MassivelyOP’s 2024 Awards: Most Anticipated MMO

January 2, 2025 11:00 AM

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

Today’s award is for the Most Anticipated MMO, which was controversially awarded to Nightingale last year. This award can be frustrating since many of the games and expansions we’re picking from here haven’t changed much as we’re still waiting on them. We’ll see how it goes in the future. 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 Most Anticipated MMO of 2024 is…

STARS REACH

Andrew Ross: Nintendo’s unnamed MMO

Andy McAdams: Stars Reach, Guild Wars 3

Brianna Royce: Stars Reach, Light No Fire, Guild Wars 3, EverQuest 3, Ashes of Creation, Monsters & Memories, Soulframe, Dune Awakening. There are so many to pick from, but I’ve been nominating Raph Koster’s in-dev MMO as one of my personal most anticipated MMOs for years now, but this is the first year it’s actually had a name and enough details that we can justify actually putting it on top, and I couldn’t be more stoked to see Star Wars Galaxies II actually coming. And apparently, I’m far from alone!

Carlo Lacsina: The League of Legends MMO. Literally the only MMORPG I’m anticipating. I’m pretty sure Riot will do great with MMORPGs.

Chris Neal: Stars Reach. Nothing about this game should appeal to me, a filthy themepark MMO-liking degenerate who is the albatross around the neck of the entire genre (apparently). But the more I see and hear about this game, the more I realize that I want a world just like this. Please, please, PLEASE be good.

Justin Olivetti: Stars Reach. How can I not be excited to see Raph Koster and his crew fashion a colorful scifi sandbox that seems to promise the stars and beyond? The comms and early testing give me more faith than usual that this can be done. But I have other picks, too! Dune Awakening: The strong IP, scifi setting, and Funcom’s MMO expertise could fashion one heck of an MMO. This is a major, major title to watch and I will be there on Day One if all goes well. Monsters and Memories: Out of all of the “throwback” projects, this one endeared itself most to me with its excellent communications and charming personality. And WoW Midnight because housing. It’s all about the housing. About time!

MJ Guthrie: Stars Reach, Guild Wars 3. While Guild Wars 3 has caught my attention (and Path of Exile 2 just appeared, striking it off my anticipated list!), I am most looking forward to Stars Reach. I have hopes for this game to bring back many of the features I have been missing so much. And I know I am not alone! Amusingly, I am not following it closely because I just want to play when it appears without dealing with the pains of hype beforehand (so much so that I even blanked on its name when these awards began!), but then each time it comes to mind I am drawn back into that anticipation.

Sam Kash: Guild Wars 3

Tyler Edwards: With the death of Blue Protocol and Corepunk’s alpha disappointing me, I’m not sure there are a lot of MMOs I’m looking forward to anymore. Into the Echo looks interesting, but I feel like it’s been quiet for a while.

Stars Reach took our award for Most Anticipated MMO. What’s your pick?

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