The fact is, there isn't any luxury MMO today, because there isn't anyone who has figured out how to give the exclusive clientele an exclusive experience. All they can do is give them more tacky crap to "keep up with the Jones's". And, quite frankly, I think that's a rather shoddy way to treat your best clientele. If people are willing to throw thousands of dollars at an MMO, they ought to have a special "private client" level of service, no?
Because you need to scale up and manage that service ... which is not easy. You have to train a staff that can DM. In this day and age of automation, few companies would want to go that direction.
It is much easier to give your best client a "gold level" or whatever status symbol (and perks) than person-to-person service.
Agreed. Add to it that people looking for a more personalized virtual murder, roleplay, fantasy or team experience are not looking for it in Massively multiplayer venues. Even real life luxury services aren't done on a massive scale. They are geared toward smaller groups because of the monumental tasks and size of staff often needed to provide such an experience.
I'd call cruise ships rather massive affairs. Hotels too. Yet these things are able to provide a high level of personal service PLUS manage a whole lot of overhead to boot; overhead that an MMO doesn't have (food, fuel, physical property upkeep, etc.)
But I have to wonder, if people are not looking for personalized virtual murder, roleplay, immersion and so on, is it because they wouldn't like it? Or is it because the game publishers refuse to give it?
Day after day, we see people here complain about scripted quests, not enough content, bad mechanics, stupid, contrived nonsense like lock boxes and lockout timers. And the reason they complain about these things is because the major publishers are too lazy to manage their players' experience directly. They write scripts to do their work and as a result, the worlds seem dead.
It wasn't always that way. I remember the days when developers would hire a special person just to run live events. And it was appreciated, too. Those folks were fired, assuming because it was "cost cutting" worth doing. But even here, the amount of personal attention given in a game like UO or SWG is a shadow of what it was in the MUD and MUSH days. Yes, they automate things. And as a result, the games are as predictable and boring as you would expect from an automated recording. And their retention rates prove it, the cheapskates.
Keeping things live makes it fresh. This is something every MMO player and developer knows. You don't get the essence of MMO by interacting with scripts. You get it by interacting with people.
So why can't these so-called "industry leaders" in MMO land give us the essence of MMO and, instead, give us this automated crap? Because they are too cheap and too greedy to give us anything but a watered down copy of what an online role playing game ought to be, that's why.
They refuse to give the $1000/month whale a $1000/month experience. Instead, they give the luxury gourmand fast food for luxury prices.
__________________________ "Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it." --Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints." --Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls." --Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
They refuse to give the $1000/month whale a $1000/month experience. Instead, they give the luxury gourmand fast food for luxury prices.
Why do you think that a player spending $1000 a month is not getting the value of the experience? Why is the value of the services offered even in question?
Casino's give their big spenders personal service. I know that some gaming companies do as well. I dont know any that sell the service, but I know some that give it for free.
The other issue is the separation of the big spenders from the rest of the players. Why would they need their own game? Would you build a whole cruise ship, just to cater to a handful of people. Wouldn't it be awfully empty? Wouldn't you instead use a smaller (cheaper) ship like a yacht? Wouldn't this alone change the experience drastically?
The last issue is this. Many big spenders support large groups of players. This large entourage or guild is what is driving the amount of spending. Why is this considered less valuable, than if they had paid for this themselves?
The fact is, there isn't any luxury MMO today, because there isn't anyone who has figured out how to give the exclusive clientele an exclusive experience. All they can do is give them more tacky crap to "keep up with the Jones's". And, quite frankly, I think that's a rather shoddy way to treat your best clientele. If people are willing to throw thousands of dollars at an MMO, they ought to have a special "private client" level of service, no?
Because you need to scale up and manage that service ... which is not easy. You have to train a staff that can DM. In this day and age of automation, few companies would want to go that direction.
It is much easier to give your best client a "gold level" or whatever status symbol (and perks) than person-to-person service.
Agreed. Add to it that people looking for a more personalized virtual murder, roleplay, fantasy or team experience are not looking for it in Massively multiplayer venues. Even real life luxury services aren't done on a massive scale. They are geared toward smaller groups because of the monumental tasks and size of staff often needed to provide such an experience.
I'd call cruise ships rather massive affairs. Hotels too. Yet these things are able to provide a high level of personal service PLUS manage a whole lot of overhead to boot; overhead that an MMO doesn't have (food, fuel, physical property upkeep, etc.)
But I have to wonder, if people are not looking for personalized virtual murder, roleplay, immersion and so on, is it because they wouldn't like it? Or is it because the game publishers refuse to give it?
Day after day, we see people here complain about scripted quests, not enough content, bad mechanics, stupid, contrived nonsense like lock boxes and lockout timers. And the reason they complain about these things is because the major publishers are too lazy to manage their players' experience directly. They write scripts to do their work and as a result, the worlds seem dead.
It wasn't always that way. I remember the days when developers would hire a special person just to run live events. And it was appreciated, too. Those folks were fired, assuming because it was "cost cutting" worth doing. But even here, the amount of personal attention given in a game like UO or SWG is a shadow of what it was in the MUD and MUSH days. Yes, they automate things. And as a result, the games are as predictable and boring as you would expect from an automated recording. And their retention rates prove it, the cheapskates.
Keeping things live makes it fresh. This is something every MMO player and developer knows. You don't get the essence of MMO by interacting with scripts. You get it by interacting with people.
So why can't these so-called "industry leaders" in MMO land give us the essence of MMO and, instead, give us this automated crap? Because they are too cheap and too greedy to give us anything but a watered down copy of what an online role playing game ought to be, that's why.
They refuse to give the $1000/month whale a $1000/month experience. Instead, they give the luxury gourmand fast food for luxury prices.
