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You've just been appointed CEO of a failing MMORPG...
Zayne3145
Member Posts: 1,448
... that has suffered a poor launch. 1/3 of your development team has jumped ship, and you are left with a demoralised staff. They can only focus on one issue a month, but there’s a lot to be done.
All of the following issues need addressing. The question is: how would you rank them in order of importance (With 1 being high priority, and 10 being the lowest).
Additionally, your budget has been slashed and two issues must be completely removed from the list until further notice.
=========================[ THE 'TO DO' LIST ]=========================
- Addressing the seriously unbalanced classes for PvP. [ ]
- Adding the class that was cut just prior to release (despite its popularity). [ ]
- Adding to the severely lacking PvE content. [ ]
- Addressing the rare but annoying graphical glitches. [ ]
- Fixing the glaring ‘gold exploit’. [ ]
- Tackling the rampant Gold sellers. [ ]
- Fixing the issue that makes players with ATi cards CTD every 45 minutes. [ ]
- Tackling the low population (server merges, transfers etc.) [ ]
- Finishing the ‘End-Game-Uber-Raid’ that was supposed to ship at launch. [ ]
- Implementing the missing Auction House system. [ ]
- Completing the woefully overlooked Professions. [ ]
- Fixing the broken ‘Castle Siege’ PvP mechanic. [ ]
That’s it. Number in order of importance, and put an X next to the two items which must be axed from the agenda to remain within budget. I’m interested to see how people rate the importance of these issues when faced with the tough regimen enforced by many unforgiving publishers.
P.S: This is not a subtle flame at any current or to-be-released game. It is purely for fun. Please don't let this descend into a flame-fest. 
Comments
I'll give it a try:
- Addressing the seriously unbalanced classes for PvP. [ 1 ]
- Adding the class that was cut just prior to release (despite its popularity). [ 7 ]
- Adding to the severely lacking PvE content. [ 6 ]
- Addressing the rare but annoying graphical glitches. [ X ]
- Fixing the glaring ‘gold exploit’. [ 9 ]
- Tackling the rampant Gold sellers. [ 10 ]
- Fixing the issue that makes players with ATi cards CTD every 45 minutes. [ 2 ]
- Tackling the low population (server merges, transfers etc.) [ 4 ]
- Finishing the ‘End-Game-Uber-Raid’ that was supposed to ship at launch. [ 3 ]
- Implementing the missing Auction House system. [ X ]
- Completing the woefully overlooked Professions. [ 8 ]
- Fixing the broken ‘Castle Siege’ PvP mechanic. [ 5 ]
Bugs can be fixed. A bad game philosophy can't. The players need to be able to do -something- even if it is buggy.
______________________
Give a man some fun and you entertain him for a day. Teach a man to make fun and you entertain him for a lifetime.
Nevermind, i iz blind
Waiting for Fallen Earth, World of Darkness, Old Republic, FFXIV
No AH?
Bad PvE and PvP?
Gold exploits and loads of bugs?
My first act as CEO would be to close it down. A good leader knows when the fight is lost and walks away.
No woncder the game is in trouble if they appointed anyone from these forums(myself included) in charge.
I went for the two that I thought would do the most "good" right off the bat. Take care of the card compatability issue so that you can stem loosing the players afflicted by that problem. Then move to the server merges so the you have less overhead to deal with, with the limited staff you have and give the players more people to play with. But above all esle all of this stuff needs to be communicated to your playerbase so they are in the loop and can give feed back as to what they want to see fixed too. Actually, the first two I outlined would get done then I'd start polls on the forums to see what the players want and then go from there, but as a player that is how I'd like to see it get done.
- Addressing the seriously unbalanced classes for PvP. [3 ]
- Adding the class that was cut just prior to release (despite its popularity). [4 ]
(I think the two above need to be done at the SAME time, as they help each other's "issues.")
