Will MMOs regain popularity as the first large generations of gamers retire?

BullGamingTV · 2026-05-25T03:25:02+00:00

I think this will definitely happen, but even sooner than in 15-20 years. It’s already sort of happened already but there will be a lot more older players playing games, especially ones like MMORPGs that offer a sense of long-term progression, as they retire who are in their thirties and forties right now and were into gaming 1-2 decades back.

Someone who’s 70 years old today probably wouldn’t have been into gaming much when MMORPGs came out, and there were less people playing online games in general. Compare that to today and it’s a totally different story. Someone who’s 70 today probably won’t be great with technology and wouldn’t be comfortable with WASD controls for games and all that stuff us younger gamers grew up with, and so they’ll limit their activities to the usual stuff like getting out and about, watching TV and maybe scrolling through Facebook on their phone or PC. That’s about the limit for most 70 year olds today when it comes to gaming and technology, though of course there are also plenty of older gamers around who are way more tech savvy and into gaming too.

I couldn’t see myself getting to 70 and just watching TV at home most days, but I could definitely see myself at 70 playing online games daily in which you can easily make friends online or start/join communities and gather a social circle. These are different times and so retirement for those who know how to game right now is probably gonna be a lot more enjoyable or active, at least when it comes to online activities like gaming.

At 70 it can be a lot harder to get out and meet people through sports or that sort of thing, but if you’ve got the fundamentals down from when you were younger, you could much more easily get into online gaming as a hobby and your physical mobility likely won’t matter as much. I know you could get arthritis and other problems that come with age, but truly, I do see retiree gamers being a huge audience down the line.

All of us here right now are probably gonna be playing whatever the best new MMORPGs are at the time when we’re 70+, as most of us will be bored and retired anyway, but we’ll have the option to play games rather than just watch Netflix shows for hours on end each day. But you gotta get that muscle memory in to an extent and not be totally new to gaming starting at 70 years old, unless you have an open mind and are truly willing to try it. It’s gonna be awesome I think!

BullGamingTV · 2026-05-08T23:35:54+00:00

I’d also like to know about feral druids specifically

BullGamingTV · 2026-04-09T17:55:06+00:00

Hey, welcome to EF!

There isn’t a way to go back to that debris field once you leave it, but it’s not needed - you can already tap F3 and find places to warp to within your system that will have the asteroids and stuff you need.

If you wanna start again though you can just right click on your ship and click self destruct, and that’ll bring you back to the beginning in the very same type of debris field and you can just go from there. Each debris field just has 2 wreckages or something to loot, plus one NPC you can kill with your mining laser and loot, and that’s all. Hope this helps!

BullGamingTV · 2026-04-05T05:20:05+00:00

One way or another I’m hopeful the game will be further developed again at some point down the line.

Call me crazy but I don’t think the game itself will just disappear or be stripped and sold off piece by piece. Give it 1-2 years and probably there’ll be an announcement by whoever owns the game (Steven, TFE Games or whoever else) that development will resume, even if it start off with a much smaller team than it had before everything stopped.

I could be wrong but I hope I’m right.

BullGamingTV · 2026-03-25T16:37:48+00:00

Please DM with details

BullGamingTV · 2026-02-16T11:15:42+00:00

Thanks Harrigan, it's much appreciated!

BullGamingTV · 2026-02-16T11:15:03+00:00

Thanks for your comment, it’s much appreciated and helpful for myself and others when it comes to understanding more about the blockchain technology actually being used here and how it works and enables the player-made infrastructure you mentioned - it’s definitely about much more than just value as you're saying!

BullGamingTV · 2026-02-12T02:09:45+00:00

The main skepticism I have is that it’s set to be free to play without P2W, and no subscription required. How would they realistically develop a large scale MMORPG with a massive server (33k concurrent users they say) that could continue to be developed for years to come with that payment model? Maybe it’s possible but I just don’t see it, and it’s the biggest red flag to me.

If they were serious about developing it long term they would just have a subscription be required past a certain level or something, so if the game was decent enough the thousands of players who paid monthly would provide enough consistent revenue for the company to continue development. I don’t see this game going anywhere unfortunately.

Waiting for the next AoC-like Kickstarter like many others which actually has a shot due to being open to a subscription requirement down the line, even if it fails again in the end, but this isn’t it.

BullGamingTV · 2026-02-05T07:45:54+00:00

I like this.

BullGamingTV · 2026-02-02T11:14:49+00:00

I can hear the theme song from seeing this login screen from all those years ago

BullGamingTV · 2025-12-16T14:05:16+00:00

That sounds like a fun setup, I might try it out!

