Were MMORPGs really better in the past? Yes, that’s what MeinMMO demon Cortyn thinks, because back then everyone was equal in the game – and today they are not.
Every now and then, you hear the discussion that MMORPGs were better in the past. The games back then were more fun, had more to offer, were somehow more social, not so “casualized”, and the developers were still passionate about it.
Today, of course, it’s very different. It’s not fun, there’s nothing to do, everyone behaves like a bull in a china shop, everything is super easy, and the developers are all greedy profit monsters, who only care about their gods called “shareholders”.
You know this talk. I don’t put much stock in it because it doesn’t align with my perception and often stems from a lot of bitterness.
But there is still one aspect for me that was very significant for games like World of Warcraft back then and has been lost today. Something essential that new games basically no longer have. And it has to do with microtransactions and a lot of real money.
I know, I know. This could easily drift into a “everything was better back then” rant, where I angrily chase after kids with their pre-order season pass premium deluxe mount with my walking stick. But I don’t even want that.
I just took a little time to think about why I play today and why I did so back then.
My main example here is World of Warcraft, as it has been accompanying me for almost two decades, but what I’ve noticed applies to most other games as well.
13 € made everyone equal in WoW back then
When I joined my first raid group on the realm “The Eternal Watch” back then, it was also the first time I was in TeamSpeak with so many different, unfamiliar people. A colorful group of over 40 people from all social classes, from all walks of life and from all age groups.
And yet we were all equal.
This equality cost something – exactly 13 euros a month for a subscription.
- 13 euros turned a stressed family man into our reliable night elf tank.
- 13 euros turned a diligent computer science student into our slightly over-energetic fire mage.
- 13 euros turned the extroverted unemployment benefit recipient into the friendly druid healer who had all abilities macroed with RP.
- 13 euros turned the department manager into the somewhat scatterbrained dwarf priest who never places fear protection correctly.
- 13 euros turned the slightly dazed millionaire’s son into a (still slightly dazed) gnome rogue who always had to accidentally pull.
For 13 euros a month, we were a team. For 13 euros, anyone could leave their real life behind and escape into the game world to be exactly equal to everyone else for a few hours each evening.
No matter how successful we were in our careers – in the game we were equal
I’m fully aware that there was of course no real equality in play – after all, different people had different amounts of time they could invest in the game. But everyone was exactly what they earned in the game. It was a separate, secluded cosmos.
And that was a wonderful place. We were players from all layers of society. It didn’t matter what we were in “real life” and how successful we were there, what jobs we had or what clothes we could afford. Because in the game, what counted was only what there was to do in the game. It was detached from the real world.
In a real world where the gap between rich and poor keeps widening, this is of course a weak consolation and doesn’t solve real problems – I’m fully aware of that. But just the existence of a retreat, a place of (felt) equality, where everyone had the same chances… that was so incredibly valuable.
When I look at the news today, I become dissatisfied. Pandemic, war, inflation, increasing racism, social injustice, climate change. It’s overwhelming and all are important topics that one must address sooner or later. But that can’t be done all the time; it’s just too much.
That’s why I long for a game that once made all of us “equal” in the starting conditions more than ever. A game that offers an escape from reality, captivates for thousands of hours, and doesn’t ask for money on top, so that one can show the whole world with a glittering star pony that one has “more money in real life”.
I hate the idea: Instead of farming gold in the game, I can just go to work and buy gold
I am – and I mean this completely seriously – still of the opinion that World of Warcraft is not pay-to-win in its current state. Even though you can exchange real money for gold and gold again for gear or boosting runs, it still takes a lot of skill to be a good WoW player.
Maybe you are the king of LFR with purchased equipment, but in Mythic+15 or heroic raids, only player experience and diligently learning the mechanics will help you. Especially since the real “win” in World of Warcraft is also having a friendly group with which you have fun, and not having the biggest bar on the damage meter (even if that can sometimes feel good)!
Nonetheless, I curse that this option exists in World of Warcraft to buy gold for real money.
Even if I possess such an amount of gold in the double-digit millions that I probably have it made for the next expansions, I hate it.
I hate that this thought exists in my head: “Instead of farming gold in the game, you could just write an article for MeinMMO and buy gold with that. It’s much faster.”.
I don’t buy gold for real money because I don’t have to and don’t want to. But for people without gold, this thought is tempting. And exactly this brings me back to the original problem:
Real money has an impact on the game.
This connection, even if I don’t use it, breaks part of the immersion for me. It inevitably leads to a connection that your bank balance in real life will have effects on what you are in the game.
Games should be self-contained – nothing from the outside should intrude
When I play a game, I want it to be a self-contained cosmos. I want only actions in the game to have an impact on the game. I don’t want Bernd the bank consultant to be able to be “more” in the game because he throws money on the table. I don’t want Diablo-Dieter to get a pet through the ownership of a completely different game because of a cross-promotion that doesn’t exist in any other way. And I don’t want PvP-Peter to have a special title just because he watched a tournament on YouTube.
I don’t want to have any content in the game that reminds me at every corner that there is a world outside the game where I could do things that would give me advantages or special features in the game.
Just imagine that with board games.
In “Don’t get angry, Demon” there are no longer just the red, yellow, green, and black pieces, but for the rich player, there are also the premium glittering deluxe figures that cheer every rolled 6 and blink when they land on the target field.
In Monopoly (the car is the best piece, just for the record) there aren’t just the financially ruinous Boardwalk anymore, but one player has the rainbow-disco-boardwalk, which, while having the same game effect, is a holographic card with laser projection to the ceiling that always shows in the sky how much the poor sucker with the yellowed cardboard cards from Baltic Avenue and Water Works has to pay.
None of this makes the game itself unfairer, yet it would increase the feeling of inequality.
So when I reflect on why MMORPGs were “better in the past”, it’s clearly because they provided me with a complete escape from reality for a few hours while simultaneously offering social connections if you wanted them.
Even today, I can escape into such worlds for hours, but the magic has become significantly weaker because the game worlds tell me at every corner: Look, that mage up there paid 60 € more, and that priest back there spent 40 € in the cash shop.
I want that world back, where only the subscription fees made us all equal and allowed for a perfect escape from reality. And the fact that we will never get that back is probably also the reason why this topic makes me sad.
