There's a coffee shop across the street from a Starbucks that has all the employees in bikinis. It actually worked out well for them.
I don't think you'd like to see us in bikinis. Trust me. :P Party poopers
Seriously though, I am genuinely interested in the feedback. If you'd like to leave it here or contact me directly at mikeb@mmorpg.com I definitely welcome it!
This site is far from dead. At mmorpg.com I can have a great discussion, get in some decent forum PVP, catch up on mmo news, read a blog over lunch and plenty more. What else could you ask for? It's not perfect but I find myself on this mmo site way more than any other.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
It's not so much that MMORPG.com is dead as much as MMO's have stagnated or just plan gone bad and that means people are losing interest. Look at when MMORPG's were launching pretty regularly and when we had half a dozen in the works that looked like they might be good game - MMORPG.com was hopping with activity. What happened, they bombed and the angst of the players grew and grew. People get tired of watching games launching that promise to be better only to be disappointed in the end. If you look at what's in the works...there really isn't a whole lot to look forward to.
In my opinion, MMORPG.com is only in a bit of a slump because MMORPGs themselves are in a big slump right now, everyone is always waiting for a good new MMO to jump over to but it never arrives, eventually people say everything they have to say and then they just don't have anything to post about until they find a new MMO that catches their interests.
I've noticed most people don't really "leave", they just don't have any reason to log in, so their stars drop until they eventually come back and find something to post about.
The whole world is in a slump right now though, the slump on this site and on MMOs is partially a reflection of that.
I prefer Massively for MMO news, I just come here to read stupid forum posts by hardcores and fanboys.
Why do you prefer our competitors? I can't speak for the other aspects of our site, but as I do the news I'd be interested in any feedback you guys have on how I could improve the newsroom to be more appealing.
There's a coffee shop across the street from a Starbucks that has all the employees in bikinis. It actually worked out well for them.
I don't think you'd like to see us in bikinis. Trust me. :P
Seriously though, I am genuinely interested in the feedback. If you'd like to leave it here or contact me directly at mikeb@mmorpg.com I definitely welcome it!
Oh I don't know I heard you look nice in a bikini far better than I do anyhow
Posts like this happen now and again, the normal response is quite a few people come here because they can read the forums and see both sides of what people think of games. Rather than going to the games forums to read only the good posts.
Is MMORPG.com dead ? No.
Is the Genre slow at the moment ? That depends I think the genre does slow down every Q1 because most AAA titles either want a summer release or they want to release at the end of the financial year.
The site is definitely not dead, but not as active as it once was. I remember when the Current Forum Activity section on the front page was constantly changing (it still changes up, but at a slower rate, and with the same topics). I think the activity on this site started to decline after Vanguard, then much more after AoC and WAR. The genre has gotten extremely stale and as a result less people are browsing here. The only people left are either still new to MMOs, the addicts, and ones who still have some hope.
I prefer Massively for MMO news, I just come here to read stupid forum posts by hardcores and fanboys.
Why do you prefer our competitors? I can't speak for the other aspects of our site, but as I do the news I'd be interested in any feedback you guys have on how I could improve the newsroom to be more appealing.
They are faster and more up to date.
They always beat you to news.
And they are not afraid to ask tricky questions in their interviews.
But lets talk constructive
I was thinking a bit how you can really improve this site. So please lend me an ear.
As 4+ year member i could not help but noticing one fact.
MMORPG.COM is not about the games - its about bitching and hyping about games.
I admit. We all love it for that. So this should stay the same.
But.
When I for example want to see what is the best build for your Allods mage. You wont find it on this site.
There are no discussions about games them selves. Tips, secrets, guides....
How can this change ?
Easily... Year ago you made a big change by moving every post related to certain game to its dedicated forum.
While this might sound logical. It was a wrong thing to do.
So for example a post "Aion grind sucks" was moved from general to Aion forums.
MISTAKE!
Lot of people come to mmorpg.com to bitch about the games. General forums are perfect place for this. Let the flame wars rage trough general foums.
But than
Make game related forums, in fact game related.
So for example post " What is best build for Dark elf Bard in DDO" should go to DDO forums
and post "DDO sucks" (or even "DDO is best game evah") should go to general (RANT) forums.
With this move , not only you will make all trolls,fanboys,ranters,shills..etc happy
But you will in fact make mmorpg.com RELEVANT place to find information about games you play.
And yes...
Beat Massively to the news. That would be great.
Make more daring interviews
Make game related articles (like "best WOW shaman builds" , or "Guide to pirating in EVE" for example)
The best "news" is in the forums, and usually from other forum-junkies. Many of them are obviously industry insiders, with knowledge of developers and their products that devs would never want allowed released. Hard part is filtering out the noise from Trolls and Forum-PvP'ers who bash any comment just to stretch their *-****.
