people that have the money to buy games will still buy games. so, i dont think the economy will have an effect on the game industry because of the mmo purchasers around the world that boost the u.s. based game companies. no fear, there will be no decline in mmo output, despite how shitty they may be.
In my uneducated brain I'm thinking that the economy may spur new MMO gamers. I can't think of anything else that can potentially give you hundreds of hours of entertainment a month for around $15. In the grand scheme of life that's pretty good. You could play an MMO off of selling blood plasma.
Looking at it from that angle it's pretty darn appealing to someone who is low on cash and is looking for something to do.
As far as investment capital and all the background workings go I have no idea. I'm just a grunt in the army with a pixel fetish.
It's gotten to the point where some MMOs have been reduced to little more than success dispensers. Don't think. Don't challenge yourself. Do as little as possible... but still be rewarded for it. Yeah.. *that's* fun.
people that have the money to buy games will still buy games. so, i dont think the economy will have an effect on the game industry because of the mmo purchasers around the world that boost the u.s. based game companies. no fear, there will be no decline in mmo output, despite how shitty they may be.
Maybe you should tell that to EA/Mythic. Maybe you can help them figure out how to keep studios open in the midst of all this economic 'goodness'
Most likely we will see a decrease in 'luxury subscriptions' ie second accounts or subscriptions to games other than your 'main'. There is a lot of 'bang for the buck' in playing a MMORPG but the utilty of a second account or second game subscription is marginal for most people.
well, I guess this might kill EVE.
But that's a good point that, honestly, didn't even think about.
lol i know your probably being sarcastic, but even still i would like to add that EVE broke their old PCU record. If people are going to start deactiving alt accounts, i think it will be another year or 2 before it happens.
EVE accounts will be mostly unaffected, because in EVE alt accounts are extremely functional for most people. I guess I could drop one of my 3, but then I'd lose an entire line of ships that I'm specializing in for that character, as well as my soon to be terrific hauling abilities. No, I'll try to keep them all going.
But...it might limit how many new games I'm willing to try. In the past I could pay as many as 8 subs across 3 games, and I doubt I'll do that now in these hard times.
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
In my uneducated brain I'm thinking that the economy may spur new MMO gamers. I can't think of anything else that can potentially give you hundreds of hours of entertainment a month for around $15. In the grand scheme of life that's pretty good. You could play an MMO off of selling blood plasma.
Looking at it from that angle it's pretty darn appealing to someone who is low on cash and is looking for something to do.
As far as investment capital and all the background workings go I have no idea. I'm just a grunt in the army with a pixel fetish.
Slaynn...it really boils down to demographics. Students, etc may see an increase because it is cheaper than paying $4.00 a beer at the local watering hole. Adults who need the cash to support their families, car payments, mortgages, rent, MMO habits, etc... and suddenly have their cash flow turned off, may put the gaming on hold until they secure new employment. If MMOs were around back during the Great Depression, you wouldn't see people playing them because the basics of survival trump luxury spending. You wouldn't see them at all becaase no gaming studio in their right mind would create a game for millions of dollars when they know they won't ever recoup the cost. In Southeast Asia (predominantly 2nd and 3rd world economies), you may not see any changes there as recession/depression ecomomics have less impact on their current standard of living. You may even see more MMO manufacturers launching solely in these regions based on less US/North American/Western European demand/competition.
I'm thinking established games will probably do well. Over all MMORPGs are a cheap form of entertainment. They're very costly to produce, maintain, and are a high risk investment so late comers will struggle. As for WoW, you can have 2 people in a family entertained for a whole month for about 30 bucks. I spent 40 two weekends in a row to see Taken and Coraline, I don't think I'll see another movie until the Watchmen comes out. In the budget end of things and families snipping here and there, entertainment is still America's primary NEED. People will give up their daily Starbucks to keep subscribing I'm sure. Highspeed net, mmorpgs, and economically priced pc hardware will do well for the next decade. It just won't be a market for every company to get a slice in like they want. EA and Sony don't exactly have the best rep in the gaming industry any more so honestly people aren't going to shovel money to them like they'd want. Also WoW isn't a bad game and Blizzard is actively working on their game, it may not be the posh product for elite mmorpg players, but it's going to thrive in this economy because it can provide a community and a large form of entertainment to a variety of people. Anyone else coming into the pool tho' has to know the mmorpg market is mostly set. mmorpg players aren't growing by the day like it has over the last decade. So a game is going to have to appeal to both the hardcore gamers who spend cash and the casual player who's in it with a community. No game has tried to modify this element. They add a gimmick here or there and add the same ol' same ol' in these functions and they fail peel people away from something that's truly familiar.
