It is strange that the popular top titles on Twitch rely heavily on the action “Player versus Player.” But no MMORPG can establish itself in this circle of PvP giants. Why is that? Our author Schuhmann investigates this question.
The streaming platform Twitch is becoming increasingly important for the success of games. From the perspective of game companies, Twitch is the best form of marketing. Streamers discover an attractive title for themselves and play it day after day in front of tens of thousands of viewers. The game stays in the players’ consciousness, new stories develop around a game, and the press reports on it – all of which generates attention and additional buyers.
The publisher behind “Friday the 13th: The Game” stated in an interview that it is more important today for a game to appeal to streamers and their audiences than to the testers of the gaming press.
Titles that are streamed remain relevant and in conversation for years – like the Duracell bunny Overwatch.
Twitch is the key to success for a small club of games
If we look at the currently most popular games on Twitch, they are titles like:
- League of Legends
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
- Hearthstone
- Counter-Strike Global Offensive
- Dota 2
- and Overwatch
These games attract streamers and viewers. This is a closed society. The club of top titles remains pretty much to itself on Twitch.
In any order, these six titles make up the top list among themselves, unless a new title benefits from the release hype like Destiny 2.
Three things stand out when we look at the top 6 titles:
- They are all pure PvP games
- They are all multiplayer online games
- None of them is an MMORPG
What makes PvP so much more interesting than playing against AI?
Why are viewers so into PvP?
- It’s always something different – no round is like the other because the opponents are not controlled by “scripts”, but by humans. This makes the game more dynamic – something can happen at any time. PvP is unpredictable.
- The competition: “Who is the best?” adds spice to every minute. PvP has an element of competitive sports. An aspect that PvE lacks: that is more like solving a pre-made problem, like filling out a crossword puzzle.
- While PvE content often runs out at some point and one is done with a game, PvP stays fresh, even if almost nothing happens in a game for years – PvP makes a game more durable.
It is therefore understandable that PvP is so much more popular with viewers.
The question remains: Why doesn’t it work with MMORPGs? These are games that have grown over the years and have an active fan base. And almost every MMORPG has a PvP mode…
Every MMORPG has PvP, why doesn’t anyone want to see it?
- In WoW, there are arenas, battlegrounds, and rated battlegrounds
- The Elder Scrolls Online offers large PvP battles in Cyrodiil and, at the request of the player base, battlegrounds this year
- Guild Wars 2 explicitly wanted to break into eSports with its battlegrounds and offers a formidable World vs. World
- Blade and Soul is considered an established PvP title, especially in South Korea
- In Black Desert, players fear the ganks because the PvP is so tough
- ArcheAge is designed for massive guild battles over castles. ArcheAge even offers naval battles.
- We don’t even want to start with MMORPGs like WildStar, which were launched with a hardcore PvP concept that has completely fizzled out
But none of these MMORPGs seem to manage to maintain interest in their PvP among a wide audience on Twitch.
The three MMORPGs currently found at least in the top 30 rank at the bottom: WoW (10), oldie Runescape (17), and Black Desert (27).
Despite MMORPGs offering a variety of PvP options, hardly anyone seems to want to watch them. What is the reason for that? Are MMORPGs not trying hard enough?
Guild Wars 2 as eSport failed – despite all efforts
One cannot say that. MMORPGs have also recognized the signs of the times early on and wanted to turn towards “PvP.” There have been repeated attempts to establish PvP in MMORPGs as eSports and as stream titles: Guild Wars 2 desperately wanted to enter the eSports arena, offered high prize money, and aimed to establish itself there as a pioneer.
However, all of these efforts seem to have simply not paid off in the long run. The last report about Guild Wars 2 eSport on our site was around April 2017: ESL closes Pro League Division in Guild Wars 2.
MMORPGs apparently have problems with the PvP aspects. What could be the reason for that?
- The gameplay is often not geared towards fast action and decision-making – but often, battles develop over a longer period. The “moment-to-moment” gameplay is not exciting, it happens less frequently that a battle turns around – MMORPGs are too slow
- Then, the action in many MMORPGs is hard to read – viewers often do not understand why one character emerges from a fight as the winner while the other remains on the ground: MMORPGs are not visually appealing
- The actions are often not spectacular enough – also because the skill is not as easily recognizable as in a “shooter” – whether a player is aiming or hitting correctly is hard to determine from the outside: MMORPGs lack a visible skill component
- and the individualization of characters through items could deter people from getting invested – things like equipment or skill building belong to the preparation for a match and have nothing to do with the match itself: MMORPGs have too much happening before the game
The next PvP MMORPGs could succeed in the market, but not necessarily on Twitch
The trend that MMORPGs cannot establish themselves as PvP games on Twitch is all the more worrying because almost all new MMORPGs will focus on PvP.
However, there are indeed positive examples. For instance, Albion Online as a PvP game has currently found a niche in the market. However, not as a “stream” title, but the action takes place behind closed doors. Everyone dies alone here.
Also, the MMORPGs that will come, like Crowfall or Camelot Unchained will probably have little chance of succeeding on Twitch – for that, they are not designed.
Camelot Unchained focuses more on large sieges and battles like ESO or Guild Wars 2. Crowfall also prefers campaigns over quick and dirty 5-minute fights.
Will Amazon bring the first “Twitch MMORPG” with New World?
It seems clear by now: An MMORPG cannot establish itself as a Twitch title on the side. Allowing a PvP mode to tag along that suddenly wins the race: that apparently doesn’t work. Rather, the MMORPG has to be tailored to the “Twitch” environment from the outset.
It is interesting to consider whether at some point an MMORPG could establish itself on Twitch that was specifically developed for it?
This could succeed for Amazon’s game studios. Little is known about their new games, only that they want to fully embrace Twitch. With “New World,” there is supposedly also an MMORPG involved. However, we don’t know whether New Dawn will focus on PvP.
Perhaps the future of MMORPGs on Twitch lies in PvE after all? Here, studios would need to develop innovative concepts. And if MMORPGs have lacked anything in recent years, it has unfortunately been innovative PvE concepts.
We have presented the best PvP MMORPGs here:
