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As for newer titles? Not much luck there. Other IPs such as Elder Scrolls Online, Wildstar and Star Wars have tried and failed. A combination of launch issues, lackluster gameplay and other player feedback is no doubt the cause, but the bigger question remains. Can newly launched MMORPGs justify a subscription model? Here are a couple of discussion points.

Can It Deliver Timely And Quality Content?

When players pay a monthly fee in 2022, the consumer privilege takes over. That means players expect better customer service, better maintenance and better content that comes at a steady pace. Free to play MMORPGs always struggle to juggle content. It can be a mixed bag, and major expansions take a long time to make due to the lack of funds off the bat. Additionally, players have to deal with shady monetization practices in the form of Pay To Win lootboxes and more that generally, they have no problems avoiding with a subscription fee.

If newer MMORPG games use a subscription model, the studio have to absolutely ensure that they cover all bases. Content and the quality of said content will be incredibly vital to its success. Game play will also have to be stellar, or players will just move on to the next or return to whatever game they came from. The first month after launch is always the best barometer to gauge how successful your launch is. Adding new content ASAP is a good strategy, and to do that quickly, you need that funding injection that can only come from subscribers who pay that monthly fee.

Does It Have An X-Factor?

Content aside, the other factor is the X Factor. What’s so special about your MMO that you think it deserves a monthly sub? WoW can justify this by being a sort of pioneer of the Theme Park in an age where competitors were way behind. They perfected the quest-hub crawl, narrative driven dungeons and more. Final Fantasy can claim that “if you want an MMO, you gotta pay or else you won’t get to experience a FF MMORPG anywhere else”. The story-telling content is also incredibly authentic to what you find in single player Final Fantasy games. Both are justified. Therefore anything newer will have to have a surreal amount of hype and wanting.

The middle ground is of course, going with the buy to play model that has worked for several games like Elder Scrolls Online, Guild Wars 2 and Black Desert Online. While a subscription fee is optional (ESO, BDO), these games generally do decent in terms of player numbers and content releases.

Final Thoughts

In short, there’s nothing wrong about launching an MMORPG with a subscription model, under one caveat. You have to absolutely earn it in your first month as an MMORPG. Can you deliver what you promise, and pump out quality content quickly to retain your playerbase? If games think they can, then there should be no reason why it can’t join the likes of World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV in charging that sweet monthly fee.

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Black Desert Online’s Eternal Winter Expansion

On the 6^th of April, BDO players will be able jump into the Eternal Winter expansion. This is a brand new region, full of frost and snow, and it contains a bunch of new monster areas in addition to mysterious new storylines and lore to explore. Throughout the zone there’s a new frostbite debuff that will hinder your adventure if you don’t find ways to keep warm. The expansion launch will also bring out the brand new class to play, Drakania. She’s a melee two-handed sword wielding heroine, the arch-nemesis of the Guardian class, and it’ll be interesting to see if that is explored further at all in this update. Finally coming with this launch is a revamp to the Balenos region, which will now contain all new story-cutscenes.

Rise Online Launches

Now do we have a new MMORPG launch this month? Yes we do. Rise Online, the spiritual successor to Knight Online, will have its free to play launch on April 15^th. Developed by Roko Game Studios, Rise Online will be available in both English and Turkish languages, and has all the trappings of a classic MMORPG. It’s got a large open world to quest in, a substantial PvE storyline, 2 factions to pick from for PvP and four classes available at launch. Now while all of that sounds normal, here’s the interesting part, it’s also a blockchain MMORPG, so it will have NFT, or Non-fungible token.

Final Fantasy XIV Patch 6.1

The big launch this month is of course, Patch 6.1 Newfound Adventure, the first major update of the Endwalker expansion cycle. So, what’s in it? There’s a bunch of good stuff, but we’re highlighting the most important ones. Most notably, the Main Scenario Quest continues, and once you’ve completed that there’s plenty of new side quests to tackle. Along the way, you can dabble in a new dungeon, a new alliance raid, ultimate raid, and a trial as well.