If you're a company developing a mmorpg and you're not focused on the community and that element. Then you're going to post bad quarter after bad quarter until you fail.
I kill other players because they're smarter than AI, sometimes.
In my uneducated brain I'm thinking that the economy may spur new MMO gamers. I can't think of anything else that can potentially give you hundreds of hours of entertainment a month for around $15. In the grand scheme of life that's pretty good. You could play an MMO off of selling blood plasma.
Looking at it from that angle it's pretty darn appealing to someone who is low on cash and is looking for something to do.
As far as investment capital and all the background workings go I have no idea. I'm just a grunt in the army with a pixel fetish.
Slaynn...it really boils down to demographics. Students, etc may see an increase because it is cheaper than paying $4.00 a beer at the local watering hole. Adults who need the cash to support their families, car payments, mortgages, rent, MMO habits, etc... and suddenly have their cash flow turned off, may put the gaming on hold until they secure new employment. If MMOs were around back during the Great Depression, you wouldn't see people playing them because the basics of survival trump luxury spending. You wouldn't see them at all becaase no gaming studio in their right mind would create a game for millions of dollars when they know they won't ever recoup the cost. In Southeast Asia (predominantly 2nd and 3rd world economies), you may not see any changes there as recession/depression ecomomics have less impact on their current standard of living. You may even see more MMO manufacturers launching solely in these regions based on less US/North American/Western European demand/competition.
Maybe, people still will want to be entertained unless they are completely destitute. My brother-in-law is actually living with his wifes parents and he has a couple WoW accounts. He's pretty much a loser, married with two kids and living with mom. Not a good example, I know, but it proves the point that people still spring for entertainment regardless of financial situations.
I agree with you if you are talking about someone that has to choose between some bread and a gallon of milk or an MMO subscription but people that are simply downgrading their standard of living (say one individual in a married couple loses his/her job but the other still has theirs) should check out the genre. Just don't do it from sitting under an overpass sapping wireless internet from a coffee shop on your eMachine laptop.
It's gotten to the point where some MMOs have been reduced to little more than success dispensers. Don't think. Don't challenge yourself. Do as little as possible... but still be rewarded for it. Yeah.. *that's* fun.
It is still the cheapest form of entertainment out there today so I don't really suspect any major downfall. What I do expect though that people will be more careful with their money and you won't see them subscribe to many mmos as they did before.
What will most likely happen is you will begin to see less and less people playing multiple mmorpgs. So instead of Person X playing EQ EQ2 & Guild wars he may choose to just play EQ2 and guild wars.
I know a lot of students who are worried about the financial crisis and how its affecting our financial aid wont be spending tons of money on multiple games anymore. Its time to pick one and stick with it.
you should take a look at the nuclear power industry. I'm an intern at the san onofre nuclear plant and they just recently brought in people to start a scholorship and recruitment program to bring people in. I'm sure it is the same in any energy industry in america atm, especially since we are supposedly in a energy crisis.
Also i hear the medical field is doing good as well.
Sorry to be so long winded on what i consider technically 'off-topic'. We're talking MMOs.
yeah i should have added that the hiring was happening because all the baby boomers will soon be retiring. I wonder if this could be the same scenario for other industries as well. You provided alot of good info and i will not dispute that, i just forgot to mention the baby boomers.
