Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
How to kill your MMO in 5 easy steps
ArcAngel3
Member Posts: 2,931
I've been playing MMOs for the better part of a decade now, and I've seen a lot of things in this business that make me shake my head. I've seen companies do things to their MMOs that would compare to a bullet in the head. I've made a list of the biggest MMO killers in my opinion, and I'd like to hear yours.
1) Promise the moon and deliver a radioactive piece of space junk: Some companies hype their game so much before release that it is impossible for it to be greeted with enthusiasm, even if it is half decent. Usually though, these massively hyped MMOs aren't half decent at all, which brings us to the next point.
2) Make sure that core game mechanics are broken at launch, or missing altogether. How many people have played a game where an important feature either didn't work or wasn't in the game, even though it was advertised on the box you found the disks in?
3) Gold-digging (by the publisher btw). Some games want cash for the disk, cash for the subscription, more cash for respecs, more cash for playable races, more cash for buffs, and even more cash for the best gear. Heck, one company even charges you extra cash just for a random chance of getting some of the best gear. You pay hoping that you'll get a coveted item, but in many cases you'll get nothing but junk.
4) Bad customer service. Bug reports and tickets go unanswered for days, weeks, months. Forum posts highlighting bugs mysteriously disappear, along with their author. Publishers hold face to face summits with players, promise them bug fixes and content, server mergers (anything they want to hear) but then fail to deliver.
5) Massive, ill-conceived game revamps. Even though your game was overhyped, broken, filled with money pits and offered poor customer service, some poor souls hung in there, clinging to some vain hope that things would improve...and then you removed everything from the game that they found enjoyable because someone on your staff decided to "save the game" by reinventing it.
/cue the backlash, followed by crickets on your empty servers.
Comments
good to have a insight from a very experienced game developer... oh wait, nvm.
now: GW2 (11 80s).
Dark Souls 2.
future: Mount&Blade 2 BannerLord.
"Bro, do your even fractal?"
Recommends: Guild Wars 2, Dark Souls, Mount&Blade: Warband, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
Those who can, do. Those who can't...criticize...
You just know that one of the columnist is going "darn it, they stole my next topic!"
The only one I have to add is "post-launch patches breaking things that used to work fine."
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
#6 Learn nothing from the experiences of other companies. Just because every other game faced some common problem (e.g., gold spammers), there is no reason to think you will face that issue too. So no need for a plan.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
#7 Heavily instance your game.
#8 Entice players that have more fun slamming games, than playing them.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
Those who can, do. Those who can't...criticize...
The problem is, most "experienced" game developers over the past couple years are severely out of touch with their potential & existing playerbase. You dont need to be a game dev to know the way things have been in a lot of games lately, especially the ones that get the most hype, just plain sucks. Very few companies/devs truthfully take on ideas/suggestions from their players. Usually they put on a front of listening, but then turn around and do the complete opposite of what 3/4 of their players request and wonder why their subscription numbers suddenly go to shit (see WAR for an example of that). It seems like as more time goes on we keep seeing more and more of this promising everything, usually when its just some fantastic idea on paper, but the features havent been implemented in any way, or if so they are severely broken. i dont think its out of line to ask that you actually advertise working features & content, rather than things that MIGHT make it through but usually dont. Of course nothing goes perfectly, and making mistakes is fine, but at least own up to your mistakes. If you promise a feature or content, and then for whatever reason it just doesnt work out, then be upfront and share it with the players expecting those things in a game rather than continuing to promise it and then afte rlaunch say "oh we're still working on it, but we already have your money so who knows we might not bother".
I know it takes a lot of work and time and funding to really put together a great game, but i think most of us are getting tired of paying full retail price & subs for games that could barely have passed for being in beta phase a few years ago.Id much rather see a company thats hurting for money just come out and say "hey, we still have some work to do, but its going to be tough to get it all done without some funding so we are going to release with what weve got but...." and following the but would be some sort of incentive such as a slightly lower sub rate (at least temporarily) for players who buy it right away, or some special items or something, anything besides "Pay me full price for half a game and then stfu and dont complain about how much is wrong with the game".