- Adding to the severely lacking PvE content. [9 ]
- Addressing the rare but annoying graphical glitches. [X ]
- Fixing the glaring ‘gold exploit’. [6 ]
- Tackling the rampant Gold sellers. [5 ]
- Fixing the issue that makes players with ATi cards CTD every 45 minutes. [2 ]
- Tackling the low population (server merges, transfers etc.) [1 ]
- Finishing the ‘End-Game-Uber-Raid’ that was supposed to ship at launch. [7 ]
- Implementing the missing Auction House system. [X ]
- Completing the woefully overlooked Professions. [10 ]
- Fixing the broken ‘Castle Siege’ PvP mechanic. [8 ]
First of all, I have an IDEA of what game this is directed at, BUT....if you are asking the order of importance for THAT game, or for just some other random game....that would make a difference in the "order of importance" for ME, personally. If it's a PvP-centric game, with much less importance being placed on PvE (as the game you're likely referring to HAS) then the order of importance would be different than if if is some OTHER game. Do you know what I mean?
As a matter of fact...if this was some OTHER game...much of the order I've listed myself, would be almost reversed.
Anyway....I answered as if you were asking about the game that I suspect you ARE eluding to.
In all honestly, I think ALL of these things are pretty enormous issues and frankly, they all need to be fixed ASAP, without a lot of delay between each of them BEING fixed.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
I would take all left money and hide in a country without extradition treaty.
- Addressing the seriously unbalanced classes for PvP. [ ]
- Adding the class that was cut just prior to release (despite its popularity). [8 ]
- Adding to the severely lacking PvE content. [1 ]
- Addressing the rare but annoying graphical glitches. [6 ]
- Fixing the glaring ‘gold exploit’. [3 ]
- Tackling the rampant Gold sellers. [10 ]
- Fixing the issue that makes players with ATi cards CTD every 45 minutes. [ 4]
- Tackling the low population (server merges, transfers etc.) [9 ]
- Finishing the ‘End-Game-Uber-Raid’ that was supposed to ship at launch. [5 ]
- Implementing the missing Auction House system. [7 ]
- Completing the woefully overlooked Professions. [2 ]
- Fixing the broken ‘Castle Siege’ PvP mechanic. [ ]
sorry but PVP is the least important thing that keeps people around and can be added later after everything else is up to par. PVP caters to a very limited playerbase, where as PVE content is very important to a games life (i think WAR is actually showing this)
obviously a gold exploit needs to be high up there so that people can't cheat thier way unchecked. while goldspammers are annoying they arent really game breaking and if someone leaves because of goldspammers they are just looking for a reason to leave anyway.
Liquadate the whole thing, give myself a raise and take a long vacation! We have enough struggling MMO's....
You put things in the EXACT order that I would have put them IF I didn't have a fairly good idea of what game the OP was referring to.
Being that it's fairly obvious this is directed at Warhammer, my answers reflect what Mythic, in my opinion, would need to make a priority, based on the fact that the PLAYER BASE bought the game thinking they were getting an open RvR spectacular, and therefore, the priorities for that niche market would likely, in the players' opinions, differ from what you posted above.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Too bad there are millions of players all throughout the world that play games specifically for PvP and not for PvE content if they can get away from it.
World of Borecraft is not the only game out there, it just happens to be the largest western MMO ever. There are people who also play WoW only for PvP because nearly 50-60% of them playing PvP only cannot compete at a high level/casual level in other games that have this thing called consequences. Not that WoW PvPers are bad, it's just that the average WoW player can't join other games and get as far as fast as they can in WoW.
Gold spamming means 0 to me honestly because I don't buy it and talk to people through voice chat. Considering in game text doesn't disturb my voice chat, why would I ever care? It pays to have friends or a separate tab for tells, but that requires common sense.
- Addressing the seriously unbalanced classes for PvP. [1]
- Adding the class that was cut just prior to release (despite its popularity). [6]
- Adding to the severely lacking PvE content. [7]
- Addressing the rare but annoying graphical glitches. [8]
- Fixing the glaring ‘gold exploit’. [9]
- Tackling the rampant Gold sellers. [1]
- Fixing the issue that makes players with ATi cards CTD every 45 minutes. [ 2]
- Tackling the low population (server merges, transfers etc.) [5]
- Finishing the ‘End-Game-Uber-Raid’ that was supposed to ship at launch. [10]
- Implementing the missing Auction House system. [4]
- Completing the woefully overlooked Professions. [3]
- Fixing the broken ‘Castle Siege’ PvP mechanic. [2]
That's about it, however I'd rather put 2-3 #1's and a bunch of #8's and 10's as a rating as opposed to priority. For instance, #'s 6-10 mean 0 to me honestly. But that's just me.