Playing: EVE Online Favorite MMOs: WoW, SWG Pre-cu, Lineage 2, UO, EQ, EVE online Looking forward to: Archeage, Kingdom Under Fire 2 KUF2's Official Website - http://www.kufii.com/ENG/ -
Historically, the President's party nearly always loses seats in mid-term elections. Regardless, my claim is not that this or that party will win in 2010. Rather, it is that if one party has been in power for a while, that party will always claim that things are going wonderfully, while the other party will claim that everything is a catastrophe. The United States had 18 recessions in the 20th century. In only one did we try massive government spending of the sort Obama proposes to combat it. That played a significant (though not the dominant) role in creating the Great Depression. The rest ended just fine without massive government intervention.
Isn't there a dittohead forum you could post this fallacious nonsense in?
Remember I did not say the economy would kill the mmo genre. I said it will kill a lot of mmos, that means the future of mmos will mean less choices.
It will probably kill most overbudgeted failures, as TR already demonstrated. If it's losing money when there's no money left to lose, it will be cut loose.
Relative to other games, it is a double edged sword. New subscribers may be wary of shelling out £40 for a game when it's followed up with a £9 a month subscription. But existing subscribers may forego buying other games just to keep their sub running. Gaining new subscribers may become harder, but churn rates (people joining vs people leaving) may fall. Incidentally, it's interesting how service providers like telcos, ISPs and so on provide churn rates with their annual figures, but MMO devs/producers don't.
Specific for the genre, I think it will be harder for new entrants to the market to gain share. People will be less likely to take a risk on a new game if they're having trouble playing for their current one. I'm expecting to see extensions to the free grace period when buying a game (maybe to three months), or a cut price box on the shelves (around the £20/$40 mark) in order to pull people in and make it feel less of a gamble. This in turn will put more pressure on devs and publishers, probably meaning canned games and arrested developments.
For individual games, I think the multi-sub growd will cut back. I think the days of running a 2nd account are numbered, and I think multiboxers are going to really feel the pinch. As a knock on, it might be that goldfarming companies might struggle as well with fewer people willing to spend regular cash on virtual bucks.
All that said, if you get yourself into a strong position, you'll do OK. Games that gain a loyal following for whatever reason should be able to see this one through, and put their developers in a position to really get ahead when we're out the other side of this thing.
Player of games, smither of words, former of opinions, and masher of keys. WildStar Columnist Currently playing: WildStar, Guild Wars 2, EVE Online, Vain Glory.
people that have the money to buy games will still buy games. so, i dont think the economy will have an effect on the game industry because of the mmo purchasers around the world that boost the u.s. based game companies. no fear, there will be no decline in mmo output, despite how shitty they may be.
Do not assume the tough economic stituation is localize to only the United Stated it will and is be world wide problem.
It is still the cheapest form of entertainment out there today so I don't really suspect any major downfall. What I do expect though that people will be more careful with their money and you won't see them subscribe to many mmos as they did before.
That is exactly my original point. Think of how many players have more then one account to a game or subscribe to more then one game. If they drop to only one subscription it will have a huge impact on the mmo business.
people that have the money to buy games will still buy games. so, i dont think the economy will have an effect on the game industry because of the mmo purchasers around the world that boost the u.s. based game companies. no fear, there will be no decline in mmo output, despite how shitty they may be.
Do not assume the tough economic stituation is localize to only the United Stated it will and is be world wide problem.
LOL, the gloom on the streets in the UK is thicker than the snowfall we had last week, but isn't likely to thaw anywhere near as quickly. Quite a few well known UK businesses have crashed & burned in the last couple of months, with the alleged experts predicting more to come.
Having said that though I think MMOs won't do that badly as they may well benefit from the 'Chocolate Effect'.
In times of recession people stay in more often but don't mind buying investing in things that make having a quiet night in more special. In the UK, whilst sales of 'Connoisseur Chocolate' might be down, the old family favourites are actually doing quite well in these dire times.
Potentially MMOs could benefit from the same effect, because at an average subscription of only 10 quid per month, even if they only allowed you to spend one extra night at home per week they could have paid for themselves three times over, unless like me you lived in London in which case it could be far more.
