On The Radar For 2019

Here’s my annual summary of PC MMORPGs that are on my radar for the new year 2019. (Here is 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014). I’ll warn you up front it’s bleak.

I am only considering “traditional” style MMORPGs in this list, not things like MOBAs or brawlers or Diablo-clones or whatever else people call MMOs these days. Actually, since I find out about these from MMO sites, and most MMO sites now cover things that aren’t traditional MMORPGs, some of these might in fact not be traditional MMORPGs. Actually, even MMORPGs these days aren’t much like old school traditional MMORPGs anymore, but that’s another topic. The point is I try to weed out things that are obviously not traditional MMORPGs, like, say, Anthem or Fallout 76 or Rend or Cyberpunk 2077.

Note that when I say a game is “new” on the list below, I mean it’s new to me, and new to this yearly post. It doesn’t necessarily mean it was newly announced in 2018.

I pulled some games off the list that are technically available in Early Access. In 2018, if you release your game into Early Access, you’ve released your game, whether you like it or not. The only exception I might make here is a free open beta period.

Some posts I used to inform this list:

• 10 Exciting MMOs That Are Yet To Be Released. I learned about Kingdom Under Fire 2, Kurtzpel, Age of Wushu 2.
• 10 games I’m looking forward to playing in 2019. Syp always keeps better track of upcoming games than I do, and reminded me that I forgot about Torchlight Frontiers.
• MMOs to Watch in 2019. Where I was reminded to add Legends of Aria.

Games I’m Excited About

Formerly “Games I Want To Play.”

These are games that I’m genuinely looking forward to sinking my teeth into and playing longterm (which is roughly a month, for me).

Uh… nothing, to be honest. The future looks pretty bleak to me. Recycled, reskinned games we’ve already played for the most part.

Games I’ll Try

Formerly “Games I Want To Try.”

These are games that I’m interesting in seeing just to see what all the talk is about, and might buy just to be part of the “in crowd,” but for whatever reason I don’t think they will be a good long-term fit for me.

Crowfall. No change from last year. Still sick of hearing about it, still don’t think I will like it, still think it will be “old” by the time it launches, but am still interested in trying it out. I actually won a month of free playing time so I will definitely be checking it out if it ever deigns to launch.

Camelot Unchained. No change from last year. Same as above. Don’t think I will like it, but I’m interesting in trying it out. At least they finally made it to a closed beta in 2018.

New World. After we got a flurry of information about this game in 2018, I moved it from “Games I’m Excited About” to “Games I’ll Try.” I expect this game now to be a slight variation on Conan Exiles, which is kind of fun, but not really an MMORPG by my definition.

Games I’m Undecided About

These are games that I just don’t know enough yet to make any commitments, and/or nothing particularly jumps out at me as interesting or innovative.

Ascent: Infinite Realm (new). I hear a lot of talk about this game from the makers of TERA, but I haven’t investigated much myself.

Ashes of Creation. I remain skeptical about this game, and have no desire to spend money on it without playing it first, but I expect it to be popular, at least briefly, when it launches.

Chronicles of Elyria. No change from last year. I don’t know anything about this game but I keep hearing people talk about it, both positively and negatively.

Dual Universe (new). New on the list this year. I don’t know much about it, but people seem to think it’s got something going for it.

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. No change from last year. Honestly I have no idea what the status of this game is anymore. It might already be available.

Legends of Aria (new). I feel like this is one of those games that used to be called something else, and might actually be on this list somewhere twice because of that. But in any case, this title was missing so I’m adding it here. It’s supposed to be an old school Ultima Online clone so it’s probably just as dead on arrival as all the others who tried this, except for a handful of dedicated cult worshipers.

Lost Ark. No change from last year. The screenshots look beautiful. That’s about all I know about it.

Saga of Lucimia, Twilight Spirits, Kurtzpel (new), Kingdom Under Fire 2 (new). Titles that don’t appear to have anything special about them to warrant investigating, and aren’t ready yet anyway.

Games I’m Not Interested In

These are games that I’m not planning to spend any money on without considerably more convincing.

Age of Wushu 2 (new). Martial arts games aren’t for me.

Moonlight Blade. Moving down to “not interested” for the same reason as Peria Chronicles. If it’s free, I might try it, but I doubt I would spend money on it.

Peria Chronicles. I moved this down to “not interested” simply because I have less money to spend now and anime doesn’t resonate with me. But if I can try it for free, I might.

Project TL. Formerly Lineage Eternal. I haven’t played any of the Lineage games, so why start now? Also it is not clear to me whether this game will be an MMORPG, or even a PC game at this point.

Star Citizen. No change from last year. I didn’t back it and I still don’t care. If it ever comes out, I might buy it, but you can safely bet that I won’t be spending a dime on this until after some reviews from non-backers start coming in that rigorously critique the game from the perspective of a non-backer arriving late.

Torchlight Frontiers (new). Announced in 2018, this variation of Torchlight has many people excited, but to me, it’s just another in a long line of frustrating isometric view games that bug me because I can’t see past the edge of the screen.

World of Warcraft Classic. I’ll just put this in here, though “nostalgia” servers don’t really belong in this list. I have no intention to re-subscribe just to play this thing, though I might try it out if I happen to be subscribed for some other reason.

QUICK UPDATE: It’s just dawned on me that I haven’t put any of the over six dozen different City of Heroes clones in development anywhere in this post. I’m not interested in them, as I never played the original. I think. I’m not into superheroes at all, but I did play one superhero MMORPG ages ago which was free-to-play. I made a character, and ran around for maybe an hour, and never went back. I don’t know which game it was.

Removed Games

These games were removed from the radar this year:

Bless Online. Released into Early Access, then officially launched in 2018.

Gloria Victis. Removed from the list in 2018 as it remains in Early Access and looks to remain so indefinitely, so I’ve lost interest. As far as I know there has never been a free way to try this game.

Life is Feudal. Released into Early Access in 2018. Again, no way to try it for free as far as I know, and I’ve lost interest.

MapleStory 2. Released in 2018. I tried it, but it’s not for me.

Project Gorgon. Released into Early Access in 2018. Most people love the idea of it, but don’t actually play it due to bugs and low population. :)

Sea of Thieves. Released in 2018. Not interested, have not seen or played.

Shroud of the Avatar. Released into Early Access for the general public in 2018. Have not purchased, still haven’t played since the initial free trial. Don’t know anyone who is playing this long-term.

Wild West Online. Released and predictably bombed in 2018. Have not seen or played.

Worlds Adrift. Released into Early Access in 2017 actually. Have not seen or played. Still waiting on the free trial.