On The Radar For 2018

Here’s my annual summary of PC MMORPGs that are on my radar for the new year 2018. (Here is 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014). I am only considering “traditional” style MMORPGs in this list, not things like MOBAs or brawlers or Diablo-clones or whatever else people call MMOs these days. Actually, since I find out about these from MMO sites, and most MMO sites now cover things that aren’t traditional MMORPGs, some of these might in fact not be traditional MMORPGs. But I try to weed out things that are obviously not MMORPGs, like, say, Conan Exiles.

Note: I only thought of two noteworthy new games announced in 2017 and I have made no attempt to find any others. I’m sure they are out there if you go digging for them. But I can’t think of anything else that got any traction.

Games I Want To Play

These are games that I’m genuinely looking forward to sinking my teeth into and playing longterm (which is roughly a month, for me).

Shroud of the Avatar. I thought about changing my feelings after playing the free trial in 2017. The game is a bit, well, odd. But it is certainly not a mainstream game so that alone makes it interesting enough to remain on the “looking forward to” list. It really just depends on the price point. I have a lot less disposable income these days (basically none as of this writing).

Project Gorgon. No reason to change from last year. I did not think about, read about, or see this game at all during 2017. It’s entirely possible the same will happen in 2018.

New World. No change from last year. We heard absolutely nothing about this game in 2017. Not even one new screenshot. It’s a completely blank canvas, and thus, the game upon which we can project all of our MMORPG hopes and dreams! (In reality, it will almost certainly just be a PR-driven vehicle for building Twitch audiences, and the minute we learn more about it, I will probably drop it down to the “undecided” category.)

Games I Want To Try

I changed this category from “games I’ll probably buy” to “games I want to try.” These are games that I’m interesting in seeing just to see what all the talk is about, and might buy just to be part of the “in crowd,” but for whatever reason I don’t think they will be a good long-term fit for me.

Crowfall. No change from last year. Still sick of hearing about, still don’t think I will like it, still think it will be “old” by the time it launches, but am still interested in trying it out.

Camelot Unchained. No change from last year. Same as above. Don’t think I will like it, but I’m interesting in trying it out.

Games I’m Undecided About

These are games that I just don’t know enough yet to make any commitments. (Technically all of them should go here, but you know what I mean.)

Ashes of Creation. One of only two noteworthy new MMORPGs announced in 2017. Most people are excited about this game based on a few videos, but I am very much reserving judgment until this game is much farther along. They have two strikes against them for resembling and copying the acronyms AC and AoC, both of which were seminal works in the genre they are supposedly familiar with. It’s hard to trust people with the future of a genre when they apparently know or care nothing of its history.

Bless Online and Chronicles of Elyria. No change from last year. I keep hearing positive things (or at least “things”) about them, but I don’t know enough to make any decisions.

Pantheon: Something of Something. No change from last year. I would very much like to be able to try this game before buying it.

Sea of Thieves. I am not as excited about this as apparently the rest of the world is. Pirates don’t hold any special mystique for me. I saw an E3 trailer and it honestly didn’t look that interesting.

Worlds Adrift, Lost Ark, Saga of Lucimia, and Twilight Spirits. No change from last year. I did not read, hear, or see a single thing about these games in 2017. I don’t even know if they still exist.

Games I’m Not Interested In

These are games that I’m not planning to spend any money on without considerably more convincing.

Life is Feudal. Little change from last year. However it appears the MMORPG version is now in closed beta and might see a release in 2018. I am still not holding my breath.

Gloria Victis. Little change from last year. Still in early access and I’m not holding my breath.

MapleStory 2. No change from last year. Probably not for me.

Moonlight Blade. Moving down to “not interested” for the same reason as Peria Chronicles. If it’s free, I might try it, but I doubt I would spend money on it.

Peria Chronicles. I moved this down to “not interested” simply because I have less money to spend now and anime doesn’t resonate with me. But if I can try it for free, I probably will.

Project TL. Formerly Lineage Eternal. I haven’t played any of the Lineage games, so why start now? Also it is not clear to me whether this game will be an MMORPG, or even a PC game at this point.

Star Citizen. No change from last year. I didn’t back it and I still don’t care. If it ever comes out, I might buy it, but you can safely bet that I won’t be spending a dime on this until after some reviews from non-backers start coming in that rigorously critique the game.

Wild West Online. The second new game announcement in 2017. I thought about putting this under “undecided” but I just don’t have very much faith in this one. I actually think it’s going to be more of a Quake-style client/server game than an MMORPG. If so it doesn’t even belong here. The screenshots look nice, though.

Removed Games

These games were removed from the radar this year:

Albion Online. This game launched in 2017. I am interested in trying it, but haven’t heard any positive buzz so I am fine waiting.

Darkfall, any remake. I think one of them launched in 2017, but I don’t know about the other one. In any case, I’m not interested.

Destiny 2. It’s out, I played the open beta, and it’s a mediocre shooter propped up entirely by PR/fan hype.

Ever, Jane. This game went into “open beta” in 2016 and remained so in 2017. While it hasn’t “launched” per se, since there is no more barrier to entry, I think it’s now beyond the scope of this list. I haven’t tried it.

The Exiled. Formerly Das Tal. This was launched as “early access” in 2017 … for free. Which I think could be considered a regular old soft launch. So it’s not longer “approaching,” it’s “here,” and thus beyond the scope of this post. I haven’t tried it yet but since it’s free I might. I don’t expect to like it though, as it’s an isometric PvP game.

Lineage Eternal. In one of the most puzzling branding moves in recent memory, Lineage Eternal, believe it or not, was renamed to Project TL.

Nostalrius. I only included this last one year as a joke. :)

The Repopulation. I’ll be honest I’m not entirely sure what the current status of this game is, whether it’s launched or not, or even running or not. I got it on Steam Early Access in 2015, and it’s gone down and back up since then. In any case, I think it’s beyond the scope of this list now? Maybe?

Revival. Given that the lead developer left for Chronicles of Elyria, I think it’s safe to assume this game is dead for good now. Bummer.

Revelation Online. This game launched in 2017. I tried it, and didn’t particularly care for it. (I mean, it wasn’t bad it was just average.)

Shards Online. This game was renamed to Legends of Aria.

Tree of Life. This game launched in 2017. Similar to Albion Online, I am interested in trying it, but perhaps not enough to actually spend money on it.

Wander. I think this game is dead. As an idea, it had potential, but the implementation wasn’t very good.