Why did you make my MMORPG so good?

A MMORPG player I am no longer.

Hours spent deep in their literature, news sites and reviews. Hours upon hours in free trials; whole evenings swimming in the oceans of game forums or in torrential arguments with friends concerning combat mechanics, end game content, risk versus reward, balance! I don't think I have truly played an MMO since leaving World of Warcraft a year after it's release. I emerged blind, disenfranchised and confused. I have been but a spectator to the industry since then, a commentator and I have certainly had my share of bitterness.

Unless you haven't already guessed, I have taken it upon myself to share my thoughts on where I stand with our little P2P homes away from home. I welcome you to my first post; my kick starter, and with that in mind I'll offer a wee briefing into my background.

I loved MMORPGs.

See to me the bold sums up a hell of a lot but I suppose I should elaborate. I love virtual worlds. Beginning in 1998 with Ultima Online, a game I still cannot put down for longer than a couple of months, I have traversed the length and breadth of the MMORPG landscape: Star Wars Galaxies, Dark Age of Camelot, Shadowbane, Lineage 2, Anarchy Online, World of Warcraft and Darkfall to name an important few. I'd struggle to find a title which has not experienced my presence in an open beta or trial.

Why do I play? I play MMORPGs to be part of something larger than the game itself; something the players bring to the world and take with them when they leave, something you can't programme. Lets call it the Social Immersion Factor; not through visuals, challenging game mechanics or material or cosmetic incentives, but through the players participation in social interaction which would both define and drive the experience. 10 years of Ultima Online, of which the sum of my character and item progression could be replicated in World of Warcraft in a matter of days. Ultima Online prescribed a brand of content, a quality of immersive social interaction which defined the genre.

Whats changed?

For me? Everything. The genre is, to me, unrecognizable. The state of flux is evident over at MMORPG.com as posters have tried and failed to reach a consensus on a scientific method of stratifying the genre beyond firing the term 'sandbox' and 'themepark' at each other with little to no uniformity in its definition, usage or purpose. MMORPGs have just become mouth dryingly simple, grotesquely polished and mind numbingly rich with content. Player roles are consolidated in all aspects; in purpose, activity and progression in pursuit of clear lines of progression and accomplishment. MMORPG has become SPOG (Single Player Online Game) and this is no more evident than the shift in player retention trends. Blizzard itself admits that 'There are more people that played World of Warcraft but no longer play World of Warcraft than currently play World of Warcraft'. World of Warcraft has 11 million subscribers; a number far exceeding 11 million people have quit World of Warcraft? WoW's steady gains in subscription numbers is a phenomena which can be perfectly encapsulated in a movie moment

MMORPGs did not simply come to the mass market, or expand their market; they changed phenomenally. The shift from long term subscribers to a constant influx of short/mid-term subscribers only denotes the shift in gameplay outcomes, and highlights the contrast from traditional MMORPGs and the core reason why new methods of stratification must me employed before such discussions surrounding these topics become so pointless that the interwebs implode.

Are traditional MMORPGs dead?

To consider that the MMORPG genre had, in its formation, broken away from such linear gameplay outcomes, embracing the presence of hundreds of thousands of participants in creating worlds void of content, but rich with potential for player creation, interaction and innovation. The internet represented an opportunity for players to come together from all over the world to build and enjoy MMORPGs to the full extent of the freedom offered by creativity and technology. Although a far stretch from the playability of the singleplayer titles of the era, such technological shortcomings and impossibilities placed a focus on longitivity, creativity and a reliance on establishing a virtual world of little or no purpose than the player could establish for himself.

In summation?

Why did you make my MMORPG so good? :(