To be more precise, what's the reason for the lack of high quality 2D sidescroller MMORPGs? Only ones that I know of are Maplestory and Elsword, Maplestory being too old and Elsword being, well, not exactly 2D.

When I think about it, it makes a lot more sense to go for a 2D sidescroller MMORPG than going for a generic 3D MMORPG which is pretty common these days. There's also the fact that it's pretty hard to compete against games like "GW2, FFXIV, Black Desert,etc.". Is my thinking shallow here? Is there any reason for game developers to not to choose this type of MMORPGs?

Personally, I find sidescroller RPG in general to be a really weird genre, I dont quite get the appeal (thou I loved front mission bio hazard on the snes).

RPG generally employs open world exploration, to have that in a side scroller..I dunno, it limits the design to weird world building/exploration. I dont think it even compares with 3d rpg in the same sense, it is its own thing. I find it hard to be immersive in the artsy fartsy sense that rpgs delves into.

What is the appeal to you? Im curious.

That's a good point. I also agree that it doesn't give the same open world feeling with 3D games especially when the map is divided into much smaller parts(as in maplestory).

The thing which I like the most would be the hack-n-slash grinding. Monsters are generally close to each other so you don't have to go out of your way to pack them together for your fancy AOE skill. You generally don't need to use your mouse as often either(guess depends on the game?) which, to me, is pretty nice. I also love the smooth movement animations and gameplay mechanics some of the sidescrollers have to offer(ex: Ori and the Blind Forest).

All in all, I agree that they have lots of differences compared to 3D genre but that itself could be a refreshing thing.

To be more precise, what's the reason for the lack of high quality 2D sidescroller MMORPGs? Only ones that I know of are Maplestory and Elsword, Maplestory being too old and Elsword being, well, not exactly 2D.

Probably the fact that you're the only person I recall ever being interested in this genre in the entire time I've been on Gamedev.net. (Which I'm sure is an exaggeration, but not far off.) I think this is a genre that never really took off in the West. I have to agree with Icebone1000 that the "2D sidescroller" aspect tends to conflict with the "massively multiplayer" aspect, but probably the biggest barrier is the general lack of familiarity among US/European players - which makes devs + publishers unlikely to invest in such a venture.

How massive are we talking? Starbound or Terraria are probably as close as one gets for MMORPGs, though not very massive. Though massive and sidescrolling don't go hand in hand.

How massive are we talking? Starbound or Terraria are probably as close as one gets for MMORPGs, though not very massive. Though massive and sidescrolling don't go hand in hand.