Something GAME Developers sadly, havent seen yet, and how it would greatly benefit any company and m

Neurox1

There is something ive been noticing , with relation to game developing in the MMO genre recently ...

Companies are failing to truely catalogue or, distinguish one fan base from the other.  They seem to think what may be good for one group of fans, and one community, will be good for the rest.

One thing about MMO's, which is really unique and extraordinary, is the variety of people that play them. It has the most DIVERSE consumer base out of any other Gaming genre, you have people from 12 years old, To people of 50 years old playing MMORPG's. And this is no exaggeration.

Now, these varying people of individual taste gravitate towards games which offer the type of MMO experience they want, posess the type of community they want, or are built in the type of fantasy they want.

Ive been reading on these forums, and other places, and even remarks from SOE employees themselves, how they have been analyzing the success of other games, How they are trying to implement aspects which have made other games a sucess into SWG... I have personally SEEN in first person how they have changed SWG to fit the style of other MMO's.. thinking it would be a huge success, and it ended up being a failure ..

and again what they failed to realise was ...What works for one game and community wont work for others.... if people wanted to play a game with play mechanics like WOW .. theyd PLAY WOW ..they chose to play those other games becaue they had their own unique world and style to them ...

perhaps there arent as many people whod subscribe to the old style of SWG when compared to the ones who would choose wow ...but there was still more than enough to make GOOD profits ...

what on earth did sony think? .. or any future company to follow this path, that people would leave friends ?.. people they have grown comfortable with and made friends with ... to go play another game because it was a lot like WOW? sure some people hold more than one subscription to a game but these are the minority ..people who come to websites like this ....

at 15$ a month its too pricey to be subscribed to 3 or 4 games at once ... and due to the pull and attraction to community and friends MOST mmo players tend to settle down in one game while occaisionaly testing waters with short term subscriptions or beta testing ... but rarely finding the attraction to a new game enough to pull them away from their friends ....

what gaming companies FAIL .. and flat out REFUSE TO learn and acknowledge is that the MMO genre IS about community .. it IS about friends ....thats what keeps long term subscription numbers, thats what keeps people paying 15$ a month, not because any game is just so exciting that they will play for 3 years ...

players go by word of mouth as to what to play... players unlike the game developers are intelligent enough and mature enough to understand the COMMUNITY of a game makes the game ( many people here may dislike the wow community, but many who enjoy wow ... love the "fun" and immaturity present there, after all its a game)..

if people start hearing bad things about an MMO they wont play .... no matter how good some gaming magazine tells them it is .. or how many commerecials they see

the mmo genre IS CONTROLED by the community .....you look at the SOE debacle and you can plainly see ... its about community ... people sticking together and taking a stance AGAINST SOE ... because to them its not that game was changed  that was most important .. it was the fact SOE disrupted their COMMUNITY .. the fact SOE split up their COMMUNITY by forcing players to quit ....

GrimReapez

Good read.

I agree with you 100%, the reason people play a game is because something stands out. If they change the game and remove the unique thing, the game isn't want the player likes. This will cause players to lose interest in the game and go in search of another game quickly.

psydex

I'm going to agree....and disagree. Games have done that on both spectrums of PvP, PvE, and crafting. PvP was shadowbane which is now close to shutting down (if it hasn't already). PvE, let's take D&D online, it's either a hit or complete miss with whomever you ask. You can also take horizons for what was supposed to be crafting/"the new thing". I think there are games out there that have been developed on what you think games "need to do". It's just hit or miss.  You keep bringing up SWG and how they changed the game to meet other peoples needs when in reality the game was failing even before they did this. So, to sum all of this up, it's hit or miss, and, it's already been done.

Vexin

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Originally posted by Neurox1

...at 15$ a month its too pricey to be subscribed to 3 or 4 games at once...

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What is truly tragic about the lost SWG, and what really, really shows the utter stupidity of those at SOE/LA who are falling all over themselves to mimic and, well, steal from other MMOs, is that pre-CU Galaxies had many, many people who carried 3 or 4 accounts at one time!  There were some who carried even more!

I was one who had 3 accounts, and that's $45US/month just to play one game.  $540US per year just from one player!  Many in my guild had multiple accounts, and I'm sure many other veterans can chime in here and recount their level of committment to the SOE pricing structure (even though could be considered unfair by todays standards).  What kind of complete and utter retard throws that all away?  An Executive.  And not just any Executive, but an Executive at SOE and an Executive at LA.

It was a gamble, and it has been blowing up in their faces ever since.