If you can't "Have your cake & eat it too", then how can "The proof of the pudding be in the eating"?
It'll probably stop a lot of what would have been crappy MMO's from being made as credit and capital become MUCH more tight. Also, given the impact of people who play multiple games that may scale back to one game its possible that some current stragglers and hangers-on may fall by the wayside.
Lets say you play WoW and another game. You love the other game but ALL your friends are on WoW but you gotta drop one.
It'll probably stop a lot of what would have been crappy MMO's from being made as credit and capital become MUCH more tight. Also, given the impact of people who play multiple games that may scale back to one game its possible that some current stragglers and hangers-on may fall by the wayside. Lets say you play WoW and another game. You love the other game but ALL your friends are on WoW but you gotta drop one.
I do think you will see a lot of this happening. How many of you who post here have multiple accounts or play multiple games? While 15 bucks a month seems like a great entertainment deal, It falls into the Starbuck category somewhat of a luxury item. We will still want our luxury coffee but we will not drink it everyday. I have checked around for statistics on players with multiple accounts and there is little information in this area. As a mmo fan of a decade I hope some of you are right but all my experience helps me reach one conclusion and that is the mmo industry will take a beating, particularly PC mmos, and it will last for years to come. The tough economy may even speed up companies pursuing console mmos.
Comments
people that have the money to buy games will still buy games. so, i dont think the economy will have an effect on the game industry because of the mmo purchasers around the world that boost the u.s. based game companies. no fear, there will be no decline in mmo output, despite how shitty they may be.
In my uneducated brain I'm thinking that the economy may spur new MMO gamers. I can't think of anything else that can potentially give you hundreds of hours of entertainment a month for around $15. In the grand scheme of life that's pretty good. You could play an MMO off of selling blood plasma.
Looking at it from that angle it's pretty darn appealing to someone who is low on cash and is looking for something to do.
As far as investment capital and all the background workings go I have no idea. I'm just a grunt in the army with a pixel fetish.
It's gotten to the point where some MMOs have been reduced to little more than success dispensers. Don't think. Don't challenge yourself. Do as little as possible... but still be rewarded for it. Yeah.. *that's* fun.
-- WSIMike
Maybe you should tell that to EA/Mythic. Maybe you can help them figure out how to keep studios open in the midst of all this economic 'goodness'
well, I guess this might kill EVE.
But that's a good point that, honestly, didn't even think about.
lol i know your probably being sarcastic, but even still i would like to add that EVE broke their old PCU record. If people are going to start deactiving alt accounts, i think it will be another year or 2 before it happens.
EVE accounts will be mostly unaffected, because in EVE alt accounts are extremely functional for most people. I guess I could drop one of my 3, but then I'd lose an entire line of ships that I'm specializing in for that character, as well as my soon to be terrific hauling abilities. No, I'll try to keep them all going.
But...it might limit how many new games I'm willing to try. In the past I could pay as many as 8 subs across 3 games, and I doubt I'll do that now in these hard times.
"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
Slaynn...it really boils down to demographics. Students, etc may see an increase because it is cheaper than paying $4.00 a beer at the local watering hole. Adults who need the cash to support their families, car payments, mortgages, rent, MMO habits, etc... and suddenly have their cash flow turned off, may put the gaming on hold until they secure new employment. If MMOs were around back during the Great Depression, you wouldn't see people playing them because the basics of survival trump luxury spending. You wouldn't see them at all becaase no gaming studio in their right mind would create a game for millions of dollars when they know they won't ever recoup the cost. In Southeast Asia (predominantly 2nd and 3rd world economies), you may not see any changes there as recession/depression ecomomics have less impact on their current standard of living. You may even see more MMO manufacturers launching solely in these regions based on less US/North American/Western European demand/competition.
I'm thinking established games will probably do well. Over all MMORPGs are a cheap form of entertainment. They're very costly to produce, maintain, and are a high risk investment so late comers will struggle.
