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SOHA (Sales On Hype Alone)
saint4God
Member Posts: 699
Rarely will I quote myself, but wanted to move a point to General Discussion rather than a game specific one and expand on it:
A general issue I have with most MMORPG's are a concept I've now coined as SOHA, which is to say Sales On Hype Alone. After my bijillionth ********* expansion and purchase of **** **** ********, I'd realized that SOHA is a not a good thing. I'm not saying they're bad games (though certainly implied it), merely that I should not have trusted pre-release reviews, friends, boards, news, ads, etc. saying "this is a great game!".
My questions include:
What experiences have you had with SOHA?
What games in development do you suspect are based on SOHA? Why?
What can be done as individuals or a community to curb "being duped"?
Comments
Nothing new or original here.
Playing: EVE Online
Favorite MMOs: WoW, SWG Pre-cu, Lineage 2, UO, EQ, EVE online
Looking forward to: Archeage, Kingdom Under Fire 2
KUF2's Official Website - http://www.kufii.com/ENG/ -
I don't think we're exempt from blame in this event. Not only do gaming sites review the games, but we do in beta's as well. For some reason we're full of hope and praise for games that take a short nose-dive after release. We ramp up the hype-meter here on mmorpg.com...for what? Is it because we're hoping we're 'not alone' on release day?
http://www.allaboutgod.com/
lol "we" as in who? I dont bother following games in development, i check in from time to time but thats about it.
Playing: EVE Online
Favorite MMOs: WoW, SWG Pre-cu, Lineage 2, UO, EQ, EVE online
Looking forward to: Archeage, Kingdom Under Fire 2
KUF2's Official Website - http://www.kufii.com/ENG/ -
lol "we" as in who? I dont bother following games in development, i check in from time to time but thats about it.
Well, the problem with that philosophy (whether it's a good one or not) is that it's contrary to human nature. By nature, humans are a communal creature, so when they find something interesting, they find others to tell and get involved, that's why the MMO craze is so big. The next human issue here is the need to impress. So even when a person knows nothing, they still want to say they know something, good or bad, thus we have rumors. Rumors of a well executed campaign generally turn to hype, and hype to high expectactions. Media campaigns are getting too good at what they do and the result is overhyping a lot of games... It happened to Spore, and (I'm not sure, but I'm getting the feeling) WAR. So really, it's humanity and veteran media members we have to blame for this one :P
The mmorpg.com community. We're the "media lapdogs" when it comes to the games. Sure, there's a lot of people who come here to discuss their favorite games on the forums, but there's a large portion of the community who come here for news on games in-development, reviews, and new releases (if I read the daily poll mmorpg.com posted correctly). There's no 'reward' here for older games no matter how good they may be. In fact, the older the game, the harder it is to stay on the top of the charts. The newest release is typically "top rated". Then when a few weeks go by, down it goes. As a site or reviewer, why even give any review until the game is played for four or more months? It perpetuates the problem gamers have.
The incentive for companies to make games seems to be for that quick-hit of cash, then after that there doesn't seem to be any consideration what occurs. Perhaps this kind of irresponsibility will develop a skepticism in gaming fans to the point where nothing will be bought on release day, everything will have to have a free trial and only after a first free month will any revenue be seen.
http://www.allaboutgod.com/