What is this I don't even...

[Elexia]

Try and break the MMO Mold, people complain.
Stick to MMO traditions, people complain.

Break the mold and fail - People complain.
Stick to MMO traditions and do nothing else but that - people complain.

It's not that black and white, Jynx. FFXI broke the mold by making it feel and play out like an actual RPG despite using EQ as a base, especially in those early days of MMOs, it succeeded. What MMO prior to XI had an actual tangible storyline that played out and felt like an RPG of that era? They all had storylines, but XI streamlined how it was delivered especially if you played any of the early FF games. Fast forward, Tera tried doing something different with gameplay yet the rest stuck the same, what was the ultimate fate of that game? Fast forward even more and SWTOR did something that every MMO should have been doing by now, even better delivery of a storyline, yet it ultimately failed, why?

The second part, sticking to "what works and nothing else" is why a lot of MMOs, mainstream or not, fails because when you load it up you already know the game inside and out. That's good if you dislike relearning things, but it's bad because it's guaranteed you will get bored after doing the initial run of quest chaining. People got bored as hell of GW2 because while it was a fresh take on some stuff, it was ultimate the same game yet again. This is why it's not that black and white, there's always reasons for complaints and it's usually not because of what gimmicks the game brings, it's what lays underneath that causes complaints.

Do you play FPS games? Why do you think despite the "cool to hate on" situation Halo gets it was praised despite being a typical FPS? Same genre underneath, but enough to stand out. This is what MMOs need to do if they decide to "stick to standards."

[Abriael]

Break the mold and fail - People complain.

Breaking the mold for the sake of breaking the mold is between what makes games fail, as they're weighed down by mechanics that simply aren't fun for the sake of writing how original they are on the back of the box. What make a MMORPG good is how fun and community-building it is, now its originality. Traditional elements can be remixed and composed in a myriad of ways, and saying that MMORPGs that include the same elements automatically play or feel the same is disingenuous and simply untrue.

Stick to MMO traditions and do nothing else but that - people complain.

Which doesn't apply to this game, so we're all good.

Do you play FPS games? Why do you think despite the "cool to hate on" situation Halo gets it was praised despite being a typical FPS? Same genre underneath, but enough to stand out. This is what MMOs need to do if they decide to "stick to standards."

And in the meanwhile Call of Duty continues demolishing it in terms of sales and overall success.