One thing I’ve really come to appreciate after trying some Japanese MMOs is how much more midcore friendly they are. In games like WoW or other Western MMOs, it always feels like you’re either stuck doing super low-effort casual content that gets boring fast, or you’re expected to no-life it and push into sweaty mythic raids or high M+ keys that are basically locked behind guild politics or spreadsheets.

There’s not much in between. You either log in to do world quests and timegated dailies with zero challenge, or you’re begging to get into raid rosters where one mistake gets you benched. It’s like the entire mid-range of player skill and commitment just gets ignored. If you’re not “casual” or hardcore you’re kind of out of luck.

Japanese MMOs seem to really understand that huge chunk of the playerbase that wants meaningful, designed content without the need to treat the game like a second job. It’s not perfect, but the structure feels more respectful to players who want depth without drama. I wish Western devs would take more notes on that.