Massively's Better Of 2022 Awards

It's practically the tip of the year, a time for merriment, camaraderie, and cynical evaluation of all of the MMO triumphs and tragedies that 2013 offered us.

At present, Massively's staff honors the better of one of the best (and the worst of the worst) for the year 2013. Every writer was permitted a vote in each class with an something-goes nomination process. No MMO, company, or headline was off the desk, as long because it met the factors. Can WildStar make it to a few 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 more likely to flop subsequent 12 months? And just what constituted the biggest MMO screw-up of the final 12 months?

Enjoy our picks for the perfect MMOs, expansions, studios, stories, and improvements of 2013... and our most-anticipated for 2014 and beyond.

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

Jasmine: Remaining Fantasy XIV, hands down. This sport managed to achieve one thing I assumed was unimaginable: Sq.-Enix took a game that I considered the worst MMO I've ever played and turned it into something that keeps me logging in every chance I get.

Eliot: When you had requested me two weeks in the past, I would have said Ultimate Fantasy XIV with out reservation. Now do not get me incorrect; every part good about the original version is dropped at the forefront, and all the things unfavourable has either been eliminated or minimized. But the 2.1 replace and the housing fiasco have driven residence the concept that we're not out of the woods and that we're just looking at an period of daring new mistakes. If these points get fastened, then I've high hopes for the future; if not, it will be a shocking example of a stunning turnaround adopted by a shameful crash.

Best Growth or Update of 2013: Guild Wars 2's Tremendous Journey Box
Runners-up: Tie between EVE On-line's Odyssey, EVE Online's Rubicon, and Star Trek Online's
Legacy of Romulus

Richie: Guild Wars 2's Tremendous Adventure Field patch stands out in such a profound way 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 superb photos from an 8-bit world accompanied by a hilarious, cheesy, '80s-style commercial. Once i logged into the game and realized that SAB was actually in the sport, my jaw hit my desk. There have been three full ranges of this 8-bit world full with secrets, puzzles, boss battles, original music rating, and customized sound results -- a full platforming journey recreation neatly tucked inside of my MMO.

Brendan: I've written a good bit on why I like this year's Odyssey and Rubicon expansions, however Rubicon's personal deployable buildings push it just over the edge. The Mobile Depot has made long-time period exploration a really possible career by permitting tech three ships to refit anyplace in deep area, and Ghost Websites have added some extra reward for these scouring deep space. The change to warp acceleration has additionally fastened the disparity between small and enormous ships and enabled actual hit-and-run type warfare again.

Greatest 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 oldsters at Grinding Gear Games have taken the time-honored action-RPG components popularized by Diablo and twisted it up into an expertise that feels both fresh and acquainted. Eschewing conventional courses and development in favor of an virtually inconceivably enormous ability tree and allowing players to customize their capability loadouts via interchangeable gems are just two of the unique spins Path of Exile brings to the desk, and with its number of leagues and competitions, there's something right here for your complete informal-hardcore spectrum.

Justin: Hearthstone. If nearly everyone's in beta, does it count? I say it counts. Blizzard's received a cash cow hit on its palms, and the combination 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 wide 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 game, and players did not respect Neverwinter for what it was: a enjoyable sport that you simply spend a few minutes to a few hours enjoying to unwind from the day by day stress. When i revisited the sport, I used to be truly shocked at how a lot fun I had. I don't have to stress about rotations or builds or the standard MMO worries. I simply log in, pound via a few dungeons, then carry on with my day.

Tina: I believe lots of people boxed Neverwinter below the "more of the identical" category without giving it an opportunity. The traditional charm is updated nicely through the 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons freshness.

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

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

Brendan: There are some nice MMOs on the horizon, but the one I am trying ahead to essentially the most is EverQuest Subsequent. I am an absolute sucker for sandboxes, and the thought of a fantasy sandbox with a voxel-based mostly and fully destructible world has me absolutely excited! The massive monetary success of Minecraft has impressed a deluge of voxel-based mostly video games in recent years, however no game has but performed the characteristic justice. EQ Next guarantees to be as far from these blocky worlds as attainable whereas retaining much of the identical sandbox gameplay.

Bree: The day I realized Star Wars Galaxies was closing, Smed reassured a teary-eyed me that SOE was working on a fair bigger and higher sandbox. That sandbox turned out to be EverQuest Subsequent. I'm banking on SOE's capability to parlay every thing it learned from SWG -- especially the mistakes -- into EQN. There are other good sandboxes on the horizon, completely, however nothing as prone to thrive as Next.

Justin: Revolutionary sandboxes or large fanbase followings apart, I'm rooting for Carbine to drag off a wacky sci-fi themepark in WildStar. I virtually hope it doesn't launch tremendous-huge so that it will probably grow from phrase-of-mouth instead of developer hype.

Richie: I am looking forward to WildStar. Ever since I stop World of Warcraft, part of me has missed having a few 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 could have one of the best endgame features of the 2014 MMO crop.

Most More likely to "Flop" in 2014: The Elder Scrolls On-line
Runner-up: Mud 514

Anatoli: "Flop" is a really loaded time period in terms of MMO. I don't think ESO will make much of a splash. I doubt it will fail as a game or as a venture, but I predict that lots of people will decide that it did when it doesn't set the whole world on fire.

Bree: I think ESO will launch just tremendous and gather a lot of box and sub fees initially, however lengthy-time period, it's in bother. MMORPG followers are sick of story-pushed single-participant themepark MMOs, console fans shall 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 actually undecided for whom the game is intended, and that i say that as a TES fanatic.

