IGN's Top 100 Games of All Time – MMORPGs a No Show

December 1, 2007 LHStaff General 38

Today IGN has released its Top 100 Games of All Time for 2007 and it seems that only one MMORPG made the cut.  World of Warcraft came in at a dismal 83 and no other MMORPG made the list.  No Ultima Online, no Everquest, no GuildWars, no nothing.

This begs one to question whether any of the 30 selected editors were MMORPG players.  Surely a genre of gaming that has recently becoming more and more popular would have more than 1 game on a list of 100.  Even a nod to Ultima Online, the first popular MMORPG, would at least get a mention, but this was not the case.

Is the genre too new to recognize in a All Time list? Perhaps, but if a game’s good it shouldn’t matter how new it is, it should be recognized.  What do you guys think?  Did MMORPGs get the shaft?

38 Comments

  3. I remember a long period where the only games worth playing were Counter-Strike, StarCraft, and Ultima Online. UO should have a place.

  4. IGN’s list is a horrible collection of influential games! Not only is WOW at a high number, but Everquest, the game that jump-started MMO’s is left out! Also, why is Half-life 2 at a better rating than 1? The point is it seems like these editors choose games that they like rather than games that have been influential to the industry.

  5. MMORPGs aren’t really that good. The reason they’re popular is they’re mindlessly repetitive and that pleases the minds of ADD and ADHD kids.

  6. MMORPG is not gaming as Jeremy from Purepwnage.com said, it is a hobby. I fully agree with that until I see a mmorpg with real game elements beyond simple quests and grinding.

  9. oops, missed that sentence about world of warcraft. But everquest should be one there, it was a real trend setter for pretty much all mmo’s out there.

  10. mmo’s are not really games at all, but a second job created to eat your money and keep you going and going achieving the same at all times. Regular games let you achieve more.

    If I wanted to spend money a month to play an MMO Id just rather burn the money. At least I would get more out of it.

  11. You make a good point. The problem I think is that MMORPG’s are innately addictive and being that WoW is a very well made MMORPG, the editor’s probably never picked up another one because WoW stole their soul…I know it stole mine… :’-(

  12. How about they are all the same and don’t deserve to be on the top 100 list? I’m amazed WOW was even in the top 200…

  13. If a game is good it shouldn’t matter when it was made.

    A good game is a good game.

    There are tons of great MMO’s out there.
    WoW being the only one recognized isn’t right.

    Voters had to have been biased.

  14. No MMO’s didn’t get the shaft. Most of the MMO’s that I have played boiled down into grinding mobs to level, then having to do the same tedious job to get the item/equipment/etc at the max level. I do agree that this genre is still in it’s infancy so that might attribute to the lack of titles on the list. I don’t disagree with this list though I don’t think any of the MMO’s out side of WoW and maybe just maybe UO deserve to be on this list.

  15. HA! MMO’s are a moneymaking scam that are designed around wonderfully pulling the wool over the eyes of their victims. MMO games themselves, let’s take World of Warcraft, are woefully contentless, and the entire premise of the game is to force your players to put countless, gainless hours towards a goal, and then at the end of the month, move that goal further out of their reach. The only real appeal MMOs have is the ‘social’ aspect, the constant bitching, moaning, and endless drama, and that has nothing to do with the game itself.

    The very nature of an MMO requires a static, unchanging world as well, so the players actions have no affect on their world. There are cases where there is potential for a world-changing event but when you have 10,000 players on a server, and one hardcore lifeless guild goes to take it, it really just makes it a hollow feature.

    The closest one can get to an MMO sans other people is Oblivion, which to the mentally abled, was a complete cluster-fuck of shit served on a DVD.

  17. Ultima Online should have been on that list instead of WoW. Ultima Online basically INVENTED the MMO genre. Not to mention, EQ should have been there instead of WoW.

    But seriously, Ultima Online.

  19. MMO’s didn’t make the list because the list was made by a bunch of console players. There were a few token PC games in there, but basically it was a Nintendo love-fest.

    Zero credibility with me.

  20. cant believe final fantasy 7 was only about 73rd – fucking pathetic, should be in the top 10 at least – and millions of gamers worldwide would agree with me

  21. I would at least have given credit to Ultima Online & EverQuest for making MMORPGs such a big thing it is today.

    Might as well not include World of Warcraft if you’re going to leave UO and EQ out of it because without those two games, WoW wouldn’t be where it’s at today.

  22. … Eve Online is worse. You click and astroid and wait 6 months for it to mine. World of Warcraft is not a definetive MMORPG, they just have pretty graphics. People THINK WoW is definetive because they play it, then play things like LotRO and say that it’s based on WoW. It’s not. WoW is just mainstream. I like to compare it to Halo in that if you ever play an FPS on the Xbox, you have hundreds of little kids saying that it’s nothing on Halo. MMOs have been, and probably always will be a rip off of Everquest, which slight changes here and there. Everquest deserved a place; World of Ripoff didn’t.

