Episode 1 - MMORPG's
"This series is going to cover my personal journey and opinion of the State of Gaming. From early days of gaming to the current state of the industry, in no specific order. Please take this series wit ha grain of salt as it is my opinion and everyone's experience is different."
MMORPG's
This genre is close to my heart. Out of every genre out of the massive library, I always love me a good MMORPG. From my first full-fledged MMORPG (2moons / Dekaron) to date I'm always on the hunt for one. A little history on my path with this genre. The first game I played online that was truly an MMO and RPG was 2moons or Dekaron for the EU. I can remember being excited to play online with people I didn't know and meet new players. The storyline wasn't bad but the level progression was where it was. It took FOREVER to level. The grind was real, talking days and later on weeks to level in the early days. I moved on a few years later after beta testing an insane number of games. I was introduced to a new game (City of Heroes, City of Villains). Being a huge fan of comic books I jumped right in. This game became the staple for what I would later want from MMORPG's from there on out. I played this game till it closed down in 2012 CoH Wiki. The closing of this game was a hint at the direction the gaming industry was going. I just had yet to see it.
The Industry Changes
A change in the industry begins in large this year. There has been F2P (Free to Play) games before not to get that wrong. Yet there was a push to change the model of how games in general where published and how they would make money. It was seen as an innocent model at first to support a changing market of consumers, pay for new and exciting developments. Support you developer thru in-game microtransactions. A "Free-2-Play" evolution.
Reality sets in
Very soon thou, I recognized this platform had some issues. With some developers and publishers trying to do the right thing and make some money while providing content. We see some publishers and developers realize they can really start pumping out some real hard cash from in-game purchases.
Close to home
This strikes close to home for me. Around 2011 - 2012 I started playing PWI (Perfect World International). Now to long after, I started to notice the in-game shop (That had been almost 100% cosmetic) start to change. Offering more and more items that would increase your stats or plain out give you items that give you a massive advantage. I did my best to avoid buying from these type of games. Admittedly I paid for a cosmetic set and a neat mount. I played until around 2015. I can remember the interaction that made me literally uninstall.
My wife played this game for 4 years straight, she was end game or near end game on 4 toons. One day someone from the guild she was in hoped on Teamspeak and said this exact line.
"I just bought the T4 set now I can do end game content"
T4 set being something you would have to work for 2 years normally to get. This was it for me, I stopped dead and uninstalled the game. I couldn't believe that something I could work for so long to get could now just be paid for with your credit card.
Todays state of gaming
This so far had been a really brief summary of the experience I've had with the industry and my history playing MMORPGs. Don't get me wrong there was a lot of great times and games along the way. I wouldn't ever try to tell this story as if I NEVER paid for crap in a cash shop. I've been part of the problem my self.
The state of MMORPG development and publishing is in such a mess not entirely because of this, but the microtransaction platform has severely damaged what was once an amazingly growing market. If you search for MMO's today finding an RPG is almost impossible. At least one that isn't part of the pay to win genre. I hope that some developer and publisher would step out of this comfort zone. I can't claim to have the magical fix to bring it back I can just speak my two cents and hope someone listens.
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