As for WoW, you can have 2 people in a family entertained for a whole month for about 30 bucks. I spent 40 two weekends in a row to see Taken and Coraline, I don't think I'll see another movie until the Watchmen comes out.
In the budget end of things and families snipping here and there, entertainment is still America's primary NEED. People will give up their daily Starbucks to keep subscribing I'm sure.
Highspeed net, mmorpgs, and economically priced pc hardware will do well for the next decade. It just won't be a market for every company to get a slice in like they want.
EA and Sony don't exactly have the best rep in the gaming industry any more so honestly people aren't going to shovel money to them like they'd want.
Also WoW isn't a bad game and Blizzard is actively working on their game, it may not be the posh product for elite mmorpg players, but it's going to thrive in this economy because it can provide a community and a large form of entertainment to a variety of people.
Anyone else coming into the pool tho' has to know the mmorpg market is mostly set. mmorpg players aren't growing by the day like it has over the last decade. So a game is going to have to appeal to both the hardcore gamers who spend cash and the casual player who's in it with a community.
No game has tried to modify this element. They add a gimmick here or there and add the same ol' same ol' in these functions and they fail peel people away from something that's truly familiar.
If you're a company developing a mmorpg and you're not focused on the community and that element. Then you're going to post bad quarter after bad quarter until you fail.
I kill other players because they're smarter than AI, sometimes.
Slaynn...it really boils down to demographics. Students, etc may see an increase because it is cheaper than paying $4.00 a beer at the local watering hole. Adults who need the cash to support their families, car payments, mortgages, rent, MMO habits, etc... and suddenly have their cash flow turned off, may put the gaming on hold until they secure new employment. If MMOs were around back during the Great Depression, you wouldn't see people playing them because the basics of survival trump luxury spending. You wouldn't see them at all becaase no gaming studio in their right mind would create a game for millions of dollars when they know they won't ever recoup the cost. In Southeast Asia (predominantly 2nd and 3rd world economies), you may not see any changes there as recession/depression ecomomics have less impact on their current standard of living. You may even see more MMO manufacturers launching solely in these regions based on less US/North American/Western European demand/competition.
Maybe, people still will want to be entertained unless they are completely destitute. My brother-in-law is actually living with his wifes parents and he has a couple WoW accounts. He's pretty much a loser, married with two kids and living with mom. Not a good example, I know, but it proves the point that people still spring for entertainment regardless of financial situations.
I agree with you if you are talking about someone that has to choose between some bread and a gallon of milk or an MMO subscription but people that are simply downgrading their standard of living (say one individual in a married couple loses his/her job but the other still has theirs) should check out the genre. Just don't do it from sitting under an overpass sapping wireless internet from a coffee shop on your eMachine laptop.
It's gotten to the point where some MMOs have been reduced to little more than success dispensers. Don't think. Don't challenge yourself. Do as little as possible... but still be rewarded for it. Yeah.. *that's* fun.
-- WSIMike
It is still the cheapest form of entertainment out there today so I don't really suspect any major downfall. What I do expect though that people will be more careful with their money and you won't see them subscribe to many mmos as they did before.
What will most likely happen is you will begin to see less and less people playing multiple mmorpgs. So instead of Person X playing EQ EQ2 & Guild wars he may choose to just play EQ2 and guild wars.
I know a lot of students who are worried about the financial crisis and how its affecting our financial aid wont be spending tons of money on multiple games anymore. Its time to pick one and stick with it.
you should take a look at the nuclear power industry. I'm an intern at the san onofre nuclear plant and they just recently brought in people to start a scholorship and recruitment program to bring people in. I'm sure it is the same in any energy industry in america atm, especially since we are supposedly in a energy crisis.
Also i hear the medical field is doing good as well.
Sorry to be so long winded on what i consider technically 'off-topic'. We're talking MMOs.
yeah i should have added that the hiring was happening because all the baby boomers will soon be retiring. I wonder if this could be the same scenario for other industries as well. You provided alot of good info and i will not dispute that, i just forgot to mention the baby boomers.
