Massively's Better Of 2022 Awards It is nearly the end of the yr, a time for merriment, camaraderie, and cynical evaluation of all the MMO triumphs and tragedies that 2013 offered us.

Massively's Better Of 2022 Awards

It is nearly the end of the yr, a time for merriment, camaraderie, and cynical evaluation of all the MMO triumphs and tragedies that 2013 offered us.

Today, Massively's workers honors the better of the perfect (and the worst of the worst) for the year 2013. Each author was permitted a vote in each category with an anything-goes nomination process. No MMO, company, or headline was off the table, as long because it met the standards. Can WildStar make it to three years in a row at the top of our "most anticipated" pile, or did its delay dampen our enthusiasm? Can SOE repeat its win for finest studio? Which MMO is most likely to flop subsequent yr? And just what constituted the most important MMO screw-up of the final 12 months?

Enjoy our picks for the most effective MMOs, expansions, studios, tales, and innovations of 2013... and our most-anticipated for 2014 and past.

Finest New MMO of 2013: Ultimate Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
Runners-up: Tie between Neverwinter and Defiance

Jasmine: Last Fantasy XIV, arms down. This game managed to achieve something I believed was not possible: Sq.-Enix took a sport that I thought of the worst MMO I've ever played and turned it into something that retains me logging in every likelihood I get.

Eliot: If you had requested me two weeks in the past, I might have stated Last Fantasy XIV with out reservation. Now do not get me flawed; all the pieces good about the unique model is dropped at the forefront, and every thing unfavourable has both been eliminated or minimized. But the 2.1 replace and the housing fiasco have driven house the idea that we're not out of the woods and that we're simply looking at an era of daring new errors. If these issues get fastened, then I've excessive hopes for the longer term; if not, it'll be a shocking instance of a gorgeous turnaround followed by a shameful crash.

Best Enlargement or Replace of 2013: Guild Wars 2's Super Adventure Box
Runners-up: Tie between EVE On-line's Odyssey, EVE On-line's Rubicon, and Star Trek Online's
Legacy of Romulus

Richie: Guild Wars 2's Super Journey Field patch stands out in such a profound method as a result of many players thought it was nothing more than an April Fools' Joke. The official web site was up to date with wonderful photographs from an 8-bit world accompanied by a hilarious, cheesy, '80s-style industrial. When i logged into the sport and realized that SAB was really in the sport, my jaw hit my desk. There have been three full levels of this 8-bit world complete with secrets and techniques, puzzles, boss battles, original music score, and customized sound results -- a full platforming journey sport neatly tucked inside of my MMO.

Brendan: I've written a good bit on why I love this yr's Odyssey and Rubicon expansions, but Rubicon's personal deployable structures push it just over the edge. The Cell Depot has made lengthy-time period exploration a very possible career by allowing tech 3 ships to refit anywhere in deep space, and Ghost Websites have added some additional reward for those scouring deep space. The change to warp acceleration has also fastened the disparity between small and large ships and enabled real hit-and-run fashion warfare once more.

Best Non-Traditional MMO or Pseudo-MMO of 2013: Path of Exile
Different nominees: Hearthstone, Dota 2, Cube World, Defiance, MUSH

Matt: Path of Exile will get my vote for this one. The parents at Grinding Gear Video games have taken the time-honored motion-RPG method popularized by Diablo and twisted it up into an experience that feels both recent and familiar. Eschewing conventional classes and development in favor of an nearly inconceivably huge talent tree and allowing gamers to customise their capacity loadouts via interchangeable gems are just two of the distinctive spins Path of Exile brings to the table, and with its number of leagues and competitions, there's one thing here for the whole casual-hardcore spectrum.

Justin: Hearthstone. If nearly everybody's in beta, does it count? I say it counts. Blizzard's acquired a cash cow hit on its arms, and the combination of World of Warcraft and Magic-lite is simply inspired. Plus, it is fairly enjoyable.

Most Underrated MMO of 2013: Neverwinter
Runner-up: Defiance

Larry: Neverwinter launched with a wide audience and the hopes of being a full-fledged Dungeons and Dragons MMO. However alas, that's not what Cryptic had in thoughts for the game, and gamers did not admire Neverwinter for what it was: a enjoyable recreation that you simply spend a few minutes to a few hours playing to unwind from the daily stress. After i revisited the game, I was really surprised at how a lot enjoyable I had. I don't should stress about rotations or builds or the usual MMO worries. I merely log in, pound by a few dungeons, then carry on with my day.

Tina: I feel lots of people boxed Neverwinter below the "more of the identical" category without giving it a chance. The traditional charm is up to date nicely via the 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons freshness.

Jef: Defiance isn't setting the world on fireplace or something, but I enjoyed my time in it, and that i keep it installed in case I would like some sci-fi shooter action with questing and a function.

