Mostly referring to the release of the latest WoW extension which isn't discussed anywhere (or maybe I missed it)
Interesting to see how dead the MMORPG genre has become. Are there still players around?
2 years ago by Blaze (he/him) to c/patientgamers
MonkeMischief 11 points 2 years ago
I miss that feeling a little bit. My undiagnosed-ADHD highschool self with like 18 characters hovering around level 20, never maxing one out because the ~30-40 slog was real, just chatting up strangers for fun while hopping around various towns' mailboxes and occasionally actually doing game content. (Remember when Barrens chat was a meme for basically being like the /b/ of WoW? LOL)
... And it didn't feel like impending doom or that I was somehow wasting my life away. It's just what I did after school and that was alright.
It's how I met my wife though, so it all worked out. :)
I could go on for days but WoW's peak was a neat way to build social skills while being behind an avatar kept you from being too vulnerable.
I feel like online gaming now has gotten so anti-social and that the mere fear of potential toxicity just has everyone locked up and suspicious; Afraid to talk to anyone they don't already know. Thanks to, what, basically Discord? Game chats are completely dead.
I remember trying Guild Wars 2 and thinking every other player might as well just be a bot because nobody interacted. :(
PoTayToes 4 points 2 years ago
I remember trying Guild Wars 2 and thinking every other player might as well just be a bot because nobody interacted. :(
I'm sorry that was your experience, but this is very much opposite of mine. Not only is the game still going strong (new expac came out like two weeks ago btw, and it's pretty good!), but in all my years playing (and that's been since Day 1), I've had so many fun interactions in the game.
And that's without even counting the ones with my guilds. I've even had some fun chats in ranked PvP, the saltiest place in the game. I'm playing in European servers, which probably doesn't change much versus NA, but yeah, there are often conversations going on in map chat, or locally, between total strangers. Also between teams in WvW, during events, during festivals, waiting at the Wall after the Chak Gerent...
It's a very friendly community and I encourage you to give it another try! And yeah, if you can find a guild suited to your tastes it's even better!
waz 3 points 2 years ago
I was always behind the curve of whatever the core game was on wow, so I was always trying to catch up to the guys who introduced me to it, never really had the time to do endgame stuff with them, because of having two little kids. By the time WOTLK dropped, I was PUGing a DK all the time because I was nowhere near the endgame where my buddies were. After that I became incredibly casual. Just questing the storyline of wherever I was. Dropped it and came back in classic. When Cata dropped on classic, with no era to play on with, and again, I was no where near cap the whole second time around I unsubbed. I have just rolled a PS and intend to casually bum around until my server falls over and I’ve maxxed out every char and class I want to.
simple 33 points 2 years ago
FF14 has taken over most of the MMO hype, but plenty of others like Runescape and Path of Exile are also doing really well. It's just that if you don't have people you know actively playing them, you won't hear much about it.
Neuromancer49 11 points 2 years ago
A handful if my PoE friends have picked up Last Epoch which I've found to be more approachable. Little less MMO but a very similar game.
Neuromancer49 6 points 2 years ago
Touche, forgot this was PatientGamers. Grim Dawn is basically the same sans MMO. It's the best ARPG I've played like, ever, and it's due for a huge DLC soon. Goes on sale for very cheap often.
Unlike Last Epoch, it's more item-focused. Unlike PoE, the items aren't a total nightmare to optimize...
Rinn 3 points 2 years ago
It is fun, but buggy + doesn't have great performance in some areas. I've recently played it for a bit on 1.1 patch drop, and lasted for about 6 hours until I hit a brick wall of a progression blocking bug. There was a decently large thread about it on the forum, no dev response, no fix in the next 3 hotfixes, so I stopped playing. Might come back for 1.3 or something.
Neuromancer49 1 point 2 years ago
Very interesting - I haven't hit a single bug during my play.
Blaze 4 points 2 years ago
Do you see the latest WoW expansion discussed anywhere on Lemmy?
I only look at !wow@lemmy.ml, which has a 3 comments on a 4 days post, maybe I'm missing something?
hydroxycotton 7 points 2 years ago
I think you're missing that lemmy is a pretty tiny slice of the internet and niche(ish) communities either don't exist or are mostly inactive. Just because something doesn't seem to be making waves on lemmy, doesn't mean it isn't popular. The community for it just isn't really here (yet).
Blaze 1 point 2 years ago
Indeed, so that's my point.
There were quite active BG3 and Helldivers 2 communities when they released as those are worldwide hits.
