MMORPG’s first really saw a huge influx of development and players during  the release of Blizzards titanic game World of Warcraft but, why is it more than a decade later, the market seems to be shrinking?
I like most invested countless hours into these games and there was a point when this genre was unstoppable. Developers saw an opportunity to cash in on the hype which saw the rise of many titles such as:

•	Guild wars 2
•	Star Wars: The Old Republic
•	TERA
•	Final fantasy XIV: A realm reborn

As someone who spent his childhood invested in games such as Runescape, World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The old republic, I’ve noticed that players grew increasingly frustrated at changes in the games. The Introduction of ideas such as the EOC in Runescape and the LFR in World of Warcraft have been seen with a mostly negative view, many players complain that the identity of the game itself has changed.

Why Has The MMO Genre Seen A Huge Decline?

The decline could be due to the following reasons:

1)	Rise of the MOBA – The rise of the MOBA genre was at the same time as the decline of the MMO genre. As of 2014 the game League of Legends boasted a massive 67 million players each month, this in itself eclipses the height of World of Warcrafts peak of 12 million.
2)	Lack of investment – this can be seen by Activision Blizzard itself. The free to play Hearthstone is hugely popular and rakes in more profits than WoW. Investors can see the same or larger returns on investment for lower production games.
3)	Its always the same – For me personally every MMORPG after WoW has just been a reskin with slightly different gameplay mechanics. This was very evident with Star Wars: The Old Republic. It seemed that a lot of developers took the safe road with lack of innovation however this failed.
4)	Just not fun anymore – This might be the main reason? 

Personally I would to see another rise in this genre have the most potential and I would love to see new innovations that would capture that fresh feeling that I first had as a child.

Regards,
Xontor 

*All images are owned by Activision Blizzard*![world of warcraft.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQmrg6RmqAfMbnYEMNDKjgHdn2uwdpNrTwCG9eABLkJLA/world%20of%20warcraft.jpg)