The past and future of MMORPGs
The MMO game is one of the most complex and expensive genres of computer games. A few years ago, the cost of developing an MMO started at $10 million. Now they are even more expensive, and it’s almost impossible for a beginner to compete with industry giants like WoW or Lineage that have multimillion audiences.
Over almost forty years of the genre’s existence (before, online games were called MUD), such games have undergone significant changes. Some even think that, in a sense, it is in decline, despite the growing number of players around the world.
A bit of history
The first MMOs appeared in the late 70`s of the last century. Actually, they can hardly be called games in the modern sense of this word — the UI was textual and all actions were performed by entering certain commands.
Later, these games started to acquire the interface, then they started to be made on separate servers. Very quickly, the developers of MUDs realized that these games were a great way to earn money — so they began to sell monthly subscriptions to games.
The turning point in the development of the MMO genre was the end of the 80’s — the beginning of the 90’s, when the first commercial online games were launched. The first graphical MMO was the game “Club Caribe”, released in 1988, where players could communicate with each other in a chat room, move around and interact with different objects. On the other hand, one hour in such a game cost from $6 then.
Asian developers became interested in the genre in the early 2000s. Final Fantasy XI, which turned out to be popular mainly in its homeland, Japan, was released in 2002. It was followed by the South Korean project Ragnarok Online, and a year later — Lineage 2, which conquered the hearts of millions of users around the world and is still one of the most popular multiplayer online games.
And, of course, the key moment in the history of the genre is the appearance of World of Warcraft in 2004. In a short time it managed to become the most popular online game in the world. The number of WOW players over the past few years has exceeded 8 million people. The game is distinguished by a huge variety of monsters, bosses, events, as well as the advanced ways of player interaction.
The WOW universe continues to evolve ever further, which ensures the interest of players around the world.
In short, the genre has undergone significant changes and, it seems, has not reached the peak of its evolution. I will not say the obvious things about the evolution of MMORPG graphics, given that in the first MUDs, the pioneers of the genre, graphics as such did not exist at all.
The success of the genre is largely due to the fact that these were the first games in which players could engage in social interaction in the virtual world. And, if earlier it was just a game side-effect, now it has almost become the most fascinating process in MMORPGs, while leveling up, on the contrary, has turned into a routine. When developers realized that players were much more interested in interacting with each other in the game universe, the ways of game monetization changed. The first MMORPGs made players pay for the time spent in the game, now most developers earn from microtransactions.
In general, the monetization of games with such wide opportunities for player interaction as WoW is a natural process. Virtually all computer games have what is called game economy — the player has to calculate his game actions to get the maximum reward. When it comes to games based on social interaction, the game economy acquires a special significance. WoW was almost the first game whose domestic currency became truly valuable outside the virtual world. A few years ago there were sites where you could, for example, buy a boosted account or pay for a valuable game item.
The future of MMORPG
Whatever skeptics say, MMORPGs have a great future, at least because the Internet is more accessible now. You can play MMORPGs anywhere, anytime — on the way to work, on a trip, during lunch breaks. The games have become even more accessible, which means that the potential audience of MMORPGs has become even wider.
There is a point of view that in the future MMORPG developers will refuse to increase game levels, so that all players could have equal opportunities.
Others believe that microtransactions are the future of the game developing industry and that players will simply have to get used to paying for something in the game and not for the opportunity to play. Blockchain developers come to their aid, offering to store game items in decentralized databases, so that every player could, if not “touch” his game purchase, then at least see its record in a blockchain. This will increase the trust of players (mainly Europeans) towards microtransactions. The game economy will become even more “real”, which will expand the possibilities for player interaction in games. Some suggest that players will have the opportunity to make money in online games by boosting characters or selling game items, which we actually see now, and that it is in the fostering of such communication between players that the future of the genre lies.
Either way, the evolution of MMORPGs is not over yet.
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