If you look at !helldivers2@lemmy.ca vs !finalfantasyxiv@lemmy.world, you instantly see which one is a more active game.
hydroxycotton 4 points 2 years ago
https://steamdb.info/app/553850/charts/
https://steamdb.info/app/39210/charts/
I probably just wouldn't use lemmy as an indicator of popularity/activity levels.
Randomgal 2 points 2 years ago
WoW hasn't been synonymous with the MMORPG scene since at least the last 5 years. You didn't hear much from it because it's just another expansion, for one of the many currently running MMOs. When was the last you heard about GW2 expansions? Or Elder Scrolls Online expansions?
Blaze 3 points 2 years ago
Copy pasting the comment below
Indeed, so that’s my point.
There were quite active BG3 and Helldivers 2 communities when they released as those are worldwide hits.
If you look at !helldivers2@lemmy.ca vs !finalfantasyxiv@lemmy.world, you instantly see which one is a more active game.
Lizardking27 2 points 2 years ago
Just because people still log in to grind dailies and world quests doesn't mean the game has the same presence in pop culture it used to. I remember seeing commercials with Ozzy for wotlk, people would talk about the game, you'd see references to it, there was a south park episode about it. It's just not that relevant or popular anymore.
ngwoo -1 points 2 years ago
You don't see those commercials anymore because television isn't relevant anymore. The internet is full of ads for the new WoW expansion, just like it was full of ads for the new XIV expansion and ESO expansion when those released.
Lizardking27 3 points 2 years ago
Commercials weren't the only example I listed.
I consume as much media as anyone, a lot of gaming content, and I don't recall seeing a single WoW ad in years, not on websites, youtube, or streaming, Maybe you see those ads because you play WoW or other mmos. I haven't heard any streamers talking about it, no articles or memes outside of dedicated communities.
I'm not saying those things dont exist. I'm just saying, as a general consumer of gaming media, it really doesn't come up nearly as often as it used to. It's more niche now, less mainstream. Which, unfortunately, means the player base is less dynamic.
ngwoo 1 point 2 years ago
Look you can go to the WoW, FFXIV, ESO, and OSRS subreddits or search for them on Twitter and see that the communities are still extremely active for these games. WoW has 75k on Twitch right now and MMOs are awful stream games. If you don't use mainstream platforms you're not getting an accurate read on what the mainstream opinions are.
finestnothing 21 points 2 years ago path: 0 12057157, hotness: undefined, score: 21, children: 5
stargazingpenguin 2 points 2 years ago
I keep looking at Foxhole, but I've never tried it yet. Is the non combat segment of the game pretty chill overall? I'm not really a big fan of competitive MMOs, but the behind the scenes aspect does interest me. I hear about a decent amount of positivity in the playerbase, but I've definitely heard negativity about the recent state of the game.
finestnothing 4 points 2 years ago path: 0 12057157 12061397 12061709, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 1
stargazingpenguin 2 points 2 years ago
Okay, thanks for the information! I appreciate the offer, I'll have to keep that in mind if I decide to get it. I think the logistics end of the game could be a lot of fun.
CancerMancer 1 point 2 years ago
I used to be a heavy industrial player in EVE Online and Foxhole fills the hole, surprisingly. Each faction has at least one group whose sole purpose is logistics, and they're both decent.
stargazingpenguin 1 point 2 years ago
I had been talking with someone else on here about trying EVE in that playstyle a while back! I never tried it, but it always sounded interesting. Logistics sounds like it could be an interesting thing to try in Foxhole, I may need to give it a go.
Paradachshund 18 points 2 years ago
Guild wars 2 just released a new expac and I've been really enjoying it. Lots of people online, so I'd say not dead at all.
Paradachshund 7 points 2 years ago
Gw2 is like the sleeper MMO that no one talks about but everyone still plays. I think the lack of subscription and never raising level cap does that to it. It's a very welcoming game to pick up and put down as time allows.
Gerudo 4 points 2 years ago
I was an og GW player. I hadnt played GW in like 15-20 years? I came into GW2 just 2 months ago and was overwhelmed at first with everything an old mmo adds over the years. I finally found the play groove and we are all enjoying it, even the ones still playing WoW. So much so I might grab the living story addons.
Paradachshund 2 points 2 years ago
They're a lot of fun actually. Especially if you like open world exploration. They add a lot of very cool maps.
Paradachshund 5 points 2 years ago
I'm probably not the best judge cause I've been playing semi regularly since launch, but I'd guess it's a really good time actually.
Long story short they've recently changed to a yearly expansion model with smaller scale expansions that tell more contained stories. The first one was pretty rocky, not gonna lie, but this new one is really good so far.
