Bless Online Launching For Reals

I stumbled upon a headline from Blaugust alumni MMOist about Bless Online launching for reals on October 23.

I’ve alternated between interest and disinterest on this title since at least 2017, but I knew I wasn’t going to spend a cent on it until I could play it first. (Especially after Bhagpuss’s first impressions, parts one and two, made it sound like as uninspired a game as it could possibly be made to sound.) Luckily for me it looks like the game will launch as free-to-play.

Based on the pitchfork and torch armies marching against the title already, I expect Bless Online will be dead and shut down within a year. But in the meantime, I’ll be able to play it for free! That’s the most important thing, really. Consuming their expensive resources like a locust and giving back nothing in return!

Since it’s a new MMO, by definition, it cannot possibly remain fun for more than a week or two before settling into the boring daily routine of mindless repetition anyway. Getting a week or two of enjoyment out of a new game is about all I ever expect these days.

Not to be cynical about the deplorable state of this genre or anything. But I can’t help but remember that ESO and WildStar were the last western MMORPGs released, way back in 2014, and otherwise the genre here has been dead as doornail, because everyone is focusing on niche early access PvP games or Destiny clones or Battle Royale. Not to mention Black Desert Online was the last passably good Eastern import, and that one’s over two years old now. I might even be able to make the argument that ArcheAge was the more traditional style of MMORPG, while BDO is more of a niche-style MMO, meaning that all varieties of traditional MMORPGs have been dead as a doornail for a solid four years now.

Well that took a dark turn. Probably should just scrap this post. Everybody gets mad and defensive when you paint the genre in a negative light.

The only point here is that there might be some free amusement from Bless Online for a week at the end of October. It’s something, right? Kind of. Perhaps it will even win the coveted Endgame Viable MMORPG of the Year award for 2018. There is literally nothing else in the running right now.

Later, That Same Post

Hey, I had a late-breaking idea as I was reading over this draft and wondering if I should even post this nihilistic twaddle. (Sorry I’ve been watching Monty Python so I only know silly words now.) If we assume that every new MMORPG will become old, stale, and/or dead within the first year, leaving nothing but a husk of the vibrant game it was in the first month (based on simple observations of  every MMORPG that has ever been released in the last twenty years), wouldn’t it be cool if, when a new MMORPG launched, they plan to shut it down in a year? Make it like a “limited” television series, or miniseries. Give it a world-altering story that plays out with a beginning, middle, and eventual end. (Like the now almost mythological first season of Guild Wars 2 Living World.)

I have no idea how to make the economics of it work though. You could charge an up-front buy-to-play fee for the one-year run. If, by some miracle, it turns out to be a huge hit and everyone still wants to play it after the “end,” you could just start it up again and replay it for another year, maybe even charge a very small fee for the second time around. Like a “progression” server. If it’s a big hit the first time around, word-of-mouth would make the second year even bigger.

Anyway, just a thought. It’s probably a terrible idea. It would be a huge risk for investors. But it would certainly get my attention. Something new and interesting in the RPG industry.