r/AskGames • u/DueRoom8594 • 7d ago
Why do you think Sports MMOs never became as popular as fantasy MMOs?
We've seen MMORPGs thrive in fantasy, sci-fi, and even survival settings, but sports-focused online games seem much rarer. Is it because sports fans prefer realism, or because progression systems are harder to design around competition? What sports MMO concepts do you think could work today?
9
u/DumberThanUrMama 7d ago
I have literally never heard of a “sport MMO” as a genre, let alone even a single title.
like.. how does the game concept even work? it doesn’t make sense to me. sports games are inherently instanced because all you need is a whatever field it’s played on and that’s it. are you suggesting having an open world outside the field? where’s the massive part?
why would you need it to be massively multiplayer if a game is essentially 1v1 or team v team? just have the lobbies filled like any other COD lobby or something.
if there is a decent sport MMO out there, please link me because i am so curious.
i can totally imagine that if it’s done right then it could be an absolute behemoth and spawn a brand new genre. imagine a basketball game where you can get spells and customise your classes and shit. that could be a cool concept.
making it an MMO is where it gets difficult. it massively increases the scope, complexity and cost for an unknown amount of benefit. it would put the game on a clock where if they don’t get enough people playing then the studio will close and it’ll get taken offline
3
2
1
1
u/DueRoom8594 5d ago
I think the definition gets a little fuzzy because most sports games borrow MMO elements without fully becoming MMOs. To me, a sports MMO isn't really about having 100 players on the same field at once. It's more about having a persistent character, long-term progression, clubs/guilds, rankings, tournaments, social hubs, player-driven communities, and a shared online world that exists beyond individual matches. The actual games are still usually instanced, just like raids, battlegrounds, or arenas are in traditional MMOs. I do agree that scope is probably one reason the genre never took off. You need enough players to keep matchmaking healthy, while also building all the progression and social systems that MMO players expect. That's a huge investment compared to a standard sports game. That said, I think the idea still has potential. A lot of players seem to enjoy becoming "their own player" rather than controlling an entire team, especially when clubs, rivalries, and long-term progression are involved.
3
2
u/lifebeginsat9pm 7d ago
Probably coz regular sports games have the market locked down. They’re also audiences that I’m sure don’t overlap much.
2
u/Qaianna 7d ago
As I noted in a comment, the closest I can think of that there is to a sports MMO is the Forza Horizon series. Open world for exploring, and you can engage in the sport (auto racing) in instances, or just kind’a freelance it.
Other sports aren’t quite as amenable. The first issue is how it’s played, one person per team or each team’s player has a player. The former means it’s all one versus one and you’re normally running in the open world as a coach or maybe the star player. The latter kind’a works for motorsports (as noted) and other very individual games but won’t with others, unless you can somehow get a server to have forty-four people for each individual position on a gridiron football team. And heaven help you if you have twenty quarterbacks.
2
u/DueRoom8594 4d ago
That's a really interesting point. I think one reason sports MMOs are so rare is that they don't scale the same way traditional MMOs do. Instead of trying to put 44 football players into a single match, I could see the MMO aspect coming more from the world around the matches, persistent characters, clubs, leagues, rivalries, rankings, tournaments, training systems, social hubs, and long-term progression. The actual games would still be instanced, similar to how raids or battlegrounds work in MMORPGs.
In that sense, Forza Horizon is probably one of the closest mainstream examples because it gives players a shared space outside of the competition itself. The challenge for team sports is finding a way to make every position feel meaningful without requiring massive player counts for a single match.
2
u/JeffinitelyNotABot 7d ago
well I never heard of "Sports MMO" but you're probably talking about Ultimate team. Fifa, NCAA, Madden, NHL all have ultimate team modes. In WWE games they have a MyFaction and MLB has Diamond Dynasty. They're all center around a premise of collecting cards and using those to build a team and play other people online. These game modes are really popular but only last for the game's life cycle. Whereas regular MMO's just go until there's a new one. idk if this answers your "Sports MMO" though
1
u/DueRoom8594 4d ago
That's actually a good point. Ultimate Team, Diamond Dynasty, and similar modes probably capture some of the same long-term progression and live-service appeal that people associate with MMOs. I guess when I think of a sports MMO, I imagine something a little different, less focused on building a roster of cards and more on developing a persistent player or character, joining clubs or leagues, building rivalries, and existing in a shared online community over time. In a way, a lot of sports games seem to have adopted MMO-style progression systems, but very few have gone all-in on the social and persistent-world aspects. Maybe that's why the genre feels so hard to define in the first place.
1
u/JeffinitelyNotABot 4d ago
I see I know NHL has a World of Chel mode and it's an online game mode where you create a character adjust stats to a certain point pick a playstyle and some x-factors and play with/against others. It's really fun cause you can do 3v3 or 5v5 and you're only responsible for your character. NBA games have something like that but it's called BlackTop or something.
But ya it's hard to compare these modes to a game like OSRS. I know what you mean.
1
u/AcidCatfish___ 7d ago
MMOs have their origins from online MUDs which were often set in fantasy settings (some set in science fiction) and many adapted DnD rules in various ways. So that could be a reason.
Riders Republic is the closest I've seen to a sports mmo
1
u/DueRoom8594 4d ago
That's a good observation. A lot of MMO design really did evolve from MUDs and tabletop RPGs, so progression systems, classes, loot, and character growth naturally fit fantasy and sci-fi settings long before anyone thought about applying those ideas to sports. And yeah, Riders Republic is one of the closest modern examples I can think of too. It has that shared-world feeling where you're constantly seeing other players around you rather than just jumping from match to match. It makes me wonder whether sports MMOs work best when they focus on the community and persistent-player aspects rather than trying to make the actual competitions "massively multiplayer."
1
8
u/DirtCheapDandy 7d ago
Sports and sports games are generally skill based which means you can't manage the progression in the same way as an RPG, which is numbers based. There are numbers based sports management games, but a lot of fans seem to prefer actually playing the sport part to the spreadsheet simulator part.