Most Anticipated for 2014 and Beyond: EverQuest Subsequent
Runner-up: WildStar
Different nominees: EverQuest Next Landmark, ArcheAge, Destiny, Pathfinder On-line, TUG, The Elder Scrolls On-line

Brendan: There are some nice MMOs on the horizon, however the one I am trying forward to the most is EverQuest Next. I'm an absolute sucker for sandboxes, and the thought of a fantasy sandbox with a voxel-based mostly and utterly destructible world has me absolutely excited! The huge financial success of Minecraft has impressed a deluge of voxel-based mostly games lately, but no game has yet executed the function justice. EQ Subsequent guarantees to be as far from these blocky worlds as possible whereas retaining a lot of the identical sandbox gameplay.

Bree: The day I discovered Star Wars Galaxies was closing, Smed reassured a teary-eyed me that SOE was working on an excellent larger and higher sandbox. That sandbox turned out to be EverQuest Next. I am banking on SOE's ability to parlay the whole lot it discovered from SWG -- particularly the errors -- into EQN. There are different good sandboxes on the horizon, absolutely, but nothing as prone to thrive as Subsequent.

Justin: Revolutionary sandboxes or large fanbase followings aside, I am rooting for Carbine to drag off a wacky sci-fi themepark in WildStar. I virtually hope it would not launch super-big in order that it can grow from phrase-of-mouth as an alternative of developer hype.

Richie: I'm wanting ahead to WildStar. Ever since I give up World of Warcraft, part of me has missed having a number of nights every week as scheduled hangouts with my buddies. I am itching to raid once more, and it appears to be like as if WildStar can have the very best endgame features of the 2014 MMO crop.

Most Likely to "Flop" in 2014: The Elder Scrolls On-line
Runner-up: Dust 514

Anatoli: "Flop" is a extremely loaded time period in relation to MMO. I do not assume ESO will make a lot of a splash. I doubt it'll fail as a game or as a enterprise, however I predict that a lot of people will resolve that it did when it doesn't set the whole world on hearth.

Bree: I feel ESO will launch just superb and collect a variety of box and sub fees initially, but long-time period, it is in hassle. Minecraft Modifications are sick of story-pushed single-participant themepark MMOs, console fans might be mystified by subs and a 3-method PvP endgame, and Elder Scrolls fans will wander back to the lore and mods of their solo sandboxes. I'm truly undecided for whom the game is meant, and i say that as a TES fanatic.

Matthew: I am probably not a fan of The Elder Scrolls sequence, so perhaps I am biased, however I can not see the net model having the success of the one-player installments.

MJ: If I have been forced to hazard a guess, I might say ESO. It feels as if there's a darkish shadow of "can't meet expectations" hanging over it.

Greatest Studio in 2013: Sony Online Leisure
Runner-up: Trion Worlds
Honorable Mention: Tiny Speck

Beau: SOE continues to churn out games, but the studio does so by itself terms. Like it or hate it, you can't deny that SOE has completed many, many things that have changed the course of MMOs.

Mike: SOE seems just like the studio that has the perfect hold on what the market needs. It keeps releasing engaging new content material for its existing properties, and EverQuest Next looks like the primary fantasy MMO to really attempt anything new since Ultima On-line. SOE also has a strong fame for making huge guarantees and failing to ship, but I might say it had a very good 12 months. No question all eyes are on EQN in the coming years.

Toli: Glitch's shutdown final 12 months was downright tragic, however Tiny Speck has made every effort to maintain the spirit and group alive, going as far as to launch the game's assets into the public area only recently. That's preposterous, and i mean that in the very best approach.

Biggest Story of 2013: The reveal of EverQuest Subsequent and Landmark
Runners-up: Tie between Star Citizen's Kickstarter success and Ultimate Fantasy XIV's relaunch

MJ: EverQuest Subsequent Landmark grabs this one as a result of the game got here literally out of nowhere! There was not a single whisper, trace, leak or something to counsel there was a second game on SOE's horizon. On this business, that is merely unheard of.

Tina: EverQuest Next. Everyone just went nuts, and for good purpose!

Matthew: EverQuest Next. For the reason that announcement, it seems as if the entire future of the business is colored by comparisons to our new savior. I am not going to disagree. I'll go out on a limb so far as to say I suspect Blizzard went again to the drawing board on Titan due to EQN.

Jef: Star Citizen. It's possible you'll not want to play it, and also you could also be bored with the Chris Roberts hero-worship, but you cannot deny the affect that it's had and continues to have on the way video games are made.

