New MMORPGs invite you to explore an unknown world and experience fresh adventures. However, MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch cannot enjoy that unless he has checked out the endgame first.
What is so special about new MMORPGs? New MMORPGs usually have something magical. You dive into an unknown world, need to get to know the controls and gameplay, and feel like a noob again. Just like back when you tried your first MMORPG and fell in love with it.
Many MMORPG fans wait for years for that one new game that will excite them as much as their first.
What is my problem? I am a bit different. Of course, I also felt completely helpless and aimless in my first MMORPG – Guild Wars 1. But the past few years have somewhat dulled me.
Instead of calmly exploring new MMORPGs and enjoying the world, I now rush as fast as I can towards endgame. Only later do I start to appreciate the story and graphics, and that is with my second character.
Only if the endgame is fun, can I have fun
What is behind this quirk? I am actually a huge MMORPG fan, but the last few years have been filled with many, partly personal, disappointments:
- In 2014, the sandbox MMORPG ArcheAge was released. I had high hopes for it, but somehow the game could never hold my attention for long. In the end, it was too grindy for me.
- In 2018, Bless Online was considered a big hope, but disappointed and was already discontinued in 2019.
- Legends of Aria promised in 2018 to be a spiritual successor to Ultima Online, but in the end, the whole game felt aimless. Now there are also too few players to really enjoy the world.
- The Asian MMORPG Astellia sounded promising in 2019 and was really fun at the beginning with its Astels, but even here the endgame could not hold my attention for long.
All these games share the fact that I particularly struggled with the endgame or, in the case of Bless, didn’t even really make it to the endgame because the game had already lost me before that.
This developed into a quirk that I mainly noticed recently during the preview of New World, Crowfall, and my very chaotic restart in WoW Shadowlands.
What has changed? Instead of enjoying the story while leveling and exploring the new world, I entered the mentioned 3 games with a completely different mentality:
- I looked for tips and tricks for speed leveling
- I preferred running dungeons effectively instead of questing
- I sought out other players who ground with me or quickly leveled me up to max level in certain high-level zones
I urgently wanted to take steps into the endgame and see if I could even have fun with the MMORPG in the long term. If that’s the case, I create a second character and start enjoying the story and the world with him.
The crazy thing about it is that I don’t have to see all the endgame content at all. My goal is simply to develop a sense of whether the content could be worth it!
If that’s the case, I start with a new character.
Why does that make little sense for WoW? While I could quickly level from level 1 to 50 with some good tips, my method in Shadowlands does not work at all.
There, I have to play the story of the various zones with the first character first before I can skip them with the second. To be honest, that has killed some interesting stories for me while I played alongside Netflix. The goal was ultimately a quick level 60.
Taster courses for endgame in MMORPGs?
The MMORPG Bless Unleashed, which is set to be released for PC in 2021, has an interesting feature. Right after character creation, you are thrown into a tutorial where your character has already reached max level. This way, you can directly learn the most important skills of your class.
In fact, I personally would wish for some kind of demo or taster course for endgame. There, you could enter one of the dungeons and a PvP battleground with a max-level character.
If playing at max level is fun for me, I could consider buying the MMORPG or subscribing, and then enjoy my first character as well.
What is good endgame for me? It is difficult for me to give a precise definition; often, it is more of a feeling whether I fit the game or not. However, positive aspects are in any case:
- Good group content like dungeons and raids, but also huge world bosses with many players
- Solo content that I can quickly log into
- A feeling of progress, whether through achievements or light grind
- Instanced PvP content that I can quickly jump into and out of
- Regular content updates, so there’s always something to do
These criteria are currently best met by Guild Wars 2, ESO, and WoW for me.
What do you think? Can you still immerse yourself in new MMORPGs, or do you share my concern that they might disappoint in endgame?
At the beginning of the year, I also named MMOs that will not survive 2021. Which ones they are and whether I was right about any of them, you can read here: I predict: These 6 MMOs will die in 2021
