The term MMORPG actually holds the promise of “massive player crowds” hacking away at each other in huge battles with thousands of fighters. But the reality in 2023 is far from that in most games. Only in the MMORPG EVE Online do such battles still occur today – as now in the system X47L-Q: More than 6,000 pilots are fighting there, the developers proudly announce. But players are quite disappointed nonetheless.
How was it in the past with large battles in MMORPGs? “Large battles” were one of the defining features of MMORPGs in the 2000s:
- The game took place in the open free world – there were no limits on how many players could be in one place
- Often different realms battled for fortresses or relics like in Dark Age of Camelot
- In WoW there were legendary battles for the capitals. At key locations in the open world, Alliance and Horde would attack each other uncontrollably
For many, these enormous battles with hundreds of players were what defined “MMORPGs”: the “massive” and the “chaotic.”
From battles in MMORPGs to skirmishes and chaos
What is it like today? For many years now, these battles in the open world have disappeared from most MMORPGs. They have been replaced by “structured PvP”: players meet in a battleground with groups of 10, 20, or maybe 120 players each.
In most cases it is no longer a chaotic battle, but resembles a football match more. Each side brings the same number of players, there are rules, and it is no longer so sprawling.
Still, the industry knows that many MMORPG players wish for the return of such chaotic battles. Therefore, in games like New World, “massive battles” have been announced, but in practice, only sporadically has anything like that been seen.
Why are there no more large battles? Such battles with unlimited players have some disadvantages:
- They are unfair – one side is often much stronger than the other
- They do not meet the players’ desire to be a great hero. Because for every Robin Hood there must also be the third from the left on the wall who gets shot by Robin Hood with an arrow – and who wants to play that?
- On consoles, large battles are impossible due to performance limits. The games would have to look graphically much worse – no one wants to take that risk
- And even in PC games, the effect storm forces performance and gameplay enjoyment to their knees – the servers of The Elder Scrolls Online have been singing their lament for years
EVE Online boasts of large battles involving 6,000 pilots
Where are these battles still happening? Only one relevant and well-known MMORPG still offers these large battles today: the sci-fi epic EVE Online. It is played without limits on a single large server, and battles involving thousands of participants still occur, which the developers are happy to boast about.
On March 12, the Twitter account of EVE Online stated: More than 6,000 pilots from 4 alliances would engage in a battle in the system X47L-Q.
As the MMO site MassivelyOP knows, this is even bigger than the last “record battle” with 5,000 pilots, the so-called “Massacre at M2-XFE” but smaller than the “FURY at FWST-8”, which involved more than 8,000 people.
It seems that CCP is rightly boasting about this large battle on Twitter.
What is the catch? Many pilots are writing on Twitter that this large battle is not something CCP can boast about. Because the servers of EVE Online struggle with so many players. And that despite time lag, because in EVE time passes more slowly when so many pilots meet:
- One player says: It is indeed fun, but the servers understandably have serious problems.
- Another says: In “Breaking News” CCP at least got the “Breaking” part right: It implies the servers are breaking down.
- Others immediately shout “Potato Server” or “Rip Server”
- Another adds maliciously: 6,000 people trying to play EVE, thus breaking the previous record when 5,000 people tried to play EVE
CCP even promoted a Twitch account where players could watch the battle live… but even there, the behavior of CCP, to reset the battle, was viewed critically:
It is clear that even in the only MMORPG that still offers these large battles today, they are very controversial. Apparently, this requires technology and server performance that no MMORPG can currently provide.
It is a pity that the grand plans of Herman Narula are on ice:
What happened to the man who received 500 million $ and promised to build the MMORPGs of the future?
