What Is the MMO Drought and What Can You Do About It?

If you're an MMO gamer, you may feel you are suffering a bit of a content drought right now. It has been many years since any new MMOs released, and the MMOs that are currently available are showing their age.

This article will explain what the MMO drought is and offer ideas on what to do about it.

What Is the MMO Drought?

The "MMO drought" is a term referring to the lack of AAA MMO releases since 2014. The last AAA MMO releases were Wildstar and Black Desert Online in 2014, which both failed to retain a large player base.

Since then, AAA MMO development has become a rarity. Most AAA game studios have taken up other projects like battle royale games or first-person shooters. The risks to building a new MMO are high, and given several colossal flops in recent history, many AAA studios are steering away from MMO development and into safer territories.

How Can You Overcome the MMO Drought?

If MMOs are your favorite genre, what are you supposed to do about this? Well, there are a few approaches you can take. Here is a list of actions that could remedy your situation.

Play Old-but-Active MMOs

There are several old MMOs that are still active and pushing out new content for their players. The four major titles are World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy 14, and Guild Wars 2. If you just want to play a decent MMO, one of these might have what you are looking for.

World of Warcraft Guide With Cat In Background — Image Credit: WTFast/Unsplash

All four of these MMOs offer free trials, making them easy to try out. FFXIV expanded its free trial to let you play for free indefinitely, and others have adopted similar trial models. If any of these older MMOs interest you, check out their free trial options.

If none of these larger MMOs have what you are looking for, don't forget about the smaller MMOs that are still out there. A few smaller MMOs still have active player bases, like Runescape, Lord of the Rings Online, and the original Guild Wars, just to name a few.

Look for Upcoming Expansions

Expansions are a great time to get back into MMOs, because they bring large influxes of players along with them. See if any current MMOs have a big expansion coming up, and if one looks cool, you could play when it releases alongside many other gamers.

A few of the larger MMOs are still putting expansions out at a steady rate. World of Warcraft just released their latest expansion, Shadowlands, which sold extremely well on launch day.

The Elder Scrolls Online is putting out downloadable content under their new theme Gates of Oblivion. And, last but not least, Final Fantasy 14 developers are hard at work on their upcoming expansion Endwalker.

Although you may not have heard of them, there are new MMOs in the works. These MMOs in development will eventually begin play testing (if they haven't already). One such example would be Amazon's forthcoming New World, which is set for release on August 31st, 2021. You can sign up to test the game via the Tester Sign-Up page at newworld.com.

Play tests are great way to support upcoming MMOs and get your MMO fix in the process. To sign up for a play test, visit the website of an upcoming MMO and sign up for an account. Next, make sure you are subscribed to their mailing list. This way, when play testing begins, you will receive an email notification.

Donate to a Crowdsourced Project

Most of the studios working on MMOs right now are small indie studios. These indie studios are picking up where AAA studios left off, working on what they hope will be the next generation of great MMOs.

These indie studios lack the resources that AAA studios have, and, therefore, use crowdsourcing to fund their projects. If you want to support the upcoming generation of MMOs, consider donating to a project of your liking. If you are unfamiliar with crowdfunding, read about what crowdfunding is and whether you can trust a Kickstart campaign.

To donate to a crowdsourced project, find an active campaign on a site like Kickstarter or Indiegogo, or visit the website of a known project and look for bundles or supporter packs. Most of the time, if you donate, you will be rewarded with custom swag or special recognition from the development team.

Now You Can Cope With the MMO Drought

If you didn't already know what the MMO drought was, hopefully now you do. And if you were already familiar with it, and were feeling its effects, undoubtedly now you have some ideas on what you can do about it.

We aim our recommended courses of action at getting you your MMO fix during this content drought. It may not be easy, but it is still possible. It is also worth mentioning that these courses of action are not mutually exclusive, so you can always choose to do more than one.