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One of the reasons MMO's are having such a hard time
saitoh183
Member UncommonPosts: 53
This is my opinion and i would like to hear what others have to say about the title of the thread and not just come to bash other people's opinions (remember...opinions are like assholes, everyones got one!) , So lets try to keep it clean and contructive
One of the major issues in MMO's in general is that back in the day, when a mmo was coming out, we counted ourselves lucky to have a beta before launch. We would play that beta and get a little taste of what was to come in the final product. If we we were really lucky, we got a second little taste and most of time, the launch followed not too long after. Now a days all people anticipate are beta (weekends and all) and once the game is released, we play for a few months at most and then move on to the next beta game...why...cuz beta's cause us to over play the game because of hype,time limitation, and by the time the game is out we are bored in general. A good example is Diablo 3 (yes its not a mmo but the point is the same), we got a 1 beta weekend that allowed us to play limited content to wet our appetites and then it was release time and everyone that was anticipating the game wasnt already bored and ready to move on.
I think companies need to step back from handing out beta weekends like candy which might help the mmo survive a bit longer then they are now. Im not saying that we shouldnt have betas at all just not in the present formula we are getting them now.
So that was my 2 cents...now whats everyone elses?
GW---> (Ranger/Mesmer)Dark Raziel
Comments
If people are getting bored during beta, the solution isn't to limit the betas, it's to fix the problem with the game. There is no difference between beta and the first month after release. If a month of beta bored them, that first month will to. If anything, we need longer betas to help identify more major red flags like that.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
It depends on what stage of the beta. For example, that last month of beta before LOTRO's release was all polish (is that word still in?) and constant adjustment of content. They watched hte paths players travelled, the places they were congregating, the areas they were missing and the content they were avoiding. The game world received many adjustments just based on that data alone. Sometimes there's a compelte redesign during beta. Such was Auto Assault's situation, where the game world was literally scrapped and recreated by an entirely different teams than worked on the original map. It didn't pan out well.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
World Of Tanks is the first thing that sprang to mind when I read the title of this thread. There is quite a lot of options to scratch that 'online gaming' itch now, albeit not MMO's but other choices that are really good at what they do. I have always been an avid MMO gamer but for lack of anything MMOwise currently that has held my interest I have looked further afield.
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I've been playing MMOs since Ultima and uh...yeah, pretty sure betas existed as more than just an occasional thing. Was playing the beta for Anarchy a while before it released, played the hell out of Ragnarok Online beta even though the FPS was abyssmal and everyone kept KSing the little bird things, etc. That you may not have gotten into those betas doesn't mean they weren't there, though I'll grant you more people seem to get into them these days. However, there's also ~more~ people playing and thus gaming worlds are larger to accommodate ~more~ people.
I agree that some companies use betas like free promotions for their game, however as someone else pointed out, if someone is bored of the game just from the beta, it's likely regardless of the fact that a beta existed.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
There havent' been too many big release MMOs lately. I'm excited to see how The Secret World is but hesistant due to the subscription feature.
I think its because of the subscriptions. I mean they need to earn money to make more content for the game and make better games in the future but a monthly of ~$15 just doesnt appeal to most people. Free Trials ARE a great way to attract people to the game but that monthly sub can end it just the same.
Its not about being cheap, to some people its just the extra bill that they have to pay on top of everything else.
well, back in the day there were not many MMOs to play; but now? we don't have time to play them alll; now we have YouTube and other sources of info thanks to the glorious Internet; we should pretty much have an idea if a new MMO will deliver without even playing beta.
IMO MMO's are having a hard time because it's the nature of MMO's style that requires something unique. When I play a single player game it's maybe a 50hr experience or so and if it wasn't a rewarding experience then it's not a huge loss of time or effort. When people play MMO's their shopping for something they feel they could play for years. You don't just toss together a bunch of bullshit and try to sell it as a mmo. Developer's today are treating the mmo genre like the single player genre and none of those games are going to do well with that mind set.
Today's games are developed with the idea that you'll play their game for maybe 2-3 months then quit. They market the game to as broad a player base as possible get their earnings then move on to the next iteration. 10 years ago mmo's were niche and you created one to cater to your narrow demographic and kept them so entertained and engrossed with your product they played it for over half a decade... every month for 15$.
The single player developers treating a mmo like a short term cash grab is the problem with MMO's today.
I think there are quite a few reasons mmorpg's are having a tough time. One of the main reasons is that there didn't used to be so many choices. You just lived with bugs until they were fixed. They used to be mostly open worlds where you could just do what you wanted when you logged in. Now a days its the pve or pvp gear grind and nothing more. We don't have worlds to explore, we have a path to follow and at the end of that is the gear grind. Who cares about community or meeting people in the game, who cares about building your own guild city with your own vendors and whatnot. I've been chasing the mmorpg dragon since the day I left swg pre nge. Still looking....pretty close to giving up and coming to the realization that what I consider an mmorpg to be just isn't what mainstream or investors see them to be..
SWG spoiled me rotten. I remember playing that game as my first MMO and thinking "wow, we can do anything here. it is our world." And we made it that way.
Yes, tons of things wrong with it. Lack of content blah blah blah. But what the game did right is to allow the player to really decide how they wanted to play, with great classes, skills, etc. Open PvP was terrific even though the game had boundaries and really couldnt handle massive war. Damn the player economy was awesome.
Yes, things changed over time for the worse. Jedi, NGE, etc. But we really did impact our servers. Player Cities, crafted armaments, etc. They made the world one for the players, not the developers.
When I played SWTOR I had the wrong mindset. I had that hope in the back of my mind that we would be able to take a story driven MMO and make it a sandbox. THat isnt Bioware's fault. It is entirely mine.
But I digress. The reason why MMOs are having such a difficult time is honestly that no one is giving players the experience they really crave. They want to make a difference and impact their world. If they can't, what is the point?
I don't see many MMOs actually providing that. Just my two cents.
Reasons MMO having a hard time -
1. They aren't good. They just aren't. They are single player games with MMO tacked onto it (Need for Speed now has an MMO...to give you an idea).
2. Too many to choose from.
Back in the day you had UO, AC, EQ. All different and very distinct. Now you get 4 MMOs a year, lucky if 1 is any good. Meanwhile you get 200 F2P shit ones that come out, etc..
People keep clamoring to want change the world they play in. It seems the go to response is "There aren't enough sandbox fans", which I call bullshit. All those PnP guys, DnD guys, the true "nerds" I should say..SWG, UO, a lot of those players from that era would hop in a sandbox without thinking.
The players have changed as well. Now it's - Get XP, get the phat loots and "beat" the game somehow. It used to be you just played...