Survival MMORPGs seem to be developing into the next big genre, which may not be as big after all. Furthermore, there is a danger that these games might face a similar fate as the clones of World of Warcraft.
As ARK: Survival Evolved shows, survival games can indeed be a lot of fun. Crafting your own weapons, finding shelter, fending off monsters, and interacting with other players or facing the risk of PvP certainly has a certain appeal. The question is, do we need this constantly?
The gameplay mechanics of survival games are hardly different from one another. This has now been shown by the announcement of New Dawn. Its feature list sounds as if it were copied from Conan Exiles – including the enslavement of NPCs. However, instead of acting in a fantasy world, you operate in New Dawn on a Caribbean island.
Content brings variety
Survival games generally don’t even offer quests, which makes it easier for developers to create these games. No content needs to be created. Yet this content could provide the necessary variety. That is also what distinguishes many regular MMORPGs or even single-player games from each other.
You want to experience the new story, complete quests, be part of a developing narrative. This doesn’t interest everyone, but it still provides many players with a reason to try new games.
If this is missing in a survival game, the mechanics and scenario are all that remains. The scenario may be negligible. Whether you try to survive on a Caribbean island or in a similarly looking game area of a fantasy world makes no big difference.
It largely depends on how the MMO plays. What possibilities does it offer to the player, what freedoms? What can you achieve, what can you do? If these mechanics hardly differ from survival game to survival game, then the question arises as to why someone should play or switch between multiple survival MMOs.
The cloning of WoW didn’t work out
A similar problem occurred in the mid-2000s, when Blizzard’s World of Warcraft shook up the market. The gameplay convinced and attracted players in droves. Other studios wanted to get a piece of the pie and developed MMORPGs that were heavily oriented towards WoW. None could match its success, and players became saturated.
A similar scenario could happen with survival MMOs. Developer studios see that this subgenre is currently doing well, so they want to create their own game that should bask in the success of ARK.
However, several things are overlooked:
1. Have we learned nothing from the past? We’ve had the same game with WoW before, and we’ve seen where cloning the gameplay principles has led us.
2. Survival MMOs already cater to a niche of the MMORPG genre. Does it make sense to further split this niche?
Who will play this?
The question is: Will players switch from ARK to Conan Exiles? Or to New Dawn? To Jurassic Park: Survivor? Can these games attract “own” and new players? If so, why haven’t these players played ARK yet, if the games hardly differ from one another? Perhaps over time, a few survival MMOs will establish themselves in the market, just like in football games.
The market here is split between FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer. The world of computer games probably just doesn’t need more football. It will likely be similar with survival MMOs, which also indicates that most will simply disappear. When the next trend arises, we’ll see if all game studios rush to it again. My assessment: Yes, they will keep doing this over and over.