If you're someone who wants to go through the entire story and catch up you've got a very long road ahead of you (up to you whether that sounds good or not), but if you wanted to get back in quickly the new expansion is a totally reasonable starting point I'd say. You won't get a lot of the references, but I think you'd still get plenty of enjoyment being dumped in. I'm guessing it would feel like picking up a long running book series on book 20--there are lots of references and characters you don't know, but it's also doing its best to catch you up as a new reader and not expecting you've read it all.
Aside from story stuff, the game has had a bit of a Renaissance lately and there are a lot of new players from what I can tell.
Daze 1 point 2 years ago
This is EXACTLY what I was wondering about, thanks so much!!!
Good to know they acknowledge that not everyone is interested in the ff14-esque story grind where you have to travel from start through finish. Definitely going to at least check it out. Heard something about where you can do dungeons solo-party? I think that was gw2.
Anyways the book series comparison is perfect 👌
Paradachshund 2 points 2 years ago
Most of the game is solo-friendly. Some things are very difficult to solo, but if you get really good at the combat system it's still possible.
Coordinated end game party stuff isn't my bag so much, so I'm not sure about soloing it. There are a lot of different things you can do with different names that all amount to dungeon/raid style content. The things actually called "dungeons" are all from the original game and are really old at this point. The newer 5 man dungeons are called "Fractals", and there are also 10 man raids, and 10 man boss only encounters called "Strike Missions" (basically a single raid boss with no dungeon around it).
PoTayToes 1 point 2 years ago
Heard something about where you can do dungeons solo-party? I think that was gw2.
"Dungeons" as a general term is understood to be "group content".
In GW2, these are:
- Dungeons, which you go through with the Core (base game) story, then are available as a max level (don't worry, you get there fast) content with 3/4 different paths each. They are made so you go through with 5 people. There's a LFG system which (while ugly,) works and if you don't find one you can just put up a group yourself with the title "Ascalon Catacombs - Story Mode" or "Caudecus Manor - 1st Path (or P1)", and it should fill up pretty fast. However, once you have enough mastery over your character, you should be able to solo them. I don't recommend expecting to be able to solo them easily right off the bat, however.
- Fractals, which are also 5-men content, and are accessible from max level. Those go in difficulty degrees from 1 to 100, and also have a LFG section dedicated to them. Like Dungeons, you could I guess solo them, however this gets harder the higher level you go, and I honestly consider people who can solo the higher levels as madmen.
- Strikes are 10-men content, and are shorter (one boss) events, and go from easy to hard content to go through. They are usually considered end-game content already. With 10 people. I suppose some of the easier ones are soloable, but that seems like an absolute slog to me and very un-fun. A few of them have challenge modes for the challenge-addicted.
- Raids are older content (though they are bringing back a new one in the current expac) which are the highest level of difficulty available of content (though the challenge strikes are harder than some raids, iirc). Those are harder to get into because of the smaller population of dedicated players, you usually need to find a raiding guild to get some training runs in so you can then find a regular roster. I'm honestly not sure how it is nowadays, but my experience with them is limited because I did not enjoy that difficulty level.
- Group Instances are 50-men content, limited in number but generally accessible in difficulty. You just generally pop up at the entry spot whenever it is time for the public entry, then get randomly assigned to an instance completing it (although you can find specialized squads doing them if you look). Those are not soloable, but you don't need to speak with anyone as people generally know what they have to do and manage to get through.
- I guess World Bosses count also? Those are open world, so just be there a bit before the event starts and you'll have enough people waiting to do them on the map, so while again they are not "solo", you don't actually need to talk to anyone to get your fill of content.
Paradachshund 1 point 2 years ago
Well that's the rumor at least. No actual news about that one yet, right?
SidewaysHighways 15 points 2 years ago
Man, some of my buddies picked it back up and I just can't understand. How much fuckin money have they given that piece of shit company over the years? And now it's Microsoft? Sigh
jjjalljs 14 points 2 years ago
I still play guild wars 2. It's the only MMO that doesn't piss me off. No subscription fee. Never raised the level cap. Only added a new tier of gear once close to launch and said that's it. Plays like a real video game.
Because the level cap and gear cap doesn't change, you can take a break and come back just fine. My characters I made years ago are just as mechanically viable as anyone else. (Knowing how to play them is a separate question. I'm pretty bad at thief, but some people are little immortal jerks with it)
It also feels more like a real video game than some MMOs. You can dodge attacks. Like there's a dodge button that moves you and gives you iframes. There's a lot less of the old timey "your character moved away on the screen so the monster did its attack animation way over there, but you still get hit".
They also solved a lot of the anti social problems of old MMOs. You don't need to form a formal group for most content. There's no kill stealing. You just go into the world and do stuff.