"I'd call cruise ships rather massive affairs. Hotels too."
Cruise ships and hotels aren't part of the luxury spectrum. Private yacht parties are. The executive/presidential/penthouise suits are. Both have are focused on far smaller numbers simply because of the scale at which they have to be catered to.
"But I have to wonder, if people are not looking for personalized virtual murder, roleplay, immersion and so on, is it because they wouldn't like it? Or is it because the game publishers refuse to give it?"
I didn't say they weren't looking for it. I said they weren't looking for it in a massively multiplayer venue.
"I remember the days when developers would hire a special person just to run live events. And it was appreciated, too. Those folks were fired, assuming because it was "cost cutting" worth doing."
Really? I thought it was because of concerns of favoritism, corruption, the scale of the support across multiple servers for an international game, and the size of the staff required to properly run, administer and monitor it. That said, the more sandbox oreinted games do have people that organize and do live events.
"... the major publishers are too lazy to manage their players' experience directly" "they are too cheap and too greedy to give us anything but a watered down copy of what an online role playing game ought to be"
Can you share what you think is involved in doing live events for a 10-shard international game?
"You don't get the essence of MMO by interacting with scripts. You get it by interacting with people."
So interact with people. How does someone dancing for you change that?
"They refuse to give the $1000/month whale a $1000/month experience."
Are you suggesting that the average person that spends $1,000/month on an MMO is not getting the experience he wants for that money yet keeps spending it?
I don't think you thought much of that through. Either that, or a lot of it is based off of some seriously skewed assumptions about what it takes to operate an entertainment service, particularly one offering high-end or personalized content.
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
The reason I think the person paying $1000 a month isn't getting a fair shake is because even half that rate would more than pay for the time a graphic artist would require to design whatever custom accoutrements the player wants. Ten such people, paying $1000 a month, would not only pay for the graphic artist that would design whatever the ten wanted but would, also, pay for two more just like him.
Instead, the games basically sell the player a bunch of off the rack item store things, things they make available to everybody, and pocket the rest, or throw it into things that the player might not be interested in at all.
Now some games, like some casinos, give players an ear or a voice. Maybe, if they are lucky, they might get invited to talk with the developers. But the experience these players have in the game is, more or less, qualitatively the same as every other. Sure, they may get the developers to design something that wouldn't ordinarily get designed. But, in the end, these high end players are playing the same, script-driven, common experience as every other person. There's nothing special, unique or memorable about what they experience online...nothing that's "theirs and theirs alone."
Besides, what Vegas is discovering is that, rather than put the high rollers in the same hotel as everyone else, the high rollers would much rather have their own, special hotels, with their own, special accommodations.
Finally, with regard to groups of players or entourages or guilds. Well, given how things are right now in F2P world, there's no way for the group to have its own, custom designed group content or be featured into the game culture or the lore. But if you have a level of custom service available, you can have an entire staff in the game that can work on your guild or organization's unique place. Custom logos and uniforms. Custom story arcs that write your guild into the "script." EXAMPLE:
"The King has chosen your group to keep the chalice of Illbegotten in safe keeping until his return. You must protect it from all comers and, if so, the King will reward you."
I agree with you that this kind of model isn't for everyone, and it isn't going to necessarily replace F2P as it currently stands. What it will do, however, is to "up the game" for those games which do depend on big spenders to give them the best experience for the money.
Because honestly, if players are throwing thousands of dollars into the game, they are more than paying for their own, personal coder. I say why not just facilitate such a personalized experience directly, instead of indirectly, and offer a better experience to boot.
__________________________ "Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it." --Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints." --Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls." --Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
I'd call cruise ships rather massive affairs. Hotels too. Yet these things are able to provide a high level of personal service PLUS manage a whole lot of overhead to boot; overhead that an MMO doesn't have (food, fuel, physical property upkeep, etc.)
If MMOs charge hotel or cruise ship prices (good hotel is like $200 a night, and cruise costs what .. similar to hotel prices? $200 a day + drinks and what-not?) .. then you can have good services.
Are you willing to pay $200 ... or even $50 for one DAY of a MMO? Guess how fast THAT market will die.
Maybe I am the only one BUT I stopped playing MMORPGs. I couldn't find one I liked enough to devote time and/or money to. I have tried a bunch of F2P titles but didn't stay long. So now no one gets my money. I spend time once used for playing (paying) to searching and researching something I may be interested in.
I would gladly pay a sub for a game I am interested in. $15 a month is short money if you are putting 10+ hours a week into the game.
You are not alone. Not by a long shot. The MMORPG scene is dying off, has been for about 3 years now. There's still business going on, but it's not anywhere close to where it could be. If not for "free", it would really look bleak.
95% of the people on this site will tell you you're wrong and you are alone. Us 5% are basically going to eventually move onto another hobby entirely and just stop posting here.
I have to honestly say we will never see another MMORPG that we think is good. It's just not going to happen. And I have been saying this for years now.
You're confusing "5% of the people that post here are moving on" with "the MMORPG scene is dying".
True, but in all honesty the genre has been dying since 2005. Only now I guess more people are starting to realize this?
Is "expanding" and "dying" synonymous to you somehow? The genre has only expanded and is far from dying. The genre as you enjoy it might be dying, sure, but the genre as a whole is still thriving and doing just fine overall.
The reason I think the person paying $1000 a month isn't getting a fair shake is because even half that rate would more than pay for the time a graphic artist would require to design whatever custom accoutrements the player wants. Ten such people, paying $1000 a month, would not only pay for the graphic artist that would design whatever the ten wanted but would, also, pay for two more just like him.