Id take off as many staff as I can and cut costs to it as much as possible. Then I'd keep that running as long as possible until it starts losing money and shut it down. While that was going I'd divert the stafff to a new team and work on a mmorpg that would be great from the start.
Fixing the issue that makes players with ATi cards CTD every 45 minutes. [ 4]
These days there prolly a big chunk of your player base this should be fixed in no time
then this:
Tackling the low population (server merges, transfers etc.) [ ]
Fixing the glaring ‘gold exploit’. [ ]
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Too bad there are millions of players all throughout the world that play games specifically for PvP and not for PvE content if they can get away from it.
World of Borecraft is not the only game out there, it just happens to be the largest western MMO ever. There are people who also play WoW only for PvP because nearly 50-60% of them playing PvP only cannot compete at a high level/casual level in other games that have this thing called consequences. Not that WoW PvPers are bad, it's just that the average WoW player can't join other games and get as far as fast as they can in WoW.
Gold spamming means 0 to me honestly because I don't buy it and talk to people through voice chat. Considering in game text doesn't disturb my voice chat, why would I ever care? It pays to have friends or a separate tab for tells, but that requires common sense.
- Addressing the seriously unbalanced classes for PvP. [1]
- Adding the class that was cut just prior to release (despite its popularity). [6]
- Adding to the severely lacking PvE content. [7]
- Addressing the rare but annoying graphical glitches. [8]
- Fixing the glaring ‘gold exploit’. [9]
- Tackling the rampant Gold sellers. [1]
- Fixing the issue that makes players with ATi cards CTD every 45 minutes. [ 2]
- Tackling the low population (server merges, transfers etc.) [5]
- Finishing the ‘End-Game-Uber-Raid’ that was supposed to ship at launch. [10]
- Implementing the missing Auction House system. [4]
- Completing the woefully overlooked Professions. [3]
- Fixing the broken ‘Castle Siege’ PvP mechanic. [2]
That's about it, however I'd rather put 2-3 #1's and a bunch of #8's and 10's as a rating as opposed to priority. For instance, #'s 6-10 mean 0 to me honestly. But that's just me.
sorry but thats just not true Pure PVP games have for the most part failed as most PVPers get thier kicks from FPS's. The Majority of MMO'ers are PVE'rs as you can see by games with strong PVE back grounds are far superior in subscriber numbers than PVP games ... hell even EQ2 beats most PVP games out there.
the unfortunate fact is that people need PVE, they need to be led around by the hand going from dungeon to dungeon gaining gear in order to feel important or good about themselves.
Is it sad that despite the fact that this is obviously a specific game, I can't decide whether it's AoC or Warhammer? My bet is on AoC personally.
Anyway...
- Addressing the seriously unbalanced classes for PvP. [ 5 ]
- Adding the class that was cut just prior to release (despite its popularity). [ 7 ]
- Adding to the severely lacking PvE content. [3 ]
- Addressing the rare but annoying graphical glitches. [ ]
- Fixing the glaring ‘gold exploit’. [ 6 ]
- Tackling the rampant Gold sellers. [ ]
- Fixing the issue that makes players with ATi cards CTD every 45 minutes. [1 ]
- Tackling the low population (server merges, transfers etc.) [ 6 ]
- Finishing the ‘End-Game-Uber-Raid’ that was supposed to ship at launch. [4]
- Implementing the missing Auction House system. [ ]
- Completing the woefully overlooked Professions. [ ]
- Fixing the broken ‘Castle Siege’ PvP mechanic. [ 2]
In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.
-Thomas Jefferson
Though my first impressions was that this was eluding to Warhammer, I think this is actually referencing Conan. So with that in mind.
- Tackling the low population (server merges, transfers etc.) [1 ]
- Adding to the severely lacking PvE content. [2 ]
- Finishing the ‘End-Game-Uber-Raid’ that was supposed to ship at launch. [3-4 ]
- Fixing the broken ‘Castle Siege’ PvP mechanic. [3-4 ]
(#3 and #4 would depend on which seemed more requested after #1 and #2 were done)
- Fixing the issue that makes players with ATi cards CTD every 45 minutes. [5 ]
- Addressing the seriously unbalanced classes for PvP. [6 ]
- Fixing the glaring ‘gold exploit’. [7 ] (This would be #1 if the tradeskills and AH actually worked)
- Completing the woefully overlooked Professions. [8 ] (assuming this means tradeskills and not classes)
- Implementing the missing Auction House system. [9 ]
- Tackling the rampant Gold sellers. [10 ]
- Adding the class that was cut just prior to release (despite its popularity).
