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Whatever Happened to Random Community Focused Events?
Xssiv
Member UncommonPosts: 359
I distinctly remember playing Tabula Rasa one night when out of nowhere Lord British jumped into global chat and held what appeared to be an impromptu Star Wars trivia contest.
Basically, the first person to respond to a particular GM with the correct answer would win some cool in game prize like a piece of high quality gear.
It was a very cool little event that cost the studio absolutely nothing to put on but probably left many players like myself with a pretty cool experience and fond memory even six or seven years later.
It seems like the older MMO's had more of a community focus where it felt like the GM's or devs were more involved with the daily happenings. Even WoW had a bit of that early on with some random events including rock concerts that seemed to pop up out of nowhere (Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain).
These days it seems like all we get are the standard holiday events which don't change much from year to year.
So whatever happened to those types of random events that used to feel like a integral part of playing an MMO?
Comments
Now mmo games are designed to last about 2 to 3 months. The developer knows they aren't going to get a commitment from a player so why bother?
"Get off my lawn!" *shakes fists*
/Facepalm
There is so much wrong with this post. Lets start with, '2 to 3 months'.
GW2 / SWTOR are still going strong after 24 months and making money in the 'over $100 millions per year'.
WoW still is 10 years old with 6.5+M subscribers.
Yeah... Players sure aren't committed alright. ROFL!
'people who wanted quality were the majority' This phrase makes no sense as we have the sandbox people wanting a 'quality sandbox and not some indie' so you sandbox lovers better get your story straight.
'no more Weekly community events' - Oh you mean like GW2's 2 week living story content?
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
LotRO had frequent events with GM's present in-game back in the Codies days. After the server transfer it's not that frequent, but actually in these last couple months there's the Hobbit to Isengard series with Sapience and sometimes devs and Aaron as well.
Also there are truckloads of player-organised events with "some cool in game prize" as you wrote, which are coming from the devs/GM's (like unique titles based on that event, or even $5 - $10 worth of TP coupons like they gave during this winter's horse race and the in-game trivia contest)
Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain - never liked wow, but aren't they the band with "I'm Murloc"? Awesome song
btw in LotRO you can find concerts almost every week.
I miss the GM events that used to happen in old MMOs.
The main reason they disappeared is money, as most MMO decisions are these days. GMs cost money. The more you have, the more it costs.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Nowadays the GM event entails the GM coming on and announcing himself and saying that if you see any bots, let him know because he is on the prowl for bots and he is hungry.
We actually had that in Elder Scrolls Online.
How do you know those 6.5M are the same people are years before? And 6.5M is a small drop in the bucket compared to the whole MMO market .. which are mostly F2P games. I don't commit to F2P games, do you?
I certainly don't. If I find them fun (like you), I will play them. Otherwise I will move on. Some I can get 2-3 months out of. Most games though are just a revolving door.
Also, it doesn't matter what an MMO earns. It's not really a factor in the revolving door of a F2P game.
Could you imagine the rage fest by all of the self-entitled pukes that would need to be on suicide watch for missing out on something like that?
A little extreme, but you get the idea. These days it's all about being fair for everyone.
Nari's post is usually 'technically' correct but this one is fairly bizzare.
Not all of 6.5M isn't but WoW's longevity in player's retention is known. To argue otherwise is history revision and a really bad one at that.
Sides, the quoted part was directly in response to '2-3months' which WoW's players stay much longer (on average) on anyway.
6.5M is still what 50% of the western MMO market?
WoW's peak was 12M and that was considered '80%'.
Are they as committed to a single game than before? Probably not as we have a lot more MMOs now.
Are they as bad as the post I refuted? Not even close.
Not sure about 'commit' as who the heck 'commit' to a VIDEO GAME? I am committed to my friends / family so of course we play similar / same games but that's normal.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
While not random (the schedule was announced months ago), today is Landroval's turn of taking the hobbit to Isengard, so if you want to see / participate in a large event with GM's and sometimes devs and other peeps from the company (next to the hundreds of players of course), then head to the Prancing Pony in Bree, Landroval server, 5PM servertime (US east I think).
Or you can watch it on twitch too, but that's less fun
more convenient I guess, but less fun.