The Elder Scrolls Online hasn’t been our cup of tea. That’s been particularly surprising given it’s set in The Elder Scrolls universe, one of the most beloved in the realm of RPGs.
There have been many underwhelming MMOs over the years, with the majority of them failing to live up to the level of expectation set by fans. Unfortunately, The Elder Scrolls Online now ranks among our list of the most disappointing entries in the genre.
It has a lot of company, though. Here are some of the most disappointing MMOs of all time.
The Elder Scrolls Online and 5 Other Disappointing MMOs
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The Elder Scrolls Online
The Elder Scrolls Online takes the esteemed The Elder Scrolls universe and manages to make it a boring affair. You'd think being able to share your adventures online with others would breathe fire into the franchise. Quite the contrary. Its MMO features are archaic, often times making you wonder why you aren't playing Skyrim or Oblivion instead.
Those who played the beta had their suspicions of the game, and those suspicions unfortunately turned out to be correct.
A buggy, tiresome chore of a game, The Elder Scrolls Online failed to live up to the hype or investment the game received.
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Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
One of the most disappointing games of its 2007 release year, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes' barren landscape and dull gameplay left a sour taste in the mouths of MMO fans who had been eagerly awaiting its release.
Despite initial impressions of the MMO being favourable, Vanguard released in a sorry state and as such found itself being almost universally panned. An update was released for the game in 2011 that improved its overall quality. Unfortunately, it was too little too late.
Sony has announced that it will be shutting down the game's servers in July, 2014, thus bringing an end to the lifespan of one of the most disappointing MMOs of all time.
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Final Fantasy XIV
Final Fantasy XIV was so bad that it triggered financial despair from Square Enix, pushing them to go back to the drawing board and re-release the game under the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn moniker. A Realm Reborna righted the immense wrongings of the original Final Fantasy XIV, but left its mark; the Final Fantasy IP was forever scarred.
Final Fantasy XIV released in an almost entirely broken state, and felt like Square Enix had rushed it out of the gate before polishing it whatsoever. For many, it was a lowpoint in the MMO genre.
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Tabula Rasa
While Tabula Rasa was well-received by critics upon release, it grew to suffer from severe under-population, which eventually led to the shutting down of its servers in February 2009, a little over a year following its release in November 2007. Even a competent MMO such as Tabula Rasa is left completely worthless if it doesn't have a community behind it.
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Ragnarok Online 2
Released in the US a decade after its predecessor Ragnarok Online, Ragnarok Online 2 was a game that many MMO fans were looking forward to. Unfortunately, what they received was a dull game with linear environments and none of the spark or charisma of the original.
Ragnarok Online 2 was heavily derided when it was released by both critics and fans alike, and it ensured that this once popular IP would dwindle into obscurity.
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Star Wars: The Old Republic
Star Wars: The Old Republic wasn't a bad MMO by any stretch of the imagination, but it failed to live up to the huge expectations developer BioWare had built up for the game.
As its subscribers began to dwindle substantially after the first couple months following release, The Old Republic quickly switched to a free to play business model, with a monthly subscription still being made available as an optional cost. Unfortunately, as is so often the case with F2P games, the cost of purchasing in-game items was ludicrously high, and while it was still a functional game if played without a subscription, it really failed to hold the attention of the majority of MMO fans due to its overwhelming abundance of repetitive fetch quests and overvalued microtransaction items.
