Post by Morreion on Dec 31, 2015 14:21:40 GMT -5
Massively OP’s 2015 awards debrief
Biggest Blunder: The Star Citizen drama
Biggest blunder was a confusing award to some of our commenters. We once called this award “biggest trainwreck” and generally use it to slot the biggest genre embarrassment or screw-up of the year. We handed this one to the Star Citizen drama promulgated by everyone’s favorite Internet Warlord. So embarrassing for everyone involved.
But you folks carry your grudges long and hard, and you singled out ArcheAge for this dishonor with your votes. Not like a specific thing. Just the whole game. That’s dedication.
Most Anticipated: Star Citizen
Star Citizen has clearly wooed the commentariat, winning the popular vote for most anticipated MMO with ease. It wasn’t such an easy call for the writing staff, however. This award sat undecided for almost two weeks, locked in a three-way tie between Star Citizen, Crowfall, and Camelot Unchained until one writer changed his vote to crown a winner. Voting drama! I think it’s safe to say that these three games are the ones to watch going into the new year.
Terrifyingly, EverQuest Next wasn’t even nominated this year in spite of winning in 2014 and 2013.
MMO of the Year: Final Fantasy XIV
And here is where my vote flopped. While I thought Heart of Thorns was the better expansion, I didn’t think Guild Wars 2 has a particularly good year before the expansion, and I don’t think it came out on the other side of Heart of Thorns a significantly improved MMO — it has so many serious PvP and endgame problems that I just couldn’t vote for it. Final Fantasy XIV may have played it safe with Heavensward, but playing it safe kept the drama low, the content flowing, and the players happy. I’m glad it won the writers’ vote.
Final Fantasy XIV was winning the public vote as I wrote this, but Elder Scrolls players swarmed in over the weekend and ran off with it!
And hey, at least we didn’t have to go with “nothing” this year!
The biggest MMORPG news stories of 2015 (MOP)
1. SOE is turned into Daybreak, John Smedley departed
Just days after old Massively got the boot, SOE found itself in a corporate transition as well. The legacy MMO studio announced that Sony had put it up for sale and investment firm Columbus Nova purchased it, turning it into the Daybreak Games Company.
The change had significant fallout for the rest of the year. SOE Live was canceled, and many developers either quit or were let go. The development of most of Daybreak’s library was thrown up into the air and a miasma of uncertainty settled on the studio’s future efforts. Things got even stranger when longtime President John Smedley left Daybreak in July to found his own game studio.
2. Crowfall dominated Kickstarter
One of the earliest stories of the year revolved around a new MMO IP named Crowfall that was being developed as primarily a PvP game. Veteran developers spent weeks building up to a Kickstarter campaign before launching a textbook-perfect campaign. After asking for $800,000 in funds to get the ball rolling, fans stepped up with almost a million more than that. Since then, Crowfall has remained on our radar and is taking steps to putting out a pre-alpha test in the near future.
3. Guild Wars 2 offered its base game for free
ArenaNet took command of a panel at PAX Prime and didn’t waste the opportunity, announcing that it would be making the base (non-expansion) Guild Wars 2 game free as of that night. It’s certainly debatable how much that helped the game, especially considering some of the restrictions that came with the free model, but it was sudden, surprising, and somewhat welcome for those who had been wanting to try out the game.
4. Subscription MMOs fled to other models
Speaking on the opposite end of the spectrum of surprising, two MMOs that stubbornly launched with subscriptions only in 2014 both switched to more accessible models this year. Elder Scrolls Online embraced the pay-once-play-forever format that echoed its offline brethren while churning out DLC and cash shop items to keep the revenue flowing. The title also finally launched on consoles in early summer, although it wasn’t as big of a splash as many anticipated.
Meanwhile, WildStar announced in May that it would be going the free-to-play route later in the fall. Several months of testing later, and the game’s new business model and large content update came out, flooding the servers with so many players that the game was almost unplayable for a week afterward.
5. Pathfinder Online got torpedoed
In September, Pathfinder Online ran out of money and was forced to lay off most of its staff in one brutal stroke, turning over control to the IP’s company. It didn’t look good for the game and its population of early subscribers, although a glimmer of hope was seen in November when news came out that there were talks with potential investors to help fund the title’s development.
6. World of Warcraft lost 45% of its subscription base and revealed Legion
After crossing back over the 10 million subscriber barrier following Warlords of Draenor’s launch last year, World of Warcraft began a sudden and drastic slide this year. Earnings report after earnings report revealed that the fantasy title was bleeding subscribers in the millions, eventually losing 45% of its population in nine months. However, the big reveal of its next expansion, Legion, has some thinking that WoW’s population will return in droves in 2016. We’ll probably never know for certain what future numbers will be, as Blizzard said that it will no longer publish subscriber counts for the game.
