Why Everquest Is Our First Hope

MMORPGs are a relatively new genre in a relatively new form of entertainment.  We might pretend we can analyse the past and predict the future, but the reality is that as the technology and genre develops exponentially, we don’t have the as much data and history to identify overarching trends and make full judgments.  Ten years for 3D MMOs, 30 or so for MUDs.  As much as we mere bloggers love to analyse and speculate, the truth is that we’re trying to make sense out of something that is brand new-ish — and to a slightly lesser extent, even seasoned MMO devs might as well be throwing predictive darts at a big board for all they can nail down.

There are thousands of variables when it comes to why one MMO fails while another succeeds, what the “magic formula” might be to World of Warcraft and how to best replicate it (and if I had a dime for every author who claimed to know exactly what that is… I’d be subscribed to every MMO for life), and what trends might continue into the future and which ones will become obsolete.  When some folks predict that the half-life for a MMO is around four years and then titles like Ultima Online keep on chugging along for a decade-plus, who knows?  We have certainly seen new titles flare up and then die, other ones limp along on life support, but we are still waiting to see the first 3D generation of MMOs fade away.

So it filled me with a special hope to read about how EverQuest (and its pseudo-successor) are slated to receive expansions soon.  Not that I care one way or the other about EQ, but when I get into a great MMO, it matters greatly to me that the game has the potential for a future.  Even though my greatest stay in a MMO was four years, I hate the thought of getting involved in a title that only has a year or two of life before cancelation.  MMOs like UO and EverQuest might not be the kings of the hill they once were, but they are proving that even aging games are not only worthy of continued operation, but also growth and development.