I’m a huge fan of MMOs. There’s no genre that compares to the breadth and depth of experience, and the sheer scale of the game space. Rather than a game that I play, consume, and discard, MMOs can feel like home, a place I return to regularly to hang out, socialize, advance, play, and do all sorts of things. I don’t hold with the critique of the term that “MMO” is inherently nonsense, and the term should be “MMOG” or “MMORPG”; the genre is inherently open-ended, and I think the term MMO is appropriately open-ended to match.

It’s no secret that MMOs have struggled in the last few years. Since the release of WoW, the bar for quality, polish, and scale has been nigh-impossible to meet or exceed, and more importantly the continual additions and advancements in WoW have only raised that bar.

MMOs are a colossal development undertaking, so that continually increasing bar makes it extremely difficult to compete– certainly none of the MMOs released since WoW have enjoyed the same level of success. It’s important to note that “hasn’t reached the same level of success” is not the the same as failure– most of the MMOs that get dubbed “failures” in the comments of gaming sites are in fact chugging along just fine, releasing new content.

In the meantime, it’s becoming clear that chasing the WoW model isn’t a way in which MMOs can possibly hope to dethrone WoW. I largely think this is due to the gaming environment changing. In 2004, when WoW launched, the concept of a game you can easily log in and play online with your friends was a marvel, still shiny, new, and often flawed out the gate (but glorious even through the flaws). Ten years later, easy online play with friends is stock-standard for nearly every game released; the only real difference is the number of players.

I’ve long wondered whether console game development or MMO development would bridge the gap between one another first. I’ve been curious to see if console games would adopt more and more MMO features until they’re indistinguishable from MMOs, or if MMOs would adapt to include more console action features, to address the oft-repeated critique that MMOs are often mechanically and functionally very similar to one another (see: “hotbar combat”, “holy trinity”, and similar complaints).

Today, Destiny launched, the first MMO-styled game to launch simultaneously across multiple major consoles (though, interestingly, not PC) from a major publisher and studio. There have been previous forays into the MMO market on consoles– DC Universe Online and both Final Fantasy MMOs, but Destiny’s launch is on a much larger scale than any of those.

It’s telling, to me, that the console development side has bridged the gap first. I suspect that we won’t be seeing “traditional” MMOs for some time. The lustre of massively multiplayer environments has faded, and the real joy– running around with a small number of friends– has come to the fore, and consoles can provide a higher level of fidelity in that environment than MMOs have managed to accomplish. As technology and players’ expectations have advanced, the “traditional” MMO designs appeal to a smaller and smaller niche.

I think that the age of new “traditional” MMOs is largely over, or close. The market is very fragmented, with a number of quality games filling different niches under the umbrella of World of Warcraft, but a relative dearth of massive, game-changing innovation. With as much fragmentation as the market has, it’s very difficult to find a way to recoup the costs of developing an MMO– the smaller audience issue has previously been offset by recurring payments by the players, but this is becoming less and less popular.

I’m interested in seeing if the “traditional” MMO evolves beyond its current state. I think there are experiences that MMOs can offer that the console side of things has a lot more trouble with– specifically the large number of players in a single world. Unfortunately, traditional MMOs have had more and more trouble making that massive number of players appealing; in general seeing another player while playing represents an obstacle, or competition for resources, rather than a boon.

While traditional MMOs struggle with this, we get to see the advent of the AAA, top-tier console MMO, a trail blazed by previous games and now being used by new games like Destiny, The Division, and so on.

I look forward to seeing what these games bring to the table that will inevitably get mirrored by the other side. The games look fun, and look to have stripped out a lot of the trappings that have held back traditional MMO innovation, offering a fresh look at the genre (and hopefully a jumping-off point for even more interesting games).