Massively OP’s 2018 Awards: Best Indie or Crowdfunded MMO of 2018

December 21, 2018 11:00 AM

Massively Overpowered’s end-of-the-year 2018 awards continue today with our award for Best Indie or Crowdfunded MMO of 2018, which was awarded to Elite Dangerous last year in this category’s inaugural year. All indie MMOs and crowdfunded MMOs are eligible for this award; the game needn’t actually have launched yet. Don’t forget to cast your own vote in the just-for-fun reader poll at the very end!

The Massively OP staff pick for the Best Indie or Crowdfunded MMO of 2018 is…

Project Gorgon

Andrew Ross (@dengarsw): Project Gorgon. If other games could run with their ideas placed under a better art style, the genre would probably feel like it was moving forward, rather than crawling at times. It’s “innovative” not in the sales pitch kind of way some readers may be used to from the media but in a “there’s some good humor behind making this weird mechanic feel like it adds something to a persistent world” kind of way.

Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): Project Gorgon. If I could’ve whipped up a faction to feasibly call this one MMO of the year, I would have gone for it, but I’m settling for best indie. The breadth and depth of this game is mind-blowing.

Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes, blog): I have not played Project Gorgon in a very long time, but the fact that this title just keeps coming up now and again in generally appreciative and happy tones makes me consider taking a significantly closer look. Word of mouth is a powerful force and very obviously Gorgon has cultivated a following for very good reasons.

Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): Let me play a mantis wearing a hat, Project Gorgon. The fact I cannot is your most egregious flaw and the one thing I cannot endorse about you.

Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog): Project Gorgon, which went on Steam Early Access and keeps being interesting, or Camelot Unchained and its-finally-here beta test.

Matt Daniel (@Matt_DanielMVOP): Project Gorgon. As many others have undoubtedly noted, Project Gorgon is a very unique creature in the MMO space. I challenge you to name even one other game that has a skill related to dying and the ability to play the game as a cow, should you so desire.

MJ Guthrie (@MJ_Guthrie, blog): I can definitely get behind Project Gorgon for this award. What an interesting, ambitious little title that started with just two people! And you can play as a cow (among other things). This is just too unique not to give it a gold star. Right on the cow’s nose.

How does Massively OP choose the winner?

Our team gathers together over the course of a few days to discuss candidates and ideally settle on a consensus winner. We don’t have a hard vote, but we do include written commentary from every writer who submitted it on time so that you can see where some of us differed, what our secondary picks were, and why we personally nominated what we did (or didn’t). The site’s award goes to the staff selection, but we’ll include both it and the community’s top nomination in our debrief in January.

Project Gorgon won our award for Best Indie or Crowdfunded MMO of 2018. What’s your pick?

Reader poll: What was the best indie or crowdfunded MMO of 2018?