If a game had a great idea that had me interested in it, i would have no problem supporting them somewhat with a partial release of agame, so long as they actually called it that and treated it as such. And ffs stop calling your games original and revolutionary when its nothing more than WoW in a new skin, especially games that have already existant IPs (which would mean theyre not original, theyre just taking a story thats already there and turning it into a game), and then put that IP into a WoW template and try to claim its some original revolutionary wowkilling supergame. Games will not see great success without a decent amount of originality and new ideas, they will just be seen as WoW clone #XXXXXX.
make it in 32 bit!
no support for donnybrook
no support for dx11
no large adress aware
no massive (1000 player minimum on a map instance,phaze,jita watchemacallit etc.)
those 5 missing feature can kill any game in 7 days flat!
Those who can, do. Those who can't...criticize...
The problem is, most "experienced" game developers over the past couple years are severely out of touch with their potential & existing playerbase...
I don't think it's the devs. As the industry has "matured" I think its safe to say the problem lies with the demands of the investors.
yep investor put in 1 dollars and expect 10000 out of it! so imagine when they put in 1 million!
Those who can, do. Those who can't...criticize...
The problem is, most "experienced" game developers over the past couple years are severely out of touch with their potential & existing playerbase...
I don't think it's the devs. As the industry has "matured" I think its safe to say the problem lies with the demands of the investors.
the only thing investors demand is recouping their money and a certain profit. Investors couldnt care less if the game is a WoW clone or the polar opposite of WoW, chances are they will never, ever, ever install the game in their machines.
It was the devs going for the path of least resistance and doing zero innovation, then presenting their project to investors with siren songs of exorbitant revenues because "if others got it, we also will. amiright? amiright?"
But I think 2008 was the milestone year when devs understood that if your game is gonna lack originality proffessionalism, polish and quality, you better dont do anything and win nothing than release a POS ,lose dozens of millions, and watch how your studio is salvaged.
So imo games started after 2008 will be awesome. we just have to wait 3 more years for them.
9.) Don't lissen too much on Fanbois. They never find any problems with the game.
[Earthrise ss in my profile][Coming out Q2 2010]
10::
Create a psychologically addicting system that can never meet consumer demands. Bloat with features until sufficiently unplayable.
((Non-scalable design))
Although this may just be another version of #5.
11. Hire Brad Mcquaid
12. make an MMO off a popular IP like warhammer then create a wussy looking side vs. a kool menancing side then make the game all unbalanced.
There is just 1 point really to kill a game: Don't make a fun game that you yourself would love to play but look on a certain other large MMO and make a cheap copy in an attemp to steal away the other games playerbase.
Fun is the most important thing of a MMO. Bugs and similar items are really annoying and make any game less fun but if it is fun enough you disregard a lot of the problems.
The second most important thing is originality and that is something most MMOs fail big time at.
After that there is a lot of other factors like all the ones you guys have counted out, but a game that feels original and fun will get a lot of players. A boring copy of EQ or Wow will be gone soon or struggle with a few die hard fans.
13. The all encompasing everygame!! You can't be everything to everyone, pick what you want to be and focus on it.
... make a game you feel is perfect
review forums and post ideas to judge how the playerbase feels before designing a feature
14. Make sure you release enough content for 1 week after launch so everyone can get max level, and have absolutely nothing to do.
people debate things they have no experience in everyday, just because they haven't done it doesn't mean they shouldn't give their opinion.
think siskel and ebert ever made a movie? nope but they still critiqued a lot of movies
has Barack Obama or anyone in congress ever worked in health care? nope but they are sure debating it and criticizing it.
if your idiotic way of thinking was the norm, NOTHING would ever get done in any walk of life. as my father use to say "I never tasted shit but i know i wont like it".
Those who can, do. Those who can't...criticize...
The problem is, most "experienced" game developers over the past couple years are severely out of touch with their potential & existing playerbase...
