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MMORPG.COM and its legitimicy
Arcken
Member Posts: 2,431
Ive often wondered why mmorpg.com is so nice about its game reviews and is so quick to post banner ads for games thare are pretty low quality. Im guessing this is the old "dont bite the hand that feeds you" cliche. Perhaps they dont want to lose that source of income and on some level I can understand that. However I have to call into question their commitment to the gaming community as it seems to me like they should be the ones calling these companies on their inferior products. My feeling is that the reason a lot of us are burned out on MMO's and are reduced to playing games we barely like is because no ones puttin the pins and needles to companies making them. I really wish mmorpg.com aspired to helping the gaming community do just that.
I mean no offense to mmorpg.com as I can understand that they dont want to alienate companies from buying ad space, but the line has to be drawn somewhere. Are you here to cater to the gaming community that puts cash in these companies pockets, and thus yours? Or is it, lets put on happy faces so the companies money keeps rolling it?
I had to think up a good analogy in order to explain myself a little better and while it was tough, i think Ive come up with a suffiecnt example.
Lets say you love to go to an independant x-box 360 website because you love their information and what not. Then lets say companies start putting out games for it that are just horrible, and not just a couple for a month or two, but they do it for years non stop. You go to your website and all they can say is nice things about those games, but in reality you know, and everyone knows theyre pretty bad, and the site isnt willing to be honest as they dont want to lose that ad money. At what point does that site lose its credibility and legitimacy?
While I will probably always hang around here, I cant say I have the highest opinion of MMORPG.COM's credibility OR legitimacy.
Comments
the fact that Archlord is already being bashed to oblivion on this website proves my point.
I really dont think there is any "inside" agreements on the games and the game adds. I think if a game company notices they got a good review on a site like mmorpg.com AND the site has a high hit count then it is a very smart thing to place an add for the game.
You have this person go.."Oh that game sounds interesting. I wonder what its review is like" and they look at the sites review, notice its a good one and go buy the game to give it a try.
And why should you care as to how anyone runs there business? Sure you can say "The community" and "loyal" etc etc, but it all comes down to making a living.
Just ignore the adds if they bother u so much. If you still cant get past them. install a prog that blanks out adds. Its that simple.
But if one dosent like that, I suppose they go migrate to the IGN boards, its much better there.
"There's no star system Slave I can't reach, and there's no planet I can't find. There's nowhere in the Galaxy for you to run. Might as well give up now."
Boba Fett
MMORPG.com is in looooove with MMOs in general in case you didn't notice.
If Lepidus would think that the MMO XYZ is lacking beyond comon sense, he would remain mostly quiet about it and move on to a MMO he enjoys or dream-talk more about WISH.
MMORPG.com has a decent staff and eventually a reviewer will enjoy the mmo XYZ or find it less bad, this guy will write a review and I assume he would have to debate it and talk with other staff on the board so he don't do blind fanboism, and when it is finded acceptable, he can post it.
Now, I am mostly guessing, but these guys are full of comon sense and this is how I would have done it myself, so I assume they might have work something around these lines - yet better. You should give attention to who give the review, they are always using their name, so eventually you might come to enjoy or dislike some staff here and their opinions, so you know you think alike or he is like an alien to you.
See, the staff here is generally looooving the PvP games and a MMO such as DAoC is something they looove a lot. DAoC, personnally I find the buffing and the auto-following systems to be awesome in DAoC, but I find the must PvP (or must raid on Gaheris which is even more painful than PvP) to be annoying me to the highest point and I didn't even play my full month, yet I did play a full 2 weeks...which neither EQ2 nor WoW have accomplished with me.
See, even if the "VANBOIS" think I bash Vanguard, the simple fact is, if I bother and keep arguing it is because I want to believe in, I do think there is something there, but the devs are trapping themselves in the same mistakes they did for EQ, they must grow and evolves beyond these mistakes to make the best PvE grouping game, and I think they are just not ready yet...however, even if I mostly lose hope...I do think they might learn...maybe for Vanguard....maybe for the next game. The staff here is focusing on even more positive stuff than I usually do, since they are staff, but they also welcome the critics, unlike the official forums for these games that may plainly hunt the critics, of face them with fanbois support and blind denial.
