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How would you prolong the life of an mmo ?
Tindale111
Member UncommonPosts: 276
It does seem that the major drop of point these days is 3 or 4 months ,so i would have an expansion ready before game release throw in the expansion after 4 months whilst preparing the next one .Id also add something to work on as well as the normal gear and crafting grind such as EQ2 had with being able to lvl up your guild ,i know thats not everybodys cup of tea so please throw up some ideas thanks for reading
Comments
Having an expansion at 4-6 months is very tricky. Yes it can keep and maybe bring some back but it sets the expectation of expansion every 4-6 months which normally is not possible or just doesn't happen.
At the 3-4 month point I would start talking about an expansion, give some info that keeps peoples interest have it ready to release around 9-12 months and have little things introduced into the game before the expansion hits.
Make sure the big known bugs are fixed, classes pretty well balanced.
A shop for vanity items is ok, just don't put anything in it that will give any kind of advantage in the game.
Also listen to why people are leaving, learn what they don't like and do what you can to fix those problems.
But don't rush to release things before you can fix your bugs & balance your classes.
With the influx of console gamers to the mmo market, I see no way to keep players in one game for a long period of time. I think the days of playing one game for years is over. Sure there will be ones that do, but from now on we will all see that 50%(or more) leave after two months. Even if a great game comes along, you will still the the player base drop after the first couple of months.
*not talking trash about console gamers, I play them also
Originally posted by laokoko
"if you want to be a game designer, you should sell your house and fund your game. Since if you won't even fund your own game, no one will".
Originally posted by laokoko
"if you want to be a game designer, you should sell your house and fund your game. Since if you won't even fund your own game, no one will".
The emphasis would have to be switched from story back to exploration and game world for starters.
Here's the problem, and one i don't think is fixable. I'll only input my own opinions.
I want a high quality MMO with a huge game world, great art style, fantastic and fluid combat, expanded trinity, and tons of non-combat things to do such as housing and building. One that fosters community and relies on interdependence.
I'm not willing to put up with any of those aspects being half-assed and i'm pretty sure no studio is willing to spend $100mil to create something for maybe 200k players. So here we are engaged in another 3 monther.
An MMO with actual community interaction. Classes that require a time investment AND that all depend on each other.
The content comes from the interactions of the players - just like real life.
Having content updates and expansions ready to go 3 months into the game is a good idea but not the only way. I think making it either take longer to reach max level, or max level is 80 or 100 upon launch, or even no levels at all. The fact that people are maxing out their characters within weeks of launch is, to me, bad design. I understand that no matter what some people are going to be able to achieve this but it might decrease the amount if you make it harder or have a high lvl cap when you launch.
Also, i think if you toss it back to SWG where there were completely player built cities and politicians etc. helps people hang around longer, gives them a long term project. Also, I miss when you could become a Jedi but it took awhile and was a pain in the ass. Everything is handed to players nowadays, which is great for a player base for a few months. I miss that feeling of achievement in MMO's these days.
Also, social aspect to me is huge. I played wow for as long as i did becaue i actually became friends with a few people in the guild and if they were playing it made me want to log in and play. Games now seem to make it less important to be in guilds, as solo experiences are being implemented into all the games now. I have played ESO for 3 months or so now, on and off, and I just feel like it's not a bad game but i'm missing the sense of achievement, cause it's so easy, and i'm missing the social aspect because you can solo up to the Craglorn. I'm in multiple guild but mostly to use the guild store and that's about it.
I think the best way to make people stay is obviously offer them a model they enjoy and are familiar with but make it tougher and more group friendly. Honestly, give people something like SWG or EQ(before they destroyed it). It's been tried before, yes, but i believe it hasn't been done correctly. If I made a game, i would literally rip off SWG but put it in a new skin and that would be the game I would play for a long time.
Sorry, I jumped around so much and babble but just give me a game that's like SWG. It gave me a sense of achievement, it wasn't easy, and with player cities etc. there was a huge social aspect to it.
Apparently transitioning to f2p once the flow turns into a drip seems to work okay >.>
Player-made content ought to have a big part to play in the longevity of future mmos. Specifically, non-instanced creations that are out there in the game world. It gives players something to do between big content patches.
To use ESO as an example that was supposed to have a dynamic, player-driven endgame, what ended up happening was (with very few exceptions), once you've done one castle siege you've done them all. Allowing players to change the battlefield with destructible fortifications or even cities would've gone a long way to keep things from going stale, especially if you had player-made public dungeons spread throughout the zone or gave players something to do inside the keeps they were fighting for.
Really, though. If a AAA game offered more to do at level cap than instanced pvp or raiding, it'd probably be ahead of the curve.
