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The Top 5 Ways to Drain the Game Swamp - General Columns
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The Top 5 Ways to Drain the Game Swamp - General Columns
No one likes politics these days. However, video games have a huge swamp of their own to deal with. It is the one that has been created over time by too much hype and oversold knock offs. That’s right, too many games chase the money of creative titles and try to duplicate their success. We lived through it as MMO players. You also saw that template used in MOBAs which are now coming into their twilight years. The times have changed and it is now innovation that will rule out once again.
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It's kind of like being able to choose Burger King or McDonalds.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I agree innovation is the way out, but it's risky. Why risk trying to do something nobody likes when you can just copy what you know people like? It's also rewarded, though, usually, when it's successful.
I think the main thing holding MMORPGs back is Devs are looking at the crazy phone-game profits and trying to model MMOs after that. I don't think that works- MMOs are meant to be played for long periods of time and feature-rich, not cash grabs. I don't think people sitting at their computer are looking to have their cash grabbed (at least not in the lootbox phone-game kind of way).
When you're at the doctor's office and you can get past a candy crush level that's annoying you, it's far more tempting to do a micro-transaction.
Don't forget, "clones" (in terms of competition) will likely bring prices down/higher value per money spent to customers.
When you don't want the truth, you will make up your own truth.
lmao yeah both crap.You can add Wendy's and any other chain to the list of crap.
I think we are hoping to get rid of the fast food chains and come up with something better.
I agree with pretty much everything said by the author,there are just too many factors leading to bad games.Money,timelines,clones which of course means you put little to no thought into your game,just copying another game.
EA is completely dumb,people handing over free money to rich strangers need their heads examined.Problem is that no matter what era you grow up in ,you are sort of brainwashed into thinking like that era,thank god my era did not like scams and pan handlers.
Now a days just seems like people are too naive or just too brainwashed into accepting bad things because they figure oh well it's the norm.15 years ago a guy like Chris Roberts would be run out of town and the talk of every media site flaming him for his skulduggery.
There you have it,my big word of the day >>SKULDUGGERY.. lmao but so true with the gaming industry .
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
Nearly in every thread here will have this kind of comment.
When you don't want the truth, you will make up your own truth.
Yes, the community is full of bitter vets. Yes they can be obnoxious. Yes, I do often criticize their behavior. They are NOT, however, without a point. This genre is not catering to their wishes to any significant measure anymore. AAA traditional MMOs simply don't exist anymore, and their rage at that fact is understandable. To them, the genre is crap. Where they falter, however, is their tendency to criticize games with a totally different target audience.
Basically clicking away text windows ruins every MMO, try to have fun instead of rushing things. Without story and lore all there is left is a bunch of mechanics.
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You are about six years behind the times, mate:
http://www.vendetta-online.com
Behold! A seamlessly cross platform MMORPG since March 2011.
Also, "drain the swamp"... something, something wetlands ecosystems (sorry, Florida resident here with a GeoSci background).
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance
As for the rest, I don't know if I'll even take the time to address it. It's just the typical cynnical, exaggerated nonsense that always fills your posts.
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/I cannot understand this way of thinking because you have 24 months give or take 2 to 3 months between expansions. If you did the dungeons 50 times in 2 months you will be bored out of your skull waiting for 2 or 3 more in 2 months or so. Then those 2 or 3 new dungeons you will be bored out of your skull again inside a month. MMOs are so dam expensive today because of the Treadmill. Dungeons should be something that you do once or twice a week. If you are lucky enough to have the time and friends that have time you can do them daily. Most people will not be like that and do the dungeons 10 or so times a month allowing developers more time to develop more content.
Also content should be like it was in Vanilla and TBC WOW. You need 2 CCs a OT or a short term CC, you need to pull each back itself and not 4 or 5 together. The Pace of a dungeon is important if you cannot clear a dungeon in 60 to 90 mins then the pacing is off even with CC and having a kill order. That can be fixed by removing or adding mob packs.
Until we stop catering to everyone including the 15 a minute a week MMO Warrior we will continue to go from game to game and hating MMORPGs. If you want that type of game Single Player RPGs and MOBAs are the right game for you. Not every game is right for every person and we need to accept that.
But there ARE MMOs that have minimized the impact of character level on growth - ESO for example - although they can also be seen as leveling something else other than yourself as a replacement for character level progression.
IDK... I'm still not tired of leveling. it's what hooks me into playing some games for a long time.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
If we truly "drained the swamp" as president-elect trump phrased it, doesn't that mean that we should just keep doing what any other politician would do, then pretend we didn't mention anything about "draining the swamp" in the first place?
There's nothing more gratifying than playing an MMO for free.