Matthew: I'm probably not a fan of The Elder Scrolls series, so possibly I'm biased, but I can't see the net version having the success of the one-participant installments.

MJ: If I were compelled 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.

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

Beau: SOE continues to churn out video games, however the studio does so on its own phrases. Find it irresistible or hate it, you cannot 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 wants. It retains releasing participating new content material for its existing properties, and EverQuest Next looks like the primary fantasy MMO to actually strive something new since Ultima On-line. SOE additionally has Minecraft Servers for making massive guarantees and failing to deliver, but I might say it had an excellent year. No query all eyes are on EQN in the approaching years.

Toli: Glitch's shutdown final 12 months was downright tragic, but Tiny Speck has made each effort to keep the spirit and neighborhood alive, going so far as to launch the game's belongings into the general public area just recently. That is preposterous, and that i imply that in the very best means.

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

MJ: EverQuest Subsequent Landmark grabs this one as a result of the sport got here literally out of nowhere! There was not a single whisper, hint, leak or anything to counsel there was a second sport on SOE's horizon. In this trade, that's simply unheard of.

Tina: EverQuest Next. Everybody just went nuts, and for good motive!

Matthew: EverQuest Subsequent. Because the announcement, it seems as if the whole future of the industry is colored by comparisons to our new savior. I'm not going to disagree. I will exit on a limb as far as to say I believe Blizzard went again to the drawing board on Titan because of EQN.

Jef: Star Citizen. You could not wish to play it, and also you could also be uninterested in the Chris Roberts hero-worship, however you can't deny the impact that it is had and continues to have on the best 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, traditional subscription fashions, no EverQuest Subsequent at SOE Reside, the gloom and doom surrounding World of Darkness, and Guild Wars 2's living story.

Jef: Mud 514. I is likely to be beating a useless horse here, but console-only plus similar-outdated-shooter-gameplay equals meh. And CCP hyping the crap out of the EVE On-line connection wasn't notably sensible since there really is not one.

Mike: This may be a cop-out, but I am pinning this on the complete MMO genre. The year was ruled by countless re-treads of familiar fantasy worlds and a variety of uninspired work from builders that ought to actually know better (Trion, I am looking at you). With the road between MMO and non-MMO getting blurrier by the minute, MMO developers must get their acts collectively in the event that they're hoping to stay aggressive. And they need stop asking for handouts via Kickstarter.

Eliot: Kickstarter. We have had loads of funding drives for video games, some profitable, some not, with almost every single one in every of them promising the same basic gameplay philosophies, none of which has been backed up by precise completed MMOs. At least a type of studios has gone again to the well and requested for extra money from Kickstarter backers, and I don't imagine it will likely be the first. It's not a development I am happy to see, and one which I've already written about at size. There's some nice stuff on Kickstarter, however this year's glut was unpleasant.

Biggest Blunder of 2013: Subscription models for Elder Scrolls Online and WildStar
Different nominees: Console MMOs, All the things ESO does, LucasArts' closure, Blizzard's lore sexism, Star Wars: The Old 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.

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

Eliot: WildStar's business model at least appears to be taken from a ebook written by somebody with the vaguest knowledge of business traits, but ESO's appears to have been designed with the assumption that every other sport that went free-to-play after launch (also known as "just about every sport that has launched inside the past four years") was a worse recreation than ESO will likely be. Can we please stop pretending that you can launch with a subscription now?

Mike: I believe, in the long term, putting a subscription charge on The Elder Scrolls On-line will change into a pretty unhealthy thought. Bethesda will make piles of cash before it's pressured to shift to free-to-play, but I'm not sure what the worth will probably be by way of loyalty to the model. If fans really feel burned or taken benefit of, the Elder Scrolls franchise will endure. A subscription fee essentially says, "You may stop World of Warcraft/EVE Online/Remaining Fantasy XIV for this," and that is exceptionally bold from a studio that's never made an MMO.

Tina: I truthfully do not see how CCP can keep its commitment to complete World of Darkness whereas regularly slicing the crew. We need to see some strong results in 2014 to prove in any other case.

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

Toli: I like that tendencies are swinging again toward quite a lot of gameplay options this 12 months. Voxels! Sandboxy things! I flip around and out of the blue MMOs are launching with housing again! Holy smokes!

Matt: I'm pleased to see extra studios tapping into the sandbox market. From heavy-hitters like EverQuest Subsequent and Star Citizen to less-hyped titles like Pathfinder On-line, the sandbox style is gaining lots of traction.

Larry: Defiance was a disappointment as a sport, but as a product it broke the mold. I really enjoyed the tie-in launch of a television collection with an MMO. I don't think other video games want to repeat this mannequin exactly, however I do think that tie-ins, crossovers, and multi-media launches add worth to a product. And that i also believe that outdoors-the-box considering needs to be inspired in MMOs, even when it does in the end flop.

Justin: Oculus Rift: Might VR come back to be an actual future for MMOs? It's a chance, and what teases we're seeing this 12 months have whet my desire to strive it out for real.

Shawn: Closing Warhammer On-line. I mean, the game was kinda enjoyable at first, but can we cease with that actual components now? Thanks. (I am already placing my vote in for 2015's Largest Pattern to be "the top of voxel-primarily based online video games.")

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

Jasmine: Closing Fantasy XIV. It improved so much from 1.0 to 2.0 that it plays like an almost entirely completely different game. I do not suppose you will get way more improved than that.

Beau: RuneScape three introduced so much to the older sport that it actually is a different game. It's always been dynamic and felt like a residing world, but this relaunch made it that a lot better.

Those are our picks. Howsabout yours?