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MMOs have exploded this year, but not as you expected
The boom of MMO is due to millions of players trying, addicted, and occupy a place in their huge world. The most popular this year is Final Fantasy 14, you can’t even buy it now. Final Fantasy 14 broke people’s expectations and surpassed World of Warcraft to become the world’s largest fantasy MMO. Before its main Endwalker extension was released, it became so popular in the summer that its own developers did not see it coming.
From graphics cards to cars, global semiconductor shortages are everywhere, but this is also the reason why the servers of “Final Fantasy 14” cannot accommodate all players who try to log in and play games. Square Enix and game director Naoki Yoshida published article after article apologizing for the long queue, detailing what it can do to them, and, frustratingly, what it cannot do to them.
What is happening now in Final Fantasy 14 is unbearable in 2021. MMO has always been the type of game that pushes contemporary technology to the limit, and this year the technology cannot meet the demand. The coronavirus has stopped the entire world and Eorzea. The developer stated that the resurgence of the virus in Japan prevented it from traveling overseas to actually open more servers. As a result, every player trying to log in to a major expansion of the game will encounter hours of queue time and various errors.
If there is any universally established statement about MMO in 2021, it is that the type is as healthy as ever.
Despite these problems, Square Enix’s obvious honesty is the root of long-time fans of Final Fantasy 14 and many people consider to be “refugees”, using them to defend the game rather than its direct competitor, World of Warcraft. Blizzard’s MMO has been moving in this direction for some time, and it has continued to disappoint many players with misleading features and puzzling stories. The latest expansion of World of Warcraft, the Kingdom of Shadows, failed to resolve the widespread anger caused by the battle for Azeroth. Coupled with Activision Blizzard’s widespread allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination, a large number of players have fled the game this year.
In many ways, you can predict the rise of Final Fantasy 14 and the decline of World of Warcraft by tracing the trajectories of these two games over the past few years. I’m not sure anyone can guess that the new world will attract so much attention and maintain it in the past four months. Our own Fraser Brown said in his review that this game is messy, dirty and weak for single player games. These criticisms have not stopped it from maintaining more than 100,000 concurrent players on Steam, and even more people continue to watch other people play it on Twitch. Amazon’s first MMO has consolidated its position as one of the biggest debuts in 2021 in a series of server issues, bugs and exploits, not only for MMOs, but also for games in general.
And you can’t forget Destiny 2. The shooter MMO spent a year preparing for the Queen of Witch expansion in early 2022, solving problems such as cross-play, seasonal storytelling, and beauty systems. Destiny 2 has done a lot of work to clean up its existing content to better meet the needs of its hungry players, even if this did not alleviate the controversial decision to exclude the entire planet from the game due to the Beyond Light expansion last year. The dissatisfaction came.
There are ongoing games elsewhere, such as Guild Wars 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Crowfall, and Genshin Impact if we are generous with the definition. MMOs and games that change formats are always running, updating, and arguing why now is the best time to give them a chance. MMO has reached a level of maturity, and you can almost certainly find a home that matches your theme tastes and mechanical desires. At this point, MMOs rarely die completely, and more commonly they are nestled in dedicated subreddit, Discord servers, and forums. If there is any universally established statement about MMO in 2021, it is that the type is as healthy as ever.
Final Fantasy 14 is a good place
The rapid success of Final Fantasy XIV, especially after the deterioration of World of Warcraft, is a clear example of how player acceptance and retention rates define MMO better than other real-time service games that primarily focus on single-player experience. These are real-time games and require a stable group of players to power their group activities. If “Final Fantasy 14” hadn’t spent eight years building intricate stories and supporting players’ communities, the situation this year would be very different.
Endwalker is a massive expansion that aims to end the story of A Realm Reborn in 2013, connecting most of the game’s history into a catastrophic event. Eozea and its many warriors of light have fought many enemies, but no one threatened the entire universe at once.
For experienced Final Fantasy 14 players, Endwalker is an opportunity to remember the game’s far-reaching storyline and large number of characters. Most of the story allows you to relive old enemies, old friends, and old places. Like the Shadowbringers expansion pack in 2019, Endwalker uncovers some of the biggest mysteries in the game. This is a tribute to the era of Final Fantasy 14 and a warm affirmation to the players who kept the game alive after the first difficult iteration. This is a celebration of a world that many have called home for many years.
For many players who want to finally understand or at least be a part of it, this is also a destination—perhaps a home for the future. It is difficult to recommend to play in the early morning. In future extensions, if there is no context, they are slow, calm, and quite boring. But once you overcome this and find a part of the story you like or an activity you like, you will always be in a good position.
I was not sold by this game until I hit Heavensward. It combines many of the political benefits you get from Game of Thrones and the scope of JRPG. Last year, as a miner, I really invested in the work of crushing rocks in the field of pseudo-open world production and collection of the game. Of course, I really like the fashion of “Final Fantasy 14”-it really means dressing up my bunny girl as Nier: Automata’s 2B.
Everyone has their own reasons why they want to try this game, and why they keep coming back. This is why MMO is so attractive, and this is why 2021, especially with the huge popularity of Twitch streaming media, is a strong year for MMO. It’s easy to gather everyone in one place, and MMOs have been doing this for years.
MMO in 2022
Upcoming MMO:
-Ashes of Creation-A fantasy MMO where players can directly influence the city and economy, no different from the new world.
-The Lost Ark-A Diablo-like MMO, this may be a sleepy blow. I played some beta versions, and although the story seems ridiculous, some things may happen in the battle, especially in group games.
-Chrono Odyssey-The trailer doesn’t say much, but it seems to be an action-based MMO running on Unreal 4.
The rapid success of “Final Fantasy 14” and “New World” is the biggest sign of the endurance and adaptation of the MMO genre, because many games have borrowed some of them. The rise of real-time service games, especially in habitable worlds like Fortnite, is largely due to MMOs. It is 2021 and most people understand what raids and dungeons are. This was not the case in the heyday of World of Warcraft, when it had 12 million players in 2010.
So many things have happened in the past few years. It’s understandable that people want a game to respect their time, have a big impact on what they want to do, and be able to share all of this with their friends and family. That game is not this year’s World of Warcraft. It has a tendency to upset the most dedicated players and Activision Blizzard. As news about its toxic workplace culture continues to emerge, it is difficult to convince anyone to play it. Replaced by “Final Fantasy 14” and “New World”, they show us the kind of games that people want now.
As a long-term player, I know that MMOs and their players are always changing and disturbing. The stagnation of content may stagnate the community, and the new version may pull everyone in its direction. But when you devote so much time to something, you are always ready to go back, either as a hook of nostalgia or the brilliance of something new. Games like “Final Fantasy 14: Terminator” and “New World” have consolidated their position in the MMO classics. Although they may all be snapshots at a specific time, they are equally important, if only to understand why MMO is a large and important type.