[TERA PC & Console] En Masse is closing, but TERA lives on! We will continue to support TERA PC (NA) and TERA Console until service is transferred. Stay tuned for more information.
[TERA Console] The Grotto of Lost Souls update (v85) is now live! Read the patch notes here: https://bit.ly/TERACon_v85
[TERA PC] The 64-bit update (v97) is now live. Check out all the changes delivered on August 11 here: https://bit.ly/tera64_patchnotes
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A story about that next AAA MMORPG...
I want to tell you a story about a time I spent in TERA waiting for that next big MMORPG. I will make it as short as I can, don't worry.
When TERA first came to North America in 2011, I loved everything about it. I was interested in playing a lot of MMORPGs though, so I was always looking for more games to experience and explore. Around late December of 2011, Phantasy Star Online 2 was announced to come to NA. I was very excited for this game, yet, it never came to be released. As I continued to play TERA and watch for that next MMORPG, I saw an announcement for a new AAA MMORPG called Archeage that was to be released in 2013 (which you should know what happened to that).
At this point it was really hard to find another good MMORPG that felt newer than World of Warcraft, Perfect World International, Metin 2 and many others I once played. Other games I'd thought that would be great was Age of Wushu, Swordsman Online and even Guild Wars 2 (Free to play). And around early 2016, I was still playing TERA. Blade and Soul was something that became big in TERA, everyone including myself wanted to finally move on and play this new game. But even that one made us all come back. There was also the now-cancelled Everquest Next, Black Desert and Revelation Online.
That brings us to a new year, 2017. New sources announced the next upcoming games like Bless, Chronicles of Elyria, and even Dark and Light (which was announced to no longer be a MMORPG, but a multiplayer game with small servers and Chronicles of Elyria sounds more of a regular RPG than I game I truly want to put my time into).
And as the years go by, I wonder if there will ever be a game that really pulls players in. But again, with the changes of technology, a newer generation of players being on mobile and the gradual drift from personal computers to phones, tablets and other handhelds, I made it safe to assume that I will never find a game as good what MMORPGs used to be.
When TERA first came to North America in 2011, I loved everything about it. I was interested in playing a lot of MMORPGs though, so I was always looking for more games to experience and explore. Around late December of 2011, Phantasy Star Online 2 was announced to come to NA. I was very excited for this game, yet, it never came to be released. As I continued to play TERA and watch for that next MMORPG, I saw an announcement for a new AAA MMORPG called Archeage that was to be released in 2013 (which you should know what happened to that).
At this point it was really hard to find another good MMORPG that felt newer than World of Warcraft, Perfect World International, Metin 2 and many others I once played. Other games I'd thought that would be great was Age of Wushu, Swordsman Online and even Guild Wars 2 (Free to play). And around early 2016, I was still playing TERA. Blade and Soul was something that became big in TERA, everyone including myself wanted to finally move on and play this new game. But even that one made us all come back. There was also the now-cancelled Everquest Next, Black Desert and Revelation Online.
That brings us to a new year, 2017. New sources announced the next upcoming games like Bless, Chronicles of Elyria, and even Dark and Light (which was announced to no longer be a MMORPG, but a multiplayer game with small servers and Chronicles of Elyria sounds more of a regular RPG than I game I truly want to put my time into).
And as the years go by, I wonder if there will ever be a game that really pulls players in. But again, with the changes of technology, a newer generation of players being on mobile and the gradual drift from personal computers to phones, tablets and other handhelds, I made it safe to assume that I will never find a game as good what MMORPGs used to be.
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Comments
Mobile gives a whole ton of limitations in the terms of skill factor, due to the lack of real estate space on mobile devices as well as the processors not being as strong as their full computer counterparts. Most mobile games rely on the "collection" aspect rather than the "growth aspect" to keep players interested.
Mobile gamers are usually ridiculed by PC and console gamers because there is "no skill" involved with them. As much as I would say that there are still some strategic games out there, I can't help but to agree that most mobile games are basically cashgrabs. But because of the mentality of players in the mobile industry (there is enough games with characters with more indecent clothing than the bikinis and other revealing clothing in Tera) being whales, with Asia funding entire companies, it makes it very easy for developers to develop without adding true depth to the game. After all, the majority of mobile gamers don't spend much time on their phones due to the small screen being taxing on the eyes, so stuff like the energy system come into play.
But what is the outcome of the booming Mobile market? Titles of mobile games actually get completely scrapped within months of release. Very few titles remained in the charts past a year. With that said, the quality of the games just drop. If you think the PC/Console RPG scene is getting bad, go into the mobile game listings and try a few games and you will see how bad it really is. Most of the games are nearly 100% clones of 2 different games and there isn't a game concept that feels fresh. Mind you, that you can make a game feel fresh despite having a similar system as another bigger game by tuning the dynamics.
But because gamers are going mobile, there are fewer PC gamers, which translates to a lower revenue. The resulting question in most game companies is this "Why do we put so much effort making a good world of players to enjoy for a long time, when we can put it on the mobile sector, cut off nearly 80% of possible content, put more cute and sexy looking girls and guys and we will earn twice as much?". As such you see content quality dropped across the board. But unlike mobile gamers, who are already spoilt for choice and could easily jump ship once they get bored, PC gamers have more tendency to react negatively to bad decisions by companies, and as such the PC game industry gets even lesser revenue, continuing the vicious cycle.
You are right to say the newer generation are drifting to mobile, and they never know how good the past games are. They are undoubtedly grindy like what we see today, but how they make us feel that the grind and the game is worth playing for was executed way better 10 years ago compared to now.
I'm glad someone understands.
The more I look at other MMOs, the more I am convinced that the situation in Asian gaming can only be good if they stop looking at ways to make the game p2w. Asia is known for whales more than other regions, who wouldn't mind dropping 1k to get gear. And truth be told, most of the asians will not complain about P2W concepts due to how prevalent it is nowadays.
They just can't get the concept of buying the customers over. Cosmetics alone are vanity items whales and even casual low spenders would buy, hence Tera still has people buying costumes. But recycling the same costume style over and over gets boring. The biggest sin in all MMOs is to introduce a way to get damage via the cash shop. Maple Story did that with Cubes, Tera did that with dragons. Both happened after Nexon published the two games. Then content is made such that you need a certain amount of DPS just to clear the dungeon. Look at the endgame of Maple Story at this moment (5th job). You need everyone at minimum 2nd BiS with everything cubed to perfect stats just to even have a chance to clear the last boss. Same goes for Tera where it is obvious that they want you to get BiS to even try the boss due to attacks not oneshotting if you are in VM gear. What content did they leave for the actual f2ps? For MS After level 200 it is nearly impossible to advance unless you get friends to farm gear with you or pay to get them. For Tera there are so few midtier and upper tier dungeons it gets boring after a while.
As an asian myself, I don't believe in the concept of "using money to play the game". And I believe that's why there are more and more asians themselves moving into FPS and MOBAs because they have a similar mentality. If MMOs were less greedy in terms of money they will naturally get more revenue, but the more this thing goes, the more I am convinced asians can't develop MMOs without killing it themselves.