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Are MMO players spoiled?
Have most players been spoiled by the recent MMO releases and games in developement by how much info the game gives out while in beta?
Comments
can you explain a little more..i don't get what ya mean
I think so, There seems to be such a high expectation from the community to be kept informed about every stage of development. The comunity needs to remember that game companies have other investors to keep in mind when giving out information and that by giving out too much information there can be a negative effect on the success of the project and thus effect the returns for investors. An example of a negative effect would be the company making changes to the game from beta to final release such as a class nerf. perhaps the change is good for the overall game but because people have been playing that class they get upset and cause a wave of backlash against the game.
The expectaions of the comunity to be informed must be a tough juggling act for developers.
I can remember back in the days when I beta tested for ragnarok online. We got little feedback and if something major happened and a rollback was coming we'd literally be told the day before it happened or even with less time. Heck no one was sure what was going to happen when they shut the game down for three months after open beta. But, I think people shouldn't expect the royal treatment in every mmorpg they test. Some companies have different ways of handling things. Although, I'd rather be left in the dark and have problems fixed in secret than be told everything and watch month by month as obvious bugs remain in game. Newsletters and videos each month are great and all , but if a company can't get things done they shouldn't waste time on trying to throw a smoke screen up by dazzling people with information and flashy videos. As for the general mmorpg gamers I think they got spoiled off games with a large assortment of quests, and easy access to information on how to complete said tasks long before companies ever started this new trend of keeping people informed.
i would just simply say yes lol.
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There is a two fold reason for game companies give out information about there games, a company that has investors has to show the investors that there is customer/player interest in an up and coming game that the investors may have already invested in, by showing customers interest before the release of a game, they show investors that the game has interested customers and is still safe to keep already invest money invested, in fact it could even help the company to convince the investor to invest even more.
So there not just catering to the demands of a over impatient players, there making sure that any doubtful investors don't jump ship and spoil the whole ride for everyone, so it really pays to support your favourite games and avoid the ones you don't like.
hope this helps.
It's not a matter of being spoiled, rather a matter when there's too much information to even consider. Sometimes I'd rather just have a weekly/whatever-interval patch notice, and leave the rest to the devs to decide what's needed to be explained.
-- Brede
I can print the manual about the game rules of any Civilization title WAY before it hit the shelves.
And they respect their own rules. They don't break them. They are accurate and I get a fairly good idea of most of the game before I even play it.
And I did purchase EVERYTHING they release on Civilization so far (not sure I will go on the console market, but maybe will do, and again, I know everything I must before considering the purchase or not).
I am sure that you could compare to SOME other titles and consider MMOs players spoiled, but if anything, I am ill-threaten by MMO devs compared to my Civs devs(not really complaining, but hardpressing me on this issue, you see where it leads...).
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- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
I wouldn't say "spoiled". At least no more so than fans of other mediums.
I would say that we're more demanding now because we've been deluged with crappy games in the past. We want as much information as we can get on upcoming titles so we can reassure ourselves that they're not vapourware and won't be as bad as the current crop of newly released games.
I dont think its the MMO players who are spoiled. But its the MMO developers who need to generate a lot of hype for their product. They want 100K players in the first week..and that takes a lot of HYPE.
Torrential
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
That's true, it's hard when WoW is an average game but it sets such a high standard, especially for people new to MMOs. They expect games to be as polished as WoW when they're released, not realizing WoW has had 4 years to become what it is. To beat it you need alot of hype and giving out info is a great way to do that.
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A human and an Elf get captured by Skaven. The rat-men are getting ready to shoot the first hostage with Dwarf-made guns when he yells, "Earthquake!" The naturally nervous Skaven run and hide from the imaginary threat. He escapes. The Skaven regroup and bring out the Elf. Being very smart, the Elf has figured out what to do. When the Skaven get ready to shoot, the Elf, in order to scare them, yells, "Fire!"
Order of the White Border.
