As games that fall into the live service category,MMORPGshave to keep reinventing or at least improving themselves in order to retain their old players and bring new ones to the fold. A lot of these changes aim to improve the gameplay model or take player feedback into consideration.
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Some of them are huge changes that players who left the game and came back years later will usually feel lost as though they were playing an entirely different game. In some cases, these changes breathed new life into the title, while others were futile attempts to try something that won’t work. The following MMORPGs are some of the best examples.
8World Of Warcraft
With nine expansions and counting, a re-release ofthe vanilla classic, raids, dungeons, new classes, new races, and tons of visual overhauls,World of Warcraftis now an entirely different experience. A quick comparison ofWoW Classicand the current expansion shows how much has changed.
It’s actually now easier to list the aspects of the game that haven’t changed due to the numerous alterations. Leveling up is easier now, mounts now give more freedom of movement, and of course, the story has become unrecognizable from itsFrozen Thronestarting point.
7Guild Wars 2
As one of the fiercestWorld of Warcraftcompetitors onthe MMO scene, it was always an uphill battle forGuild Wars 2. The game took a different and more casual route with horizontal progression. While the MMORPG title has retained this progression philosophy, the new story developments and added locales via expansions have laid a long road for returning players if they want to catch up.
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Like inWorld of Warcraft,Guild Wars 2also introduced flying mounts to the game and this has changed the way players explored the huge open-world maps. Moreover, returning players from ten years ago might find the original or base game maps barren or dead as the developers have focused their love on the Living World maps.
6Black Desert Online
Black Desert Online’s first big and proudly announced change from its developers wasBlack Desert Remastered.It’s a significant visual overhaul after three years which coincided with its console release. The game was still undoubtedlyBlack Desert Onlinebut the graphical update made it the most visually-appealing MMORPG again (pre-2020).
Nowadays, gameplay overhauls and massive new additions have made the game a lot friendlier for casual players. The game also added a notable maritime update where players can build their boats or ships and unlock a new mode of gameplay that feels like an entirely new game.
5Runescape
Runescape,also known asOld School Runescape, has evolved a lot as is expected from a Java-based browser game. It was replaced with a newer and more updated programming language in 2016 and to this day, continues to receive constant updates, though at times it can feel a bit empty compared to its heyday.
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The game is still recognizable asRunescapebut most of the big changes returning players will recognize right away are with the user interface and the graphics. More than a decade ago it also overhauled its combat system and was even re-released asRunescape 2,eventually giving birth to a more casual offshoot,Runescape 3.
4Elder Scrolls Online
Elder Scrolls Onlinehad quite a rough start mostly due to its painfully traditional MMO design with level restrictions limiting exploration. But thanks toeconomic model changeswhere players only have to make one-time purchases, it became more accommodating.
Moreover, big gameplay overhauls from updates likeTamriel Unlimitedrebranded the game. Players could eventually now go wherever regardless of levels. Apart from that, subsequent content additions such as the nation of Morrowind and consistent province expansions, as well asthe nostalgic appealfrom the inclusion of regions fromSkyrimandOblivionmade it a properElder Scrollsgame.
3AdventureQuest
AdventureQuestisn’t unlikeRunescape. It also had its humble beginnings as a browser-based game but the developers admittedly found the original lacking since it was primarilya single-player experience. So they turned it into a fully-fledged MMORPG (with an actual multiplayer component) through AdventureQuest Worlds.
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Later on, the developers created a more formal iteration of the originalAdventureQuestcalledAdventureQuest 3D. Needless to say,AdventureQuestas an MMORPG or an RPG was all over the place and felt like a game that had a never-ending development with no complete form. Still, its own casual charm and humor made it a persistent title.
2Bless Online
WhenBless Onlinewas first released, it held a lot of promise and showed good potential as far as Korean MMORPGs went. However, the traditional MMO gameplay loop and the relatively slow tab-targeting system (as well as the late release) made itdead on arrival.
It changed itself and rebranded intoBless Unleashedwith more action-oriented combat and upgraded graphics, along with plenty of overhauls, though the game still seems to havetrouble keeping itself alive. Prior toBless Unleashed,it had already re-launched itself in several locales with little to no success.
1New World
New Worldis a relatively recent title and its release was marred by poor or lukewarm reception. The game had an obnoxious grind, everything was expensive, and the endgame was nonexistent with the game feeling a bit shallow, as per the players' sentiments.
A year and several monthsafter its release,New Worldhas bounced back and introduced a slew of massive changes that fundamentally modified how new and existing players approached the game. More importantly, they provided solutions for cheaters, dupes, and cheese strategies that were ruining the game for everyone, all in the span of a year. And by the looks of it, they’re not done yet.