Playing: EVE Online
Favorite MMOs: WoW, SWG Pre-cu, Lineage 2, UO, EQ, EVE online
Looking forward to: Archeage, Kingdom Under Fire 2
KUF2's Official Website - http://www.kufii.com/ENG/ -
Isn't there a dittohead forum you could post this fallacious nonsense in?
It will probably kill most overbudgeted failures, as TR already demonstrated. If it's losing money when there's no money left to lose, it will be cut loose.
The recession won't kill off the MMO genre.
Relative to other games, it is a double edged sword. New subscribers may be wary of shelling out £40 for a game when it's followed up with a £9 a month subscription. But existing subscribers may forego buying other games just to keep their sub running. Gaining new subscribers may become harder, but churn rates (people joining vs people leaving) may fall. Incidentally, it's interesting how service providers like telcos, ISPs and so on provide churn rates with their annual figures, but MMO devs/producers don't.
Specific for the genre, I think it will be harder for new entrants to the market to gain share. People will be less likely to take a risk on a new game if they're having trouble playing for their current one. I'm expecting to see extensions to the free grace period when buying a game (maybe to three months), or a cut price box on the shelves (around the £20/$40 mark) in order to pull people in and make it feel less of a gamble. This in turn will put more pressure on devs and publishers, probably meaning canned games and arrested developments.
For individual games, I think the multi-sub growd will cut back. I think the days of running a 2nd account are numbered, and I think multiboxers are going to really feel the pinch. As a knock on, it might be that goldfarming companies might struggle as well with fewer people willing to spend regular cash on virtual bucks.
All that said, if you get yourself into a strong position, you'll do OK. Games that gain a loyal following for whatever reason should be able to see this one through, and put their developers in a position to really get ahead when we're out the other side of this thing.
Currently playing: WildStar, Guild Wars 2, EVE Online, Vain Glory.
Do not assume the tough economic stituation is localize to only the United Stated it will and is be world wide problem.
That is exactly my original point. Think of how many players have more then one account to a game or subscribe to more then one game. If they drop to only one subscription it will have a huge impact on the mmo business.
Do not assume the tough economic stituation is localize to only the United Stated it will and is be world wide problem.
LOL, the gloom on the streets in the UK is thicker than the snowfall we had last week, but isn't likely to thaw anywhere near as quickly. Quite a few well known UK businesses have crashed & burned in the last couple of months, with the alleged experts predicting more to come.
Having said that though I think MMOs won't do that badly as they may well benefit from the 'Chocolate Effect'.
In times of recession people stay in more often but don't mind buying investing in things that make having a quiet night in more special. In the UK, whilst sales of 'Connoisseur Chocolate' might be down, the old family favourites are actually doing quite well in these dire times.
Potentially MMOs could benefit from the same effect, because at an average subscription of only 10 quid per month, even if they only allowed you to spend one extra night at home per week they could have paid for themselves three times over, unless like me you lived in London in which case it could be far more.
If you can't "Have your cake & eat it too", then how can "The proof of the pudding be in the eating"?
Take the Hecatomb? TCG What Is Your Doom? quiz.
It'll probably stop a lot of what would have been crappy MMO's from being made as credit and capital become MUCH more tight. Also, given the impact of people who play multiple games that may scale back to one game its possible that some current stragglers and hangers-on may fall by the wayside.
Lets say you play WoW and another game. You love the other game but ALL your friends are on WoW but you gotta drop one.
I do think you will see a lot of this happening. How many of you who post here have multiple accounts or play multiple games? While 15 bucks a month seems like a great entertainment deal, It falls into the Starbuck category somewhat of a luxury item. We will still want our luxury coffee but we will not drink it everyday. I have checked around for statistics on players with multiple accounts and there is little information in this area. As a mmo fan of a decade I hope some of you are right but all my experience helps me reach one conclusion and that is the mmo industry will take a beating, particularly PC mmos, and it will last for years to come. The tough economy may even speed up companies pursuing console mmos.