Anyone ever play an MMO called Anarchy Online? It's only really notable for being the first Sci-fi themed MMO. I've played it off and on with my older sister who's stuck with it since around the time WoW came out, my brother had it since it first came out. Both of them used to talk about it a lot. Today my sister and I decided to play it again, but found that there was almost nobody around, at least not compared to four months ago. My sister told me that the population's been thin for a long time and only gets lower every year, and after seeing how few people were on today, I began to think about it and it's apparent to me that MMO's aren't permanent games.
Think about it, the whole point of an MMO is that it's always multiplayer (hence Massively Multiplayer), but if the population goes, then the game world is left empty and the game will probably be shut down. I can pick up a game from almost any genre that was released twenty years ago and still play it as it was back then, but with an MMO things always change and the population does too. Guild Wars 1 doesn't seem to have a large population anymore. Lion's Arch isn't nearly as packed as it once was. It's kind of sad.
I'm wondering if the Escapist can think of any solutions to population decreases for an MMO or any way to keep them fresh and going without doing anything that would scare away current players. Basically how do you make a seemingly impermanent genre more permanent, or is it best to let things fade out on their own?
Think about it, the whole point of an MMO is that it's always multiplayer (hence Massively Multiplayer), but if the population goes, then the game world is left empty and the game will probably be shut down. I can pick up a game from almost any genre that was released twenty years ago and still play it as it was back then, but with an MMO things always change and the population does too. Guild Wars 1 doesn't seem to have a large population anymore. Lion's Arch isn't nearly as packed as it once was. It's kind of sad.
I'm wondering if the Escapist can think of any solutions to population decreases for an MMO or any way to keep them fresh and going without doing anything that would scare away current players. Basically how do you make a seemingly impermanent genre more permanent, or is it best to let things fade out on their own?