There's no mandatory quest chains. There's the main story you can follow, but there's very little MMO filler. There are "hearts" you can do that are kind of MMO busywork, but you can also just not do them.
I know the game is old but it's still very good. I haven't been able to get a lot of friends to play it. I think they think it's like a shitty MMO where you just grind for gear to grind for more gear, and level up so you can level up and grind for more gear. It's not.
jjjalljs 1 point 2 years ago
Oh yeah GW1 was harder at launch because you only had limited NPC support, but the later expansions really expanded that (no pun intended) by adding more robust npc Heroes that could join your party and be customized.
Though GW1 came out 19 years ago, so a good chunk of potential GW2 players were in diapers when it came out. Gosh, I'm so old.
GW2 is very "solo" friendly. I put solo in quotes because there will typically be other people around, but you don't have to talk to them or wait on them for most stuff. Like, earlier I was flying around one of the maps doing a little quest thing, and I joined in several events to fight monsters with other people. Didn't say a word. It's all very seamless.
Jomn 11 points 2 years ago
I still play Old School RuneScape and Guild Wars 2, and they are both very active.
However, I've not tried a new MMORPG in ages. I don't even really know if any relatively new ones could be interesting to try out.
Vincente 1 point 2 years ago
I don’t know when you last played. They added two new races: High Elf for the Alliance and Goblin for the Horde in 2023, a few new dungeons, some new glyphs/challenges, and a radio feature. But mostly, it's the same as the original game.
tiredofsametab 9 points 2 years ago
I just don't have time. RPGs are still my favorite genre, and I used to even work in the MMORPG space. I have a fulltime job, a house I just bought and have to upkeep (I was renting until now), and farming. On top of that, spending time with the wife and all of the regular shopping and chores still exist. Further still, I try to always be learning something for fun, but I haven't even really had time to do that. The most entertainment I have these days is listening to podcasts and youtube vids whilst working outside.
Daxtron2 9 points 2 years ago
I don't think they're dead. They were wildly popular in the earlier days of the internet when it was still a relatively small place. Now there's more people playing games than ever before. And a much lower proportion playing MMOs
inb4_FoundTheVegan 8 points 2 years ago
Star wars the old republic is pretty great, not perfect but super solid story, essentially just Kotor 3. I played it reguarly for last few months and truly enjoyed it like how I used to enjoy WoW back in the day. I know certain fans are going come at me with knives for saying this, but imp, it has much better story content than FF14.
Fester 2 points 2 years ago
Do you know if people still play galactic starfighter (GSF) in SWTOR? Or if it’s gotten any updates? It became my favorite thing to do in game, but it wasn’t very popular, and last time I tried I sat in queue for a while before giving up. (I liked Squadrons but that also tapered off quickly.)
The rest of the game is great too. I treat it like FFXIV - play every now and then to catch up on the story, though it’s been a while since I’ve played SWTOR. I don’t know if I agree the story content is better than FFXIV (after ARR at least - especially Shadowbringers and Endwalker), but I can see why some people would like it more. It’s consistently good from start to finish. Anyone who likes Star Wars and gaming is missing out on a huge variety of stories and fun if they don’t play it.
Anyway, might need to give it a go again.
inb4_FoundTheVegan 2 points 2 years ago
So they have a couple servers and I had charcters on all of them. On most, yeah GSF was kinda dead. But omg on Star Forge? You can chain pop matches all day. It's by far the most populated NA server and much more active than the others. Would highly recommend heading there if you wanna scratch that dog fighting itch. 😉
(after ARR at least - especially Shadowbringers and Endwalke)
Oh yeah, those were the best storylines for sure. And I am absolutely not here to say the story in FF14 is bad, I've played most of the FF games and the story is always solid. But the amount of choices, variations and alignment options really seals swtor as my favorite in this regard. Absolutely no shade for anyone that disagrees, just my personal opinion. ♥
HipsterTenZero 8 points 2 years ago
I stopped playing MMORPGs around the Blitzchung incident. FF14 didn't hook me the same way WoW did, and Warframe isn't really an RPG, but it did end up filling the space.
WraithGear 8 points 2 years ago
I’m attempting to host a private Ragnarok Online server for my small group of friends. Its a shame that game is all but forgotten, the music has not been topped… except by ffxiv maybe.
MonkeMischief 7 points 2 years ago
Ragnarok was so weirdly awesome. I loved how unique it was and somehow the jank was charming. The sprites and job tree were fantastic too, and I could listen to that music all day. :D
Rai 4 points 2 years ago
My GAWD the game was CHARMING. I loved the broken English, i loved all of the classes, I loved all the friends I made… RO legit probably saved my life. I had a bad time in school and it was my escape. I wasn’t sure if I loved Moonlight Flower or wanted to be her.
