The problem with MMOs

bstripp

So I was looking over the slew of cool MMOs that are out and coming out in the near future and wonder if the developers have thought this out too far?

While the number of people playing online games is certainly growing, how many are going to pony up $12-15 a month for more than one game? Single player games have the advantage that people will buy and play them while playing other titles. MMOs don't really have that advantage.

So what do people think is going to happen when Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Pirates of the Burning Sea, and some others release? If you are not a tier1 product, why even try and develop an MMO unless you are going for a niche market like space sim (EVE) or superhero (CoX)? Certainly the market is not going to triple as those games release... which means that they will have to canibalize subs from other games.

Anyway, just some random thoughts on the state of the industry.

Czzarre

As I recall, and this is a distant memory...SOE tried to bundle several of thier games under one subscription. Many dont like SOE, but thats not a bad idea.

Torrential

Daedalus732

The problem with MMOs lately is that they are expensive to develop and implement. Game companies risk a lot when they make an MMO, as they have to hope that the game they make will attract enough people to make back their investment and turn a profit. Then of course, unlike regular, single player games, MMOs have to be updated, patched, expanded, and catered to almost non-stop or people get bored and leave. This means that game developers are less likely to try innovative features and more likely to rehash old ideas and hope to draw an audience from current MMOs that might have many players who have done everything and now want a new challenge. I'm not saying that this is true all of the time, but I think it explains why so many MMOs try to rehash WoW's ideas. Like it or not, WoW is the most successful MMO on the market, so game developers are going to reason that despite the very loud WoW hating, there is a silent majority who will play their game if they do it right. This is unfortunately for the game developers, a mistaken assumption. If you are a rational consumer, you are more likely to choose an MMO that is stable, fun, and has an established player base rather than run the risk of buying a game that you know might be unstable, have a low population, and not have anything new that you couldn't really do in an already established and successful game.

The most damning problem with new MMOs, however, is that they tend to not live up to the hype. If there aren't technical/performance problems, then the company cuts down on the list of features and issues a public apology to the community. Not long ago, Age of Conan was delayed until March 2008, a five month delay for the purposes of reworking the combat engine because Beta testers were complaining that it was too hard to learn. The community refused to believe that this was the only reason for the delay, and now is very concerned that AoC will develop WoW aspects. Only time will tell if these are rational concerns, but past lessons seem to say that indeed that are rational concerns. This has lead to further speculation that the game will be severely reworked to appeal to a wider audience and be a shadow of its former glory.

Game companies who develop MMOs need to start planning their games more effectively and start expecting their employees to work a lot harder than they seem to be on MMOs. I think that many of these companies have the wrong mentality going into an MMO, and that needs to change.

The bottom line is, if I want to play WoW, then I'll play WoW and not the slew of games that have tried and failed to copy its game mechanics to steal players away.

 

Zindaihas

I think you made a great post, Daedalus (btw, does your login name come from the mythological character or the spaceship in Stargate Atlantis?)

I believe the reason there is so much frustration among many gamers and the current crop of MMOs is that gamers are looking for them to be more dynamic and developers are keeping them static.  And the expense (as Daedalus mentioned) is a big reason.  When gamers gets drawn in by an MMOs for the first time, they enter an amazing new world and that is enough to keep them enthralled for a certain period of time.  Eventually, however, as the novelty wears off, gamers want more.  More realism, more immersion, more excitement.

But these games are already so expensive to make, developers aren't willing to give it to them.  They consider it too much risk.  So devs stay stuck in the current model.  It's worked before, it's reasonable to think it will continue to work.  And it may continue to work for awhile.  But unless devs learn to advance MMOs with gamers tastes, it won't work forever.

ale_jrb

Pretty much all new MMOs, whatever they're like, will get a reasonable starting player base of people who think it might be interesting.

 

If the game is good, it is going to keep a sizeable percentage of these, regardless of other games (some people play more than one) and will then spread through word-of-mouth. If it isn't good, it will have to work hard to re-attract interest.

What that means, IMO, is that it is probably still worth it to make one - as long as it is any good. Evidentally this is true, or people would stop making more, and they haven't .

Daedalus732

Thanks for the kind words.

My name does indeed come from the mythological character.

What you're saying is also correct. We should techncially be in the second or third (depending on how you look at it) generation of MMO games, and people are tired of seeing the same static concepts being reworked. However because these games are so expensive, it's far too tempting for developers to stick to time tested concepts than plow new ground. At best, I think we can only hope for incremental changes.