I've been wondering. I never really got into MMOs, never liked them, haven't played any in years, but I got used to them being a big part of the gaming landscape, so to speak.

But these days I don't see any big releases in the genre anymore, no "WoW killers". Most titles have died and what few are left running are already pretty old and seem content to survive by sticking to what audience they have. I don't know of any hyped up releases coming, at least not big ones. There's stuff like Camelot Unchained or Crowfall, but those are relatively small compared to big IPs from big big publishers that used to dominate the genre, and they seem permanently stuck in developement.

So, is it dead, Jim? If so, what killed it? Fortnite?

MOBAS. You've skipped nearly a decade to get to Fortnite :P

MMO companies that would mess around with players characters after they had put hours and hours into them.

I miss FireFall

The only MMO that I ever played was Ultima Online. What I mostly enjoyed were the early years, because it was still something new and different as an MMO(RPG) game. Although I stuck with it for ten years before giving away my account, I probably only continued playing because I'd made some great friends from different places around the world.

I originally picked up a boxed version of the game on a trip to the USA in 1998, having read about it in a gaming magazine, as I'd not seen it anywhere to buy where I lived in the UK at the time. Even with my dial-up internet in those early days, it was still marvellous fun playing on either the Europa or Great Lakes servers. As friends gradually left and game mechanics changed for the worse, I too quit playing around 2008.

For about a year or two afterwards, I dabbled with playing on a couple of free player run servers, which had restored gameplay to how things were during the first two or three years of UO, the experience wasn't the same without thousands of people playing at any given time of day. Beyond playing UO, no other MMO really grabbed my attention enough to start playing. I've not played any since and I don't even like games with multiplayer elements these days, preferring single-player RPG's. Remarkably, Ultima Online still exists, although it's a pale shadow of what it once was, I'd imagine.

As for WoW, I'd venture that at its peak of success, it was probably responsible for changing the face of MMO's. Developers and publishers were often looking to create the next WoW or "WoW Killer" and unfortunately, that was to the detriment of many MMOS. Most lacked originality and tried to clone WoW at its peak, while various existing games also brought elements of WoW gameplay that didn't suit. The worst of all was the "pay to win" element that came into MMO's.

Fast-forward to now and it seems developers are looking for the next Fortnite - or perhaps "Fortnite Killer" - in the same way everyone looked to WoW in the past. Either way, there's still nothing that appeals to me in the MMO games market.

I would not say the genre is dead, it just has become more divided. While WoW still reigns it, a lot of players are divided between other MMORPGS. Not to mention other MMO games. A massive hit like WoW is a hard thing to make, a very rare success story that is impossible to replicate. The genre itself can still be lucrative, but the audience for the games has normalized.

No, MMORPGs aren't as prevalent as they used to be. No, they're not dead, millions of people still play them. In some cases even pay monthly to do so.

MMO-shooters are the current big fashion among MMOs, and outside of that Battle Royale games are the trend to chase.

WoW isn't that great, final fantasy online still going on, monthly payment can be high & making it unplayable, so many F2P went to P2W, which basically kills it

MMOs are indeed dead. And no, they weren't killed by Fortnite. They were killed years before that, via microtransaction-based MOBAs.

Now MOBAs are falling out of favor in favor of Battle Royale games. But that's a new thing that's started to happen after MMOs had already died.

I always thought MOBAs killed RTSes, not MMOs. I mean, a decade ago MMOs seemed to still be going pretty strong. That's more or less when Star Trek Online and SW Old Republic were released, and Elder Scrolls Online is only something like 5 years old I think, though it was probably the last "big" MMORPG.

I've heard Fortnite is supposed to be even more addicting, turns people into zombies. mmos are bad enough, but probably can't compete against that.

tbh wow isnt dead it has the largest playerbase of all MMO games. people like to play MMO games like me cos there fun and engaging and actually require you to use your brain instead of just running around like headless chickens in fortnite if your talking about destiny 2 that game sucks
its more addicting cos its free to play thats why, wow is addicting but you have to buy the game and pay a subscription. which is fair alot of hard work goes into designing a game as huge as wow

No, it's designed to turn teenagers into gaming-addicted zombies:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/agony-of-fortnite-addiction-families/

Fortnite is eeeeeeevil!

All of which soon went to Free-to-play models

I used to be into MMO type games back in the day. I started with the MU*s, moved on to games with pretty graphics, then had life get really going and ran out of time. Going back to games I used to play (if still active) was disheartening due to a lot of problems that have creeped up over time.

Here are the problems with MMOs these days (from what I have seen):

Production costs and server costs are sky high. Massive barrier to entry keeps most indies out and indies are the actual innovators most of the time. This leaves MMOs with the stigma of being a grindfest with a chat box.

There isn't much innovation. Sticking to a proven formula is easier, especially when the stakes are high. Older games are relying on previous playerbases as either they can't innovate due to lack of funds or don't want to renovate their games for fear of losing their players.

MMOs have always had an older playerbase even back in the pre-graphics days (MUDs, MUCKs, ect) back when MMOs were a college campus thing. Older players have more going on and can't spend hours and hours on a single game. Doubly so with so many games coming out.

The younger generation is flooded by "free to play" junk and is used to that model. Most of it is actually more expensive than pay to play in the end, but they are used to getting crap for "free" and paying out the nose with microtransactions to get cosmetics. Grinding for 40+ hours for an armor set while paying $10 a month to play the game is ridiculous to them when they can play a "free" game and shell out $10 and get the same armor right NOW.

Also, in general, social players have just moved on to other means of social gaming. Why sit in front of a computer screen on a single game at home talking with limited people when you can use your phone to talk with people over many platforms while playing a game anywhere you want?

RIP MMOs. I'll check back now and then with hope for a better day, but for now, the genre is dead.