I feel like we need to discuss why MMOs as a genre were never good, but how they were also fucking amazing. This is all due to when MMOs became a thing.
Most if not all MMOs people actually care about were from the early 2000s. They were all pushing the boundaries of capitalism over video games with either a subscription or whatever the hell is wrong with the korean industry, but, and I must stress this, but…they came out during the ONLY MOMENT they would've been successful.
They were social spaces, social WORLDS in fact, they were by definition larping sims. In an era where that was still a new thing. From 2003-2012, MMOs had THIS as their main wow factor. This is also their only staying power in media ABOUT video games, their sense of community and ability to break barriers…of course, all those external pieces of media also made it about how MMO players were losers, but nontheless, that was why they became a genre.
After social media became a permanent staple of human life, MMOs had practically no point anymore. Most of them were already garbage gameplay wise. This is why we all want classic wow, or classic maple, or the return of wonderking (which, by the way, looks like actual garbage, to my dismay).
We didn't "grow out" of MMOs, that is what idiots with no argument say to shut you up, the WORLD outgrew MMOs, and sadly, we have been conditioned to not be impressed or enamoured.
>what the fuck are you saying OP??
I'm saying what I mean, anon. Maybe I was groomed by this industry to endure capitalism, but DAMN IT, there was a time talking to someone as your personal chibi avatar was cool and FUN! Now it's a fucking bore, I cannot understand why anyone would play an MMO in 2025, almost all of them are bad wow clones.
I miss the MMO part, but most certainly not the RPG part. Levelling systems are annoying, they either mess up the balancing for non-linear games or render null the difficulty curve for linear games.
I could see a MMOMV (Massive Multiplayer Online MetroidVania) having potential.
I used to play Mabinogi when I was a broke ass kid hopping from f2p mmo to f2p. It grabbed at the time due to how different it felt from everything else. The setting being based on irish mythology, the combat being a weird offshoot of typical mmo combat where now individual hits cause hitstun and knock back and skills having a rps relationship where certain ones can counter and stop others (though nowadays this aspect of the game is getting sanded off), your character aging overtime, all the sandbox elements like there not being any set classes or an entire system to creating custom music, I could go on. However the game is a massive grindfest and those who're willing to open up the wallets will always be ahead of you in it. I heard it's getting remade in UE5 or something but I don't think I have the time or patience to play it (or any other mmo) whenever that happens. Regardless, it was a fun experience even if I managed to not make friends in an mmo because I was scared of people thinking I was ass at the game.