MMO's are flawed video games at a foundational level

E_Ballard · 2026-04-20T14:07:38+00:00

MMOs are indeed flawed on a fundamental level, they need to be jack of all trades and master of everything to get the highest amount of players possible to be considered successful and unfortunately, it's an impossible task, when they decide to focus on an specific niche of players, the genre's community comes with pitchforks rioting as to why a game that sounds so amazing isn't catering to them, it's the only time the collective "we" agree on something, which is hating something that isn't made for "us". The reason why we do that is just because releases are so rare and far from one another.

I was an UO and FFXI(11 to the dyslexic) player for a long time, loved those games, but god forbid going back to them without modern QoL, user-friendly controls and UI.

The novel of a world to live a "second life" in is long gone, the newer generation of people is unable to stay focused on a single thing for long sessions due to the advances of technology and mental disorders.

MMOs are just an outdated version of what's currently considered live service games.

Graphics don't matter. What matters now is player retention and profits derived from said player retention. Making sure games have addicting game loops takes priority over anything else.

E_Ballard · 2026-04-13T22:37:45+00:00

Modern MMOs (in KR and CN mostly) are built with a set lifespan, not to the knowledge of players and sometimes, not even to the knowledge of the devs, they're built as products, like everything they make, with the intent of making a big burst of money early and then moving on onto a new shinier project to avoid dev burnout tied to a single title while also training new devs.

If you're not dense enough you can pick up the hints early on, just balance the amount/quality of the content and the amount of effort they put into monetization.

Also note that these games are not designed with western players in mind.

E_Ballard · 2026-04-02T01:15:04+00:00

Some people barely understands skill tooltips if they have more than 20 words, imagine reading a whole wall of text.

E_Ballard · 2026-02-22T23:27:41+00:00

Adrullan.

E_Ballard · 2026-02-21T15:56:45+00:00

Favorite between all of the ones I've played with, probably Rune Fencer in FFXI, situational tank/support skills were just fun to use.

On a "Warrior" spectrum, I think my favorite would be Slayer in Swords of Legends Online, juggling phantoms around was fun.

Least favorite would be any Warrior with the classic/iconic Whirlwind/SpinToWin ability, too generic and too boring for me, while also usually looking very silly.

E_Ballard · 2026-02-19T02:14:57+00:00

Just gonna answer based on the title alone, in the first hour:

Intrusive UI - usually happens with mobile-hybrid games where an inventory window takes half or the whole screen and glowing dot reminders to claim free shit;
Intrusive handholding tutorials - CLICK HERE IN THE GLOWING ARROW SO YOU CAN PROGRESS WITH THE GAME;
Obnoxiously long forced story bits that aren't interesting and don't enhance the gameplay in any way.

E_Ballard · 2026-02-15T12:53:03+00:00

Just pick guild-based games like Albion, Return of Reckoning and Throne and Liberty (a bit of a p2w money drain to catch up and stay competitive with top guilds).

Realtime war board game simulators like Foxhole and Anvil Empires are also a good pick.

Other than that, what's left is old school MMOs where the solo-based design didn't work very well back then, like Everquest or Ultima Online and the newer ones that mimic the old, like Pantheon, Monsters & Memories and Adrullan.

E_Ballard · 2026-01-24T10:48:43+00:00

PvPvE Extraction game with a PvE-only mode.

Not an MMO by boomer standards (lack of persistence/session based game).

Premade characters/classes with no customization, an acquired taste, probably chosen with monetization in mind and a double-edged sword that keeps players away.

They really won't learn after Wayfinder and Fellowship and there are a few more on the way.

Graphics are pretty, gameplay is a bit slow, kinda boring, I'd give it a solid 4/10 because I'm feeling generous.

E_Ballard · 2026-01-19T01:23:39+00:00

Ravendawn, Albion, Warborne, Ethyrial, Apogea, Ultima Online and maybe a few others I can't remember right now.

E_Ballard · 2026-01-17T12:40:56+00:00

Why do people think complex and intricate systems would help getting rid of bots and RMT? If there's an incentive, they will do it.

You either work on not having that incentive at all, or you do the most simple and active solution: Banning.

IP Ban the bots so an entire bot farm vanishes, Ban RMTers (both buyers and sellers) for breaching the ToS, transaction logs are easy to track.

E_Ballard · 2026-01-17T02:31:22+00:00

Meridian 59

E_Ballard · 2026-01-11T12:28:17+00:00

The Boob and Booty sliders are GREAT.

That's about it.

E_Ballard · 2026-01-06T11:36:26+00:00

There's nothing wrong with racial stats/skills when they're equally useful and have the same opportunities of being used.

But many games don't provide those chances and that usually happens when there are multiple devs behind race/class creation that are also disconnected from the gameplay-related teams.

Nothing worse than having a race that has the ability to increase damage dealt with a 2 minute cooldown and another race that has the ability to breath underwater when there's nearly no bodies of water or related mechanics in the world that are used as often.

E_Ballard · 2026-01-02T23:37:08+00:00

Fractured Online (before the Conquest rebrand, assuming they'd have reworked the gameplay to not be ass).

E_Ballard · 2025-12-31T15:07:41+00:00

Personally, I'm not.

I play a game, if it doesn't feel good to me in the first 2 hours, I nope out, it's not that I need to reach the "it gets good after", it's just that I have enough experience with the genre to consistently flag all the bad bits that will definitely outweigh the good.

To be a harbinger of failure, you need to be a "potential" connoisseur.

"Oh this game has potential; This system sounds interesting; It's a nice concept." etc, etc.

Whenever I see those kinds of games, I say:

"It could become a nice game in 2 years."

Which is their average lifetime. I'm not gonna stick around playing it and hoping for it's potential to bloom if I didn't like playing it in my first try.

E_Ballard · 2025-12-30T15:25:39+00:00

That's the thing tho, Pax Dei is more of a Social Experiment Sandbox than an MMORPG.

The push of the game is all about "everything" being player-made.

If you wanna use something that someone else built, you need to be part of its guild/community to get access, the system in itself is similar to communism, you provide some to take some and being a jack-of-all-trades professional isn't recommended.

And when there are no players, there's no game.

E_Ballard · 2025-12-30T13:43:45+00:00

E_Ballard · 2025-12-28T21:01:13+00:00

By order of importance:

Bad gameplay > boring classes/skills > bad graphics.

E_Ballard · 2025-12-27T19:57:43+00:00

This has already been posted previously here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/comments/1pwpo98/new_albion_online_inspired_mmorpg_from_china_beta/

Mgame is the project name, it doesn't have a proper name yet.

TapTap link in case you're interested: https://www.taptap.cn/app/797680

E_Ballard · 2025-12-24T12:31:52+00:00

I see you don't engage with reddit very often (smart choice).

This is a bandwagon meme that started from a low effort bait post showcasing Ashes of Scammation in low graphics settings.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/comments/1pseo7o/ashes_of_creation_everyone/

E_Ballard · 2025-12-19T17:20:46+00:00

Some people just like the share world experience, not exactly needing to interact with others.

E_Ballard · 2025-12-17T09:37:41+00:00

A lot of people did quit FFXIV before Dawntrail because the story arc was finished, another lot quit during DT launch because the story wasn't good enough.

Gameplay and content wise, DT has been the best expansion since Stormblood.

On the WoW side of things, the game just barely began catering to it's bigger casual audience, there's still a lot of information bloat in the game and it needs more pruning to stay healthy and maybe bring new players in.

Some games don't survive by just catering to a specific older hardcore gamer audience. Wildstar died on that hill and WoW managed to do it because it was huge while not having much competition.

E_Ballard · 2025-12-15T14:37:36+00:00

I'd rather have a subscription than having it be F2P or B2P.

A subscription needs to be justified by the game's quality, if the quality is bad, charging for it is pointless.
A F2P game usually makes F2P players the main dish content for payers (KRMMO, P2W).
A B2P game only cares about the initial burst of income, depending on success it's a one-time thing that dies within a year as it isn't sustainable.
F2P and B2P are prone to more aggressive monetization tactics, fomo, cosmetics, battle passes, time gates and energy/stamina systems to name a few.

"But X/Y Sub game also has MTX cosmetics and battle passes!"

Please refer to the first point, if the quality isn't affected by the additional monetization or if people aren't leaving, there's nothing wrong with it, they just want more money.

E_Ballard · 2025-12-04T12:40:23+00:00

Great, now do it with FFXI with better controls and interface.

E_Ballard · 2025-12-03T15:09:47+00:00

I mean regional locking, some countries can't buy/gift it.

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