Dark Eden M

I feel sad thinking about the state of MMORPGs today. The golden days of paying a monthly subscription for a fair gaming experience are gone, replaced by aggressive microtransactions and web3 technology. Now you either spend constantly to keep up, or fall behind while hoping to maybe recoup your losses someday.

I realized into this after spending half of 2021 playing MIR4, a mobile old-school MMORPG. Looking for more nostalgia, I turned to Dark Eden M, another Korean MMO remake on mobile. I spent countless hours in the original Dark Eden as a kid, and couldn't resist trying the mobile version.

Dark Eden M takes after Diablo 2, with dark aesthetics and dungeon-crawling loot gameplay, and add gothic elements to it. The loop is addictive—you push through harder dungeons hunting for better loot that lets you crush enemies more easily.

PVP is the main focus, with streamlined systems that let you jump into battles without complex mechanics. The semi-idle gameplay suited me perfectly.

But Dark Eden M hides a problem: it went all-in on web3 NFT gaming. The profit-seekers have left, and now the game is filled with bots that kill any sense of joy or accomplishment.

I've accepted it: Dark Eden M will be the last game like this I play. Too many disappointments have taught me better.

Microtransactions mixed with web3 technology have ruined this genre for me. I'm done with it, and looking for gaming experiences that aren't built to exploit players.