MMO Sites Are Lying To You For Money

Mikeha

Interesting video where Skylent proves that mmo sites now promote almost any type of game for clicks.  



Quote from the video description,

"MMObyte, you can do better.  MMOs.com I KNOW you have the passion in you somehwere.  All the rest are probably worthless causes, but I think we can make a change that could ripple out and do a lot of good.

This is my rant, a bit of drama, and the current MMO press landscape.  I clearly show, that MMO sites are lying to you, clickbaiting for money."

Mendel

Mikeha said:

Interesting video where Skylent proves that mmo sites now promote almost any type of game for clicks.  



Quote from the video description,

"MMObyte, you can do better.  MMOs.com I KNOW you have the passion in you somehwere.  All the rest are probably worthless causes, but I think we can make a change that could ripple out and do a lot of good.

This is my rant, a bit of drama, and the current MMO press landscape.  I clearly show, that MMO sites are lying to you, clickbaiting for money."

So, basically, advertising?  That's been around since shortly after man discovered the concept of trade.

BillMurphy

F*** that guy. Put in HALF the work the staff here has for over a decade, then talk to me. 

SBFord

BillMurphy said:

F*** that guy. Put in HALF the work the staff here has for over a decade, then talk to me. 

This. 'Nough said.

Panther2103

He fails to talk about the fact that there isn't much MMORPG news or new games coming out at this moment. It's in a downward trend for now and everyone that plays them is hoping it will go back upwards. He says that the sites need to either have MMORPG news or shut down, which doesn't make sense. You have to advertise, you have to branch out. There is no viable way to talk about one specific subject unless it stays huge and even then unless you have a topic that's an anomaly you won't get constant news.

He has some okay points, but honestly it sounds like hes mad that he isn't getting the MMORPG news that doesn't exist right now.

maskedweasel

LOL The guy is basically stating "misinformation" based around semantics.  Newsflash, dude is just trying to attack popular game sites to get views.  

That's really all this is, some dude  "taking on the game sites" so he can get views by complaining that they post content to "get clicks". 

SBFord

I will leave this here from 2014 -- and to say that the MMO industry has gotten even more scarce in terms of news in the intervening 4 years is to understate things greatly, hence the further inclusion of MOBAs, multiplayer shooters, battle royale games and survival games to name a few.

https://www.mmorpg.com/columns/mmo-rpg-1000008277

From the article:

"Over the next several years, something will be very apparent to the MMORPG faithful: MMORPGs will be released that aren't officially being called MMORPGs by their developers and publishers.  Why? Because someone, somewhere, with all their marketing research and statistical analysis decided that "MMORPG" pretty much means World of Warcraft, nerds in the basement, and incidentally - the guy from South Park's beloved WoW episode.

The other side is that this means the genre's almost outgrown itself. More and more games are incorporating MMO-like features and online play into their core design. You'll have Bungie and Ubisoft claim often enough that Destiny or The Division "aren't really" MMOs. And perhaps, they're right. Destiny won't be a fully-on-all-the-time shared world in that you can't get away from other people. It has a core single-player narrative, but events happen in the massive game world that lead you into interacting and playing alongside others... and that almost sounds like the ideal theme park MMO, doesn't it?"

Eldurian

I think I would be a lot more forgiving of this behavior if these sites were a lot more intellectually honest with us. Just own up to the fact that the game you're promoting is a survival game, or MOBA, or run-of-the mill RPG, or trading card game, or whatever it is.

I've seen multiple people use arguments such as "Diablo III is an MMORPG because mmorpg.com has it on the MMO list."

How about just calling it a game's list and breaking it into separate categories if you're not going to keep it a true MMO list. It spreads less misinformation, makes it easier to find the type of game you're actually looking for, and preserves your integrity.

Nobody wants to see the site shut down because you fail to adapt, but we don't want to see you call party based dungeon crawlers and trading card games MMOs either.

Admin

MMO sites like us were given a choice - adapt or die.  If we did not expand our coverage to RPG's, MOBA's, etc we would have had to shutter the site and walk away.  While our domain name, which we have had for 16+ years implies we might only cover the few MMORPG's in the world it is not sustainable as a business.  It is just a domain - it does not mean we have to pigeon-hole ourselves.

Today we are more or less a gaming site - with a passion for MMO games.

Asch126

He does have a bit of a point though, many MMO sites [mainly MMOByte] go to extremes with their clickbaiting.

maskedweasel

Eldurian said:

I think I would be a lot more forgiving of this behavior if these sites were a lot more intellectually honest with us. Just own up to the fact that the game you're promoting is a survival game, or MOBA, or run-of-the mill RPG, or trading card game, or whatever it is.

I've seen multiple people use arguments such as "Diablo III is an MMORPG because mmorpg.com has it on the MMO list."