Instead, the games basically sell the player a bunch of off the rack item store things, things they make available to everybody, and pocket the rest, or throw it into things that the player might not be interested in at all.
Now some games, like some casinos, give players an ear or a voice. Maybe, if they are lucky, they might get invited to talk with the developers. But the experience these players have in the game is, more or less, qualitatively the same as every other. Sure, they may get the developers to design something that wouldn't ordinarily get designed. But, in the end, these high end players are playing the same, script-driven, common experience as every other person. There's nothing special, unique or memorable about what they experience online...nothing that's "theirs and theirs alone."
Besides, what Vegas is discovering is that, rather than put the high rollers in the same hotel as everyone else, the high rollers would much rather have their own, special hotels, with their own, special accommodations.
Finally, with regard to groups of players or entourages or guilds. Well, given how things are right now in F2P world, there's no way for the group to have its own, custom designed group content or be featured into the game culture or the lore. But if you have a level of custom service available, you can have an entire staff in the game that can work on your guild or organization's unique place. Custom logos and uniforms. Custom story arcs that write your guild into the "script." EXAMPLE:
"The King has chosen your group to keep the chalice of Illbegotten in safe keeping until his return. You must protect it from all comers and, if so, the King will reward you."
I agree with you that this kind of model isn't for everyone, and it isn't going to necessarily replace F2P as it currently stands. What it will do, however, is to "up the game" for those games which do depend on big spenders to give them the best experience for the money.
Because honestly, if players are throwing thousands of dollars into the game, they are more than paying for their own, personal coder. I say why not just facilitate such a personalized experience directly, instead of indirectly, and offer a better experience to boot.
First, great reply.
Next, lets look at the points.
It does take a bit more than $1000 to make a new item... but your point is valid. Having a team that could make custom items for those willing to pay for them is feasible. However, it doesn't really make you money (which is needed to pay for the original game). It does keep your team employed, and provide great service. Path of Exile has been known to create unique items (for the whole game) for $2500.
The other big problem is that most often, what they are paying for is an experience, not a specific item. The largest spenders support guilds, and other groups so that they can have the gaming experience that they want. This is actually very economical when you think about it. A real life entourage would cost a whole lot more.
As for events, I do know that some smaller companies do freeform events, sometimes derived from, or by request of the larger spenders. I agree that these are not usually totally unique experiences, but these are free events. Again, it is possible to have teams code totally unique events, but even whales are generally not looking for that type of expense, for so little return.
As for Vegas Hotels... I am not aware of any building a second Hotel for high rollers. They use the same hotel, but reserve floors/sections for the personal use of the high rollers. However, even then, the high rollers like to go to the public areas (even if sectioned off) for the actual gaming.
Lore is an interesting quirk. I am aware of several games that have items/places/npc's/events that are named after/based on players. The core game itself may not have changed, but the players have had a personal effect on changing it.
Lastly, personal development.... well, it is not as cheap as you would believe. This is one of the main reasons why gaming has had issues in the past decade, the cost of development has risen, and the tools are not yet in place to fix this. Some developers do a better job than others in this area. The big issue is that F2P games take several years to recoup the investment, and until that time, they must use their revenues not to just pay salaries, but to recover money already spent. The next phase is to start paying for that next game, or improvements on the current game. It is not until years into the game that they usually have the luxury of just working for wages. The bottom line is that you may not think that they items that they are getting are worth $1000, but much more than that was paid to make them available.
Is "expanding" and "dying" synonymous to you somehow? The genre has only expanded and is far from dying. The genre as you enjoy it might be dying, sure, but the genre as a whole is still thriving and doing just fine overall.
Not sure about the person you quoted, but I read this and thought of Mr. Creosote, from Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life" movie. He expanded. And expanded. And expanded. And blew up. Dead.
Lastly, personal development.... well, it is not as cheap as you would believe. This is one of the main reasons why gaming has had issues in the past decade, the cost of development has risen, and the tools are not yet in place to fix this.
I agree with you that coders and artists, what we might call "skilled labor," are expensive, with valuable time. A game might require a few more of those, but I imagine most of what would make a luxury, full service MMO really work are the live staff, who might not need the kind of technical skills to render new meshes or texture them.
Basically, you might need people to log in for a few hours each day to play characters, like the king and important folks, as well as minor characters or cameos for people like bar wenches, orcs and antagonists, bards, trainers and coaches and so on. These are folks who can work at home and might not require as much compensation as a skilled coder. I can imagine it might be something students could do in their spare time, or housewives, or perhaps a second stream of revenue for someone who just wants to be a part of something special like this. And the best part about it is that many people would find this kind of work fun and rewarding in itself, wouldn't you think?
It would require note taking though, to get to understand the clients, which could be forwarded up to a kind of organizer or case worker, who can then send down a plan of action to the staff. "I need a princess for client X...He told the barkeep over drinks that he wishes he could meet a beautiful blonde with green eyes...how about you, Leslie?" Or, "Master Mojo, I'm sending two clients to your Dojo...here are their names."
So, yes. It's not cheap. But something really special never is. And I'd think the majority of talent for a project like this would be no more expensive than the majority of talent in a typical hotel, where most of the staff is found in the kitchens, cleaning the rooms and working the desk and door.
__________________________ "Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it." --Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints." --Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls." --Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
So, yes. It's not cheap. But something really special never is. And I'd think the majority of talent for a project like this would be no more expensive than the majority of talent in a typical hotel, where most of the staff is found in the kitchens, cleaning the rooms and working the desk and door.
nah ...
Daredevil on Netflix is pretty special.
House of Cards is pretty special.
Game of Throne is pretty special.
Portal 2 is pretty special.
... long list of "special" entertainment.
