MassivelyOP’s 2022 Awards: Best Classic MMO

December 20, 2022 11:00 AM

Welcome back to Massively Overpowered’s formal end-of-the-year awards!

Today’s award is for the Best Classic MMO, which was awarded to Lord of the Rings Online last year. This was a brand-new formal award for us in 2021; for the purposes of this award, we’re looking at games from around 2010 and earlier, but only live MMOs from that period, not rogue servers (we have a separate award for them). Don’t forget to cast your own vote in the just-for-fun reader poll at the very end!

And the MassivelyOP staff pick for the Best Classic MMO of 2022 is…

LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE

Andy McAdams: Anarchy Online, LOTRO.

Brianna Royce: LOTRO. This one’s a no-brainer nomination for me as it’s the oldest MMO I still actively played as of this year apart from rogue servers, and the reason for that is it’s still being developed like a top-tier MMO, and its 2022 content additions (not to mention its freebie handouts last spring) are genuinely as good as anything in the bigger games this year.

Carlo Lacsina: Guild Wars 1.

Chris Neal: Old School RuneScape, LOTRO. Even if the term “mini-expansion” still raises my eyebrow, I still have to admit that LOTRO feels just as solid and steadfast as it ever has (server lag notwithstanding). It deserves to be lauded as a now elder statesman of our genre.

Colin Henry: LOTRO. This game keeps on putting out great content. Between its business model revamp and the new mini-expansion that includes an alternate tutorial and lowbie experience, this has been a great year to be a LOTRO player.

Eliot Lefebvre: Still spoiling for the maintenance-moded Final Fantasy XI and its monthly updates including new story updates after the team said this is definitely not something they would be doing any longer. Big fan.

Justin Olivetti: Old School RuneScape. I’m still astounded that Old School RuneScape continues to be so popular despite mostly living in the past — but impressed as well. I’ll give an approving nod to LOTRO, Wizard101, and DDO as older games that are still active and pushing out good content.

MJ Guthrie: Star Trek Online not only continues to add content and do fan service by integrating known Star Trek characters in the stories, but the devs keep in touch with the community. STO deserves this one!

Tyler Edwards: Star Trek Online, Aion.

Lord of the Rings Online took our award for Best Classic MMO. What’s your pick?

Reader poll: What was the best classic MMORPG of 2022?

LOTRO (65%, 1,055 Votes)
Old School RuneScape (4%, 64 Votes)
Guild Wars 1 (4%, 61 Votes)
Aion (0%, 3 Votes)
Star Trek Online (3%, 44 Votes)
Anarchy Online (1%, 20 Votes)
Final Fantasy XI (3%, 51 Votes)
WoW Classic (5%, 79 Votes)
Ultima Online (1%, 21 Votes)
Dark Age of Camelot (1%, 13 Votes)
EverQuest (3%, 42 Votes)
EverQuest II (2%, 39 Votes)
EVE Online (2%, 37 Votes)
Lineage II (0%, 2 Votes)
Fallen Earth (0%, 7 Votes)
MapleStory (0%, 7 Votes)
Ryzom (0%, 2 Votes)
Dungeons and Dragons Online (2%, 37 Votes)
Mabinogi (0%, 5 Votes)
Tibia (0%, 4 Votes)
Wurm Online (0%, 7 Votes)
Meridian 59 (0%, 0 Votes)
Lineage II (0%, 1 Votes)
A Tale in the Desert (0%, 2 Votes)
Age of Conan (1%, 14 Votes)
Something else (tell us in the comments!) (1%, 14 Votes)

Total Voters: 1,441

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How does MassivelyOP choose the winner?

Our team gathers together to nominate and discuss candidates and hopefully settle on a consensus winner. We don’t have a hard vote, but we do include commentary from writers so that you can see our thought process. 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.

How does MassivelyOP populate this poll?

Poll options include all MMOs nominated plus a few others we thought should be included.