How about just calling it a game's list and breaking it into separate categories if you're not going to keep it a true MMO list. It spreads less misinformation, makes it easier to find the type of game you're actually looking for, and preserves your integrity.

Nobody wants to see the site shut down because you fail to adapt, but we don't want to see you call party based dungeon crawlers and trading card games MMOs either.

But.. have you actually looked at Diablo III?  First of all MMORPG has a "game list" not an MMORPG list.. and Diablo III is listed as an Action RPG.

SBFord

Eldurian said:

I think I would be a lot more forgiving of this behavior if these sites were a lot more intellectually honest with us. Just own up to the fact that the game you're promoting is a survival game, or MOBA, or run-of-the mill RPG, or trading card game, or whatever it is.

I've seen multiple people use arguments such as "Diablo III is an MMORPG because mmorpg.com has it on the MMO list."

How about just calling it a game's list and breaking it into separate categories if you're not going to keep it a true MMO list. It spreads less misinformation, makes it easier to find the type of game you're actually looking for, and preserves your integrity.

Nobody wants to see the site shut down because you fail to adapt, but we don't want to see you call party based dungeon crawlers and trading card games MMOs either.

But we DO "own up" to what the games are and we have been honest and up front with that fact and WHY we've chosen to do so. The games are clearly listed on the Games List by type -- in fact we've recently added battle royale to the sort -- and we come into many, MANY threads when people kvetch to reiterate our stance. Every featured image in our scroller indicates what the article is about. 

If you've missed all that in the last 4 years, you're not looking very hard, for Pete's sake.

Eldurian

@maskedweasel, @SBFord ;- Look at the top of the page:



Having a header that says "All MMO Games" over a list that includes Diablo 3, DOTA 2, and Heathstone is very deceptive.

Like I said. It's fine to adapt. Just be honest about it.

Admin

Eldurian said:

I think I would be a lot more forgiving of this behavior if these sites were a lot more intellectually honest with us. Just own up to the fact that the game you're promoting is a survival game, or MOBA, or run-of-the mill RPG, or trading card game, or whatever it is.

I've seen multiple people use arguments such as "Diablo III is an MMORPG because mmorpg.com has it on the MMO list."

How about just calling it a game's list and breaking it into separate categories if you're not going to keep it a true MMO list. It spreads less misinformation, makes it easier to find the type of game you're actually looking for, and preserves your integrity.

Nobody wants to see the site shut down because you fail to adapt, but we don't want to see you call party based dungeon crawlers and trading card games MMOs either.

We new refer to D3 as a MMO on our game list.  Just because our domain name is MMORPG.com it does not require us to only feature and speak of MMORPG games.  You will even see on our big home page carousel when we cover something in the upper right it will say something like "MMO" or "RPG" or "SPONSORED" to break out the content.

We are not trying to trick anyone around here.

postlarval

BillMurphy said:

F*** that guy. Put in HALF the work the staff here has for over a decade, then talk to me. 

If you watch his top ten MMORPGs video, he laments about the loss of the RPG side of the games and then proceeds to put every milk-toast themepark MMO that lost their RPG side a long time ago on his list. On top of that his #1 MMORPG is the Secret World, a game that even the developers stopped calling an MMO, let alone an MMORPG.

What a clueless little twit.

SBFord

Eldurian said:

@maskedweasel, @SBFord ;- Look at the top of the page:



Having a header that says "All MMO Games" over a list that includes Diablo 3, DOTA 2, and Heathstone is very deceptive.

Like I said. It's fine to adapt. Just be honest about it.

FFS did you even BOTHER to look at the Games List for Diablo 3 (as one example)?



Note in the ONE TINY PORTION of the Games List there are:

MMORPG
MMOTPS
MMOFPS
Action RPG
Action MMO
MMOG
RPG

Let's also not forget that there are SORT TOOLS that allow you to ONLY see MMOs or whatever it is you want to see.

Eldurian

You guys must have missed like the 20 threads arguing about MMORPGs where people like nauriseldon have been pointing out that same header I just showed an image of and using it to say everything on your list is an MMO.

SBFord

Eldurian said:

You guys must have missed like the 20 threads arguing about MMORPGs where people like nauriseldon have been pointing out that same header I just showed an image of and using it to say everything on your list is an MMO.

Honestly, you're being obtuse "just 'cause". Stop arguing semantics.

Eldurian

SBFord said:

Eldurian said:

@maskedweasel, @SBFord ;- Look at the top of the page:



Having a header that says "All MMO Games" over a list that includes Diablo 3, DOTA 2, and Heathstone is very deceptive.

Like I said. It's fine to adapt. Just be honest about it.

FFS did you even BOTHER to look at the Games List for Diablo 3 (as one example)?



