mmo-hype
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The Daily Grind: Has a mega-hyped MMO ever met your expectations?
The MMO hype machine is in full swing for SOE's forthcoming EverQuest Next. It's inevitable given the combination of a long-lived franchise, a big-budget studio, and plenty of update-hungry followers. We've been here before as MMO fans, though, most recently with mega-hyped titles like Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic. While hype in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, I'm curious how many of you feel like a much-hyped MMO has actually met your expectations. Has any game managed it? Which one? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Soapbox: BioWare, meet ZeniMax; ZeniMax, this is BioWare
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Once upon a time, a group of decision-makers at a big AAA studio set out to brave the wilds of the MMORPG. This studio had several hugely successful single-player RPGs under its belt, and it also had quite a bit of consumer goodwill in the bank thanks to its pre-MMORPG efforts. The studio spent a ton, and I do mean a ton, of money recreating an MMO that already existed in dozens of different games. It also spent a ton of money trying to convince gamers and gaming press that it wasn't making a retread and was instead adding another pillar of awesome to the standard MMO formula. This studio was, of course, BioWare. Unfortunately for Elder Scrolls fans, it's also ZeniMax.
