"Dead" MMOs

[J0_]

Considering the genre is well over 20 years old, a lot of MMOs have come and gone. The ravenous fanbases this genre is known to attract sometimes aren't willing to let their favorite games go, setting up private servers to keep games alive long past their due date.

Personally, I'm a big fan of Monster Hunter Frontier. The over-the-top insane boundary pushing of Monster Hunter's combat is really fun.

Phantasy Star Online, the first console-based MMO has private servers up and running that I've played a little bit on.

I'm also aware of Warhammer Online and Star Wars Galaxies private servers, though I haven't played on them. Anyone else have an interest in "Dead" MMOs? If so, what are you playing?

 

[Questless Knight]

These are the mmo´s I have installed and the only one that´s not private server is well
Akia and Wow and Aion classic "which is in the purple folder" and well FFXIV


So the dead/private mmos in that folder is.
AK Online = Aura Kingdom
Arch Lord
Grand fantasia
Linage 2 reborn
MTdream is Tera online
RE Imagine is a solo private server for Shin megami tensi online
RFAltruism is RF online
Vanguard saga of heros
VGN is Scarlet blade
World of Chantra is a second Arch lord server.
Then I also in the wrong map have MURO which is a private server of Ragnarok
Then I also in the wrong map have a solo private server of Tera.

Then I say solo private server it means it´s a server I host and only I play on.

Im a member of RageZone which is a website that focus on private servers and how to host your own server of games.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

I still play Ultima Online every once in a while on a free to play fan server. Never played an MMO that was quite as chaotic as that one. It fits a unique niche of hardcore MMO before they were all sanitized by the WOW design style.

 

[homelabnerd]

the realm, ryzom, city of heroes ive played all these this year, its hard for me to nail down on MMOs.

 

[Questless Knight]

I still play Ultima Online every once in a while on a free to play fan server. Never played an MMO that was quite as chaotic as that one. It fits a unique niche of hardcore MMO before they were all sanitized by the WOW design style.

Ultima is just pure gold that game still way better than allot of new shit we get today that barely even allows you to half the shit you can do in Ultima. First ever mmo I started to play in 1999. Still have my disc copy.

 

[Sunnyside]

Only ones I play are Phantasy Star Online on Ephinea and Phantasy Star Universe on Clementine. A friend has suggested Monster Hunter Frontiers but I haven't gotten around to it. It's kinda hard to take the plunge on a new MMO when you've already got a lot of other stuff on your plate.

 

[Sumea]

I personally first dislike that MMO is bit overused and overextended as a term.
PSO is not an MMO. If you played it and if you played Final Fantasy XI or World of Warcraft, the difference is night and day. It resembles much more an action RPG like Diablo, and that is because it most certainly is a Japanese Diablo. It's sequel, PSO2, a game I loved and played a ton of back in the day, was also listed as "Online RPG" on Sega's site. Not every online RPG is a MMO, and I think recognizing the tradeoffs for their strengths and weaknesses is nice. Say, most proper MMO's even today do not have fast paced or action combat as that is extremely hard to do for something like World of Warcraft. Monster Hunter is Capcom's "clone" of PSO, but like PSO, both can be played fully offline without any other players. That does not sound like a MMO to me.
I would like to personally claim Final Fantasy XI on PS2 as the first Console MMO for sure. XI was huge on PS2 in Japan for sure, and is a MMO like many other's, eccentricities of it's pre-WoW birth included. It was released back in 2002 in Japan, even before Everquest Online Adventures.

That said, while it is permitted to mention them, as long as people can understand that I do not consider nor call it a MMO, to me PSO2 was a dear experience I recently realized is just gone. These days, PSO2 is now replaced with a follow up that has some similarities, vast differences and is not necessarily a better game. I could not enjoy NGS like I did PSO2 when I tried it. While PSO2 classic is still accessible as an addon to NGS, it's dead in 2025 on both Japanese and Western servers. Online player count at any given moment is literally 0-20 and seeing it for myself was a memento mori to me. On other hand, last year I got into playing PSO on Xbox, GameCube and even PC with Schthack and Ephinea private servers and those communities are real swell. The people who love original PSO make it fun even today.

Shoutouts to Tera though, that game is now just about fully buried but used to be fun for many reasons to many people and I have fun memories with friends there for sure. It's combat was not as action as people tout it to be but it was unique for sure, and RIP in good sauce prince.

 

[Aziamuth]

I personally first dislike that MMO is bit overused and overextended as a term.
PSO is not an MMO. If you played it and if you played Final Fantasy XI or World of Warcraft, the difference is night and day. It resembles much more an action RPG like Diablo, and that is because it most certainly is a Japanese Diablo. It's sequel, PSO2, a game I loved and played a ton of back in the day, was also listed as "Online RPG" on Sega's site. Not every online RPG is a MMO, and I think recognizing the tradeoffs for their strengths and weaknesses is nice. Say, most proper MMO's even today do not have fast paced or action combat as that is extremely hard to do for something like World of Warcraft. Monster Hunter is Capcom's "clone" of PSO, but like PSO, both can be played fully offline without any other players. That does not sound like a MMO to me.
I would like to personally claim Final Fantasy XI on PS2 as the first Console MMO for sure. XI was huge on PS2 in Japan for sure, and is a MMO like many other's, eccentricities of it's pre-WoW birth included. It was released back in 2002 in Japan, even before Everquest Online Adventures.