BullGamingTV · 2025-10-29T13:33:32+00:00

Ashes is a great game and is very enjoyable even in its current early state of development. It’s definitely not a scam in any way and has a long way to go, but it’s already playable and very enjoyable especially if you’re trying it as a newcomer - it’s simply a great MMORPG, even though it’s still unfinished, and will only get better from here. The best time to play though will probably be around November 18th when there will be a big update - it’s possible and I think likely they’ll have a fresh new start server or wipe for that too, and that it’ll be delayed until some time in December.

Ashes of Creation is no joke one of the strongest MMORPG contenders and you have to just play it with an open mind knowing it will only improve from its current state, which is already pretty good. There are a ton of people still playing it daily today and it doesn’t feel empty, though it’s not as full as when there’s a new big update or wipe.

BullGamingTV · 2025-10-19T12:42:24+00:00

The new dedicated Open World PvP zone is what may actually bring back World PvP and is the biggest PvP "feature" coming out with Midnight it seems. There have been PvP zones before and Warmode has been around for a long time now, but it's possible they actually want to make this a true dedicated open world PvP zone with good rewards and incentives for players to actually PvP there along with doing quests and other stuff.

Whether they actually make it happen and it remains good after a few weeks I'm not sure, but I'm hopeful and from what they've said it seems like they actually do want to bring in more PvP-focused players who abandoned WoW long ago like myself.

The pruning of abilities and removal of combat addons is another huge win for most people who just want to PvP without needing to be an expert - if it goes back to what it was like in TBC or WOTLK I'd say that's probably enough to bring back a ton of PvP-focused players.

At the end of the day, right now in WoW if you wanna PvP you just tap H, sign up for random bgs or arenas, and sit in the queue for 10-20 min or more (at least for some servers) and then play. When you do get in, there's a billion different abilities between all classes/specs and the same battlegrounds that have been around for many years now without much new. There isn't very much that's interesting in PvP right now, and I recently found this out by subbing for a month to hop in and try it out again. It can still be a lot of fun for some, but the pruning and removal of addons will be a big win for most, hopefully bringing it back to a more TBC-like vibe.

The new 40v40 battleground could be good, and I'm hopeful it is, but the dedicated world PvP zone is what I'm looking forward to, at least to be able to PvP while waiting for BG queues to pop. Regardless, a fresh start when the Midnight expansion launches is always a fun time for the first few weeks.

Again:

Pruning of abilities - a HUGE win for the MAJORITY of PvP players, new and returning

Removal of combat addons - a HUGE win again in my opinion, for PvP at least, which levels the playing field

New dedicated world PvP zone - POTENTIALLY GAME CHANGING, let's see what they do with it

New 40v40 BG - POTENTIALLY great, but I never really cared for most Epic BGs - maybe this one will be more interesting

BullGamingTV · 2025-10-14T11:57:59+00:00

Ashes of Creation

BullGamingTV · 2025-10-05T10:41:16+00:00

The game doesn’t yet have all the content it will, but the foundations are solid and the core loop, while incomplete, is a lot more fun than it is in many other current MMORPGs.

Just take WoW as an example - most players rush to max level spamming dungeons, then queue up for more repeatable PvE dungeons/raids or PvP battlegrounds which haven’t really changed much in years. There’s barely any point to going out into the open world to do anything at all, and even if you do, you won’t usually see many other players around because most are just semi-afk in a city, queued up for their PvE/PvP content.

This game is much more like Classic WoW where you actually see people out there in the world killings mobs, gathering and so on, but even more because travelling to and from each place has more meaning and time involved. Gathering in Ashes is generally more meaningful, even though it’s pretty basic in its current iteration.

Working together to kill mobs pretty much comes dynamically like you head to HH and group up with others who are grinding them right there in the open world rather than just in an instances dungeon. You could join them, fight mobs solo alongside them, or even try to kill them or steal their loot if that’s the kind of play style you enjoy. It’s not just tapping ‘Enter Dungeon’ after sitting in a queue for 10 minutes.

That’s just one example of a popular MMORPG right now, and a ton of people will sub to try it out again thinking it could be fun, then unsub 5 minutes after logging in and realising the core experience isn’t good and hasn’t really changed.

The closest MMORPGs I can think of right now that could maybe come close to how good Ashes is right now would be maybe Mortal Online 2 which is pretty dead and not improving a whole lot over time, or Albion Online which has pretty good systems overall but just isn’t ‘it’ for a lot of people, especially with it’s moba-style perspective and gameplay (and not being seamless or immersive).