They are all CHEAP to the consumer. Why? Because they use modern technology. Producing one copy is expensive. Delivering to millions of consumers make it cheap (to consumers). Economy of scale.
So, yes. It's not cheap. But something really special never is. And I'd think the majority of talent for a project like this would be no more expensive than the majority of talent in a typical hotel, where most of the staff is found in the kitchens, cleaning the rooms and working the desk and door.
nah ...
Daredevil on Netflix is pretty special.
House of Cards is pretty special.
Game of Throne is pretty special.
Portal 2 is pretty special.
... long list of "special" entertainment.
They are all CHEAP to the consumer. Why? Because they use modern technology. Producing one copy is expensive. Delivering to millions of consumers make it cheap (to consumers). Economy of scale.
Except that watching television is just a time waster while gaming
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
How do you compete? Offer better services and explain why people should invest in your product. In other words, "sell" your product with great quality. Don't release garbage models, animations, textures, and broken code.
Except that watching television is just a time waster while gaming
"time waster" is subjective. To me, gaming is as much a time waster as watching TV, or reading a novel. At the core, you have some fun, with zero productivity (in real life) and some time gone by. To me, there is little difference except the level of enjoyment.
Lastly, personal development.... well, it is not as cheap as you would believe. This is one of the main reasons why gaming has had issues in the past decade, the cost of development has risen, and the tools are not yet in place to fix this.
I agree with you that coders and artists, what we might call "skilled labor," are expensive, with valuable time. A game might require a few more of those, but I imagine most of what would make a luxury, full service MMO really work are the live staff, who might not need the kind of technical skills to render new meshes or texture them.
Basically, you might need people to log in for a few hours each day to play characters, like the king and important folks, as well as minor characters or cameos for people like bar wenches, orcs and antagonists, bards, trainers and coaches and so on. These are folks who can work at home and might not require as much compensation as a skilled coder. I can imagine it might be something students could do in their spare time, or housewives, or perhaps a second stream of revenue for someone who just wants to be a part of something special like this. And the best part about it is that many people would find this kind of work fun and rewarding in itself, wouldn't you think?
It would require note taking though, to get to understand the clients, which could be forwarded up to a kind of organizer or case worker, who can then send down a plan of action to the staff. "I need a princess for client X...He told the barkeep over drinks that he wishes he could meet a beautiful blonde with green eyes...how about you, Leslie?" Or, "Master Mojo, I'm sending two clients to your Dojo...here are their names."
So, yes. It's not cheap. But something really special never is. And I'd think the majority of talent for a project like this would be no more expensive than the majority of talent in a typical hotel, where most of the staff is found in the kitchens, cleaning the rooms and working the desk and door.
Those people have to be paid and on hand.
There has to be enough people to reasonably accommodate requests, and that number usually is figured at "If 80% of the target group need it now, are we staffed to do it?"
If no one is requesting special treatment, you're paying people to do nothing.
There is also the administrative and supervisory costs of maintaining this huge team of individuals.
This also means that, in the case of new assets, you are looking at hotfixes and new builds. While it seems on the surface one could easy create content and patch on the fly, you either have to throw versioning to the wind or create a nightmare for your team, especially if something has to be rolled back or reverted.
There's also the manpower and time for the assets.
Technical debt.
What you are suggesting is rather insanely expensive. To be clear, it's definitely doable and it's done in other areas, but in an MMO it seems a rather cost prohibitive endeavour.
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
So, yes. It's not cheap. But something really special never is. And I'd think the majority of talent for a project like this would be no more expensive than the majority of talent in a typical hotel, where most of the staff is found in the kitchens, cleaning the rooms and working the desk and door.
nah ...
Daredevil on Netflix is pretty special.
House of Cards is pretty special.
Game of Throne is pretty special.
Portal 2 is pretty special.
... long list of "special" entertainment.
They are all CHEAP to the consumer. Why? Because they use modern technology. Producing one copy is expensive. Delivering to millions of consumers make it cheap (to consumers). Economy of scale.
Except that watching television is just a time waster while gaming
Well, clearly you are an entertainment consumer, but not really what I classify as a "gamer"
Take me for instance, I can't actually remember watching a single television show in the past 10 years when I didn't have my laptop on and was gaming at the same time. (The TV is really there to entertain my wife and for background noise or "downtime"
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
So, yes. It's not cheap. But something really special never is. And I'd think the majority of talent for a project like this would be no more expensive than the majority of talent in a typical hotel, where most of the staff is found in the kitchens, cleaning the rooms and working the desk and door.
nah ...
Daredevil on Netflix is pretty special.
House of Cards is pretty special.
Game of Throne is pretty special.
Portal 2 is pretty special.
... long list of "special" entertainment.
They are all CHEAP to the consumer. Why? Because they use modern technology. Producing one copy is expensive. Delivering to millions of consumers make it cheap (to consumers). Economy of scale.
Except that watching television is just a time waster while gaming
Well, clearly you are an entertainment consumer, but not really what I classify as a "gamer"
Take me for instance, I can't actually remember watching a single television show in the past 10 years when I didn't have my laptop on and was gaming at the same time. (The TV is really there to entertain my wife and for background noise or "downtime"
OMG... what are you saying? Next you are going to say that I am not really listening when my wife is talking...
Of course I am watching TV with my wife. The Laptop is just in my lap in case work should need need me, and I am not really paying attention to it.
What you are suggesting is rather insanely expensive. To be clear, it's definitely doable and it's done in other areas, but in an MMO it seems a rather cost prohibitive endeavour.
In some ways, yes.
Expertise--even the minimum amount of expertise that would be gained by learning the GM tools and polishing your routines--is more expensive, logistically and costwise--than to automate everything.