I'm not bashing the site, I really enjoy and learn from it. In fact, I plan on dedicating my next game to an epiphany after an intense conversation here. I find the MMO community and industry to be most confusing, and MMORPG.com actually shed some light on the situation for me. For that I owe them some recognition (ha, like anything from me is worth anything ~grin~).
Ken
Project WAC
www.ActionMMORPG.com One man, a small pile of money, and the screwball idea of a DIY Indie MMORPG? Yep, that's him. ~sigh~
EDIT - JEEZ - As I post this - There is a ad for Valkyre Sky under me positioning it as a "shoot 'em" up MMO ??? - which are you = A shoot 'em up or a MMO ?????
Atleast that game is somewhat mmo and for the PC, not as bad as the Moto GP 09/10 ad floating around lol.
There was a discussion about the ads and how mmorpg selects them, I think it had to do with the Dragon Age ad and it not being an mmorpg. The general consesus posted by a mod was that they try to include all rpg's, across all platforms, mmo or not.
Up until now I've seen the ads here as more of a service than spam.. But now that I see Moto GP I assume they tossed that ideal aside, since it is a racing/simulation game, which really opens the floodgates to provide us with pointless spam ads like every other site.. it's a shame
Well as much as I agree lots of sites will not rate a game bad if they are advertising with them, but its not that simple with the mmorpg.com site. What most on this site go by is the reader ratings, and the great thing about them is even the person rating the game does not know the total score unless they want to do a bit of math. The reason is mmorpg.com very smartly has ppl rating the different aspects of a game and thus I think you get a more fair score. With that said I do not agree totaly with these either. I mean if you look the ppl on this site do not even have the worlds #1 mmo WoW in the top 5 and behind a FTP. I know ppl hate the one on top but come on Atlantic better then WOW, BS and anyone that rates it that way I think knows its BS.
I prefer Massively for MMO news, I just come here to read stupid forum posts by hardcores and fanboys.
Why do you prefer our competitors? I can't speak for the other aspects of our site, but as I do the news I'd be interested in any feedback you guys have on how I could improve the newsroom to be more appealing.
I actually prefer Massively to MMORPG for news as well. I still read both, though. I think the major difference, for me, is user friendliness. Massively's focus is on news. Their articles are the focal point of the website. Their layout is extremely simple and effective. There is no need to click through links to see if you want to read the article. All you have to do is scroll down the page. There is a large enough blurb, or segment of the article for me to skim through and make the decision to read it.
MMORPG on the other hand, has a very cluttered design. The news section of the design requires you to click 8 links (or wait for the flash to switch). It has very little information about the article. I'm less inclined to click unless I'm truly interested in the topic. If there was more information, I might be enticed into reading more.
As I said earlier, the design is way too cluttered. There is no need to have the Flash news, Latest Features, and Latest MMORPG.com News in 3 different areas. They could all be in one big section, the main area of the website. The Columnist section could be made much smaller (a small list of their names), or possibly put on a separate page. There is no need to link to their articles because they would be in that main section. Everything else could be put into a separate column on the right (or left).
While we're talking about design... is there really a need for 2 advertisement banners for the same game on the main page? They are right next to each other. I can see one perfectly fine. There is already a huge ad as the background image. The extra banner only ads to the clutter.
The short version. I prefer Massively because it's simple and easy to navigate. I get more information through skimming, which helps me make the decision to read or not. It's not so much the content, but how it's presented to me.
Yearly stats from our Google Analytics data (we only started this in late 2007 so I only have 2 full years of data to wrok from):
2008: 30,492,608 Visits, 161,662,080 Pageviews
2009: 31,780,790 Visits, 183,574,744 Pageviews
Obviously we are far from dead. I think that we have plenty of areas to improve upon...but I also want to point out that we don't really aim to be like other sites (quite contrary many of them have copied our ideas over the years). We generally avoid trying to be a "fan" site or a colleciton of fan sites like other destinations out there.
We have the best team here we have ever had and IMO are producing some of the highest quality content we have ever done. We will keep working on improving it and listening to your feedback though - I am quite sure my team has sponged up much of the constructive feedback in this topic.
Thanks to all of our visitors and contributors that make this site what it is!
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
They update their site often..as soon as there's something interesting that comes up in the genre.
The articles on this site are always so official and boring, the only things I enjoyed were some columns about the industry but I basically come here to read the forums.
edit:
Another thing I forgot, your interviews are really boring... you ask alot of questions that no mmorpg-gamer cares about instead of the real intriguing stuff.
World of Warcraft is a proof that MMORPG quality should affect schedule/budget and not the other way around.
