Is there a point in caring about the game?

[Llamalass]

Coming from someone who began in ARR alpha, quit before 2.2, returned sometime in 6.0~, and I doesn't even own EW or DT... and has just finished Shadowbringers...

Yeah this game has gone in the opposite direction of up.


More fanservice and weeb-favoring than actual worthwhile content the last so many years.

[TeresaFortell]

The MMO genre as a whole is just screwed. Rotted from the inside out by terrible developers, greedy corporate decisions, and stupid short sighted players who wouldn't boycott the bad shit when there was still a chance to turn it around.

But man I'm digressing hard. MMOs are screwed. Every studio realizes that it's easier to just half ass a mobile game and make way more money. Enjoy what you will, but there's no future here. Even WoW, on a long enough scale, will get comfy again and start sipping breastmilk like nothing happened.

While that is quite true, the whole MMO genre is in decline, partly because social media has supplanted MMO as the primary place of social interaction. Initially, MMOs were the only places where one could virtually interact with each other, because there were no other avenues. Nowadays, with the widespread use of platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the importance of MMOs has substantially shifted and reduced. MMOs these days focus more on gameplay and story than the social aspect it once championed.

[Avoidy]

While that is quite true, the whole MMO genre is in decline, partly because social media has supplanted MMO as the primary place of social interaction. Initially, MMOs were the only places where one could virtually interact with each other, because there were no other avenues. Nowadays, with the widespread use of platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the importance of MMOs has substantially shifted and reduced. MMOs these days focus more on gameplay and story than the social aspect it once championed.

Yeah I could sit here and talk everyone's ear off about how things have changed since 2004 or whatever. You're right about that part though, absolutely. Back in the day, MMOs felt really exciting because online communication was still very novel and fresh. Now, though, we just sort of take it for granted. Hell, we do it for our jobs. It feels like work.
There are probably 1000 reasons the genre is cooked. We could make a whole new thread about just that. I'd be down for it tbh. I love this kind of discussion. MMOs are my favorite genre of video game, so it makes me sad to say it, but I've gotta just call it what it is: Absolutely doomed.