That said, while it is permitted to mention them, as long as people can understand that I do not consider nor call it a MMO, to me PSO2 was a dear experience I recently realized is just gone. These days, PSO2 is now replaced with a follow up that has some similarities, vast differences and is not necessarily a better game. I could not enjoy NGS like I did PSO2 when I tried it. While PSO2 classic is still accessible as an addon to NGS, it's dead in 2025 on both Japanese and Western servers. Online player count at any given moment is literally 0-20 and seeing it for myself was a memento mori to me. On other hand, last year I got into playing PSO on Xbox, GameCube and even PC with Schthack and Ephinea private servers and those communities are real swell. The people who love original PSO make it fun even today.

Shoutouts to Tera though, that game is now just about fully buried but used to be fun for many reasons to many people and I have fun memories with friends there for sure. It's combat was not as action as people tout it to be but it was unique for sure, and RIP in good sauce prince.

MMO simply means Massive Multiplayer Online, so it would include anything with a huge playerbase. I consider S4 League an MMO, but it's all about shooting

 

[Sumea]

MMO simply means Massive Multiplayer Online, so it would include anything with a huge playerbase. I consider S4 League an MMO, but it's all about shooting

That is dumb and usually not part of it. This makes; Every COD an MMO, and then they become not-MMO's when new COD comes out. Apex legends is an MMO. PSO2 at one point is a MMO and not anymoe. TF2 is a MMO. Overwatch a MMO and then not a MMO and then a MMO again and then not a MMO. Makes sense? Oh also you said only a playerbase so Undertale is also a MMO. That game for sure has a huge playerbase even today. I guess Deltarune is the new hot MMO from Toby Fox tho.
To me "The MMO tests" are: Can you, in your server, call up 100 people to come into one random place on the world map and meet them all in there? Of if the game is dead, would that been the possibility in it's prime. Not just one specific place where 100 of your homies can hang out in but open the map, order an uber and go there. Is there a full on economy being done because the massive playerbase in your server alone is big enough to create an economy? Some non-MMO's do this too, like Diablo 3 or PSO2, even PSO1 has an economy but with previous that usually is part of the package. Are you interacting with an open world you can meet and help random people in. See, the massively is also usually a description of the world as much as the amount of players it can host. Does the game offer possibility for raids? Those are charasteristics of a MMO. S4 league is just a third person shooter. Just because it has it's own account and microtransaction store does not make it an MMO. Misunderstanding of MMO term is a type that irks me because it really is everything's a MMO type of deal but then nothing is. I for one, love Warframe. Massive amount of people play warframe. I can even go to specific hang out spots and meet dozens of people in those specific rooms in the game. But I can play the game in very rigid mission structures, with maximum of three other players since it is netcoded like Left 4 Dead on drugs.

Now. the most grayest thing one could throw into the "does it MMO?" pile is battle royale games. They could be MMO, but they ain't RPG for sure. People forget MMO is usually shorthand for MMORPG because there is a little bit too many letters to be writing there and back when the word was coined, the only type of MMO was the RPG.

So no, not everything with massive playerbase is an MMO. To me, simple test is open world and ability to have 50-200 people in one spot, anywhere on that world. WoW, FF XI, FF XIV, Tera rest your soul, and so on. The experience of walking in a world, meeting people where you are going in that world and so on is crucial part of an actual MMO. Then again, modern MMO's have streamlined that out of the equation so I guess Quake's an MMO now.

 

[Graw]

MMO simply means Massive Multiplayer Online, so it would include anything with a huge playerbase. I consider S4 League an MMO, but it's all about shooting

The massive was in reference to the fact that the games typically had a large persistent world that could hold hundreds of people concurrently.

 

[Questless Knight]

I wanna add Vanguard saga of heros such a damn unique and fun mmo and kind of sad I missed that game when it came out. If your a fan of old mmo game I recommend to give it a try

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

No one has mentioned the Dark Age of Camelot, a friend of mine was really into that one. Also Guild Wars, I tried for a few months. I thought it was interesting.

 

[Sumea]

No one has mentioned the Dark Age of Camelot, a friend of mine was really into that one. Also Guild Wars, I tried for a few months. I thought it was interesting.

"Acshually" well we are extending to those games but even arena net was outright with Guild Wars and inventing their own term for GW; "CORPG". Cities could be hanged out in but world zones for just your party. It was a funky thing and not a in bad way at all, like said I would praise these types of games since creators could be more creative with them than be limited by technology and cost of a full MMORPG. Funny enough, Guild Wars 2 IS a MMORPG making the name fun in this way.