And, for sure, in a game like this, there might not be the capacity to give every client a live, personalized experience of his or her choosing for 16 hours straight. I would think there would be plenty to do that didn't require a GM to oversee it, much like what we have now (and people are already paying a lot of money for what we have now).
But there would also be that extra attention from a live person, in addition to everything now, that makes the experience as a whole more unique than it would be if no such attention to service were ever done at all. Even just a moment of personal attention is far more special than what we have now (which is nothing, or very little).
I'm thinking that if a patron can get an hour a day of direct, personal, one on one attention for his own, personal one on one journey, that's above and beyond any sort of attention they get now in any MMO. Besides, there will be people walking around the world who will put events into motion and such...things that the guests will all have to discover by exploring.
We can think of it like Disneyland, where you have Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and all these characters just wandering around the park, bumping into whoever shows up. How much of that do we see in MMOs now? When was the last time we saw Antonia Bayle walk amongst her kingdom?
Now I don't doubt what you say; people are expensive, and time is expensive. That's why a therapist can easily ask for a fee of $200 for a 50 minute session, and yet be so busy that they have to turn people away.
And when I think of things like cruise ships, hotels, theme parks--or even a local murder mystery dinner theatre--they do it, people can afford to do it, and they have all sorts of big expenses that an online experience just doesn't have to worry about. Rent. Union contracts. Safety and fire codes. Physical property maitenance. Uniforms and costumes. Food. Yet these places--expensive and labor intensive as they are--don't seem to be going away.
And the staff there has to physically show up, instead of telecommuting from their homes. Make no mistake, these places are expensive. But doesn't that show that, perhaps, there might be an opportunity to virtualize the experience?
If it is insanely expensive and cost prohibitive to do a full on, 100% fully staffed MMO, where every NPC is played by a real person, what sort of level of personalized experience wouldn't be cost prohibitive and insanely expensive to do? 50%? 25%?
Because even if you have an extra 10% of unautomated content, that's ten times more of a personalized experience than what people have now.
I mean, we can say "that's too radical of an idea and it'll never ever be profitable," but what--possibly--can we do instead that they haven't already done? Put in yet more paywalls to gate content? Put in yet more crap in the item store that becomes obsolete even more rapidly? Make the games even more free to play than what they already are? Sell ways to make grinds even shorter than they are? What's something they haven't done yet?
Well, they haven't done anything like this. And costly as it may be, I don't think anyone can deny that it wouldn't be cool.
__________________________ "Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it." --Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints." --Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls." --Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
In other words, having 10 people in 1 instance, does not qualify as an MMO. Someone said earlier that people don't want MMO's, what they want is MO's.
This means it's a different genre (not the same), and I for one agree the MMO genre is dying.
Personally, I think they should just change the dns of this website to onlinegames.com. Many of the games listed are not MMORPG's, and this is often misleading.
Very true. However I can't see this site making that change as it could really mess with the amount of people that would continue to pop in and frequent the site.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
"Expertise--even the minimum amount of expertise that would be gained by learning the GM tools and polishing your routines--is more expensive, logistically and costwise--than to automate everything."
It's more than that. In UO, we had people assigned to specific servers so that they could know the servers and get acquainted with the community. Knowing the players in the events and knowing the history of the community was a big part of offering the premium experience. That expertise beyond memorizing slash commands.
On one server, I created an NPC named Milton. He was no major leap in tech, but he did his job well. Basically, if you said certain keywords in proximity of him, he would reply. As different players became known on the server, I added to his script a tidbit about that person. So, if 'Lachlan' was said in proximity to him, he'd say 'Lachlan? He opened that tavern just north of here. A great place to meet fellow adventurers!'. If they said 'Waargboom' or 'Waarg' then Milton would reply with a quip about how he was one of the most feared of the ShadowClan Orcs.
A personalized experience, especially a high-dollar one, requires a lot more than just having a few jesters ready to dance at a moment's notice.
"And the staff there has to physically show up, instead of telecommuting from their homes. Make no mistake, these places are expensive. But doesn't that show that, perhaps, there might be an opportunity to virtualize the experience?"
The issue isn't in getting everyone in one building.
When we did events for vMTV, we had the event team on IRC and voice comms, we had the MTV execs and the bands on conference calls, and we were chatting with the players in game. Preparing for each event, running each event, and recapping/cleanup took far more time than just the event. We're not talking about 16 hours of dancing for some dude. We're talking a meager team for a half hour to hour event. Now, multiply that across the number of players you have and how frequently their $1000 premium sub lets them experience it.
"I mean, we can say "that's too radical of an idea and it'll never ever be profitable," or we can acknowledge my statement was:
"To be clear, it's definitely doable..."
"Well, they haven't done anything like this."
We did it in UO. Players could actually pay for a wedding, a celebration or party. It would be personally decorated and handled by IGMs and the content team.
Everquest did it, too. It was called the Legends server. For a premium price you got:
- Dynamic maps that tracked data on zones you visited
- New top end gear and items before the main servers, including gear unique to that server.
- EQPlayers.com was online character stats and history of your adventures - Transfer service from main servers to the Legends server - Limited capacity. Only a few thousand could subscribe to it.
I hope that offers some insight into some of the past efforts on this front and where some of the hurdles are. Again, it's certainly doable, but it seems very costly, possibly not even economically viable, to do it to the satisfaction of someone spending that kind of money.
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
There's no comparison here to be made. The amount of money a cash shopper can make for a company, compared to a subscription, is like 10 to 1 if not more. So, unless you can be as successful as past MMOs (WoW/EQ), you are bound to fail and forced to drop the subscription model in favour of free.
