In a reaction video, the MMORPG streamer Asmongold stated that the MMORPG genre needs real innovation again. He sees this innovation primarily in a new technology that the genre should quickly adopt: VR.
What technology is the future? In the video, Asmongold reacts to a video from another YouTuber who claims that the future of MMORPGs does not look particularly bright. It is claimed in the video that there is a lack of innovation.
Asmongold agrees with this statement and then interrupts the video. He is confident that neither Unreal Engine 5 nor NFTs are the future of MMORPGs, but rather VR. He is so convinced that, in his opinion, there is hardly any other possibility.
I tell you where it’s going from here: it’s going towards VR. […] The next big step is virtual reality. A game like Ashes of Creation, for example, has the potential to implement such a big, next step. In any case, the next really big thing will happen in VR. It has to happen in VR because that is the next level of entertainment.
Who could implement this? Asmongold talks at length about the fact that there is currently no major MMORPG on the market that could implement this next big step. He emphasizes that at most, the upcoming Ashes of Creation could be the innovation that many hope for.
This is partly due to the fact that Ashes of Creation can self-publish and has a true visionary at the helm, as Asmongold emphasizes. However, other major publishers are slowly advancing, he says later.
“Currently, you can observe that many people want to enter the world of MMOs. Riot Games is making a large MMORPG, Ashes of Creation comes from the community, New World from Amazon. […] A metaverse, ultimately, is just an MMORPG where everything is incredibly expensive. VR is coming. All this is coming now, and it’s just a matter of time.”
Here you can watch the entire video:
He became known primarily through his streams of the game World of Warcraft, in which he has been active since 2006. For about half a year, however, Asmongold has also been playing a lot of Final Fantasy XIV and has somewhat fallen in love with the game.
MMORPGs need a new Halo 2
Why does the genre absolutely need VR? Asmongold also states that the entire MMORPG genre simply lacks innovation to create something completely new. A truly new idea has not been seen since World of Warcraft over 10 years ago, he even states multiple times in the video.
Even the great Final Fantasy XIV has completely new ideas regarding group activities and a social environment and housing, and thus has already brought some innovation, but according to Asmongold, that’s not enough. Because Final Fantasy doesn’t bring new ideas, it merely continues what WoW already did.
FFXIV is just like Halo 3. Halo 2 was so much more innovative at its time, so much further ahead than Halo 3, but Halo 3 is a much better game. They just took Halo 2 and made everything that the game already did well even better in Halo 3. Halo 3 is a great game, but for its time, Halo 2 was simply groundbreaking.
He further explains that FFXIV, while it advances the groundbreaking successes of WoW and does many things better, simply has nothing that could once again be as groundbreaking as WoW was back then. “Even Lost Ark is essentially the same, just with different movement and another camera angle.”
Asmongold complains that the genre lacks such a fundamental innovation and believes that it must be VR that brings the genre back to the big stage.
By the way, a new VR MMORPG called Zenith will be released on January 27:
Video sparks discussion on reddit
What do the fans say? The statement that VR is the future of MMORPGs is attracting a lot of attention on reddit. A thread that contains only this statement garnered over 200 comments in just one day (via reddit).
People are quite uncertain on the topic. Many fans say that VR is too expensive to be the future. Others would not want to play anything in VR at all, and a large group is convinced that it will take a long time before good VR games can appear.
Other people, however, agree with Asmongold and also see the progress of the MMORPG genre in VR and virtual spaces. Some say that the social aspect of an MMORPG could be greatly enhanced by this, and they are already looking forward to truly trying something like that out.
What is the mood? Similar to the reddit thread, there is also a relatively balanced ratio between agreement and disagreement for various reasons in the comments of the video itself.
Players do agree, however, that the genre could benefit from a new, groundbreaking innovation. Asmongold states in his video that transitioning from one MMORPG to another is very easy, as you mostly do the same thing anyway.
Many agree with this statement and are simply looking for something new, whether it ends up being VR or not.
“There is only endgame left, it’s like another universe”
What else does Asmongold say? The big streamer also expresses dissatisfaction with the current state of the MMORPG genre itself. While there are many good MMOs on the market, everything has developed in a strange direction for him.
In the past, leveling was the gameplay in an MMORPG. Now the leveling process in most MMOs is just a way to reach the goal. In the past, I used to ask people what level they were in WoW, not what server they were on. What level are you? That was the first question I always asked. Now, there is only endgame; it’s like another universe.
He agrees with the statement that an MMORPG needs a good endgame to survive for a long time, but finds it strange and not particularly nice that you only level to get to endgame.
Ultimately, Asmongold states that everything an MMORPG really, really needs is for you to feel good when you log in.
What are your thoughts on this whole topic? Do you miss the old times when leveling was still the main part of an MMORPG? Do you see VR as the future of the genre or rather somewhere else? Feel free to let us know in the comments here on MeinMMO.
Asmongold believes the future of Twitch lies in cooking shows and reality TV.