The market is big and the staff here want to help. I never talk with Admin about this, but I am pretty sure that, he is a dreamer and he hope to improve the MMOs in general. To improve the MMOs in general, the staff must be nice and positive. But they also need to encourage, within limits, the critics peoples who have stuff they dislike into the game to express themselves. Anyway, I could be wrong. But if you want to give your opinion about troubles, weakness, flaws, in some MMOs, go ahead, express them. You are at the right place.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Well my biggest concern is the fact that though the MMO market has been going strong since roughly 1998-1999, there have been very few improvements to the genre. Ive spent thousands upon thousands of dollars over the years, and I consider MMOing to be a legitimate hobby, as Im sure lots of others of us do as well.
Individually I imagine it would be hard to impress upon companies to make better products, but with the proper medium where we can all get together and impress upon these companies that quality IS important, and they need to do a BETTER job, Id think it might help move things in the right direction.
I guess Id just like to know that MMORPG.COM is as commited to its gamers more than it is to the companies that buy their ad space.
This site is not about money, of this at least I can tell you. Yet, they need money to live and luckily for them, they can earn some that way which explain why the site have been growing in the years.
Admin and the other invest themselves a lot, emotionnally. Mourning was something that must have burn quite a few of their staff, breaking dreams and all. Yet, they still believe. They want to.
When they decide that the staff here was unable to write openly, under their staff ID, I am sure it was heartbreaking, but it was for the benefit of the MMOs in general I guess. I am not sure I support this decision, yet I understand it, so when they talk, it is always analize and been well though.
If some staff here tell you that game XYZ is the best MMO ever, I am pretty confident that you can trust the fact this is how he really feels and he have to go under a LOT of debating with other staff peoples here. When Lepidus talks about WISH and how good it would have been, I am pretty sure it is really how he feels and I will admit the game was having some interest, it was having some nice ideas to say the least, might not have been for me, might have been, I will prolly never know, but I do believe this is how Lepidus is feeling about it and not because someone paid him to say so.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Use your own brain. Try it, it only hurts a little.
i find it so funny that people
A: dont understand that this site is really nothing more than a marketing site.Its really just surrogate advertising.A place where Dev teams can get things they want said marketing wise about their game without having to worry about whether or not they are acurate.After all they cant be held responsible if they didnt say it,or if its put forth as someone esles opinion.Its a dodge for advertising laws,much like marketing in general has become.
B: and that others put some " kind hearted" "charitable" slant on what they do here.
I mean geez, do you really think that an MMO's comunity reps are there to serve you ? Or are you wise enough to realize a MMO's community reps are simply there to serve the people that they actaully work for by making you "FEEL" like they are on your side ?
Its (community reps,marketing sites )the same thing.
Of course this site will side more with a game company than the prosepctive customers.The game companies pay them in as many "hidden" ways as they can come up with.The site isnt here to be a charity.Can you say preferential alpha and beta invites for the "press" ?
If they really wanted to remain truly seperate and have at least a hint of impartiality they'ed function more like Consumer Reports and NOT take money/rewards in any form or fashion from what they are reviewing.
Now that said,this site does provide forums and allow the members to talk fairly freely about how good or bad a game is.
Thats where people should really focus their information mining efforts on to make decisions about a products purchase.Skip the reviews,they are after all just ONE persons view on a product they were likely biased in favor of to begin with.
People should use the forum and act intelligently to measure and filter the info there for credibility.And yes, your gonnna have to wade thru tons of childish garbage to get to the credible information in the forums.You do in life outside the internet also.It'll be good practice for some of you.
I really havent spent much time reading the game reviews from this site but i do know that any time there is a review there is a link at the bottom to post any comments. Now unless they lock the thread(dont know if they do or dont with those threads) it still seems an open forums to discuss the pro's and cons. Personally i think if you want to know the truth about a game read what players are saying. Both positive and negative.
One last thing, i do remember reading a review on for a piece of gaming hardware here recently and it wasnt very positive. I know that the maker of the equiptment has adventised on this site serval times.
Pretty sure this is a big rambling post, forgive me, i'm not exactly in a solid state of mind