Is There Anything On the MMO Horizon At This Exact Moment That Truly Excites You?

Years ago, certain MMORPG releases actually excited me. I'm not talking about the feeling of "that looks kind of neat, I'll certainly check that out." I'm talking about genuine excitement. The release dates were marked on my calendar, plans were made with friends, hell, we may even head to a midnight release at an actual store if you go back far enough.

My brother and I standing in line at GameStop for World of Warcraft expansions is a perfect example. Those are great memories of mine. Rushing home to get things installed and then dealing with the myriad of issues that comes with a massive launch. Annoying at the time, sure, but fun to look back on these days.

While that type of "launch" experience isn't specifically what I want to examine today, it certainly plays a part in the "hype" leading to certain releases.

When MMORPGs like Star Wars: The Old Republic were on the horizon, I could tell you everything about the day of release and all of our plans months in advance. It was similar with Final Fantasy XIV (version 1) and the subsequent release of A Realm Reborn. I knew everything headed into launch and couldn't wait. Genuine excitement.

Here's the thing. I don't know the last time I felt like that for a release.

Don't get me wrong. There are certainly games I am looking forward to, it isn't just something as simple as my love of the genre falling through the years. I'm very eager to see what F2P MMO Stars Reach has to offer. While sandboxes aren't my typical MMO of choice, I'm genuinely interested in some of the "new" the game could bring to a genre that needs some innovation desperately.

Fantastic Pixel Castle's "Ghost" project is intriguing, if a bit vague right now. A potential Riot MMO is certainly a project worth keeping an eye on. Even smaller projects like Fellowship, which basically takes the dungeons out of MMOs and makes them a game of their own, are fun projects that I will 100% play upon release.

While many of those specific examples don't have release dates or windows to actually be "excited" about yet, there are many others on the horizon that do have dates. However, I can't tell you any of them right off the top of my head right now. There is no MMO on my mental calendar and maybe hasn't been since Wildstar. Obviously, I track these things a bit closer than your average gamer simply by the nature of my working on an MMORPG website, but even then, I still have to look dates up a lot because I'm not locking them in.

In the past, I have been the type of person to schedule a little time off work for certain releases. It's not a practice I encourage, but if you're like me and aren't going to be all bent out of shape by a delay, if you have the time, do what you want. It's your time off. There is nothing coming anytime soon that I would even remotely think about taking some time off work for when launch rolls around.

That said, I don't know if that's actually a bad thing. Maybe it's better to just be watching a few different projects and trying them when they come out and finding one or two that I like, than to overinflate how "good" something may be, only to build up my own internal hype and end up being disappointed in some way.

Of course, maybe some of this is the fact that I am absolutely inundated with options these days. Sure, MMORPGs have been releasing in both paid and F2P varieties for years now, but they very rarely offer something truly new or unique. The change in monetization over the years could also be a reason that I treat more and more projects with dampened expectations these days.

I love gaming and I LOVE MMOs, so don't get me wrong. I'm happy with the many options and new titles coming, but there is a bit of sadness about losing some "excitement" over upcoming titles.

Oh wait! I forgot about a potential Amazon Games' The Lord of the Rings MMO. I guess, yes, if that title EVER comes to fruition, I could see myself being excited for that one. Unless early looks just aren't looking great. However, seeing as that is likely so far off, we'll wait to be excited for that one.

Is there an upcoming release that you're planning on taking time off for, or are excited to be making plans for? Am I forgetting about something I should be excited about? Let me know below!