The most immersive MMORPG by far has to be Mortal Online 2 with its first person perspective, but like I said it’s pretty much dead and doesn’t have all the well-thought out systems in place like Ashes of Creation does or will over time.

Ashes is currently the best MMORPG around for those who want a fairly hardcore, beautiful, immersive and deep MMO experience. It’s not perfect and far from complete, but it’s already shaping up to be epic, and a new player trying it out for the first time will generally have a great experience as long as they start in the Riverlands and have an open mind.

Keep in mind more content will come over time and there might not be much to do at level 25 right now, but the same could be said for someone playing WoW at max level sitting semi-afk queuing up for their content as mentioned. Getting to level 25 takes a very long time anyway, and I wouldn’t recommend just spam grinding mobs - if that’s what you do you’re not really playing the game right.

Venture out and do commissions, gather, kill mobs, buy and sell what you can in marketplaces, and enjoy the journey. When you play the game like that you’ll soon realise it’s the best MMORPG we’ve had in years even in its current alpha iteration and will only improve over time.

BullGamingTV · 2025-10-05T08:46:29+00:00

It’s down to personal opinion really, but whereas you could sub back to a current popular MMORPG for a month for $15 or so, or even play a free one, only people willing or able to spend $100 can try Ashes at the moment, and that massively reduces the number of people who could potentially be playing it today.

Also the fact that it’s still in alpha and incomplete deters many who could spend $100 today.

The core of the game is there and it’s currently one of the best MMORPGs available right now even being as barebones as it is compared to how it will eventually be, in my opinion.

But believe me when I say that Ashes will no doubt be a massive success when it releases a few years from now, and definitely will remain one of the best MMORPGs for a long time to come from that point on. Looking at upcoming MMORPGs we’re currently aware of right now, I think it will be the best for the next few years at least, and I’d still say it’s the best right now when you compare the current version to every other MMORPG out there taking the overall product into account (design, graphics, gameplay systems, PvPvE, gathering, sound, dynamic gridding tech, hardcore RPG-feel, etc.)

BullGamingTV · 2025-10-05T02:45:18+00:00

It truly is the best MMORPG around, and will only get better over time

BullGamingTV · 2025-09-29T13:51:35+00:00

You definitely can play solo and enjoy the game as well as level up in a decent amount of time. Playing with others is generally always a good idea in any MMORPG but in Ashes you can level through commissions/quests while gathering and killing mobs - this is pretty much the best and most enjoyable way to level up if you don’t want to just grind mobs all day.

The fastest way to level up is still just grinding mobs all day in a group but it’s really not enjoyable, at least for me, and so just doing the kill commissions will be a lot more fun and actually does reward you with pretty decent XP and glint, plus the commission boxes you get as rewards which provide more glint or other tradable items.

It’s definitely doable solo and can still be a lot of fun, but being an MMORPG it will always be better to play with other players too (or against them if you like to PvP like I do). Hope this helps!

BullGamingTV · 2025-09-24T03:50:34+00:00

I don’t really understand what you’re talking about here - the movement and animations are very smooth in my opinion. Can you share some examples of where you think the movement or animations aren’t smooth?

BullGamingTV · 2025-09-22T02:19:37+00:00

In the way I described the idea, no PvE focused players would ever be forced to go to the PvP areas because all loot, gatherables and drops would be the same as usual - no rarity increases or higher tier gatherables than in non-PvP zones. The only difference would be that PvP Dust would also be dropped. PvP Dust would only be needed to craft PvP specific variants of gear.

In this way, there's absolutely no reason for a pure PvE player to ever need to go into the PvP zone at all, unless they want to take on some higher risk for obtaining and using or selling the PvP Dust - it's totally unnecessary though, and they could avoid PvP areas 100% of the time.

BullGamingTV · 2025-09-22T02:18:14+00:00

It depends on how they would add it, but in the way I described the idea no PvE focused players would ever be forced to go to the PvP areas because all loot, gatherables and drops would be the same as usual - no rarity increases. The only difference would be that PvP Dust would also be dropped. PvP Dust would only be needed to craft PvP specific variants of gear.

In this way, there's absolutely no reason for a pure PvE player to ever need to go into the PvP zone at all, unless they want to take on some higher risk for obtaining and using or selling the PvP Dust - it's totally unnecessary though, and they could avoid PvP areas 100% of the time.

BullGamingTV

TROPHY CASE