Biggest Blunder: The Star Citizen drama
Biggest blunder was a confusing award to some of our commenters. We once called this award “biggest trainwreck” and generally use it to slot the biggest genre embarrassment or screw-up of the year. We handed this one to the Star Citizen drama promulgated by everyone’s favorite Internet Warlord. So embarrassing for everyone involved.
But you folks carry your grudges long and hard, and you singled out ArcheAge for this dishonor with your votes. Not like a specific thing. Just the whole game. That’s dedication.
Most Anticipated: Star Citizen
Star Citizen has clearly wooed the commentariat, winning the popular vote for most anticipated MMO with ease. It wasn’t such an easy call for the writing staff, however. This award sat undecided for almost two weeks, locked in a three-way tie between Star Citizen, Crowfall, and Camelot Unchained until one writer changed his vote to crown a winner. Voting drama! I think it’s safe to say that these three games are the ones to watch going into the new year.
Terrifyingly, EverQuest Next wasn’t even nominated this year in spite of winning in 2014 and 2013.
MMO of the Year: Final Fantasy XIV
And here is where my vote flopped. While I thought Heart of Thorns was the better expansion, I didn’t think Guild Wars 2 has a particularly good year before the expansion, and I don’t think it came out on the other side of Heart of Thorns a significantly improved MMO — it has so many serious PvP and endgame problems that I just couldn’t vote for it. Final Fantasy XIV may have played it safe with Heavensward, but playing it safe kept the drama low, the content flowing, and the players happy. I’m glad it won the writers’ vote.
Final Fantasy XIV was winning the public vote as I wrote this, but Elder Scrolls players swarmed in over the weekend and ran off with it!
And hey, at least we didn’t have to go with “nothing” this year!
The biggest MMORPG news stories of 2015 (MOP)
1. SOE is turned into Daybreak, John Smedley departed
Just days after old Massively got the boot, SOE found itself in a corporate transition as well. The legacy MMO studio announced that Sony had put it up for sale and investment firm Columbus Nova purchased it, turning it into the Daybreak Games Company.
The change had significant fallout for the rest of the year. SOE Live was canceled, and many developers either quit or were let go. The development of most of Daybreak’s library was thrown up into the air and a miasma of uncertainty settled on the studio’s future efforts. Things got even stranger when longtime President John Smedley left Daybreak in July to found his own game studio.
2. Crowfall dominated Kickstarter
One of the earliest stories of the year revolved around a new MMO IP named Crowfall that was being developed as primarily a PvP game. Veteran developers spent weeks building up to a Kickstarter campaign before launching a textbook-perfect campaign. After asking for $800,000 in funds to get the ball rolling, fans stepped up with almost a million more than that. Since then, Crowfall has remained on our radar and is taking steps to putting out a pre-alpha test in the near future.
3. Guild Wars 2 offered its base game for free
ArenaNet took command of a panel at PAX Prime and didn’t waste the opportunity, announcing that it would be making the base (non-expansion) Guild Wars 2 game free as of that night. It’s certainly debatable how much that helped the game, especially considering some of the restrictions that came with the free model, but it was sudden, surprising, and somewhat welcome for those who had been wanting to try out the game.
4. Subscription MMOs fled to other models
Speaking on the opposite end of the spectrum of surprising, two MMOs that stubbornly launched with subscriptions only in 2014 both switched to more accessible models this year. Elder Scrolls Online embraced the pay-once-play-forever format that echoed its offline brethren while churning out DLC and cash shop items to keep the revenue flowing. The title also finally launched on consoles in early summer, although it wasn’t as big of a splash as many anticipated.
Meanwhile, WildStar announced in May that it would be going the free-to-play route later in the fall. Several months of testing later, and the game’s new business model and large content update came out, flooding the servers with so many players that the game was almost unplayable for a week afterward.
5. Pathfinder Online got torpedoed
In September, Pathfinder Online ran out of money and was forced to lay off most of its staff in one brutal stroke, turning over control to the IP’s company. It didn’t look good for the game and its population of early subscribers, although a glimmer of hope was seen in November when news came out that there were talks with potential investors to help fund the title’s development.
6. World of Warcraft lost 45% of its subscription base and revealed Legion
After crossing back over the 10 million subscriber barrier following Warlords of Draenor’s launch last year, World of Warcraft began a sudden and drastic slide this year. Earnings report after earnings report revealed that the fantasy title was bleeding subscribers in the millions, eventually losing 45% of its population in nine months. However, the big reveal of its next expansion, Legion, has some thinking that WoW’s population will return in droves in 2016. We’ll probably never know for certain what future numbers will be, as Blizzard said that it will no longer publish subscriber counts for the game.