Atleast that game is somewhat mmo and for the PC, not as bad as the Moto GP 09/10 ad floating around lol. There was a discussion about the ads and how mmorpg selects them, I think it had to do with the Dragon Age ad and it not being an mmorpg. The general consesus posted by a mod was that they try to include all rpg's, across all platforms, mmo or not. Up until now I've seen the ads here as more of a service than spam.. But now that I see Moto GP I assume they tossed that ideal aside, since it is a racing/simulation game, which really opens the floodgates to provide us with pointless spam ads like every other site.. it's a shame
There is a shift in the industry as well.
The borders of "mmo''s" will blend.
What's the attitude towards Diablo3 ? What about the already announced subscription based MMO of COD? These games will probably have "quests" and upgrades of the avatars as well. Classes to choose and upgrade in a world.
If you accept already "Dragon Age" because it is "rpg", you can hardly ignore D3 and accept a game like Hellgate London.
In fact ST is a complete instanced game with preloaded graphics but so is COD: MW2 with unlockable content and achievements (on the XBox).
"mmorpg" is an old concept in which future years a lot of games are going to add stuff that doesn't fit "neatly".
Certainly D3: there is nothing on this site about it: zero info: while it has all ingredients of an mmorpg: classes, levels, gear, quests, etc... I would say even that D3 has more features than a lot of others in the list of mmorpg.com right now.
A mod could answer this, because frankly I don't see the lines.
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.
Actually we are still growing ;-) Yearly stats from our Google Analytics data (we only started this in late 2007 so I only have 2 full years of data to wrok from): 2008: 30,492,608 Visits, 161,662,080 Pageviews
2009: 31,780,790 Visits, 183,574,744 Pageviews Obviously we are far from dead. I think that we have plenty of areas to improve upon...but I also want to point out that we don't really aim to be like other sites (quite contrary many of them have copied our ideas over the years). We generally avoid trying to be a "fan" site or a colleciton of fan sites like other destinations out there. We have the best team here we have ever had and IMO are producing some of the highest quality content we have ever done. We will keep working on improving it and listening to your feedback though - I am quite sure my team has sponged up much of the constructive feedback in this topic. Thanks to all of our visitors and contributors that make this site what it is!
You can gain pageviews by offering heated discussions with sometimes extremely niche views that don't make much sense.
5 stars Wizardry comes to mind.
You can also gain pageviews by offering very useful information about new gaming projects and a look at the industry.
When comparing this site to massively.com: your info on this wbsite is 90/10 in favor of the heated trivial discussions using 4 letter words.
On massively.com it is the reverse: 10/90 merely by using a far more constructive approach of the forum posts.
That's why - for the info - we go to massively.com. While for the amusement we look at mmorpg.com and are always surprised how far off some guys drift away from sanity.
A look at the user ratings on this site is already very amusing.
But it doesn't reflect news gathering, which should be the priority number one.
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.
Actually we are still growing ;-) Yearly stats from our Google Analytics data (we only started this in late 2007 so I only have 2 full years of data to wrok from): 2008: 30,492,608 Visits, 161,662,080 Pageviews
2009: 31,780,790 Visits, 183,574,744 Pageviews Obviously we are far from dead. I think that we have plenty of areas to improve upon...but I also want to point out that we don't really aim to be like other sites (quite contrary many of them have copied our ideas over the years). We generally avoid trying to be a "fan" site or a colleciton of fan sites like other destinations out there. We have the best team here we have ever had and IMO are producing some of the highest quality content we have ever done. We will keep working on improving it and listening to your feedback though - I am quite sure my team has sponged up much of the constructive feedback in this topic. Thanks to all of our visitors and contributors that make this site what it is!
It's great that page counts are up but that really doesn't say much about unique visitors to the site or even duration/page (the metrics advertisers like to see). At least you don't have popups inflating those numbers (that I'm aware of). Annual comparison for a site like this doesn't necessarily track very well either as there's no true cycle to the content (compared to say Amazon at holiday time) -- a monthly trend for the past 24 months might offer better insight into the direction that your visitor numbers are going (i.e., 2009 visits could have been frontloaded but on the decline).
Edit: I'm not trying to be oppositional, but just pointing out that you'd definitely not want to rely exclusively on such high level numbers (coming from a former data quality/web analytics guy).
This isn't a specialized site where you just focus on one type of genre or just AAA games.
It includes F2P, P2P, B2P, MMORPG's, Not So MMORPG's, MMOFPS, ect, ect. More like a Wal-Mart instead of a Auto-zone, I guess generic appeals to some people.
You have forums and blogs and reviews and ratings and columns and.....you get the picture.
If I read a blog and post a comment you know it's damn near impossible to find it again unless I book mark the page in my browser or I happen to have the author in my friends list.
