Massively’s Best of 2014
253 words.
I was looking over Massively’s choices of the best MMO launched in 2014.
That’s a terrible list.
Of those, I consider only two of them to be “legitimate” candidates: ESO and WildStar. And of those two, ESO wins because it is the more innovative of the two. (Only one of the Massively people agreed with me.) It’s sad to note, though, that I only played those two games for two months and one month respectively. Both suffered from the same flaw: You get most of your skills early in the leveling process and they never change much, which makes leveling somewhat pointless because your character doesn’t appear to get any more powerful. You’re forced to keep making alts to experience variety in gameplay.
ArcheAge was technically launched years ago in Korea. But even if you count it as launching this year for the first time, it’s not the best MMO of 2014.
Firefall, Swordsman, Destiny, and The Crew are not MMOs, imo. Of course, I’ve only played one of them-Firefall. Firefall is fun, but it’s nothing like an MMO to me. Swordsman is PvP so who cares. :) The Crew is… whatever, nobody cares. Destiny is just a console shooter.
Elite: Dangerous might be a consideration but it looks too much like EVE for me to believe it’s a real game. (Zing!) But I’ll probably get it soon.
Also, Massively forgot to mention Trove, which I think is officially launched now. It’s a legitimate sandboxy MMO in my opinion, and also pretty fun.
Archived Comments
Wilhelm Arcturus 2014-12-21T19:29:43Z
There was a reason that “nothing” was leading by a wide margin last time I checked the poll.
What is or isn’t an MMO is an open sore. I know what I mean when I say it, but I usually follow up with “persistent world MMORPG” or some such, just to be sure.
I can’t really tell about Trove, though they just posted their “Closed Beta Trailer,” which doesn’t sound like they’ve gone live.
UltrViolet 2014-12-21T23:10:53Z It’s a bit confusing. It says “now free to play” in the Glyph launcher but I can’t tell if it’s an open beta or what.
bhagpuss 2014-12-22T00:37:59Z
In what way is The Crew not an MMO? Looks exactly like one to me. Just because it has cars instead of elves or spaceships doesn’t mean it’s not part of the same genre.
As for Firefall, I’ve played that and it absolutely, categorically IS an MMO. How is it not? There is nothing un-MMO-lke about it. It absolutely fits Wilhelm’s caveat of “persistent world MMORPG”.
UltrViolet 2014-12-22T02:09:45Z
Hrm, I didn’t realize this was controversial. To me “MMO” is a shortcut for “MMORPG” which I usually think of in the classical, pre-2000 sense, where exploration was a key component of the game. The more modern definition (that Massively uses) is a lot broader and seems to include just about anything with a multiplayer element.
Firefall to me feels very similar to Tribes which was a team-based shooter, so I guess that’s coloring my view of it.
I haven’t played The Crew so I can only go on what I’ve heard in podcasts, which made it sound like you just go to different tracks and race people. But if it’s something where you can get in a car and drive around the world meeting people and seeing places and, I don’t know, carry cargo from city to city in a truck or something while Mad Max-style dune buggies try to run you off the road, I might think differently.
J3w3l 2014-12-22T02:46:03Z
Just talking about Firefall a little more I would also say it’s definitely an mmo. It does feel a little like tribes with the combat and movement but it has a whole range of RPG like systems.
Your frames progress in levels. There is gearing and crafting. It was an arguably better mmo in beta when it was more open and dynamic event system that I would say beat gw2. The crafting and gathering was very open ended too which encouraged grouping and exploration.
It’s not that now though and more went the standard themepark approach.
As for ESO I’d also say it wind based on the updates it’s been getting to that are improving on the game and fixing the main issues
Syp 2014-12-22T16:02:14Z Trove is still officially in open beta, although it’s not going to be wiped and thus can be considered as a soft launch. But not OFFICIALLY launched by Trion’s standards.
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