See EQ2 for why this is a bad idea for longevity if not stacked full of roadblocks. You know, join the player made dungeon with a high level buddy and gain 50 levels in 10 minutes for doing nothing at all.
And as for things to do at level cap... It's level cap. The problem isn't what to do when you're there, the problem is squarely on the fact that it took you less than a week to get there to begin with. That goes for ALL the current games in general, not just MMO's. You get what... 2 or 3 dvd's to install with these days? I remember when shit came on 2 3.5" floppies and took you months to get to the end of. Games are made like fast food now, no pride in the craftsmanship, not filling in the least, and makes you fat due to how lazy you can be to reach the end now.
Just because the journey is lacking in modern games doesn't mean other features can't be improved as well. It's not a single player game that ends at level cap--it's a world to get lost in, and as much as I enjoy the story quests in a lot of games, they aren't the only thing I want to invest in.
Player-created content, while easily exploited, is simply one more way to provide choices and ultimately get players to invest more into the game -> increasing longevity. Forget the foundry farm maps, think Landmark and unlimited customization.
I agree with your points mostly, yet the whole world to get lost in part comes into play with your lacking journey. Sure, you can improve other features, but it's pretty stale trying to get lost in a world you've seen 50 times over just running back and forth from kill 10 x quests. The worlds are too small, they're scaled for the solo player who doesn't want to spend the time exploring or getting lost. They just want endgame so they can bitch about it and hop to the next game. So, while endgame CAN be improved, we need to start with the journey to make endgame even worth getting to.
That, I can definitely agree with. I'm just at a loss at how that could be achieved.
I think we all want more meaningful quests and a more engaging leveling experience. However, reducing the number of quests/story breaks will have people screaming about lack of content, making them harder and require teamwork will uproot the whole solo-friendly trend of the past decade (not an entirely bad thing, but I doubt the devs would go for it).
Making the decisions you choose in a conversation or battle matter and alter your leveling experience/personal story would be a start, and would help with replay value. I suppose it all comes down to fun. Make a leveling experience that people would rather play through than use a dungeon finder/bg queue.
Flesh out more systems than just combat. Give players a sense of permanence; something they made that others can see/appreciate even when they are not there.
I don't think permanence is very important so much as making things meaningful. I walk into an MMO and it doesn't matter to me whether the world continues to exist after I log off. It doesn't mean anything. What happens when I'm gone doesn't noticeably affect anything, certainly not my gameplay. Therefore it doesn't mean a thing to me what happens when I'm not around, it doesn't make me want to come back sooner because I know that, for the most part, nothing really happened, the world never changes and if I miss an event, it really doesn't mean anything, I might miss some stupid piece of crap decoration but nothing that really changes my gameplay.
No matter how much you flesh out the gameplay, it doesn't actually change how I play on a day-to-day basis.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None
Why actually think of something when you have BUZZWORDS?
No matter how much you flesh out the gameplay, it doesn't actually change how I play on a day-to-day basis.
Well, its an mmo. Its not always gonna be about you
There is no corollary between game difficulty and people continuing to play it. If game difficulty decided game fun then Mario Bros. would have been better if they forced you to play it all the way through with no checkpoints.
When you discuss the 'whiners' or today's generation, or casuals you're no longer talking about game difficulty you're discussing your hang ups with a class or type of people and that's entirely about you. It doesn't even have anything to do with the people you're ranting about. it's now a 'listen to me cry' pity party for the poster.
There isn't a game today built for the casual dollar that can't be made more difficult by your own efforts. Instead the reaction is to get mad and protest? You have the tools already to make an easy game difficult and instead of doing that you quit and start complaining. Now who is the whiner?
There is a phrase in the Marine Corps; 'A Marine adapts'. (One finish is 'a soldier complains'.) So what are you doing calling for the developer who is just a means to an end and that end being profits to stop making what makes money to make what you want? Are you adapting, or are you complaining?
The answer to what to do to make MMORPGs last longer is to make them engaging. You can do that by making game worlds bigger, with more activities, and slowing down leveling while still engaging them across that increased amount of playtime. None of this intrinsically involves game difficulty.
'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.
When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.
No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.
How to become a millionaire:
Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.
I'd make it so that
a) The game wasn't a WoW clone, so people won't get bored as quickly
b) The game didn't focus on linear expensive dev created content. it would be in there, but the game mechanics would encourage players to play with and against each other more
c) NO QUEST GRINDING/lots of social mechanics. When you make friends in an MMO, you stay with it longer. This is all but fact, as friends keep people subscribed long after they get bored. It's in many game theory books.
d) Did I mention not make it a WoW clone?
There, I've solved the problem just about every AAA release has faced since 2005.
LOL did you do that on purpose? You're basically arguing with yourself haha