Some news John Smedley interview

RPGBeech

Originally posted by healz4u

Originally posted by RPGBeech

 



Many kids today have short attention spans (products of the "I want it all now, dammit" school).

Nothing holds their attention spans for very long - they want instant gratification.  They also want

polished, shiny, and they want it to work on their existing computer out of the box.   Now which of

those categories does Vanguard fit ?   One could argue shiny but certainly not instant gratification,

polished, running on existing computer, and working out of the box.  

I agree, but I am not sure these kids with short attention spans are responsible for raising the bar.





EDIT:  In fact, some might say they are responsible for lowering it.

You seem to miss the point. 



If the bar is set low, it means it is easy for every jumper to attain success (success is judged by being able

to jump over the bar).  In a similar vein, a low MMO bar would mean that every MMO will meet the demands

of the MMO playerbase and receive an equitable share of players (all are successful with roughly equal

profits).  You could not have the situation where three or four MMO companies have 98 percent of the

playerbase and the remaining companies must fight over the remaining two percent. 





Lowering the bar has nothing to do with dumbing down a game, which must be your interpretation of the

expression.   A dumbed down game isn't going to cause decent retention because this segment of

the playerbase can not be retained for any significant period of time (short attention span and quick

arrival of boredom). 

healz4u

So, you're saying all the games on the market is responsible for raising the bar?

RPGBeech

Originally posted by healz4u

So, you're saying all the games on the market is responsible for raising the bar?

No. 



Just the opposite.   Since only a few games are VERY successful, then they must be doing

something VERY different from the rest of the pack (ie. set the bar higher so the large majority

of the MMO companies have to watch the few collect the lion's share of the MMO revenue).





Anyone can produce a mediocre game.  Not anyone can produce a game that gets 400K

subscriptions in the first few months of release and keep building on that.

healz4u

Originally posted by RPGBeech  VERY successful, then they must be doing

something VERY different from the rest of the pack

What has WoW done VERY differently?





EDIT: Failed to include VERY in original.

Daffid011

Originally posted by healz4u

Originally posted by RPGBeech  VERY successful, then they must be doing

something VERY different from the rest of the pack

What has WoW done VERY differently?





EDIT: Failed to include VERY in original.

The most important thing they did do, is what they didn't do.  Repeating the same tired old mistakes of buggy unfinished releases filled with boring time sinks.  The reliance on quests and content to level rather than murder based leveling was a small change, but large enough to set a new standard.  It is the whole package of doing small things right and not repeating the same mistakes from games.

Shayde

Originally posted by healz4u

Originally posted by RPGBeech  VERY successful, then they must be doing

something VERY different from the rest of the pack

What has WoW done VERY differently?





EDIT: Failed to include VERY in original.



Blizzard created a content-rich stable and mostly bug-free game. Few have done that.



Only examples of quality on WoW's level has been CoH and LOTRO. Nobody else has ever come close.



WoW raised the bar. They were the first to realize QUALITY was the #1 factor, and why MMO's before WoW were niche games.

terrorantula

Originally posted by Enigma

Smedly is probably the single most worse thing the gaming industry has spawned.  Ehh.

It's very hard to pin down faults to one guy tbh, in terms of money he's probally great and the company loves him because he's bringing in the cash for them, end of the day they're a business. However their games arn't that good and most had amaizng potential but just they dropped the ball to do other projects and don't want to waste the cash or resources.