do branded mmorpg actually hurt the game?

hercules

with exception of brands which the company has direct control aka warfraft.
i wonder  if some games would have done better without the brand  restriction and dealing with another company for decision
most famous of course would be star wars galaxies and dealing with lucasarts as well as restricted to the story and a promise made by a LA
would galaxies still be around if it did not have the star wars to deal with?most likely
same goes for super heroes games afterall the most successful one was champions online

Loktofeit

I don't think Galaxies would have caught on if it wasn't Star Wars branded. I'd say Star Wars is one of the rare exceptions we've seen with MMOs, as most other brands seem to struggle.  Star Wars, has had multiple MMOs with rather siccessful runs - Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars Clone Wars Adventures, and SWTOR. 

hercules

maybe not the inital 500k but a lot of people liked the system in it rather then the brand name.it would have held on a stable population for long
i mean the most popular emu  of it around actually is one of the only ones with no  playable jedis
also thought falling off the radar repopulation is liked because it follows swg play system.
also lets face it when a massive amount is paid for license then it becomes huge expectations and needs way more to make it profitable.
soe could probably not afford to renew it and thus it closed

Loktofeit

hercules said:

maybe not the inital 500k but a lot of people liked the system in it rather then the brand name.it would have held on a stable population for long
i mean the most popular emu  of it around actually is one of the only ones with no  playable jedis
also thought falling off the radar repopulation is liked because it follows swg play system.
also lets face it when a massive amount is paid for license then it becomes huge expectations and needs way more to make it profitable.
soe could probably not afford to renew it and thus it closed

I agree that SWG had depth and compeling gameplay and that it was very popular, but would it have become that well known or popular had it not been for the Star Wars brand?  2002-2003 was an era of sci-fi for MMOs.  Earth and Beyond Online, EVE Online, Planetside, Neocron, SWG... there were several titles pulling at the same audience. SWG was a great game, but had it not been Star Wars branded, it very likely would have had a much smaller share of the sci-fi MMO pie. 

GeezerGamer

I think branding will generate the needed initial interest with a built in fan base. But it can also hurt the product as well. If the game doesn't deliver the expected experience that comes with the brand, it could actually create a bigger backlash than the same game experience with an original IP.

Beatnik59

hercules said:

maybe not the inital 500k but a lot of people liked the system in it rather then the brand name.it would have held on a stable population for long
i mean the most popular emu  of it around actually is one of the only ones with no  playable jedis
also thought falling off the radar repopulation is liked because it follows swg play system.
also lets face it when a massive amount is paid for license then it becomes huge expectations and needs way more to make it profitable.
soe could probably not afford to renew it and thus it closed

I agree with DMKano and Loktofeit

SWG, at least in its initial state, was highly dependent on roleplay to keep its 'guts' together.  I mean, that's the thing you did when you were waiting for shuttles, waiting in the cantina, waiting in camp or waiting in the med center.

That's where the Star Wars theme came in handy.  Because you didn't have to be a Roleplayer® to know how to play in character in SWG...everybody knew how to do it, since we all saw the films and had a reasonable idea of how we ought to think of ourselves there.

cameltosis

I think big brands are a massive boon to developers, not a hinderance:

1) It reduces the amount of up-front creativity needed. 

Big brands / IPs already have established lore, stories, artwork, films, books etc etc. This means the developers already have a ton of stuff they can use in their game, rather than having to spend months / years creating their own IP. 


2) Its free advertising up front

Big IPs pull in fans from other genres. This is extra money for the developers they wouldn't have otherwise gotten. Sure, most will probably quit very quickly, but you'll still be getting millions of extra income just from the boxset sales. 


3) It keeps some players interested for longer. 

So, I thought SW:TOR was a terrible game. I have no interest in story lines in games as I find them, generally, badly written and poorly executed. The game was too easy, too linear, bad art style and developers who lied their asses off. However, because it was star wars, I still played it for a year as it was the only game where I could live in the Star Wars universe. Most people I met in game felt the same. 



Of course there are downsides to using a big IP (limited creativity, unreasonable customer expectations and the like) but I think that, as long as you aren't a shit developer, the benefits outweigh the risks. 

Axehilt

Brands usually help more than harm, but fitting into a preexisting IP is certainly a design limitation.  Instead of a character (or race or whatever) being custom-designed for the current game, they're ported in from somewhere else and sometimes the fit isn't perfect for gameplay purposes.

Kyleran

Certainly not definitive but the MMO's I most favor have largely non-commercial brands such as DAOC, EVE, Lineage 1/2 and Shadowbane.

Haven't been a fan of most popular branded MMO's except for WOW back in the day, and I was more a Blizzard fan than enraptured by the WOW lore itself.

immodium

I agree with others, the Star Wars brand helped the game.

The problem with SWG from launch till its death was that it always felt broken/unpolished. It would be the sort of game you'd find on Stream Greenlight/early access if released today.

Some of the ideas behind the game were great. The execution was terrible IMO. Wish it was handled by someone else.

Vermillion_Raventhal

World of Warcraft was branded.  UO was branded.