I think the forum ticker showing you the most recent post is a great idea but its also fail IMHO. Why? Say I work for a company and they have an MMO you guys cover. Either you give it good or bad ratings, either way. Some people might talk about it on their own or might not. But since I work for this company my goal is to keep it(the game) in the forum ticker. Why? Simple, out of sight out of mind but if I continually keep it where everyone sees it, it becomes popular just for the sheer fact every time I log onto this website it's the first thing I see. Some games I never hear about because it never shows up on my radar. I do however browse the forums and look for things I might beable to help on or want information on.
I prefer Massively for MMO news, I just come here to read stupid forum posts by hardcores and fanboys.
Why do you prefer our competitors? I can't speak for the other aspects of our site, but as I do the news I'd be interested in any feedback you guys have on how I could improve the newsroom to be more appealing.
I actually prefer Massively to MMORPG for news as well. I still read both, though. I think the major difference, for me, is user friendliness. Massively's focus is on news. Their articles are the focal point of the website. Their layout is extremely simple and effective. There is no need to click through links to see if you want to read the article. All you have to do is scroll down the page. There is a large enough blurb, or segment of the article for me to skim through and make the decision to read it.
MMORPG on the other hand, has a very cluttered design. The news section of the design requires you to click 8 links (or wait for the flash to switch). It has very little information about the article. I'm less inclined to click unless I'm truly interested in the topic. If there was more information, I might be enticed into reading more.
As I said earlier, the design is way too cluttered. There is no need to have the Flash news, Latest Features, and Latest MMORPG.com News in 3 different areas. They could all be in one big section, the main area of the website. The Columnist section could be made much smaller (a small list of their names), or possibly put on a separate page. There is no need to link to their articles because they would be in that main section. Everything else could be put into a separate column on the right (or left).
While we're talking about design... is there really a need for 2 advertisement banners for the same game on the main page? They are right next to each other. I can see one perfectly fine. There is already a huge ad as the background image. The extra banner only ads to the clutter.
The short version. I prefer Massively because it's simple and easy to navigate. I get more information through skimming, which helps me make the decision to read or not. It's not so much the content, but how it's presented to me.
The news section of the site is the newsroom, which actually reads like a blog roll. We don't use folds on any of our actual news articles, what you see is the whole story. I'm not sure what hoops you're having to jump through to get to our newsroom. It's as simple as going to MMORPG.com and clicking the news tab, everything news related is right there.
Feature articles do require you to click read more, same as they do at Massively and any other site, simply because it would be ridiculous to try and have 2000 word pieces taking up the real estate in the newsroom.
I think everyone gets their MMO news from Massively, I know I am also one of those people.
And yes mmorpg.com is extremely cluttered and every tiny spot that can have an ad shoved in it does, which makes it annoying to use at times.
Also the articles here are, to be completely honest, a joke now a days. Where as massively has actually well written articles with actual news in them. So whenever I want real information I go to massively.
Whenever I want to have the same forum argument over how this new game is not exactly like WoW, and how game A does or does not suck then I come here.
I remember a long time ago I used to use mmorpg.com for reviews and information, but those days are long long gone and this site is no longer useful for either of those.
Yes, MMORPG.com is dead. They're actually necromancers using the spells of the damned to raise an army of sentient zombies to take over the world. I'm zombie # 837,946, but everyone just calls me Esther-Chan because I like to run around in a pink mini-skirt
Gotta show off my rotten, bloated legs.. The male Zombies love 'em.
Another way to help keep this site alive is to ensure that NO advertisements with audio in them slip through. That & ads that try to start a download are the fastest ways to get me to remove a site from my bookmarks/favorites & never return. Since I have been here a few years, both have happened at least once. If it is rare, I'll tolerate it as an accident of the advertising company letting something slip through that MMORPG.Com doesn't allow, but if it happens repeatedly I'll be gone. I am sure that there are others here that feel the same way. The audio pummeling happened today for some advertisement for a game that started with the letter m. I didn't get more details. I just closed the offending page & opened a new link.
Oh. Another thing that looks bad for this site? Contests where the prizes are never awarded. It doesn't matter if the prize is the best thing in the world or a pile of garbage. What matters is the prize being awarded to the announced prize winners in a timely fashion. It has been over 3 months since that contest ended & no one has received their digital prizes or received any official correspondence from MMORPG.Com to notify them of a delay... especially when the winner's notification stated that MMORPG.Com would "contact you soon with your prize". On a side note, "CONGRATULATIONS! YOU AREA CONFIRMED WINNER OF THIS CONTEST. WE WILL CONTACT YOU SOON WITH YOUR PRIZE!" has a typo too. It should read "You are a confirmed winner", not "You area confirmed winner".