Greatest Disappointment of 2013: Dust 514
Other nominees: Defiance, Warhammer's sunset, the Kickstarter craze, Age of Wushu, Neverwinter, uninspired MMO design, traditional subscription fashions, no EverQuest Subsequent at SOE Reside, the gloom and doom surrounding World of Darkness, and Guild Wars 2's dwelling story.

Jef: Dust 514. I is perhaps beating a dead horse here, but console-only plus identical-old-shooter-gameplay equals meh. And CCP hyping the crap out of the EVE On-line connection wasn't significantly wise since there actually is not one.

Mike: This could also be a cop-out, however I'm pinning this on the entire MMO genre. The yr was ruled by countless re-treads of familiar fantasy worlds and lots of uninspired work from developers that should actually know higher (Trion, I'm taking a look at you). With the line between MMO and non-MMO getting blurrier by the minute, MMO developers have to get their acts together if they're hoping to remain competitive. And they need stop asking for handouts through Kickstarter.

Eliot: Kickstarter. We've had lots of funding drives for video games, some profitable, some not, with almost every single one in every of them promising the same primary gameplay philosophies, none of which has been backed up by actual finished MMOs. At the very least a type of studios has gone again to the effectively and asked for more cash from Kickstarter backers, and I don't imagine will probably be the first. It's not a development I'm blissful to see, and one that I've already written about at length. There's some great stuff on Kickstarter, but this year's glut was unpleasant.

Biggest Blunder of 2013: Subscription fashions for Elder Scrolls On-line and WildStar
Other nominees: Console MMOs, Every part ESO does, LucasArts' closure, Blizzard's lore sexism, Star Wars: The Previous Republic's area fight, FFXIV's launch woes, CCP's World of Darkness layoffs, Guild Wars 2's horrifying PR campaigns, and Diablo III's auction home fiasco.

[Replace: We discuss more about this award and the rationale behind it in December twenty sixth's Ask Massively.]

Eliot: WildStar's enterprise model no less than appears to be taken from a book written by somebody with the vaguest information of industry traits, but ESO's appears to have been designed with the assumption that each other game that went free-to-play after launch (also referred to as "just about every recreation that has launched within the previous 4 years") was a worse recreation than ESO can be. Can we please cease pretending that you can launch with a subscription now?

Mike: I think, in the long run, putting a subscription fee on The Elder Scrolls On-line will develop into a pretty bad thought. Bethesda will make piles of money earlier than it's forced to shift to free-to-play, however I'm undecided what the value might be when it comes to loyalty to the model. If followers feel burned or taken benefit of, the Elder Scrolls franchise will suffer. A subscription charge primarily says, "You may give up World of Warcraft/EVE On-line/Closing Fantasy XIV for this," and that is exceptionally bold from a studio that is never made an MMO.

Tina: I actually do not see how CCP can keep its dedication to complete World of Darkness while frequently cutting the workforce. We need to see some stable results in 2014 to show otherwise.

Largest Innovation or Trend of 2013: The return of sandbox gameplay
Runner-up: Defiance's transmedia synergy
Other nominees: Oculus Rift, Guild Wars 2's cadence, streaming games, blurring genre lines, actiony MMOs, voxels, and Warhammer's sunset.

Toli: I like that developments are swinging back toward quite a lot of gameplay options this 12 months. Voxels! Sandboxy things! I turn around and suddenly MMOs are launching with housing again! Holy smokes!

Matt: I am blissful to see extra studios tapping into the sandbox market. From heavy-hitters like EverQuest Next and Star Citizen to less-hyped titles like Pathfinder On-line, the sandbox genre is gaining loads of traction.

Larry: Defiance was a disappointment as a recreation, but as a product it broke the mold. I really enjoyed the tie-in launch of a television series with an MMO. I don't think other video games want to repeat this model exactly, but I do suppose that tie-ins, crossovers, and multi-media launches add value to a product. And that i also consider that exterior-the-box pondering must be encouraged in MMOs, even if it does ultimately flop.

Justin: Oculus Rift: May VR come back to be an actual future for MMOs? It is a risk, and what teases we're seeing this year have whet my desire to strive it out for actual.

Shawn: Closing Warhammer Online. I mean, the game was kinda fun at first, however can we cease with that exact components now? Thanks. (I'm already placing my vote in for 2015's Largest Trend to be "the top of voxel-based online games.")

Most Improved in 2013: Closing Fantasy XIV
Runners-up: Tie between Star Wars: The Previous Republic and RuneScape three

Jasmine: Remaining Fantasy XIV. It improved so much from 1.0 to 2.0 that it performs like an nearly completely completely different recreation. I do not think you may get rather more improved than that.

Beau: RuneScape 3 introduced a lot to the older sport that it really is a distinct recreation. It is all the time been dynamic and felt like a dwelling world, but this relaunch made it that significantly better.

These are our picks. Howsabout yours?