HOW can you compete against that? Which is what half the people here are answering with "Superior Product" and that is about the only way to compete against mindless slaves throwing arbitrary numbered paper for providing them a fantasy to escape in.
There's no comparison here to be made. The amount of money a cash shopper can make for a company, compared to a subscription, is like 10 to 1 if not more. So, unless you can be as successful as past MMOs (WoW/EQ), you are bound to fail and forced to drop the subscription model in favour of free.
HOW can you compete against that? Which is what half the people here are answering with "Superior Product" and that is about the only way to compete against mindless slaves throwing arbitrary numbered paper for providing them a fantasy to escape in.
What people do not understand tho, or deliberately ignore, is that payment model is a part of "superior product" so it does not matter how much the game is "fun" if it is priced incorrectly.
People make flase assumption that people will pay sub or w/e for a "good" game, they don't.
There's no comparison here to be made. The amount of money a cash shopper can make for a company, compared to a subscription, is like 10 to 1 if not more. So, unless you can be as successful as past MMOs (WoW/EQ), you are bound to fail and forced to drop the subscription model in favour of free.
HOW can you compete against that? Which is what half the people here are answering with "Superior Product" and that is about the only way to compete against mindless slaves throwing arbitrary numbered paper for providing them a fantasy to escape in.
What people do not understand tho, or deliberately ignore, is that payment model is a part of "superior product" so it does not matter how much the game is "fun" if it is priced incorrectly.
People make flase assumption that people will pay sub or w/e for a "good" game, they don't.
You'd assume (in good faith, of course) a superior product has fairness for all players in mind with retention rate as a factor. Subscription fits perfectly with this model.
Sadly this is false as you've stated. Too many factors to be considered when you talk payment model, in the end, a business' sole purpose is to garner attention, develop/grow and make big bucks. This has no relation to how we feel about everything and the share holders certainly don't have our best interest at heart, ever.
Comments
But I have to wonder, if people are not looking for personalized virtual murder, roleplay, immersion and so on, is it because they wouldn't like it? Or is it because the game publishers refuse to give it?
Day after day, we see people here complain about scripted quests, not enough content, bad mechanics, stupid, contrived nonsense like lock boxes and lockout timers. And the reason they complain about these things is because the major publishers are too lazy to manage their players' experience directly. They write scripts to do their work and as a result, the worlds seem dead.
It wasn't always that way. I remember the days when developers would hire a special person just to run live events. And it was appreciated, too. Those folks were fired, assuming because it was "cost cutting" worth doing. But even here, the amount of personal attention given in a game like UO or SWG is a shadow of what it was in the MUD and MUSH days. Yes, they automate things. And as a result, the games are as predictable and boring as you would expect from an automated recording. And their retention rates prove it, the cheapskates.
Keeping things live makes it fresh. This is something every MMO player and developer knows. You don't get the essence of MMO by interacting with scripts. You get it by interacting with people.
So why can't these so-called "industry leaders" in MMO land give us the essence of MMO and, instead, give us this automated crap? Because they are too cheap and too greedy to give us anything but a watered down copy of what an online role playing game ought to be, that's why.
They refuse to give the $1000/month whale a $1000/month experience. Instead, they give the luxury gourmand fast food for luxury prices.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
Casino's give their big spenders personal service. I know that some gaming companies do as well. I dont know any that sell the service, but I know some that give it for free.
The other issue is the separation of the big spenders from the rest of the players. Why would they need their own game? Would you build a whole cruise ship, just to cater to a handful of people. Wouldn't it be awfully empty? Wouldn't you instead use a smaller (cheaper) ship like a yacht? Wouldn't this alone change the experience drastically?
The last issue is this. Many big spenders support large groups of players. This large entourage or guild is what is driving the amount of spending. Why is this considered less valuable, than if they had paid for this themselves?
"I'd call cruise ships rather massive affairs. Hotels too."
Cruise ships and hotels aren't part of the luxury spectrum. Private yacht parties are. The executive/presidential/penthouise suits are. Both have are focused on far smaller numbers simply because of the scale at which they have to be catered to.
"But I have to wonder, if people are not looking for personalized virtual murder, roleplay, immersion and so on, is it because they wouldn't like it? Or is it because the game publishers refuse to give it?"
I didn't say they weren't looking for it. I said they weren't looking for it in a massively multiplayer venue.
"I remember the days when developers would hire a special person just to run live events. And it was appreciated, too. Those folks were fired, assuming because it was "cost cutting" worth doing."
Really? I thought it was because of concerns of favoritism, corruption, the scale of the support across multiple servers for an international game, and the size of the staff required to properly run, administer and monitor it. That said, the more sandbox oreinted games do have people that organize and do live events.
"... the major publishers are too lazy to manage their players' experience directly"
"they are too cheap and too greedy to give us anything but a watered down copy of what an online role playing game ought to be"
Can you share what you think is involved in doing live events for a 10-shard international game?
"You don't get the essence of MMO by interacting with scripts. You get it by interacting with people."
So interact with people. How does someone dancing for you change that?
"They refuse to give the $1000/month whale a $1000/month experience."
Are you suggesting that the average person that spends $1,000/month on an MMO is not getting the experience he wants for that money yet keeps spending it?
I don't think you thought much of that through. Either that, or a lot of it is based off of some seriously skewed assumptions about what it takes to operate an entertainment service, particularly one offering high-end or personalized content.
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
Valid questions all, Superman0X.
The reason I think the person paying $1000 a month isn't getting a fair shake is because even half that rate would more than pay for the time a graphic artist would require to design whatever custom accoutrements the player wants. Ten such people, paying $1000 a month, would not only pay for the graphic artist that would design whatever the ten wanted but would, also, pay for two more just like him.