I like this site, but issues like those mentioned above can cause it to lose my loyalty & recommendation to friends & guildmates.
I thought everyone used Adblock. I use Adblock and I never see any ads on MMORPG. I see offers, which is one of my favorite things about MMORPG.com. I love to see the offers, and I come here often for beta keys and the such.. But as I said, I never see ads.
Get Firefox + Adblock+ or Google Chrome + Adblock+. And if you're a firefox user, get NoScript too. Let's just face it. Websites are going to have ads. Might as well do something about it.
I thought everyone used Adblock. I use Adblock and I never see any ads on MMORPG. I see offers, which is one of my favorite things about MMORPG.com. I love to see the offers, and I come here often for beta keys and the such.. But as I said, I never see ads.
Get Firefox + Adblock+ or Google Chrome + Adblock+. And if you're a firefox user, get NoScript too. Let's just face it. Websites are going to have ads. Might s well do something about it.
I thought everyone used Adblock. I use Adblock and I never see any adds on MMORPG. I see offers, which is one of my favorite things about MMORPG.com. I love to see the offers, and I come here often for beta keys and the such.. But as I said, I never see ads.
Get Firefox + Adblock+ or Google Chrome + Adblock+. And if you're a firefox user, get NoScript too. Let's just face it. Websites are going to have ads. Might s well do something about it.
Adblock does not get MMORPG.Com their "per view" advertising payments. I don't leech from sites I use regularly. If I'm going to a questionable site, I'll use firefox & the needed add-ons, but for a site such as this, I want them to stay in business & get paid for my visits.
Comments
I don't think you'd like to see us in bikinis. Trust me. :P Party poopers
Seriously though, I am genuinely interested in the feedback. If you'd like to leave it here or contact me directly at mikeb@mmorpg.com I definitely welcome it!
This site is far from dead. At mmorpg.com I can have a great discussion, get in some decent forum PVP, catch up on mmo news, read a blog over lunch and plenty more. What else could you ask for? It's not perfect but I find myself on this mmo site way more than any other.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
It's not so much that MMORPG.com is dead as much as MMO's have stagnated or just plan gone bad and that means people are losing interest. Look at when MMORPG's were launching pretty regularly and when we had half a dozen in the works that looked like they might be good game - MMORPG.com was hopping with activity. What happened, they bombed and the angst of the players grew and grew. People get tired of watching games launching that promise to be better only to be disappointed in the end. If you look at what's in the works...there really isn't a whole lot to look forward to.
In my opinion, MMORPG.com is only in a bit of a slump because MMORPGs themselves are in a big slump right now, everyone is always waiting for a good new MMO to jump over to but it never arrives, eventually people say everything they have to say and then they just don't have anything to post about until they find a new MMO that catches their interests.
I've noticed most people don't really "leave", they just don't have any reason to log in, so their stars drop until they eventually come back and find something to post about.
The whole world is in a slump right now though, the slump on this site and on MMOs is partially a reflection of that.
Why do you prefer our competitors? I can't speak for the other aspects of our site, but as I do the news I'd be interested in any feedback you guys have on how I could improve the newsroom to be more appealing.
There's a coffee shop across the street from a Starbucks that has all the employees in bikinis. It actually worked out well for them.
I don't think you'd like to see us in bikinis. Trust me. :P
Seriously though, I am genuinely interested in the feedback. If you'd like to leave it here or contact me directly at mikeb@mmorpg.com I definitely welcome it!
Oh I don't know I heard you look nice in a bikini far better than I do anyhow
Posts like this happen now and again, the normal response is quite a few people come here because they can read the forums and see both sides of what people think of games. Rather than going to the games forums to read only the good posts.
Is MMORPG.com dead ? No.
Is the Genre slow at the moment ? That depends I think the genre does slow down every Q1 because most AAA titles either want a summer release or they want to release at the end of the financial year.
The site is definitely not dead, but not as active as it once was. I remember when the Current Forum Activity section on the front page was constantly changing (it still changes up, but at a slower rate, and with the same topics). I think the activity on this site started to decline after Vanguard, then much more after AoC and WAR. The genre has gotten extremely stale and as a result less people are browsing here. The only people left are either still new to MMOs, the addicts, and ones who still have some hope.
Why do you prefer our competitors? I can't speak for the other aspects of our site, but as I do the news I'd be interested in any feedback you guys have on how I could improve the newsroom to be more appealing.
They are faster and more up to date.
They always beat you to news.
And they are not afraid to ask tricky questions in their interviews.
But lets talk constructive
I was thinking a bit how you can really improve this site. So please lend me an ear.
As 4+ year member i could not help but noticing one fact.
MMORPG.COM is not about the games - its about bitching and hyping about games.
