This blog post is an opportunity for us to look forward to 2018 and make a statement, a prediction, a hope, a prayer, a wishful thought, or a jab at what it might become.
I want to hear what you think 2018 will be the year of, but I’ll go ahead and kick things off with a few examples.
2018 will be the year of…
Battle Royale
If 2017 taught us anything it’s that Battle Royale is a wildly popular genre. PUBG was up for game of the year and made tons of money, yet it wasn’t even out of early access until yesterday. Fortnite pulled a fast 180 and went from an awful PvE game to a wildly popular Battle Royale rival for PUBG and sparking a ton of controversy over original thought.
If I had to make a guess, I think Blizzard is making a Blizzard Battle Royale game.
Nintendo Switch’s Reign
The Switch has had a blockbuster year in 2017, and I think they’ll keep that momentum going into 2018. I’m betting on a strong Q1, but a slow Q2 & Q3, with a strong finish in Q4. Looking at their Switch games coming out in 2018 list, I think we have a great lineup so far: Kirby, Yoshi, PayDay 2, Wolfenstein, Dragon Quest Builders, etc. Many developers have even expressed a desire to bring their franchises to the Switch.
An Actual MMORPG Release
Did a single MMORPG release in 2017? I guess Albion Online qualifies? I can’t think of any other notable releases this year. That’s really, really sad and saying something. I think 2018 will be the year we actually see an MMORPG release, but I think it’ll be toward the end of the year. I’m predicting Camelot Unchained will release sometime in late Q4. Chalk that up to a lot of wishful thinking. Other than CU, I don’t know of any other MMORPGs on the horizon for 2018.
365 Days of Blogging
Knowing that I have continued to challenge myself to blog every day and succeeded by blogging for 143 days straight has been a huge boost to my confidence and enjoyment of blogging. I know that I will not only hit 365 days partway through the year, but that I will blog every single day of 2018. I always have these grand plans of making more videos and trying “new” things, but for now I’m tabling all those ambitions in order to focus squarely on my goal of purely blogging. If that means more videos, cool. If that means I podcast again, great. If that means I share more adventure logs and game photos, splendid. You guys commenting and engaging with me in discussion in the comments is really a big part of why I share my thoughts publicly — I love interacting with readers.
What’s Your Answer?
Fill in the blank: 2018 will be the year of __________.
Is 2018 the year when I can finally expect the Stardew Valley knockoffs to start appearing? I have yearned for a Harvest Moon style game on PC for as long as I can remember, and when we finally got one and it was *massively successful* I had hope that a bunch of attempts to cash in on the genre would pop up and I would have more games of that type to play. But a search for farming games on Steam indicates to me that Stardew continues to be one of a kind, at least so far.
I hoped the exact same thing. In fact, I hoped we’d see it spring up on mobile too. I’d even buy Stardew Valley a THIRD time on my iPhone if they’d release a version for it.
I don’t understand why we don’t see a true-to-form Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, or Stardew rip or even recreation on the PC. Doesn’t make sense to me given the success of every franchise that does it.
Remastered Classics on portable gaming systems and phones.
That’s a really, really good one. I think you’re spot on. We’ve already heard several major publishers state that’s their intention. Here’s hoping they make good on it.
Well its not gonna happen this early in its life cycle, but i want a portable only cheaper Nintendo switch (like a DS) , with plenty of internal memory, so people do not have to spend money to buy more. (seriously wtf)
Bonus points if its faster as well then current portable mode. (like the 2ds to new 2ds upgrade)
Then ill be smiling, but I guess ill have to wait a few more years.
…Fun.
Mostly I am playing Switch and WoW and I am seeing both platforms focusing on giving me what I want: fun and relaxing escapism with as much or as little challenge as I’m in the mood for.
EA and WB gave the industry a wake up call: gamers are dealing with money issues everyday and our hobby is an escape from currencies and transactions. I’m proud of our response to those money hoarders and think we will see the benefits in 2018.
Mediocrity. I’ve lost all interest in gaming for the time being. I’m hoping something comes along that reinvigorates my interest.
MMORPGs are my bread and butter and I just feel like I’ve done every variation of them to death. I feel the genre has been completely stagnant since 2004, with a couple outliers ruined by bad business models. I’m done running from ! to ? solo ad nauseum until I get to the “real game” at the end, which consists of repeating the same content over and over. The fact nearly every game these days has an option to pay your way past all the leveling is pretty gross.
Am I the only who actually enjoys leveling? Raiding is fun for a while but by the time I’ve killed the same boss 5 or 6 times I’m bored of it. And don’t get me started on nearly every progression oriented guild mandating you’ve watched the fights before you ever step foot in the raid. WTF is the point? It’s basically just synchronized DDR.
I had a good run on Agnarr for about 6 months and helped run a successful raid guild. The VP key process broke me. I burned out and haven’t been back since. Never have I experienced something so anticlimactic relative to the effort required to get there. As much as I love EQ I realize I can’t devote the time to it to enjoy the game the way I’d like. Also, I will likely never be an officer in a guild again.
Ok I’m done ranting. I now waste away my evenings watching dumb stuff on YouTube and reading reddit. Here’s hoping something sparks my interest again in 2018…Until then, I’m waiting on WoW Classic.
[…] next year will probably flop just as hard, if not even harder. In my post looking toward 2018, I remarked that we may see ONE MMORPG launch (Camelot Unchained) and I fear that might even be […]
[…] you may recall, we're in a bit of a MMORPG drought. In my 2018 will be the year of… post I was hoping for the MMORPG drought to end with the late-year release of Camelot Unchained, […]