Outside of current PvE, PvP players will get a new 5v5 mode called the Crystalline Conflict which contains new PvP rewards and improvements, and for housing, a new lottery system will go live in this update, kinda like the green card, but the reward which you paid for in advanced, is a shiny new house in Ishgard if you win. Finally for those not at current content yet, there’s good news because Patch 6.1 will also implement changes to the base game, a realm reborn, like adding the trust system to the original MSQ line now to make things go even quicker if you’d rather not wait in queue. Safe to say this is a pretty big update and while the release date only says mid-April currently, we’re bound to learn more in the coming weeks.

Guild Wars 2 Revives Living World Season 1

ArenaNet will be bringing back a huge chunk of missing content this month, that players for years that joined the game post 2014 had to learn about in dialogue and text only. On April 19^th, for the first time ever, Living World Season 1 will be coming back to the game permanently, over five episodes, and the first episode Flame and Frost will arrive that week, to kick off the beginning of Scarlett’s War. This will be free for everyone including free players, and will now offer a cohesive narrative bridge for both returning and new players that are starting the Elder Dragon story line. On top of that, this is a good opportunity to earn those legacy achievement points and rewards. On the same day the Challenge Mode for the End of Dragons expansion strike missions will also go live, so gather your buddies and happy hunting.

World of Warcraft will Announce Next Expansion

Something else exciting happening on April 19^th, is the Blizzard reveal for World of Warcraft’s next expansion. At this point in time, we know almost nothing about it except the obvious fact that it will probably continue the story-line from the Shadowlands epilogue in Eternity’s End Until then, WoW players, if you’re returning to the game, there’s plenty to get caught up on in terms of new content with the latest update, or WoW Classic or even the new Sylvanas novel that got released last week.

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Eternal Winter Pack will include an Eternal Winter Exclusive Outfit Box and pet, as well as beneficial in-game items such as Value Pack and consumables.

As promised, players can look forward to a Mountain of Eternal Winter region sneak peek on the official website. Pearl Abyss published the Eternal Winter soundtrack on its YouTube channel where players can listen and immerse themselves in the new region before they have access to the content on April 6.

For more information on the Mountain of Eternal Winter content, check out the website here.

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The Mountain of Eternal Winter teaser trailer provided a first look at the upcoming new region, showcasing a breathtaking view of the winter mountain. The new region will be available to both new and existing Black Desert Online players, and the game aims to bring more excitement to players through this new content update. Pearl Abyss has also unveiled that it plans to reveal further details on the Mountain of Eternal Winter content on March 10.

In addition, the game is offering Special log-in rewards from February 24 until April 6 to celebrate the 6th Anniversary. Special log-in rewards include the opportunity for players to earn a variety of buffs that’ll be active for 20 days, including Value Pack (20 Days) buff that players can acquire on Day 1, as well as outfit boxes such as Treasurable Memories Classic Box that players can acquire on Day 14. Players will be able to walk away with a total of 21 log-in rewards, so long as they log-in to the game progressively for 21 days.

For the latest news on the upcoming Mountain of Eternal Winter content, check out the teaser website here.

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In December 2021, 17 of the currently 23 available classes in Black Desert Online have been rebooted and given a major overhaul including new skill sets, improved abilities and damage factors. New customization and appearance options have also been added for each of the classes to highlight the unique identity that each of them offers. Additionally, adventurers will be pleased to learn that class balance has also been improved, which now offer various improvements including those that help adventurers in PvE content.

To celebrate the class reboot, adventurers can take personality tests to find out which class best suits them as well as use Marni’s Unstable Fuel to try out new player classes using their main character’s existing gear. An array of in-game rewards also awaits players directly in-game, including new guild missions and login rewards, and players can utilise the Winter Season servers which were launched in December 2021 to accelerate their levelling process and reach higher level quicker.

For more information regarding the Reboot Update, season servers and other exciting news, please visit the official website.

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New Region: Mountain of Eternal

Mountain of Eternal is a snow-capped new region dominated by a mountain and filled with new quests, monsters and breathtaking environments. Players will see themselves return to this region after the quest chain completion to snowboard, ice fish and acquire new items. New Artifacts such as Labreska’s Helmet, Black Star Sub-weapon and Deboreka Belt will also be available with this region update. This new Mountain of Eternal region will be added to Black Desert PC in the first half of next year.