Never did get that GTB card. DID get Angeling for my GC ‘sader! And an ice pick for my SD SinX.
I miss that game so much. But it’s not the same.
WraithGear 4 points 2 years ago
When the kids these days called the jupiteros music the roblox theme, i lost my shit. (BGM89 we have lee but you don’t have)
WraithGear 2 points 2 years ago
I got it working, my issue was a commented out ip_bind variable in one of the .conf files. And you can also allow the new account variable. Users just type in their account name as if logging in, and put an _M or _F at the end and the server knows to append their account info to what password they input to the login server
Though my friend swear they want that 1x rates… we shall see.
Rai 3 points 2 years ago
HMU if you do and want another player, it’s my favorite game of all time. SoundTEMP did SO GOOD with the music… I still listen to the soundtrack today. Bless them for just including the MP3s with the game.
EonNShadow 5 points 2 years ago
Old School RuneScape is alive and well, we got a new boss yesterday, and we've been getting drip-fed content all year this year.
stargazingpenguin 4 points 2 years ago
I generally just don't play a lot of online games anymore. I have a job where I have to deal with people all day, so the last thing I want to do is go home and deal with angry people while I'm trying to relax!
I do play some Elder Scrolls Online and Star Trek Online, but I primarily do single player content. The normal extent of my interaction with human players is to help them if they need help, or to thank them if they help me.
algorithmae 4 points 2 years ago
MMORPGs may not be the butt of South Park jokes anymore, but that doesn't mean that they're dead. They're more diversified... Like others mentioned, other games are quietly stealing the thunder. Also, if you think about it, battle royale games are kinda MMOs with how many people are in the lobby, and games like Roblox and Minecraft can have players interact with large numbers of others
Ashtear 4 points 2 years ago
I haven't seen a lot of chatter around live-service games in Patient Gamers communities in general over the years, but from what I can tell, very little of the Warcraft community made it over to Lemmy. I can think of a couple possible explanations for that.
First, because everyone uses Discord for voice chat over WoW anyway, with the Reddit exodus last year, Discord was always a more natural fit for discussion. Second, /r/wow has increasingly become a place for discussion around the game among former players, especially after Shadowlands. Seeking out a new space on Lemmy and actually participating in the necessary, proactive contributions to grow a community requires more enthusiasm than I think the jaded players have.
It certainly feels like there are fewer MMO players, but I'm not sure. I think we can be certain that younger players are being captured by different forms of live-service games though (shooters, various gacha) rather than traditional MMOs.
Tellore -4 points 2 years ago
By MMO you mean MMORPG specifically? Because MMO in general is the most popular type of games imo... League of Legends, Dota, Fortnite, Valorant, Overwatch - all are super popular. Regarding MMORPG, I see a lot of youngsters play Genshin. I've personally been playing a classless WoW pserver lately.
CancerMancer 5 points 2 years ago
How the hell are League of Legends or Valorant considered MMOs? Are Rocket League or Team Fortress 2 MMOs? Is Battlefield 5 an MMO now?
The expansion of this term to include 5v5 games is never not going to piss me off.
Tellore -6 points 2 years ago
I always considered "MMO" as a synonym for "multiplayer". Anyway, if you take the word "massively" into account, you could also treat is as "massive number of players you could POTENTIALLY reach by joining one of the rooms" (word "potentially" as opposed to "actually reaching at any given moment"). In actual MMORPGs it's not like you can actually interact with all the people online at the same time, you still are limited by geometry and game logic of the world at least, like no one will ever gather in a single town because people are doing other stuff, or are from enemy factions, etc. And in many MMORPGs there is instancing going on, so even players in mob farming locations can be assigned to different instances and not see each other because of reasons.
patientgamers
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A gaming community free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases.
Relavent communities: !games@lemmy.world !games@sh.itjust.works !retrogaming@lemmy.world !videogamesuggestions@lemmy.zip !linux_gaming@lemmy.world
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patientgamers
@sh.itjust.works
20538
646
508
A gaming community free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases.
Relavent communities: !games@lemmy.world !games@sh.itjust.works !retrogaming@lemmy.world !videogamesuggestions@lemmy.zip !linux_gaming@lemmy.world
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Just a thought, maybe the MMO player base is just aging out? I started with WoW back in 2005, I just don't have the bandwidth in life anymore for an MMO. I imagine that is a similar feeling for a lot of us millennials.
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