Instead, the games basically sell the player a bunch of off the rack item store things, things they make available to everybody, and pocket the rest, or throw it into things that the player might not be interested in at all.
Now some games, like some casinos, give players an ear or a voice. Maybe, if they are lucky, they might get invited to talk with the developers. But the experience these players have in the game is, more or less, qualitatively the same as every other. Sure, they may get the developers to design something that wouldn't ordinarily get designed. But, in the end, these high end players are playing the same, script-driven, common experience as every other person. There's nothing special, unique or memorable about what they experience online...nothing that's "theirs and theirs alone."
Besides, what Vegas is discovering is that, rather than put the high rollers in the same hotel as everyone else, the high rollers would much rather have their own, special hotels, with their own, special accommodations.
Finally, with regard to groups of players or entourages or guilds. Well, given how things are right now in F2P world, there's no way for the group to have its own, custom designed group content or be featured into the game culture or the lore. But if you have a level of custom service available, you can have an entire staff in the game that can work on your guild or organization's unique place. Custom logos and uniforms. Custom story arcs that write your guild into the "script." EXAMPLE:
"The King has chosen your group to keep the chalice of Illbegotten in safe keeping until his return. You must protect it from all comers and, if so, the King will reward you."
I agree with you that this kind of model isn't for everyone, and it isn't going to necessarily replace F2P as it currently stands. What it will do, however, is to "up the game" for those games which do depend on big spenders to give them the best experience for the money.
Because honestly, if players are throwing thousands of dollars into the game, they are more than paying for their own, personal coder. I say why not just facilitate such a personalized experience directly, instead of indirectly, and offer a better experience to boot.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
Are you willing to pay $200 ... or even $50 for one DAY of a MMO? Guess how fast THAT market will die.
Next, lets look at the points.
It does take a bit more than $1000 to make a new item... but your point is valid. Having a team that could make custom items for those willing to pay for them is feasible. However, it doesn't really make you money (which is needed to pay for the original game). It does keep your team employed, and provide great service. Path of Exile has been known to create unique items (for the whole game) for $2500.
The other big problem is that most often, what they are paying for is an experience, not a specific item. The largest spenders support guilds, and other groups so that they can have the gaming experience that they want. This is actually very economical when you think about it. A real life entourage would cost a whole lot more.
As for events, I do know that some smaller companies do freeform events, sometimes derived from, or by request of the larger spenders. I agree that these are not usually totally unique experiences, but these are free events. Again, it is possible to have teams code totally unique events, but even whales are generally not looking for that type of expense, for so little return.
As for Vegas Hotels... I am not aware of any building a second Hotel for high rollers. They use the same hotel, but reserve floors/sections for the personal use of the high rollers. However, even then, the high rollers like to go to the public areas (even if sectioned off) for the actual gaming.
Lore is an interesting quirk. I am aware of several games that have items/places/npc's/events that are named after/based on players. The core game itself may not have changed, but the players have had a personal effect on changing it.
Lastly, personal development.... well, it is not as cheap as you would believe. This is one of the main reasons why gaming has had issues in the past decade, the cost of development has risen, and the tools are not yet in place to fix this. Some developers do a better job than others in this area. The big issue is that F2P games take several years to recoup the investment, and until that time, they must use their revenues not to just pay salaries, but to recover money already spent. The next phase is to start paying for that next game, or improvements on the current game. It is not until years into the game that they usually have the luxury of just working for wages. The bottom line is that you may not think that they items that they are getting are worth $1000, but much more than that was paid to make them available.
VG
Basically, you might need people to log in for a few hours each day to play characters, like the king and important folks, as well as minor characters or cameos for people like bar wenches, orcs and antagonists, bards, trainers and coaches and so on. These are folks who can work at home and might not require as much compensation as a skilled coder. I can imagine it might be something students could do in their spare time, or housewives, or perhaps a second stream of revenue for someone who just wants to be a part of something special like this. And the best part about it is that many people would find this kind of work fun and rewarding in itself, wouldn't you think?
It would require note taking though, to get to understand the clients, which could be forwarded up to a kind of organizer or case worker, who can then send down a plan of action to the staff. "I need a princess for client X...He told the barkeep over drinks that he wishes he could meet a beautiful blonde with green eyes...how about you, Leslie?" Or, "Master Mojo, I'm sending two clients to your Dojo...here are their names."
So, yes. It's not cheap. But something really special never is. And I'd think the majority of talent for a project like this would be no more expensive than the majority of talent in a typical hotel, where most of the staff is found in the kitchens, cleaning the rooms and working the desk and door.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
Daredevil on Netflix is pretty special.
House of Cards is pretty special.
Game of Throne is pretty special.
Portal 2 is pretty special.
... long list of "special" entertainment.
They are all CHEAP to the consumer. Why? Because they use modern technology. Producing one copy is expensive. Delivering to millions of consumers make it cheap (to consumers). Economy of scale.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
You stay sassy!
There has to be enough people to reasonably accommodate requests, and that number usually is figured at "If 80% of the target group need it now, are we staffed to do it?"
If no one is requesting special treatment, you're paying people to do nothing.
There is also the administrative and supervisory costs of maintaining this huge team of individuals.
This also means that, in the case of new assets, you are looking at hotfixes and new builds. While it seems on the surface one could easy create content and patch on the fly, you either have to throw versioning to the wind or create a nightmare for your team, especially if something has to be rolled back or reverted.
There's also the manpower and time for the assets.
Technical debt.
What you are suggesting is rather insanely expensive. To be clear, it's definitely doable and it's done in other areas, but in an MMO it seems a rather cost prohibitive endeavour.
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
Take me for instance, I can't actually remember watching a single television show in the past 10 years when I didn't have my laptop on and was gaming at the same time. (The TV is really there to entertain my wife and for background noise or "downtime"
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Of course I am watching TV with my wife. The Laptop is just in my lap in case work should need need me, and I am not really paying attention to it.
Expertise--even the minimum amount of expertise that would be gained by learning the GM tools and polishing your routines--is more expensive, logistically and costwise--than to automate everything.
And, for sure, in a game like this, there might not be the capacity to give every client a live, personalized experience of his or her choosing for 16 hours straight. I would think there would be plenty to do that didn't require a GM to oversee it, much like what we have now (and people are already paying a lot of money for what we have now).
But there would also be that extra attention from a live person, in addition to everything now, that makes the experience as a whole more unique than it would be if no such attention to service were ever done at all. Even just a moment of personal attention is far more special than what we have now (which is nothing, or very little).
I'm thinking that if a patron can get an hour a day of direct, personal, one on one attention for his own, personal one on one journey, that's above and beyond any sort of attention they get now in any MMO. Besides, there will be people walking around the world who will put events into motion and such...things that the guests will all have to discover by exploring.
We can think of it like Disneyland, where you have Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and all these characters just wandering around the park, bumping into whoever shows up. How much of that do we see in MMOs now? When was the last time we saw Antonia Bayle walk amongst her kingdom?
Now I don't doubt what you say; people are expensive, and time is expensive. That's why a therapist can easily ask for a fee of $200 for a 50 minute session, and yet be so busy that they have to turn people away.
And when I think of things like cruise ships, hotels, theme parks--or even a local murder mystery dinner theatre--they do it, people can afford to do it, and they have all sorts of big expenses that an online experience just doesn't have to worry about. Rent. Union contracts. Safety and fire codes. Physical property maitenance. Uniforms and costumes. Food. Yet these places--expensive and labor intensive as they are--don't seem to be going away.
And the staff there has to physically show up, instead of telecommuting from their homes. Make no mistake, these places are expensive. But doesn't that show that, perhaps, there might be an opportunity to virtualize the experience?
If it is insanely expensive and cost prohibitive to do a full on, 100% fully staffed MMO, where every NPC is played by a real person, what sort of level of personalized experience wouldn't be cost prohibitive and insanely expensive to do? 50%? 25%?
Because even if you have an extra 10% of unautomated content, that's ten times more of a personalized experience than what people have now.
I mean, we can say "that's too radical of an idea and it'll never ever be profitable," but what--possibly--can we do instead that they haven't already done? Put in yet more paywalls to gate content? Put in yet more crap in the item store that becomes obsolete even more rapidly? Make the games even more free to play than what they already are? Sell ways to make grinds even shorter than they are? What's something they haven't done yet?
Well, they haven't done anything like this. And costly as it may be, I don't think anyone can deny that it wouldn't be cool.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
"Expertise--even the minimum amount of expertise that would be gained by learning the GM tools and polishing your routines--is more expensive, logistically and costwise--than to automate everything."
It's more than that. In UO, we had people assigned to specific servers so that they could know the servers and get acquainted with the community. Knowing the players in the events and knowing the history of the community was a big part of offering the premium experience. That expertise beyond memorizing slash commands.
On one server, I created an NPC named Milton. He was no major leap in tech, but he did his job well. Basically, if you said certain keywords in proximity of him, he would reply. As different players became known on the server, I added to his script a tidbit about that person. So, if 'Lachlan' was said in proximity to him, he'd say 'Lachlan? He opened that tavern just north of here. A great place to meet fellow adventurers!'. If they said 'Waargboom' or 'Waarg' then Milton would reply with a quip about how he was one of the most feared of the ShadowClan Orcs.
A personalized experience, especially a high-dollar one, requires a lot more than just having a few jesters ready to dance at a moment's notice.
"And the staff there has to physically show up, instead of telecommuting from their homes. Make no mistake, these places are expensive. But doesn't that show that, perhaps, there might be an opportunity to virtualize the experience?"
The issue isn't in getting everyone in one building.
When we did events for vMTV, we had the event team on IRC and voice comms, we had the MTV execs and the bands on conference calls, and we were chatting with the players in game. Preparing for each event, running each event, and recapping/cleanup took far more time than just the event. We're not talking about 16 hours of dancing for some dude. We're talking a meager team for a half hour to hour event. Now, multiply that across the number of players you have and how frequently their $1000 premium sub lets them experience it.
"I mean, we can say "that's too radical of an idea and it'll never ever be profitable," or we can acknowledge my statement was:
"To be clear, it's definitely doable..."
"Well, they haven't done anything like this."
We did it in UO. Players could actually pay for a wedding, a celebration or party. It would be personally decorated and handled by IGMs and the content team.
Everquest did it, too. It was called the Legends server. For a premium price you got:
- Dynamic maps that tracked data on zones you visited
- Transfer service from main servers to the Legends server
- Limited capacity. Only a few thousand could subscribe to it.
I hope that offers some insight into some of the past efforts on this front and where some of the hurdles are. Again, it's certainly doable, but it seems very costly, possibly not even economically viable, to do it to the satisfaction of someone spending that kind of money.
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
HOW can you compete against that? Which is what half the people here are answering with "Superior Product" and that is about the only way to compete against mindless slaves throwing arbitrary numbered paper for providing them a fantasy to escape in.
People make flase assumption that people will pay sub or w/e for a "good" game, they don't.
Sadly this is false as you've stated. Too many factors to be considered when you talk payment model, in the end, a business' sole purpose is to garner attention, develop/grow and make big bucks. This has no relation to how we feel about everything and the share holders certainly don't have our best interest at heart, ever.