The MMO world is waiting, each game for something different. The Elder Scrolls Online for Update 5, H1Z1 for Early Access, World of Warcraft for the AddOn. What’s happening with the eight MMOs that we closely follow at mein MMO and what the prospects look like, you can find out in our State of Play.
In our State of Play column, we have already taken a look at what is happening in WildStar, TESO, and Guild Wars 2 two times. This time we’re doing it a bit differently and giving you a brief overview of what’s going on in the eight games that we closely follow at mein MMO.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Restructuring is progressing
What’s going on? The Elder Scrolls Online is waiting for Update 5. It is supposed to go live on the test server this week. It initiates restructuring at TESO that became necessary after the rocky release and aims to provide the game with more depth and polish the rough edges. Update 5 brings daily quests, new crafting materials, nicer facial animations, and a lot of other improvements.
Outlook: Pretty good. The Elder Scrolls Online has actually found the recipe for how the game should look next year. The current player base seems solid, at least there isn’t the panic surrounding TESO that was initially anticipated and voiced by some.
Now it’s about integrating the individual features into the game. In the past, every patch caused chaos on the servers for several weeks. Hopefully, Update 5 is better controlled. The Elder Scrolls Online has recovered quite well from its rough start in the past months. The game is doing better, a vision is recognizable, and with the console port, they have a card up their sleeve.
WildStar: Mega servers and content patch are dated; but aren’t players waiting for Free2Play anyway?
What’s going on? WildStar is waiting for the transition to mega servers. That should happen this week. And then players are waiting for the next bigger content patch in early November, which should breathe new life into the game. However, some say that WildStar is just waiting for Free2Play.
Outlook: Not so good. WildStar has received several setbacks in the last weeks. The explanations of how they are restructuring sound all a bit strange and contradictory. For example, it’s said that they already knew before the launch that they would switch to mega servers. If that’s true, they have misled at least the role players from the very beginning. Let’s see what the mega servers bring. With the WoW release next month, things seem to worsen for WildStar before they can get better.
H1Z1: Nothing new with the zombies
What’s going on? Nothing. They are still waiting for Early Access. It seems to be getting closer, but nobody really knows where the finish line lies and whether it might have been pushed back behind the scenes again. There is no benchmark, no timeline. Occasionally, you might see a stream and notice that the game has significantly grown since the last time. But the consensus about when it will go into Early Access hasn’t changed by a jot in weeks and months. They want to wait until they feel very good about the game. When that will be, only a few people on the planet know, and they aren’t telling us.
Outlook: Right now, it’s very quiet around H1Z1, interest has noticeably faded. This has to and will change with the announcement for Early Access. Currently, there is no date, no roadmap to guide by. Nobody really knows how “finished” the game must be for SOE to put it in Early Access.
Destiny: Events keep players engaged, but for how long?
What’s going on? The events provide short-term fun, but also receive some criticism. Otherwise, the game is riding a pretty wave of success. It benefits from having little competition on consoles until the end of the year. Additionally, the core mechanics of the game, the gunplay, are excellent and attract fans. They still have plenty to do with the base game.
Outlook: The first DLC is set to be released in December. It will be interesting to see how much new content truly comes. The problem with a game like Destiny, which thrives on the loot system, is that players eventually finish and want something new. If the DLC only lasts a few hours before everyone has seen and obtained everything, the game could fall into a rut. At this moment, it’s hard to say. Destiny is still doing great a month after its release. However, the first signs of wear and tear will probably become visible soon, and interest will start to decline. The question is: Will it pick up again with the first DLC in December?
World of Warcraft: “You know me”
What’s going on? This week the Pre-Patch is here, then it will be another month until the next expansion launches. Until then, we will probably be bombarded with announcements and advertisements. The opening of the marketing campaign has already started with a big interview with Polygon, where players were oriented towards a future without Titan, but with a revitalized WoW.
Outlook: It’s hard to say. Everything Blizzard has said lately sounds great for the future of the game, how it will be post Warlords of Draenor. However, feedback from the beta for Warlords of Draenor itself seems to be mixed.
WoW surely benefits from the fact that players, after a year, miss the game and crave the old familiarity. After a year without new content, players’ memories of great past experiences grow larger, while more mundane activities fade into the background. Blizzard doesn’t exactly promote the feeling of heralding a new era with Draenor. Why would they? After a year of several disappointments in the MMORPG market, they swear by what has worked before.
ArcheAge: Not much is heard about the game, a lot about the publisher
What’s going on? With ArcheAge, you hear a lot about the publisher’s problems with hacks, bots, and cheats. This affects the actual game. At the beginning, nothing was heard about the crafting system, PvP, or piracy, but about queues and client issues. Even now, Trion Worlds’ difficulties have not settled. With the opening of the northern continent Auroria and the 1.7 patch, a clear time frame has at least been established.
Outlook: Actually quite good. Since ArcheAge is Free2Play and genuinely “different” from the alternatives, it will surely attract a steady influx of curious players looking for something new to counteract saturation and boredom. But: If you have to report more about the publisher than about the actual game, that’s not a good sign. It’s like talking about the referee after a football match.
Guild Wars: A bit in nirvana right now, still no news on an expansion
What’s going on? Little. The September update has come and gone. The continuation of the living world is still pending. They are currently trying to entice players with PvP. Only a few are really biting.
Outlook: Guild Wars 2 has the problem that it wants to be a game for everyone, but does not have the capacity to regularly provide new content for all players. Are PvP fans really excited about the continuation of the Living World? In the background, there’s a lot of noise, maybe they are designing raid content for guilds, maybe there will really be an expansion in 2015? Nothing is finalized.
If the Living World continues, there will surely be more to do and marvel at. However, ArenaNet’s strong push to establish a PvP scene and excite players with it remains a curiosity. Is the player base really large enough to allocate so many resources towards it?
Final Fantasy XIV: Model Student
What’s going on? They have been waiting for a few months now for 2.4. New heroes, new instances, and several features will come. Until then, they’ve been passing the time with some trial programs.
Outlook: Good, very good indeed. Final Fantasy has a healthy foundation and knows how it will progress in the future. FF XIV has the advantage over most other games in that there are no “current issues” (except for space shortages), but everything runs smoothly enough to build on. As with any MMO, the pauses between milestones may seem a bit lengthy.
Calm before the storm
You might think that the MMO world is experiencing a kind of “calm before the storm”, except for the MMOs that just started in September, Destiny and ArcheAge. Already this week, new life will be breathed into WildStar and World of Warcraft. In the next month, probably in Guild Wars 2, Final Fantasy XIV, and The Elder Scrolls Online. The biggest event of the next few months, until the end of the year, is surely the Warlords of Draenor release in mid-November. The waves that it creates in the MMO pond will surely be felt.
As for H1Z1: Who knows. That could happen “all of a sudden”. But it could have happened like that in the last five months too. We will keep you updated at mein MMO about this and the seven other games and a few more.