Note in the ONE TINY PORTION of the Games List there are:

MMORPG
MMOTPS
MMOFPS
Action RPG
Action MMO
MMOG
RPG

Let's also not forget that there are SORT TOOLS that allow you to ONLY see MMOs or whatever it is you want to see.

I saw that part but how does it change the fact that header is misleading, and that people have been using it to call anything on that list an MMO over, and over, and over right here on your own forums?

SBFord

Eldurian said:

SBFord said:

Eldurian said:

@maskedweasel, @SBFord ;- Look at the top of the page:



Having a header that says "All MMO Games" over a list that includes Diablo 3, DOTA 2, and Heathstone is very deceptive.

Like I said. It's fine to adapt. Just be honest about it.

FFS did you even BOTHER to look at the Games List for Diablo 3 (as one example)?



Note in the ONE TINY PORTION of the Games List there are:

MMORPG
MMOTPS
MMOFPS
Action RPG
Action MMO
MMOG
RPG

Let's also not forget that there are SORT TOOLS that allow you to ONLY see MMOs or whatever it is you want to see.

I saw that part but how does it change the fact that header is misleading, and that people have been using it to call anything on that list an MMO over, and over, and over right here on your own forums?

Well now you have a spiffy, informative link to point them to that includes Bill's 2014 column and the images/information provided here. 

Admin

Eldurian said:

You guys must have missed like the 20 threads arguing about MMORPGs where people like nauriseldon have been pointing out that same header I just showed an image of and using it to say everything on your list is an MMO.

I totally agree - we need to update that header.  Remember this site is old (hoping for a total facelift within the next 12 months) and that header has probably had the same name for 6+ years.

Again, we are not trying to be deceptive here.  As Suzie outlined - we clearly state the genre of the game in each list entry.

Eldurian

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Wouldn't it just be easier to change the header to say "MMORPG.com Games - All Games"

Edit: Posted before seeing admin's post. Seems like the problem will be dealt with.

maskedweasel

Eldurian said:

SBFord said:

Eldurian said:

@maskedweasel, @SBFord ;- Look at the top of the page:



Having a header that says "All MMO Games" over a list that includes Diablo 3, DOTA 2, and Heathstone is very deceptive.

Like I said. It's fine to adapt. Just be honest about it.

FFS did you even BOTHER to look at the Games List for Diablo 3 (as one example)?



Note in the ONE TINY PORTION of the Games List there are:

MMORPG
MMOTPS
MMOFPS
Action RPG
Action MMO
MMOG
RPG

Let's also not forget that there are SORT TOOLS that allow you to ONLY see MMOs or whatever it is you want to see.

I saw that part but how does it change the fact that header is misleading, and that people have been using it to call anything on that list an MMO over, and over, and over right here on your own forums?

I noticed that too, and with that in mind, I can't argue that the list says "MMO List" but I'd argue it's just as misleading for someone to say the game is an MMO when on the "MMO List" it's clearly defined as an Action RPG.  

It's like when I'm on IGN and I look in the "TV" section and they have news about a "Movie" that they've crossposted to the "Movies" section of the site.  They clearly have it listed as Film news, but it shows up in other places, it would be misleading for me to argue that I thought a particular movie was a show simply because it had a cross post on their feed. 

I'm just saying, and not attacking you for it at all so please don't think it's personal, that it would be a pretty flimsy argument that MMORPG hasn't been pretty transparent.  Despite what a lot of people think, Ads and Sponsored content it displayed pretty prominently, and they do label what genre each game is listed in.  

I agree, sure, the list could be changed to be more general, but we're really splitting hairs here.  

Eldurian

maskedweasel said:

I noticed that too, and with that in mind, I can't argue that the list says "MMO List" but I'd argue it's just as misleading for someone to say the game is an MMO when on the "MMO List" it's clearly defined as an Action RPG.    

Oh yeah. It's a totally ridiculous argument, but it's one that gets made a surprising amount. Over nauriseldon's campaign to redefine MMOs you had like 20-30% of the people posting pushing to have prettymuch any multiplayer game ever defined as an MMO, and that header was one of the primary pillars of their case.

Mikeha

Even though he has a point the genre has evolved and sites have to evolve with it.  

Dagon13

Eldurian said:

maskedweasel said:

I noticed that too, and with that in mind, I can't argue that the list says "MMO List" but I'd argue it's just as misleading for someone to say the game is an MMO when on the "MMO List" it's clearly defined as an Action RPG.    

Oh yeah. It's a totally ridiculous argument, but it's one that gets made a surprising amount. Over nauriseldon's campaign to redefine MMOs you had like 20-30% of the people posting pushing to have prettymuch any multiplayer game ever defined as an MMO, and that header was one of the primary pillars of their case.

I already know it's a horse.  I don't need someone to tell me that it's a horse.  We should also have the sensibility to ignore the people that say it's a cow, unless of course you think it's a cow.

(It's dead, Jim)