If you dont discern between the various types of games then sure, there are "plenty" of new ones out there.
Sort of like telling a football fan there are plenty of games (baseball, basketball, hockey) to watch after the Superbowl. Not if they don't enjoy watching "sports", my father was one such as this. Golf and football (pro only), nothing else mattered.
But look at the top off this page, "MMORPG.com"
Yeah, far fewer of those coming out these days, and most of what is out there are of Asian design which I generally don't care for due to various reasons.
Outside of certain indie titles I see very little of interest worth playing.
In the recent most anticipated games of 2017 I saw no more than 5 which would be of any interest. My guess is you saw far more.
There is a definite dearth of interesting new titles for those of peculiar tastes.
"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
People who bash the veterans for their bitterness just don't know what they have missed in the first place. What it means to be a part of a community in a virtual world. Those are the experiences that vanished when the genre went corporate.
I don't believe this is what the elder dudes only want and the new folks just want something "easy" and "shallow". I think the developers have taken the easy route - they chose to go for cheap thrills, and they are okay being the flavor of the month. But I--again and many others as well--won't just simply invest our time (which we have less of it compared to 20 years ago, true) into just another flavor of the month.
I like flavors of the month too. But I prefer them as single-player games, on my console, playing from the couch.
2) Ditch quest markers, make players refer to their journal when questing.
3) Ditch quest hub ping pong. In fact, reduce the amount of quests by 75% and make the game actually interesting to play without quests.
4) Ditch purples, greens, blues, and what-not along with all forms of item binding. Make all items lose durability with use, and make it so player crafters can make most items, perhaps using crafting materials attained from the same bosses that less often drop the piece of gear it self.
5) Stop helping, the 0.05% of people who read your tutorial pop ups are dwarfed by the vast audience that is COMPLETELY annoyed by them. Make a help menu instead with a searchable index.
You mention sports when was the last time somebody tried to start a new pro sports league? There has not been one in years and it's fair to say most pro sports are doing better then ever (football took a hit this year).
we have more mmorpgs than we have ever had if anything there are too many. Clearly a lot of people in here are not very business savvy. Your thought process goes like this:
1) I don't like any of the games out the genre must be dead.
2) Look nobody is making any new games they all suck cause I say so.
In reality:
1) More people than ever before are playing mmos
2) The industry is aware there are more choices than ever before and adding to that is NOT a sound business decision at this time.
5. Engines and Development. Having the tool, but not knowing how to use them is the problem. There is a STEM crisis at the moment. I would estimate that 75% or more of the programmers entering the market are nothing more than typist. Meaning they don't have the intelligence to derive a programming solution. They expect to be told line one, type this and all the way to the last line of code. Over the last ten years Engine Licensees have sued over the fact that Engines are not plug and play, they must be optimized. This often takes a John Carmack level coder, which the studio doesn't have. So they end up paying the Engine Developer to optimize. When the studio sees the simple solution and the cost, they are furious why this wasn't part of the engine to begin with.
4. Money. People who have money are not gamers, the are businessmen. What a game is, is meaningless to them. The walk in on day one and say goal number one is 10 million subscribers, number two is a game that draws number 1. Then they walk out and tell everyone to get to work. They are the typist of management and 75% or more businessmen are like this.
3. Games that Transcend Mobile. Both Console and mobile are limiting factors to PC gaming. Just look at Minecraft vs Minecraft PE. These are incompatible platforms. Remember back to the Spiderman game that was great on console, but they couldn't be bothered to properly port the game to keyboard.
Next is battery life. I have two 3 hour battery packs that I use with both my Android tablet and smartphone. So first day of Spring 2015 I went to the local community college and asked 578 students if they had a smartphone, tablet, and battery backup. All had a smartphone, 52% had a tablet, and none had a battery. They plugged into a car jack or a wall jack. Would I park and run my car engine just to keep my Android device charged while playing a game? No. I would also feel tethered to that wall outlet. I notice every wall outlet in the common hallways has a student and device(laptop, tablet, or smartphone) plugged in. How many readers here have a battery backup for their devices and how long do they typically last playing a game? Games and especially 3D games drain batteries quickly. So until mobile people are prepared to play for PC MMO time, I don't see the purpose in accommodating them.
2. Turning Design on Its Ear. When I see this It always says RPG, but all I hear is "I want FPS & Action Adventure and not RPG." I'm sure that someone is capable and willing to make the FPS or Action Adventure game of your dreams, just don't call that innovation of the RPG genre. When in fact it is substitution for RPG that you want.
1. A New Era. This goes back to the STEM shortage we are having. Few programmers are taking true game design courses. These are being offered in Art & