that make up this list are the types that can slowly contribute to the poisoning of an otherwise flourishing community.

Over the years MMOs have become well-known for lots of different things. Endless hours of grinding, epic battles on a massive scale, and deeply immersive worlds immediately come to mind. One thing that you probably don’t think of however, is User Generated Content. By nature of the inherent design and network challenges associated with persistent online worlds, it’s difficult to create User-Generated content systems that actually work well.

Over the past couple of decades, quite a number of MMOG projects have suffered the rather ignominious fate of being canceled during development. It's difficult if not impossible to say which ones didn't deserve to make it to launch. That said, here are four, listed alphabetically, that particularly interested me. I wish they had been able to overcome the issues that led to their respective early demises.

For a lot of people, logging on to their favorite MMO isn’t about raiding, or PvP, or dungeon runs – it’s about creating great items and contributing to the backbone of an MMOs economy. I’ve never personally been a huge proponent of crafting in MMOs, but there is undoubtedly a certain type of players that loves the art of creation and trading.

With hundreds and maybe even thousands of MMOs on the market, it’s extremely difficult to be competitive and stay profitable. With the move towards free-to-play structures, the genre has seen a revival as of late for many games that would have otherwise been shut down.

By design, MMOs are more fun to play with your friends. Most of them encourage or even require grouping for a lot of the best and most rewarding content, which necessitates either being social in the game world, or coming into the experience with a pre-determined group of friends to play with. Sometimes though, it can be hard to find people. Whatever the case may be, every MMO player wishes X friend would play in their favorite virtual worlds with them.

The MMOG space has never lacked for differences of opinion. This isn't a problem; it would be pretty dull without them. What's more, we generally recognize that it's normal for at least some other people's views to diverge from our own. However, this is an expression of my rational side. At the gut feeling level, certain things with which I disagree are considerably harder for me to “get” than others.

As has become customary here at MMORPG, this week’s list is the reverse of last week’s! Previously, we covered five MMOs that we think could be turned into great singleplayer games. Now, we want to look at five singleplayer games that could be turned into great MMOs. With the extreme level variety the genre we know and love experiences in today’s industry, there is plenty of room for new concepts.

So many MMOs nowadays have evolved into an amalgamation of game modes and content – some stuff you can play alone, some of it requires strangers, some of it is best with friends, some is friendly, some is just for fun. Even though these experiences seem to be getting farther and farther away from what made the genre so exciting to begin with – adventuring in epic online worlds – it has led to creation of a term with both good and bad connotations: solo friendly.

There are lots of awesome MMOs out there. So many in fact, that in my previous list about the best hardcore MMORPGs, I felt like I wasn’t quite able to list them all. Sure, I stand by the 5 that I picked to grace that first list and they are undoubtedly the best, but what about the other games?

In case anyone doesn't know it already, my MMORPG background began back in the days when you could count all of them your hands and still have a few fingers left over. After playing them as well as observing how the genre has evolved for nearly two decades now, it strikes me that I don't find them to be as much fun as they once were – or perhaps more importantly, as I feel they should be.

Last week I covered the best casual MMORPGs, so it was only fitting that we shift our gaze this week towards the most hardcore games the genre has to offer. I define hardcore to mean games that are inherently designed to be difficult, unforgiving, and intense by design. By this definition, they just don’t make MMOs like they used to.

With so many options out there for an MMO to play, there is something for everybody. Whether you’re looking for an epic fantasy adventure, alternate history, sci-fi conquests, or maybe even a real-life simulator, you can surely find and MMO to satiate your unique hunger. Not everyone is a seasoned MMO veteran however. This is our list of the top 5 best casual MMOs on the market right now and each of these would be great choices for anyone looking for a more casual MMO gaming experience.