The word spoiled doesn't exactly fit for the description, but neither can I come up with a better one than "Overinformed". But some companies tend to keep a bit too fast flow of news coming out in order to keep the game hyped; however it tends to be the same information coming out over and over. As an example I take WAR; For me at least it feels like I keep on getting flooded with the same things over and over, such as trophies. I got the basic outline of how they worked and so on the first time they released the info, the second time I skimmed through it and saw that it was the same information, the third time I didn't bother. For me it feels more like you get flooded with the same information.
I believe many mmo players are spoiled, whether it's begging for something such as items, or a party to take down something they should be able to kill. That's probably why I tend to solo more than anything.
I would say yes. What other medium has a large segment of it's population demand access to betas and/or free trials? Not just a demo mind you, but most are not happy with anything short of complete access to every bit of the game they can potentially power-level their character up to. They want free trials from 7-14 days, at the minimum (remember the uproar over the 3 day TR trial?) People were mad that LOTRO open beta only allowed up to level 10 or so, people are mad that AOC caps at 13 and that not everyone can get in because they want a piece of the pie too. So, yes mmo gamers are very spoiled and demanding. Many say it's because of how many times they've been burned, but single-player games are no less succeptable to terrible gameplay yet people do not (realistically at least) expect unrestricted access to the game before they buy it.
The reason why it seems we are all wanting/needing more information/feedback, is because...
We don't need to be stuck with crappy games.
So if we don't know your game, then we won't support it. Back in the day, a game could be pretty shitty, and it would be okay, because as long as it was playable it was one of the few options. Now we don't have to play the game they are making if we want a mmo in a mmo world. They have to impress us with what the game is going to be.
We aren't spoiled, we are just consumers which need to be impressed.
The reason moreso then other genres of games or movies or the like is because mmos are games to spend years in, rather then play for a week and shelf for a few years.
MMO consumers have the RIGHT to be as demanding or "spoiled".
No other genre in video games is as demanding on it's consumers as MMORPGs. No other genre of video game demands as much time or money as MMOs.
MMO players that are actually GOOD will demand lots of information and/or a open beta/free trial to determine whether or not they are willing to spend hundreds if not thousands of hours in this game and over the course of that time spends hundreds of dollars on subscription fees.
If a MMO does not meet these demands then MMO consumers will move to another MMO that will. MMOs are vying for a very limited player base so developers need to be willing offer the consumers what they want.
It's good publicity for them, they will have person specifically employed to promote the game online.
They will feed you as much as they can.
If they don't have a publishing deal they can use the amount of online intrest to impress a potential investor.
They don't really want your "input" into what makes a great game, they have their own idea's.
Demo's, video's screenies, developer interviews all sell the game.
Personally I try not to bother with it.
I remember back years when no one knew much of anything about games... until they bought them at the store and rwad through the manual and played them...
I'am spolied because I'am rich
With so many titles competing for attention, any developer serious about there product is gonna grease the wheel for all its worth, get the name out there, get the title recognised in the market place. No need to give the game away completely, just consistent, semi interesting, somewhat exciting snippets of information to keep us all amused and focused on the game.
So you see slickly produced trailers, frenzed pvp videos, racial protraits , fansite kits, screenies, developer blogs etc etc...All pretty standard stuff. I dont think where spoilt really, its in the developers best interest to promote there game before release as much as the budget allows them to do so, to develop a relationship with the community well before launch day.
Now everybody expects a full open beta where they can run threw the entire game for a month or two. Why would devs want you to run threw the game totally for free, then expect you to buy it? Ppl are spoiled n expect too much in return for their money. More demand but compared to most things in life...MMORPGs prices/cost hasn't changed alot over the years.
Pretty sure most games I bought new were usually around the 50-60 price range. The monthly fees have only gone up a few bucks . Just alot more whiny kids these days.
I've been spoiled by Blizzard's polish and pre-cu SWG. It's just too bad I didn't realize how truly special pre-cu swg was until it was too late.