- Addressing the rare but annoying graphical glitches.
This reminds me of the unwinnable situation in Star Trek.
Like someone else has said "there is enough failing mmo's" add to that a failing/failed mmo rarely recovers,so with that in mind would simply...
MMO for sale great prospects!...conclude the sale to the 1st company that thought they just got a great game on the cheap(most likely SOE).... then set sail on my merry way.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
Don't know what kind of ATI card you have by my 3870s haven't CTD'd me yet.
I would focus on creating creative content that is appealing. Then use rest of the money in the budget for a insane marketing venture, then with the revenue recieved by returning people get the funds to fix the rest of the game.
Finishing endgame content would be my #1 issue. If they don't have something to do at the end...your gonna slowly lose whatever base you had. Then I'd concentrate on getting servers merged and fixing some of the technical stuff. Lastly I'd add in the missing class as a moral booster.
I axed the auction house because it isn't absolutely game breaking and the lack of an auction house actually builds the community. The rare graphical glitches got axed as well because I just felt it was the least important. The game would still be playable even if that house turned bright pink until I restart the game.
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Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
To those of you who think I'm referencing a specific game - I can quite honestly tell you I'm not. Rather I chose a sample of some of the problems I see brought up on these forums every day, across a whole host of games. The fact that comparisons can be made with specific MMO's is more a sad indictment of the industry as a whole at the moment, and its tendency to ship games before they are ready.
Thanks to all those that took the time to construct their action plan. Its interesting to read peoples responses, and how important they find certain issues in comparison to others.
And for those that say 'shut it down': that would be the easy option. But how many games that are percieved to be 'broken' are still clinging on to subscribers today?
Take the severance package and move along just as the guy ahead of me did.
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=
|X| \*........*/ |X|
|X|_________|X|
You wouldn't understand
- Addressing the seriously unbalanced classes for PvP. [7]
- Adding the class that was cut just prior to release (despite its popularity). [8]
- Adding to the severely lacking PvE content. [1]
- Addressing the rare but annoying graphical glitches. [6]
- Fixing the glaring ‘gold exploit’. [2]
- Tackling the rampant Gold sellers. [X]
- Fixing the issue that makes players with ATi cards CTD every 45 minutes. [5]
- Tackling the low population (server merges, transfers etc.) [10]
- Finishing the ‘End-Game-Uber-Raid’ that was supposed to ship at launch. [X]
- Implementing the missing Auction House system. [3]
- Completing the woefully overlooked Professions. [4]
- Fixing the broken ‘Castle Siege’ PvP mechanic. [9]
PvP is not an important mechanic of the game from Day 1. Players need to be encouraged to explore the world and delve into the PVE content. Having a good Market system is equally important for kick starting the economy. Rest are just in the order that i think i would explore in a game after joining a new one
My Brute - Dare to challenge?
It would depend on what type of game it was, assuming it was a WoW type game my list would look something like this. It would depend a lot on how long it was likely to take to fix each problem and how serious it was, example: if you only had 3 classes at launch then adding the other one would be much higher up the list.
- Fixing the issue that makes players with ATi cards CTD every 45 minutes. [1]
- Tackling the low population (server merges, transfers etc.) [2]
- Tackling the rampant Gold sellers. [3]
- Fixing the glaring ‘gold exploit’. [4]
- Adding to the severely lacking PvE content. [5]
- Finishing the ‘End-Game-Uber-Raid’ that was supposed to ship at launch. [6]
- Implementing the missing Auction House system. [7]
- Completing the woefully overlooked Professions. [8]
- Fixing the broken ‘Castle Siege’ PvP mechanic. [9]
- Addressing the rare but annoying graphical glitches. [10]
- Addressing the seriously unbalanced classes for PvP. [11]
- Adding the class that was cut just prior to release (despite its popularity). [12 ]
I wish I had thought about that when doing my rankings, because you are correct.