Every year at the end of December or beginning of January, one of us – usually Justin or Eliot – pens a top 10 list of the healthiest MMORPGs, in our opinion. Here’s the last one we did, in fact. You’d think it’d be a hard list to come up with because “healthy” is pretty subjective; we are usually taking the pulse of the population, update cadence, company finances, community quality, monetization crunches, presence of drama, and overall positivity.
But actually, it’s not that hard (super easy, barely an inconvenience, etc.). The first seven or eight games are usually the same from year or year, and they’re obvious picks, even if the order shifts around. It’s usually the last few that are hard because there’s a whole middle batch of MMOs that are really doing just fine and any of those dozen could swap in for the last few in our list.
My question today is… how much do you actually care? I mean, we’ve got MOP’s Sam over here still playing HPMA when it’s not only unhealthy but literally slated for execution. I know Project Gorgon has had financial trouble and yet I still keep it in my rotation. Maybe “healthy” matters more to the general gamer than to MMORPG players? Do we tolerate a certain level of unhealthiness in our games as the price we pay for online service? How much do you care about an MMORPG’s health?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
