Massively''s Best Of 2022 Awards It''s almost the end of the year, a time for merriment, camaraderie, and cynical evaluation of all the MMO triumphs and tragedies that 2013 supplied us.

Massively''s Best Of 2022 Awards

It''s almost the end of the year, a time for merriment, camaraderie, and cynical evaluation of all the MMO triumphs and tragedies that 2013 supplied us.

As we speak, Massively''s staff honors the best of the very best (and the worst of the worst) for the yr 2013. Each author was permitted a vote in every category with an something-goes nomination course of. No MMO, company, or headline was off the table, as long as it met the factors. Can WildStar make it to 3 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 next year? And simply what constituted the most important MMO screw-up of the last 12 months?

Get pleasure from our picks for one of the best MMOs, expansions, studios, tales, and innovations of 2013... and our most-anticipated for 2014 and past.

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

Jasmine: Ultimate Fantasy XIV, fingers down. This game managed to achieve something I thought was impossible: Square-Enix took a recreation that I thought-about the worst MMO I''ve ever performed and turned it into something that keeps me logging in each chance I get.

Eliot: If you happen to had requested me two weeks ago, I''d have mentioned Last Fantasy XIV without reservation. Now don''t get me incorrect; every thing good about the original model is delivered to the forefront, and every part damaging has both been removed or minimized. However the 2.1 replace and the housing fiasco have driven residence the concept we''re not out of the woods and that we''re just taking a look at an period of bold new errors. If these points get mounted, then I''ve high hopes for the longer term; if not, it will be a shocking example of a gorgeous turnaround adopted by a shameful crash.

Finest Expansion or Replace of 2013: Guild Wars 2''s Super Journey Field
Runners-up: Tie between EVE Online''s Odyssey, EVE On-line''s Rubicon, and Star Trek On-line''s
Legacy of Romulus

Richie: Guild Wars 2''s Tremendous Adventure Field patch stands out in such a profound method because many players thought it was nothing greater than an April Fools'' Joke. The official webpage was up to date with superb photographs from an 8-bit world accompanied by a hilarious, cheesy, ''80s-type business. Once i logged into the sport and realized that SAB was really in the game, my jaw hit my desk. There were three full ranges of this 8-bit world full with secrets, puzzles, boss battles, unique music score, and custom sound results -- a full platforming adventure game neatly tucked inside of my MMO.

Brendan: I''ve written a fair bit on why I love this yr''s Odyssey and Rubicon expansions, however Rubicon''s private deployable buildings push it just over the sting. The Mobile Depot has made long-time period exploration a very possible profession by allowing tech three ships to refit anyplace in deep space, and Ghost Websites have added some additional reward for these scouring deep house. The change to warp acceleration has additionally mounted the disparity between small and enormous ships and enabled actual hit-and-run model warfare once more.

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

Matt: Path of Exile gets my vote for this one. The parents at Grinding Gear Video games have taken the time-honored motion-RPG system popularized by Diablo and twisted it up into an experience that feels both fresh and familiar. Eschewing conventional classes and development in favor of an virtually inconceivably big talent tree and allowing gamers to customise their potential loadouts by means of interchangeable gems are just two of the distinctive spins Path of Exile brings to the desk, and with its number of leagues and competitions, there''s one thing here for your complete casual-hardcore spectrum.

Justin: Hearthstone. If just about everybody''s in beta, does it depend? I say it counts. Blizzard''s received a money cow hit on its palms, and the mix of World of Warcraft and Magic-lite is just impressed. Plus, it''s pretty fun.

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

Larry: Neverwinter launched with a large viewers and the hopes of being a full-fledged Dungeons and Dragons MMO. But alas, that''s not what Cryptic had in thoughts for the sport, and avid gamers didn''t admire Neverwinter for what it was: a enjoyable game that you spend a few minutes to a few hours playing to unwind from the every day stress. After i revisited the game, I used to be really shocked at how much fun I had. I do not must stress about rotations or builds or the usual MMO worries. I merely log in, pound through a couple of dungeons, then carry on with my day.

Tina: I feel a lot of people boxed Neverwinter underneath the "more of the identical" class without giving it an opportunity. The standard charm is updated nicely by means of the 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons freshness.

Jef: Defiance is not setting the world on fire or anything, however I enjoyed my time in it, and i keep it put in in case I would like some sci-fi shooter motion with questing and a function.

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

Brendan: There are some nice MMOs on the horizon, however the one I am wanting ahead to essentially the most is EverQuest Next. I am an absolute sucker for sandboxes, and the thought of a fantasy sandbox with a voxel-primarily based and completely destructible world has me completely excited! The huge monetary success of Minecraft has impressed a deluge of voxel-based mostly games lately, but no recreation has but executed the characteristic justice. EQ Next promises to be as far from these blocky worlds as doable whereas retaining a lot of the identical sandbox gameplay.

Bree: The day I realized Star Wars Galaxies was closing, Smed reassured a teary-eyed me that SOE was engaged on an even greater and better sandbox. That sandbox turned out to be EverQuest Next. I am banking on SOE''s skill to parlay everything it discovered from SWG -- especially the errors -- into EQN. There are different good sandboxes on the horizon, absolutely, but nothing as more likely to thrive as Next.

Justin: Modern sandboxes or large fanbase followings apart, I am rooting for Carbine to tug off a wacky sci-fi themepark in WildStar. I almost hope it does not launch tremendous-massive so that it will probably grow from phrase-of-mouth instead of developer hype.

Richie: I am looking ahead to WildStar. Ever since I stop World of Warcraft, a part of me has missed having just a few nights every week as scheduled hangouts with my mates. I am itching to raid again, and it appears as if WildStar may have the best endgame options of the 2014 MMO crop.

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

Anatoli: "Flop" is a very loaded term in relation to MMO. I don''t suppose ESO will make much of a splash. I doubt it''s going to fail as a game or as a enterprise, however I predict that lots of people will determine that it did when it doesn''t set the whole world on fire.

Bree: I believe ESO will launch just fantastic and acquire plenty of box and sub charges initially, however long-term, it''s in trouble. MMORPG fans are sick of story-driven single-player themepark MMOs, console fans will likely be mystified by subs and a three-manner PvP endgame, and Elder Scrolls followers will wander again to the lore and mods of their solo sandboxes. I''m truly unsure for whom the game is meant, and that i say that as a TES fanatic.

Matthew: I''m not likely a fan of The Elder Scrolls collection, so maybe I am biased, but I can''t see the web version having the success of the one-player installments.

MJ: If I had been compelled to hazard a guess, I would say ESO. It feels as if there is a darkish shadow of "cannot meet expectations" hanging over it.

Greatest Studio in 2013: Sony On-line Entertainment
Runner-up: Trion Worlds
Honorable Mention: Tiny Speck

Beau: SOE continues to churn out games, however the studio does so on its own phrases. Like it or hate it, you cannot deny that SOE has accomplished many, many things which have changed the course of MMOs.

Mike: SOE seems like the studio that has the best hold on what the market desires. It retains releasing engaging new content for its existing properties, and EverQuest Next looks like the primary fantasy MMO to truly try something new since Ultima On-line. SOE also has a stable status for making huge promises and failing to ship, but I might say it had a very good year. No question all eyes are on EQN in the approaching years.

Toli: Glitch''s shutdown final year was downright tragic, but Tiny Speck has made every effort to maintain the spirit and group alive, going so far as to release the sport''s property into the public domain only recently. That is preposterous, and that i imply that in the best possible way.

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

MJ: EverQuest Next Landmark grabs this one because the game came literally out of nowhere! There was not a single whisper, trace, leak or something to counsel there was a second sport on SOE''s horizon. On this business, that is simply unheard of.

Tina: EverQuest Next. Everyone simply went nuts, and for good cause!

Matthew: EverQuest Next. For the reason that announcement, it appears as if the entire future of the industry is colored by comparisons to our new savior. I''m not going to disagree. I will go out on a limb so far as to say I think Blizzard went back to the drawing board on Titan due to EQN.

Jef: Star Citizen. You might not need to play it, and also you may be bored with the Chris Roberts hero-worship, however you can''t deny the impact that it is had and continues to have on the way video games are made.

Largest Disappointment of 2013: Mud 514
Other nominees: Defiance, Warhammer''s sunset, the Kickstarter craze, Age of Wushu, Neverwinter, uninspired MMO design, conventional subscription models, no EverQuest Next at SOE Stay, the gloom and doom surrounding World of Darkness, and Guild Wars 2''s living story.

Jef: Dust 514. I is likely to be beating a useless horse right here, but console-solely plus same-outdated-shooter-gameplay equals meh. And CCP hyping the crap out of the EVE On-line connection wasn''t significantly smart since there really isn''t one.

Mike: This may be a cop-out, however I am pinning this on your complete MMO style. The 12 months was dominated by countless re-treads of acquainted fantasy worlds and a whole lot 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 collectively in the event that they''re hoping to remain competitive. And they want stop asking for handouts through Kickstarter.

Eliot: Kickstarter. Minecraft servers have had a variety of funding drives for games, some successful, some not, with almost every single certainly one of them promising the identical basic gameplay philosophies, none of which has been backed up by precise completed MMOs. At the least a type of studios has gone back to the well and requested for more money from Kickstarter backers, and I do not think about it is going to be the first. It''s not a trend I''m comfortable to see, and one which I''ve already written about at length. There''s some nice stuff on Kickstarter, but this 12 months''s glut was unpleasant.

Largest Blunder of 2013: Subscription fashions for Elder Scrolls Online and WildStar
Other nominees: Console MMOs, The whole lot ESO does, LucasArts'' closure, Blizzard''s lore sexism, Star Wars: The Outdated Republic''s house combat, FFXIV''s launch woes, CCP''s World of Darkness layoffs, Guild Wars 2''s horrifying PR campaigns, and Diablo III''s auction house fiasco.

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

Eliot: WildStar''s business mannequin a minimum of appears to be taken from a ebook written by somebody with the vaguest knowledge of business trends, but ESO''s appears to have been designed with the assumption that every different recreation that went free-to-play after launch (also called "just about every sport that has launched within the previous 4 years") was a worse recreation than ESO will be. Can we please stop pretending that you can launch with a subscription now?

Mike: I feel, in the long term, putting a subscription charge on The Elder Scrolls Online will turn out to be a fairly bad idea. Bethesda will make piles of cash earlier than it''s forced to shift to free-to-play, but I am undecided what the price shall be in terms of loyalty to the brand. If followers really feel burned or taken benefit of, the Elder Scrolls franchise will suffer. A subscription fee basically says, "You will stop World of Warcraft/EVE Online/Remaining Fantasy XIV for this," and that is exceptionally bold from a studio that''s by no means made an MMO.

Tina: I truthfully do not see how CCP can keep its commitment to complete World of Darkness while continually reducing the crew. We need to see some stable results in 2014 to show in any other case.

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

Toli: I like that developments are swinging again towards quite a lot of gameplay options this yr. Voxels! Sandboxy issues! I flip around and immediately MMOs are launching with housing once more! Holy smokes!

Matt: I am comfortable to see more studios tapping into the sandbox market. From heavy-hitters like EverQuest Next and Star Citizen to less-hyped titles like Pathfinder Online, the sandbox style is gaining loads of traction.

Larry: Defiance was a disappointment as a game, however as a product it broke the mold. I actually enjoyed the tie-in launch of a television series with an MMO. I don''t think other games need to copy this mannequin precisely, but I do think that tie-ins, crossovers, and multi-media launches add value to a product. And that i additionally believe that outside-the-box thinking must be encouraged in MMOs, even if it does in the end flop.

Justin: Oculus Rift: May VR come back to be an precise future for MMOs? It''s a chance, and what teases we''re seeing this yr have whet my want to attempt it out for real.

Shawn: Closing Warhammer Online. I mean, the sport was kinda enjoyable at first, however can we cease with that exact components now? Thanks. (I am already placing my vote in for 2015''s Biggest Pattern to be "the end of voxel-based online games.")

Most Improved in 2013: Final Fantasy XIV
Runners-up: Tie between Star Wars: The Old Republic and RuneScape 3

Jasmine: Last Fantasy XIV. It improved a lot from 1.0 to 2.Zero that it performs like an nearly totally completely different game. I do not suppose you may get rather more improved than that.

Beau: RuneScape three introduced so much to the older recreation that it really is a unique recreation. It''s all the time been dynamic and felt like a residing world, but this relaunch made it that much better.

Those are our picks. Howsabout yours?