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Game concepts and metas change all the time. As MMO players we have lived through years of change, some of which is in games which are coming up on 20 year anniversaries. Each year we explore the game design concepts that have taken over and shaped what is fun about the worlds we play in. Just because you love a genre, or an IP, does not mean that the games will be fun and keep you playing for years on end. So in 2019, let’s look at some of the ideas I’d like to see come back into MMOs.

If you were to tell me this summer that Fallout 76, Diablo, and Steam’s Artifact announcements would go over like a lead balloon I would tell you that you are crazy. However, that is the reality in games this holiday season. Three of the biggest game companies with fans that far exceed the word devoted are now facing a harsh reality, they finally pissed off their fans. For this first article we will focus on Blizzard and how they might recover from the first ever disastrous BlizzCon on record.

Here at MMORPG we are lucky to have been working in games since 2002. The Game Awards represents a fantastic achievement for fans and the industry itself to bring people together who love playing games. In their fifth year, Geoff Keighly has managed to put together a great following and some even better exclusive announcements built around the show. To kick the night off, representatives from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all took the stage together, that achievement alone, was a miracle.

Fortnite numbers have continued to go up since the summer. That is coming from a report at Bloomberg the game tops out above the 200 million player mark. As a reference, the population of the United States clocks in around 325 million. These numbers are staggering, but it also heralds a new generation of gamers which are coming into their own. What will that mean for the game world?

We got the chance to talk to Ashley Eckstein (Her Universe) and Matt Beecher (Head of Licensing at Blizzard). The brand launched as a way for women to show their fandom with clothing and designs different from the black fan t-shirts we all wear. However, Ashley did not stop there, just like the determined Ahsoka Tano herself, she has expanded the line to include tons of popular brands and opened up the line to men as well.

In an effort to provide an overview on what is happening and why, let’s take a look at two of the biggest companies out there. EA and Activision Blizzard fight an epic battle, not in space or with swords, but with numbers, against financial analysts.

Stardew Valley has passed $1 million in revenue after just three weeks on the app stores. The game continues its success as a paid title without microtransactions.

Today, to celebrate and thank the 4 million strong State of Decay 2 community, Xbox and Undead Labs are releasing the Zedhunter Update to Xbox Game Pass subscribers and current players for free.

Blizzcon has come and gone now for 2018 and while we are usually celebrating the awesomeness that is Blizzard, this year turned out a bit different. While some of the announcements still came as a huge surprise and welcome cheers of support by fans, Blizzard fell prey to some of the sad new rhetoric that surround our culture, as well as their own clandestine development messaging. We’ll call it the Immortal Blizzcon that no one will forget. If you have ever been to a show, you will know why.

In the last few months we have heard all manner of game news. Fortnite was said to be falling off, if by losing a few million players out of their hundred million plus population, well, okay. Call of Duty launched their battle royale and is doing well. Diablo is on the Switch, and there is this little western game out there sweeping up all the headlines. Red Dead Redemption 2 is amazing. However, in all this news, Destiny 2 continues to prove its value with a hugely successful expansion called Forsaken.

This week in our preparation for Fallout 76 we are going to take a look at the CAMP system. Fallout 4 introduced a great new system to the game in building up your resources and protecting a specific area on the map. The game even programmed attacks against your outpost and also connected with various factions or traders that would visit your area. With Fallout 76 going online, these ideas will become more popular than ever and in Fallout 76 you will take your CAMP with you.

MMOs have been around now for over twenty years. In that time the genre has influenced countless game play models and designs. You can say that MMOs really did grow up with the Internet itself. In the 2000s we saw a batch of MMOs hit success as World of Warcraft grew into a world power. Now in the 2010s games have morphed and the ideas of MMOs have changed, but more are coming and they begin with Fallout 76.

This week we spoke to J. Todd Coleman about all of the upgrades coming in October to the playable build as well as got a sneak peak at the war tribes system for monsters. Today, we share the some of the mechanics on the Centaur which is also a playable race.

This past week we spoke with J. Todd Coleman about some of the amazing updates coming with Crowfall this week. The main focus was on the monsters in the game and how these different create and tribal types of mobs will impact players as they battle it out against each other. Crowfall’s next big release will start to put the Throne War elements into place, so the team thought to focus on monsters for a few announcements.

Ultima Online created the core ideas and concepts that have driven the MMO genre for 21 straight years. Ultima gave us an early look at what PvP on a large scale might be like, it allowed players to explore a world together for the first time. Ultima Online was a revolution, and it changed everything.