I admit. We all love it for that. So this should stay the same.
But.
When I for example want to see what is the best build for your Allods mage. You wont find it on this site.
There are no discussions about games them selves. Tips, secrets, guides....
How can this change ?
Easily... Year ago you made a big change by moving every post related to certain game to its dedicated forum.
While this might sound logical. It was a wrong thing to do.
So for example a post "Aion grind sucks" was moved from general to Aion forums.
MISTAKE!
Lot of people come to mmorpg.com to bitch about the games. General forums are perfect place for this. Let the flame wars rage trough general foums.
But than
Make game related forums, in fact game related.
So for example post " What is best build for Dark elf Bard in DDO" should go to DDO forums
and post "DDO sucks" (or even "DDO is best game evah") should go to general (RANT) forums.
With this move , not only you will make all trolls,fanboys,ranters,shills..etc happy
But you will in fact make mmorpg.com RELEVANT place to find information about games you play.
And yes...
Beat Massively to the news. That would be great.
Make more daring interviews
Make game related articles (like "best WOW shaman builds" , or "Guide to pirating in EVE" for example)
The best "news" is in the forums, and usually from other forum-junkies. Many of them are obviously industry insiders, with knowledge of developers and their products that devs would never want allowed released. Hard part is filtering out the noise from Trolls and Forum-PvP'ers who bash any comment just to stretch their *-****.
I'm not bashing the site, I really enjoy and learn from it. In fact, I plan on dedicating my next game to an epiphany after an intense conversation here. I find the MMO community and industry to be most confusing, and MMORPG.com actually shed some light on the situation for me. For that I owe them some recognition (ha, like anything from me is worth anything ~grin~).
Ken
Project WAC
www.ActionMMORPG.com
One man, a small pile of money, and the screwball idea of a DIY Indie MMORPG? Yep, that's him. ~sigh~
Atleast that game is somewhat mmo and for the PC, not as bad as the Moto GP 09/10 ad floating around lol.
There was a discussion about the ads and how mmorpg selects them, I think it had to do with the Dragon Age ad and it not being an mmorpg. The general consesus posted by a mod was that they try to include all rpg's, across all platforms, mmo or not.
Up until now I've seen the ads here as more of a service than spam.. But now that I see Moto GP I assume they tossed that ideal aside, since it is a racing/simulation game, which really opens the floodgates to provide us with pointless spam ads like every other site.. it's a shame
Well as much as I agree lots of sites will not rate a game bad if they are advertising with them, but its not that simple with the mmorpg.com site. What most on this site go by is the reader ratings, and the great thing about them is even the person rating the game does not know the total score unless they want to do a bit of math. The reason is mmorpg.com very smartly has ppl rating the different aspects of a game and thus I think you get a more fair score. With that said I do not agree totaly with these either. I mean if you look the ppl on this site do not even have the worlds #1 mmo WoW in the top 5 and behind a FTP. I know ppl hate the one on top but come on Atlantic better then WOW, BS and anyone that rates it that way I think knows its BS.
Why do you prefer our competitors? I can't speak for the other aspects of our site, but as I do the news I'd be interested in any feedback you guys have on how I could improve the newsroom to be more appealing.
I actually prefer Massively to MMORPG for news as well. I still read both, though. I think the major difference, for me, is user friendliness. Massively's focus is on news. Their articles are the focal point of the website. Their layout is extremely simple and effective. There is no need to click through links to see if you want to read the article. All you have to do is scroll down the page. There is a large enough blurb, or segment of the article for me to skim through and make the decision to read it.
MMORPG on the other hand, has a very cluttered design. The news section of the design requires you to click 8 links (or wait for the flash to switch). It has very little information about the article. I'm less inclined to click unless I'm truly interested in the topic. If there was more information, I might be enticed into reading more.
As I said earlier, the design is way too cluttered. There is no need to have the Flash news, Latest Features, and Latest MMORPG.com News in 3 different areas. They could all be in one big section, the main area of the website. The Columnist section could be made much smaller (a small list of their names), or possibly put on a separate page. There is no need to link to their articles because they would be in that main section. Everything else could be put into a separate column on the right (or left).
While we're talking about design... is there really a need for 2 advertisement banners for the same game on the main page? They are right next to each other. I can see one perfectly fine. There is already a huge ad as the background image. The extra banner only ads to the clutter.
The short version. I prefer Massively because it's simple and easy to navigate. I get more information through skimming, which helps me make the decision to read or not. It's not so much the content, but how it's presented to me.