I don't think it's the devs. As the industry has "matured" I think its safe to say the problem lies with the demands of the investors.
the only thing investors demand is recouping their money and a certain profit. Investors couldnt care less if the game is a WoW clone or the polar opposite of WoW, chances are they will never, ever, ever install the game in their machines.
It was the devs going for the path of least resistance and doing zero innovation, then presenting their project to investors with siren songs of exorbitant revenues because "if others got it, we also will. amiright? amiright?"
But I think 2008 was the milestone year when devs understood that if your game is gonna lack originality proffessionalism, polish and quality, you better dont do anything and win nothing than release a POS ,lose dozens of millions, and watch how your studio is salvaged.
So imo games started after 2008 will be awesome. we just have to wait 3 more years for them.
I'm not talking about stock market investors. I'm talking about the kind of investors who put up the money to get the project going. You think they don't have demands of how the game should be made if the devs/publisher want their capital? Granted the investors don't know or care squat about it, but I guarantee you they hire experts to tell them, experts with research, graphs, metrics, statistics all out the wazoo that tells them "this is how you make money in an mmo" and before the venture capitalists fork over the dough you can be sure they get assurances from the devs/publisher, that is how it's going to be.
QFT and cheesecake
Sent me an email if you want me to mail you some pizza rolls.
I'm not talking about stock market investors. I'm talking about the kind of investors who put up the money to get the project going. You think they don't have demands of how the game should be made if the devs/publisher want their capital? Granted the investors don't know or care squat about it, but I guarantee you they hire experts to tell them, experts with research, graphs, metrics, statistics all out the wazoo that tells them "this is how you make money in an mmo" and before the venture capitalists fork over the dough you can be sure they get assurances from the devs/publisher, that is how it's going to be.
I think this really hits it close. It's usually one of two ways:
1) The kernel of fail starts when a developer wants to make money, any which way. The fact that WoW has made bajillions of dollars is all the evidence a developer needs to pitch their great money making mmo idea to some unsuspecting investor/publisher. Investors don't tend to plan for a return on investment 5,6,7 years from now, they want it ASAP. Developer says no problem, we'll have your money for you in 2 maybe 3 years. Developer commences insano crunch hours (investors LOVE to hear people are working around the clock on their products) for a few years and BAMM the launch date is here (how did that happen so fast?!). Whoops! We ran outta money, and the investor wants their share NOW! Guess it launches as planned. Unfinished. Game fails. Everyones pissed. Let's do it again.
Or...
2) The kernel of fail starts when a publisher wants to make money, any which way. The fact that WoW has made bajillions of dollars is all the evidence a publisher needs to lure a half broke developer who will do whatever it takes to get the next job and keep their company afloat at a bargain basement up front cost (promising royalties on the back end). Publishers don't actually play games, only watch the markets, therefore they're don't actually even consider things like quality, playability, customer satisfaction.. fun. They only want their finger in that MMO pie, and they don't care if they have to crush a few developers to get there. So publisher gets away with murder as far as seed money for the developer to start working. Looking at the budget, the only way the dev thinks they can hope to finish is by demanding crazy crunch from their labor force. Developer commences insano crunch hours (publishers LOVE to hear people are working around the clock on their products) for a few years and BAMM the launch date is here (how did that happen so fast?!). Whoops! We ran outta money, and the publisher wants their share NOW! Guess it launches as planned. Unfinished. Game fails. Everyones pissed (but at least the publisher retains the developers prized IP!). Let's do it again.
#15 Fire your 2 lead designers who brought you the best cash cow ever. *cough cough* Activion/Infinity Ward *cough cough*
How to kill your MMO in 1 easy step.
1. Be a company other than Blizzard.
Quick question here. How could we have a formula for quests that did not equate to the norm, such as get me 10 herbs to heal my friend, Kill 10 boars for food ect? What Ideas do you all have that can get us away from this norm here? We have been questing for the same crap for years and years. However, I cannot think of any other way to approach an RPG/MMO.