I decided to play some destiny 1 after leaving it in disappointment from its disastrous launch and found myself appreciating the format a lot more than most MMOs around today.
Due to Bungies contract with Activision they had to make a sequel so D1 was abandoned after 3 years of content and left in stasis which I now believe is the best way for an MMO to be. This means the game has an end, a clear story arc, doesn’t attract people who seem to foam at the mouth when there isnt something new to play and is generally chill. If you wish to experience it again you can just make a new character and play a new class its all pretty well paced. All three years of content seem to have somebody playing its not the most populated game ever but I havent had any trouble doing some strikes or raids and there’s no creeping sense of fomo, no rush just chill and enjoy the game.
This is how all MMOs should be instead of tacking on piece after piece until the entire thing falls over either from a technical perspective, narrative perspective or community perspective or maybe even all three.
MMO players seem to be the more neurotic of the bunch driven entirely by fomo and logging new content the millisecond it releases and dropping anyone who had to go poo before coming on to raid because if you dont do the stuff the second its out everyone dies or something. I think out of all the MMOs i have played ESO does it better mostly because the additions to the game are distinct portals into other places with their own storylines but it will never overcome the fact that old content will just be barren or that new players cant join without paying for level boosts if they want to play with friends because legacy content gets in the way.
Thoughts? I think D1 accidentally was what MMOs should be, much shorter more concise experiences with a definitive ending that can be easily replayed and isnt too long. Most of the magic that comes from these types of games is a bunch of people coming together to figure out and experience it for the first time so recreate that first time over and over instead of making it once then dumping crap after crap for 20 years until you only have addicts playing.
OSRS gets a pass
I haven't touched FF14 since Endwalker. I didn't even play the post game for that expac at all. The ending to that storyline was the perfect place to stop, and as a result I have warm fuzzies whenever I think about that game. Unfortunately warm fuzzies don't pay the bills, which is why they released another expac that I've heard sucks.
I told this story as a roundabout way of saying I think you're right. It's fine for an MMO to keep going for a few years (I played FF14 from about 2015 to 2021, so that's six) but it does need an ending. Slowly falling off a game just doesn't feel good in the way that wrapping things up does.
Endwalker would have been a good place to end the game so they can make a sequel that has functioning anti aliasing. Its time for a ff17
the main story's kind of a slog i'll grant them that, anything would be after endwalker's climax, but fwiw if anyone does happen to like raids at all they've been knocking that aspect out of the fucking park this entire expac