Actually we are still growing ;-)
Yearly stats from our Google Analytics data (we only started this in late 2007 so I only have 2 full years of data to wrok from):
2008: 30,492,608 Visits, 161,662,080 Pageviews
2009: 31,780,790 Visits, 183,574,744 Pageviews
Obviously we are far from dead. I think that we have plenty of areas to improve upon...but I also want to point out that we don't really aim to be like other sites (quite contrary many of them have copied our ideas over the years). We generally avoid trying to be a "fan" site or a colleciton of fan sites like other destinations out there.
We have the best team here we have ever had and IMO are producing some of the highest quality content we have ever done. We will keep working on improving it and listening to your feedback though - I am quite sure my team has sponged up much of the constructive feedback in this topic.
Thanks to all of our visitors and contributors that make this site what it is!
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
I always read news on massively.com
They update their site often..as soon as there's something interesting that comes up in the genre.
The articles on this site are always so official and boring, the only things I enjoyed were some columns about the industry but I basically come here to read the forums.
edit:
Another thing I forgot, your interviews are really boring... you ask alot of questions that no mmorpg-gamer cares about instead of the real intriguing stuff.
World of Warcraft is a proof that MMORPG quality should affect schedule/budget and not the other way around.
There is a shift in the industry as well.
The borders of "mmo''s" will blend.
What's the attitude towards Diablo3 ? What about the already announced subscription based MMO of COD? These games will probably have "quests" and upgrades of the avatars as well. Classes to choose and upgrade in a world.
If you accept already "Dragon Age" because it is "rpg", you can hardly ignore D3 and accept a game like Hellgate London.
In fact ST is a complete instanced game with preloaded graphics but so is COD: MW2 with unlockable content and achievements (on the XBox).
"mmorpg" is an old concept in which future years a lot of games are going to add stuff that doesn't fit "neatly".
Certainly D3: there is nothing on this site about it: zero info: while it has all ingredients of an mmorpg: classes, levels, gear, quests, etc... I would say even that D3 has more features than a lot of others in the list of mmorpg.com right now.
A mod could answer this, because frankly I don't see the lines.
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.
You can gain pageviews by offering heated discussions with sometimes extremely niche views that don't make much sense.
5 stars Wizardry comes to mind.
You can also gain pageviews by offering very useful information about new gaming projects and a look at the industry.
When comparing this site to massively.com: your info on this wbsite is 90/10 in favor of the heated trivial discussions using 4 letter words.
On massively.com it is the reverse: 10/90 merely by using a far more constructive approach of the forum posts.
That's why - for the info - we go to massively.com. While for the amusement we look at mmorpg.com and are always surprised how far off some guys drift away from sanity.
A look at the user ratings on this site is already very amusing.
But it doesn't reflect news gathering, which should be the priority number one.
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.
This sums it up perfectly here.
"If we don't attack them, they will attack us first. So we'd better retaliate before they have a chance to strike"
It's great that page counts are up but that really doesn't say much about unique visitors to the site or even duration/page (the metrics advertisers like to see). At least you don't have popups inflating those numbers (that I'm aware of). Annual comparison for a site like this doesn't necessarily track very well either as there's no true cycle to the content (compared to say Amazon at holiday time) -- a monthly trend for the past 24 months might offer better insight into the direction that your visitor numbers are going (i.e., 2009 visits could have been frontloaded but on the decline).
Edit: I'm not trying to be oppositional, but just pointing out that you'd definitely not want to rely exclusively on such high level numbers (coming from a former data quality/web analytics guy).
Dead? Nahhh
It's hit some rough patches at times & that has something to do with the gaming industry itself which does have busier & slower months in a year.
Overall my impression of this site is that it's quite active & interesting.
I honestly think there is too much stuff.
This isn't a specialized site where you just focus on one type of genre or just AAA games.
It includes F2P, P2P, B2P, MMORPG's, Not So MMORPG's, MMOFPS, ect, ect. More like a Wal-Mart instead of a Auto-zone, I guess generic appeals to some people.
You have forums and blogs and reviews and ratings and columns and.....you get the picture.
If I read a blog and post a comment you know it's damn near impossible to find it again unless I book mark the page in my browser or I happen to have the author in my friends list.
I think the forum ticker showing you the most recent post is a great idea but its also fail IMHO. Why? Say I work for a company and they have an MMO you guys cover. Either you give it good or bad ratings, either way. Some people might talk about it on their own or might not. But since I work for this company my goal is to keep it(the game) in the forum ticker. Why? Simple, out of sight out of mind but if I continually keep it where everyone sees it, it becomes popular just for the sheer fact every time I log onto this website it's the first thing I see. Some games I never hear about because it never shows up on my radar. I do however browse the forums and look for things I might beable to help on or want information on.
Edit: Grammar or Spelling
Why do you prefer our competitors? I can't speak for the other aspects of our site, but as I do the news I'd be interested in any feedback you guys have on how I could improve the newsroom to be more appealing.