  23. Where in the world are the better sequels and flat out amazing games like:
    halo2, gta san an, super mario sunshine, super smash bros melee, falout 2, halo 3, Tony Hawk underground 1 + 2, doom 3, and the whole other series of amazing games.

    I see that IGN likes old games, but wtf, not that many

    P.S.
    TETRIS blows due to minimal amounts of skill required to play.

  25. This list is a complete joke.

    Anyone could put up a top 100 list of completely random bullshit and no-one would pay attention to it because they don’t have a marketing machine behind it.

    Let’s have some criteria up front people… How can any of these be justified? Editor’s choice for no apparent reason?

    Give me a break! :P

    I don’t know where I’d rank them but these four games should be on the list in order of importance:

    1) UO – The original MMORPG that broke the genre into the mainstream
    2) EQ1 – They were the first hugely successful MMO, building off UO’s success
    3) WoW – You may hate it, but 9M+ subscribers would disagree with you – They took the genre and make it more widely successful than any predecessor… they turned your parents and grandparents into MMO gamers
    4) DAOC – They took the standard PvE MMORPG and brought RvR (organized PvP, keeps, and siege weaponry) to a wide audience.

    To not have these games on the list completely nullifies its standards, IMO.

  26. Eve Online is not for the twitch kiddies.

    Obviously, Sam (who complained about the asteroids) never bothered to take his ass out of Empire space, and try to make anything of himself. Mining asteroids is one profession – you certainly don’t have to stick with it.

    Eve has had 2 content additions this year(no extra cost), with a third coming on Wednesday, along with a whole new graphics engine(again, no extra cost).

    Yep, some players are asshats, but you’ll find that everywhere, but you find it less often in Eve.

    Should have been mentioned, but I’m just as happy it wasn’t.

  27. Yeah, i agree with alot of those games…especially Starcraft, FFVII, God of War….but where the hell was FFX(Final Fantasy Ten) and Diablo 2…those were two of the most amazing games ever made

  28. Where were the games like CounterStrike Source and other fps’s that basically rule the entire FPS genre on PC?

  30. A friend once told me kung fu fighting was rated as the number one song of all time on a list that was made the year it came out. I never confirmed it but it does show that sometimes something can be too new to make the list. Although MMORPGs have been out long enough.

  31. Frustrating that at the end you can’t review them all at once, but I guess that is to keep people from just linking that, and them losing a lot of click-through traffic? While reading through, I felt like there were a surprising number of “good choice!” moments (Final Fantasy Tactics ranking deservedly high), some “i suppose so…” (Ms. Pac) moments and then the inevitable “huh?” (Shadow of the Colossus, great game but way too high given its company in the TEENS – hasn’t even had time to be of significant influence like some of the other less iconic games on the list)

    Of the above-mentioned games, I agree with a few of them: Ultima Online for certain, Oblivion for certain, Everquest (though I didn’t care so much for it myself, it kicked things off in much the same way other games on the list kicked off their respective genres)

  32. I do NOT agree with a lot of these games, altho there are some well-placed. I would’ve move in games like Ultima Online, Diablo 2 and maybe a few Final-Fantasy parts.

  33. MMORPGs are games where you have to play for a while to appreciate. I played GW for like 3 years and I basically did the storyline and then moved onto PvP. PvP in the very simplest of terms is like an online FPS and replace guns with spells.

    PvE was just a repetitive boring grind, and when you say a game is boring yet carry on doing it, you should know there’s a problem.

  34. Everquest missed out !!! what a joke IGN site is
    Where do they get these so called gamers

    Over a million subscribers, the game has been running since 1999 FFS

    FFXI Should get a look in as well, awesome cut scenes

    I think these so called Editors are desk jockies not gamers

  35. your stupid the list isnt about influence its about the best i hate pc games, especially mmorpgs, i never even heard of the crap you guys are naming but wow is one ive heard of and even considered trying i think its place is well deserved but its definately not one of the best

  36. No Final Fantasy VII or VIII in the top 50?! Incredible. Call of Duty 4 should be pretty high too. I know it is quite a recent game, but its on-line community is still going strong after all this time – still a joy to play.

    Couldn’t be bothered with 100 clicks so don’t know if The Last Ninja, Turrican, R-Type, Bubble Bobble, Double Dragon, Streets of Rage, Flashback, Timesplitters 2, Medal of Honour, NiGHTS, Panzer Dragoon, Outrun or Marvel vs Capcom 2 made the cut!!

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