MassivelyOP’s 2022 Awards: Not-So-Massively Game of the Year

December 24, 2022 11:00 AM

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

Today’s award is for the Not-So-Massively Game of the Year, which was awarded to Valheim last year. The games eligible for this category are online games that generally aren’t considered traditional MMORPGs; they’re MOBAs, online dungeon crawlers, ARPGs, online shooters, survival sandboxes, battle royale titles, and other games that tread into MMO territory but aren’t quite there. Once again, we’ve opted to include titles that launched before this year, as long as they accomplished something truly notable in this calendar year. 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 Not-So-Massively Game of 2022 is…

V RISING and MULTIVERSUS

Andrew Ross: Monster Hunter Rise, Splatoon 3. Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak really changed things up. It felt like it made players get better, the theme was well executed in both the monsters and interactions, and the single-player content gives more value to you soloists out there. On the other hand (and I hope it’s not too soon to say so), I feel like Splatoon 3 is giving players what Overwatch 2 was largely supposed to grant: better balance, persistent PvE group experience, and tons of style. Except Splat 3 also gives more customization, not just in appearance, but stats, and while both have had connection issues, Splat 3’s are nothing compared to the first few launch days of OW2. I’m barely able to log into OW2 before immediately feeling like my time is better spent in Splat 3. Plus, it’s got a free-card game with no microtransactions and free “battle passes” every few months. Hot damn!

Andy McAdams: V Rising.

Brianna Royce: V Rising. There were several good picks for new NSM games this year; they’re just not always my cup of tea. V Rising tips the scale for me by being the MMOsiest of the new ones on offer.

Carlo Lacsina: Overwatch 2.

Chris Neal: Multiversus. I don’t really have a personal horse in this race, but I have to say that watching my husband play this game showed a platform brawler with both honest love for its characters and some pretty fun-looking gameplay mechanics. I hope this one continues to grow.

Colin Henry: Multiversus. I’m a big fan of platform fighters, but it’s always been a relatively small niche sub-genre that has been pretty much dominated by Super Smash Bros. I was excited to see a big company like Warner Bros throw its hat into the ring with an offering that has some fresh ideas and solid online tech behind it, and have been even more excited to see it pick up a decent sized following. Sure, that following has fallen off a bit since launch, and I’m still not a huge fan of the monetization, but it remains the not-so-massive game I had the most fun in this year by a long shot.

Eliot Lefebvre: V Rising. I didn’t play much in this category this year, but I am always going to vote for the one that’s actually MMO-adjacent rather than another mascot fighter. Not that said mascot fighter didn’t do well for itself or anything. Sorry, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, I guess you really did just fail.

Justin Olivetti: MarvelSnap came out of nowhere and absolutely crushed it. I shouldn’t have been surprised, since it’s being helmed by ex-Hearthstone lead Ben Brode!

MJ Guthrie: V Rising. Last year it was vikings, this year it is vampires. V Rising is the game that I personally found to be a welcome addition to the gaming world. However, I have also heard pretty positive things about Multiversus from friends who play.

Sam Kash: Multiversus.

Tyler Edwards: Eternal Card Game. I’ll throw a vote to Eternal Card Game, which isn’t new this year, but I did discover it this year. It’s got an impressive amount of features and content that frankly shames many of its competitors.

V Rising and Multiversus tied for our award for Not-So-Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year. What’s your pick?

Reader poll: What was the best Not-So-Massively multiplayer game of 2022?

V Rising (13%, 51 Votes)
Multiversus (2%, 7 Votes)
Overwatch 2 (3%, 10 Votes)
MarvelSnap (6%, 22 Votes)
Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak (3%, 10 Votes)
Splatoon 3 (3%, 13 Votes)
Eternal Card Game (2%, 6 Votes)
Valheim (12%, 45 Votes)
Destiny 2 (3%, 10 Votes)
Fallout 76 (3%, 13 Votes)
No Man's Sky (11%, 41 Votes)
Dauntless (1%, 2 Votes)
Warframe (6%, 22 Votes)
Path of Exile (4%, 14 Votes)
Diablo 2 Resurrected (4%, 16 Votes)
Genshin Impact (5%, 20 Votes)
World of Warships (1%, 3 Votes)
Hearthstone (0%, 1 Votes)
League of Legends (2%, 7 Votes)
Sea of Thieves (3%, 10 Votes)
Astoneer (1%, 3 Votes)
Conan Exiles (4%, 15 Votes)
Torchlight Infinite (1%, 2 Votes)
Dysterra (0%, 1 Votes)
Apex Legends (1%, 3 Votes)
Fortnite (1%, 3 Votes)
Legends of Runeterra (1%, 3 Votes)
ARK Survival Evolved (1%, 3 Votes)
Foxhole (2%, 7 Votes)
War Thunder (1%, 2 Votes)
World of Tanks (1%, 3 Votes)
SMITE (1%, 3 Votes)
Something else - tell us in the comments! (4%, 17 Votes)

Total Voters: 299

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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.