A lot of 'good' games I've played have converted from the Pay to Play to the Free to Play model. Some good examples are RIFT, Lord of the Rings Online, etc. I've seen a number of games and have been in a number of games that have shifted subscription models and I think it's becoming less reflective of the MMO genre itself than it is differing priorities from the fanbase. There's nothing inherently wrong with the F2P model, and I've seen a few games I really enjoy that started out with that model and are still doing moderately well. And then we have some rotten 'Freemium' models, like TOR. That game feels like rubbish without a sub, or an awful large amount of money sunken into it.
I do still play Star Wars The Old Republic, and even (though it wasn't listed in the first post), The Secret World. A lot of games are very 'niche' games which cater to and draw in from a small market. Star Wars fans are more likely to play TOR, and horror genre fans are more likely to play TSW. Tolkien fans will probably end up spending at least some time in LOTRO, and you have a large number of XIV players who were Final Fantasy fans before anything else. And there are only 'some' games that cater to a wide audience without attempting to hit a specific niche besides the broad genre that it belongs to (Rift and WoW being in the fantasy genre, for example).
Players seem to think they want some great "next game", when primarily what seem to want is customization and the freedom to build and create in an almost sandboxy way, at least when it comes to features like housing. Devs seem to think that they want to release the next greatest game, when primarily what they seem to want is to release a game that is cutting edge and really draws in attention at the start, but they often end up falling flat after some initial patches and maybe the first expansion. What ends up happening is that you get several niche games that each fulfill one or two functions that players really want, but end up falling short on other ends. Or you get game devs that are very dedicated to trying to release good content, like the XIV devs, but who are struggling under corporate or system limitations (I'm looking at you, soon to be gone PS3 support).
I don't think any one MMO will hit the right niche in the market, because you either end up catering to too much on one or another end of the spectrum, or the player base consumes all of the content quickly, then moves on. People also seem very reluctant to split their time consistently between games because they have greater obligations, and there's no real point to spending money on a game that you actually won't be able to dedicate time to playing, especially if that game, as all MMO's seem to, have some kind of scaling gear or progression grind.
It's also very hard for any one game to 'take the market' when people are split by their interests. I have friends in TOR who would never play XIV because the genre doesn't interest them, and similarly, friends who would never touch TOR because they prefer fantasy over sci-fi, even though they like Star Wars itself. The MMO market is always going to have a largely divisive split in it, and that's part of the MMO market itself seeming to flounder. You have a continually expanding but ultimately limited cluster of people who have to choose the right game for them based on things like computer specifications, personal interest, friend group location, monetary spending and time budgeting. I feel like no one MMO, regardless of how 'good' it is, is ever going to be able to completely down any other game.
And I can't comment on games that aren't the tradition RPG style MMO, because I haven't really played them, as they're not my preference.
I do still play Star Wars The Old Republic, and even (though it wasn't listed in the first post), The Secret World. A lot of games are very 'niche' games which cater to and draw in from a small market. Star Wars fans are more likely to play TOR, and horror genre fans are more likely to play TSW. Tolkien fans will probably end up spending at least some time in LOTRO, and you have a large number of XIV players who were Final Fantasy fans before anything else. And there are only 'some' games that cater to a wide audience without attempting to hit a specific niche besides the broad genre that it belongs to (Rift and WoW being in the fantasy genre, for example).
Players seem to think they want some great "next game", when primarily what seem to want is customization and the freedom to build and create in an almost sandboxy way, at least when it comes to features like housing. Devs seem to think that they want to release the next greatest game, when primarily what they seem to want is to release a game that is cutting edge and really draws in attention at the start, but they often end up falling flat after some initial patches and maybe the first expansion. What ends up happening is that you get several niche games that each fulfill one or two functions that players really want, but end up falling short on other ends. Or you get game devs that are very dedicated to trying to release good content, like the XIV devs, but who are struggling under corporate or system limitations (I'm looking at you, soon to be gone PS3 support).
I don't think any one MMO will hit the right niche in the market, because you either end up catering to too much on one or another end of the spectrum, or the player base consumes all of the content quickly, then moves on. People also seem very reluctant to split their time consistently between games because they have greater obligations, and there's no real point to spending money on a game that you actually won't be able to dedicate time to playing, especially if that game, as all MMO's seem to, have some kind of scaling gear or progression grind.
It's also very hard for any one game to 'take the market' when people are split by their interests. I have friends in TOR who would never play XIV because the genre doesn't interest them, and similarly, friends who would never touch TOR because they prefer fantasy over sci-fi, even though they like Star Wars itself. The MMO market is always going to have a largely divisive split in it, and that's part of the MMO market itself seeming to flounder. You have a continually expanding but ultimately limited cluster of people who have to choose the right game for them based on things like computer specifications, personal interest, friend group location, monetary spending and time budgeting. I feel like no one MMO, regardless of how 'good' it is, is ever going to be able to completely down any other game.
And I can't comment on games that aren't the tradition RPG style MMO, because I haven't really played them, as they're not my preference.
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