Major Class Reboots in 2022

Pearl Abyss also announced a major class reboot update and winter servers that will be coming on December 22.This reboot will see all seventeen playable classes reinvigorated through skill and appearance changes and rebalancing to provide a better PvP experience. The winter servers will also offer players faster character levelling to try these new changes and see how their classes play after the update.

New Eclipse Class for Black Desert Mobile

This year’s CalpheON Ball for Black Desert Mobile also announced a new class called Eclipse. Eclipse is based on the PC and console Nova class, and she will be coming to the game with a fresh set of new skills that are reminiscent of her PC and console counterpart. Eclipse is coming to the game on December 14 with an in-game event to celebrate her arrival.

Limited Edition Dark Knight Figurine

The limited-edition Dark Knight figurine’s commercial availability has also been announced – the incredibly detailed and hand-painted Black Desert player class figurine, co-developed with the Blitzway Figurine team, will be available through the official Pearl Abyss merch store beginning December 17. Orders are limited to one unit per game account and each come with a handful of in-game coupons to celebrate the figurine’s launch. These coupons will be issued immediately after the order was placed, and unlock in-game items that can be found here.

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New World

Let’s start with a couple of new releases on Steam that are already on sale, although not by very much. First up is Amazon’s New World MMO, which was released only a couple of months back. Both the standard and deluxe editions are 25% off on Steam until December 2nd. New World is not everyone, but folks who like a gritty open world MMO, with action combat and socially-driven PvE and PvP gameplay, just might like this. I’m still playing it, have been since launch, and some weeks I love it for all the group action in expeditions or large wars that I get, but other weeks I just don’t bother when there’s blatant exploits and bugs that just ruins the fun for everyone, especially when certain aspects of gameplay like settlement ownership for your faction is at stake. At that sale price, you could wait a little longer for it to drop in the future, since the game is still very new and the developers are still fixing things albeit slowly. It’s already gotten its first major update, but there are core issues that still exist.

Book of Travels

Another new title is an indie, Kickstarter success story, and that’s Book of Travels. This is according to its description, a TMO, or tiny multiplayer online, where other players are few in your gameplay, but your paths will cross. It’s currently 10% off on Steam, until December 2nd, and I gotta admit, I’ll be picking this one up shortly. The game’s unique hand-drawn art style is gorgeous to look at, and I’m curious about its world, its emphasis on roleplay, and the reviews so far paint a promising picture. Players new to the genre might wanna check out the more traditional style of MMOs before diving into a niche like this.

Elder Scrolls Online

Next is The Elder Scrolls Online. The standard edition with the Morrowind chapter aka expansion bundled in is currently 70% off on Steam until December 2nd. It’s silly to not recommend this at that price, because what the base game offers alone in content is pretty generous. You’ve got hours of fully voiced PvE quests, there’s two PvP game modes, group content, and so much more in ESO, you won’t even need to worry about the optional sub or all the DLCs yet. If you can stomach its polarizing combat system and style, then you’ve got a real gem here. ESO is probably my top pick for current best buy to play MMO.

Black Desert Online

And then there’s Black Desert Online, the quintessential Korean MMORPG experience. It is the most popular south Korean MMORPG on the market despite its age, because it ticks all the boxes for players who like great visuals, customization, flashy action combat, open world pvp, sandbox life skills, and the game is far from done when it comes to updates and new content. It’s a buy to play game, and it’s currently 90% off on Steam until the 2nd. That’s like two bucks for me, so yeah pretty cheap if you haven’t checked out BDO yet.

Guild Wars 2

There’s also ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2, which is free to play but the expansions aren’t, and that’s what’s currently on sale if you’re in NA, SA or EU. From now until the end of the year, you can grab the game’s 2nd expansion, Path of Fire on Amazon or other participating retailers, for 50% off, and it does come bundled in with the game’s 1st expansion, Heart of Thorns. That means, after you hit the free to play content cap which is the end of the vanilla story at level 80, you’ll have more maps, stories, raids and class specializations to play with, until of course, the new End of Dragons expansion comes out next year. 

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