I actually prefer Massively to MMORPG for news as well. I still read both, though. I think the major difference, for me, is user friendliness. Massively's focus is on news. Their articles are the focal point of the website. Their layout is extremely simple and effective. There is no need to click through links to see if you want to read the article. All you have to do is scroll down the page. There is a large enough blurb, or segment of the article for me to skim through and make the decision to read it.
MMORPG on the other hand, has a very cluttered design. The news section of the design requires you to click 8 links (or wait for the flash to switch). It has very little information about the article. I'm less inclined to click unless I'm truly interested in the topic. If there was more information, I might be enticed into reading more.
As I said earlier, the design is way too cluttered. There is no need to have the Flash news, Latest Features, and Latest MMORPG.com News in 3 different areas. They could all be in one big section, the main area of the website. The Columnist section could be made much smaller (a small list of their names), or possibly put on a separate page. There is no need to link to their articles because they would be in that main section. Everything else could be put into a separate column on the right (or left).
While we're talking about design... is there really a need for 2 advertisement banners for the same game on the main page? They are right next to each other. I can see one perfectly fine. There is already a huge ad as the background image. The extra banner only ads to the clutter.
The short version. I prefer Massively because it's simple and easy to navigate. I get more information through skimming, which helps me make the decision to read or not. It's not so much the content, but how it's presented to me.
The news section of the site is the newsroom, which actually reads like a blog roll. We don't use folds on any of our actual news articles, what you see is the whole story. I'm not sure what hoops you're having to jump through to get to our newsroom. It's as simple as going to MMORPG.com and clicking the news tab, everything news related is right there.
Feature articles do require you to click read more, same as they do at Massively and any other site, simply because it would be ridiculous to try and have 2000 word pieces taking up the real estate in the newsroom.
Hope that helps!
I think everyone gets their MMO news from Massively, I know I am also one of those people.
And yes mmorpg.com is extremely cluttered and every tiny spot that can have an ad shoved in it does, which makes it annoying to use at times.
Also the articles here are, to be completely honest, a joke now a days. Where as massively has actually well written articles with actual news in them. So whenever I want real information I go to massively.
Whenever I want to have the same forum argument over how this new game is not exactly like WoW, and how game A does or does not suck then I come here.
I remember a long time ago I used to use mmorpg.com for reviews and information, but those days are long long gone and this site is no longer useful for either of those.
Yes, MMORPG.com is dead. They're actually necromancers using the spells of the damned to raise an army of sentient zombies to take over the world. I'm zombie # 837,946, but everyone just calls me Esther-Chan because I like to run around in a pink mini-skirt
Gotta show off my rotten, bloated legs.. The male Zombies love 'em.
Another way to help keep this site alive is to ensure that NO advertisements with audio in them slip through. That & ads that try to start a download are the fastest ways to get me to remove a site from my bookmarks/favorites & never return. Since I have been here a few years, both have happened at least once. If it is rare, I'll tolerate it as an accident of the advertising company letting something slip through that MMORPG.Com doesn't allow, but if it happens repeatedly I'll be gone. I am sure that there are others here that feel the same way. The audio pummeling happened today for some advertisement for a game that started with the letter m. I didn't get more details. I just closed the offending page & opened a new link.
Oh. Another thing that looks bad for this site? Contests where the prizes are never awarded. It doesn't matter if the prize is the best thing in the world or a pile of garbage. What matters is the prize being awarded to the announced prize winners in a timely fashion. It has been over 3 months since that contest ended & no one has received their digital prizes or received any official correspondence from MMORPG.Com to notify them of a delay... especially when the winner's notification stated that MMORPG.Com would "contact you soon with your prize". On a side note, "CONGRATULATIONS! YOU AREA CONFIRMED WINNER OF THIS CONTEST. WE WILL CONTACT YOU SOON WITH YOUR PRIZE!" has a typo too. It should read "You are a confirmed winner", not "You area confirmed winner".
I like this site, but issues like those mentioned above can cause it to lose my loyalty & recommendation to friends & guildmates.
I thought everyone used Adblock. I use Adblock and I never see any ads on MMORPG. I see offers, which is one of my favorite things about MMORPG.com. I love to see the offers, and I come here often for beta keys and the such.. But as I said, I never see ads.
Get Firefox + Adblock+ or Google Chrome + Adblock+. And if you're a firefox user, get NoScript too. Let's just face it. Websites are going to have ads. Might as well do something about it.
THIS^^
Adblock does not get MMORPG.Com their "per view" advertising payments. I don't leech from sites I use regularly. If I'm going to a questionable site, I'll use firefox & the needed add-ons, but for a site such as this, I want them to stay in business & get paid for my visits.