Why MMORPGs Never Win Awards .

With the video game award season having disappeared for this year, one can’t help but wonder: why don’t MMORPGs ever get any awards? Granted games in the genre sometimes get awards for the multiplayer aspects of awards, however you’ll never see an MMORPG get the Game of the Year Award. Why is that?

I think it all stems from the fact MMORPGs aren’t exactly the pinnacle of game design and industry evolution, whilst many of the games that win awards generally are. Let’s look at BAFTA winner, The Last of Us.

The Last of Us

The Last of Us isn’t exactly the most original game in the world, the gameplay isn’t really innovative and there are plenty of flaws. Having said that, it contains one thing which many MMORPGs lack, a good story and message. The Last of Us is essentially about two people surviving a zombie apocalypse (okay, they’re plant zombies but they’re still basically zombies), with one of them being an older man who remembers a time before the zombie’s existed and the other being a young girl who grew up in a world full with zombies, and does not know any other world. It’s a deep premise that creates an emotional response in players.

The gameplay, as previously mentioned, is tried and tested, however it works for the game, creating a game which feels beautiful to play. This is the same case for the graphics and sound, which all come together to create a truly magnificent work of art which resonates with players around the work.

Super Mario 3D World for the Wii U

The Mario franchise typically wins a variety of awards, with the latest Mario game being Super Mario 3D World for the Wii U. Mario games don’t focus on a story, but rather on providing an excellent gameplay experience which will have the player smiling and cheering the whole way. Mario games are typically incredibly well designed, with the designers having spent a lot of manpower making the game feel and play great.

Papers, Please

Papers, Please, an indie game which has the player doing tedious government work in order to make a living and keep their family alive. Papers, Please is a game which examines governments, border control and bribery. It’s not the most fun experience you’ll ever play, then again it’s not supposed to be. Instead Papers, Please is supposed to make you think.

Each of the three listed games achieves what they want to do with excellent results. Sure each game has its own unique focus, maybe at the expense of one aspect of the game, however they are fine examples of what the video game industry can create, and how it can have an impact on people.

MMORPGs are different though, they’re made for a different purpose. I feel as even though early MMOs have been developed with pure intentions in mind (such as people wanting to make a truly immersive and expansive world which players can participate in), that the genre has long since become a genre about generating the most revenue.

Most MMORPGs are filled with time wasting activities, for example, which have no purpose than to bore the player and keep them playing for a bit longer. Be these time wasters be in the form of making the player grind the same dungeons for weeks for a specific piece of gear, or making the player wait a long time for a specific event to happen. MMOs are filled with these little bits and pieces where traditional, player friendly, design is thrown out of the window, and instead is replaced with a design that aims to maximize revenues.

Of course time wasters aren’t the only point where usual game design is through to the curb. A lot of MMORPGs are just flat out boring to play, requiring the player to just stare at a screen and press a series of numbers. For a recent example look to Final Fantasy XIV. Typically I enjoyed playing the game as a tank, however when I made the switch to DPS I became instantly bored as there wasn’t really anything any gameplay mechanics for me to play around with other than spamming a certain damage key and being careful not to die.

Indeed engaging gameplay is something which most MMORPGs do not have.

Final Fantasy XIV requires other players to be fun.

Story is again something which most games lack, as well as themes or an interesting world. Final Fantasy XIV’s world is beautifully crafted, however it feels empty and devoid of emotion as the NPCs just stand around picking their noses and are stuck forever in time, just standing in space and waiting.

MMORPGs focus too much on the other players to fill the void, and sometimes that just isn’t enough. Typically games which are nominated for awards are whole products, which work by themselves, however for an MMORPG to work you need other (good and interesting) players.

There are just too many variables going against the genre, and to many badly designed mechanics. No other game would make me wait for a cool down to pass before I can do an event in a game, however MMORPGs do.

That’s not to say MMORPGs are bad, not at all. It’s just there are so many variables which MMOs need to fill, and there are so many games which require much less to excel. Generally an awards show should be about highlighting the best of the industry, and I think MMORPGs still have a long way to go to achieve that.

Having said that, there aren’t really a lot of good video game awards being handed out to begin with. The BAFTA’s are about as prodigious as game award ceremonies get. It’s not like the film industry where there are several awards such as the Golden Globes, BAFTAs and then the Oscars. Of course, many websites do hand at awards to various games at the end of the year, however I’m not too sure how much value those actually have.

Maybe whether or not MMORPGs get awards is a bit of a non-issue, considering how lacklustre the awards that get given out are. I would hope that in the future there would be more prodigious ceremonies, and that they would see the merit of the MMORPG, and I’m sure there will be. We just have to wait until such things exist.

Take a look at our last article where we discuss EVE: Online and which direction it’s heading into.

In last weeks article we took a look at different games being in Beta testing phase.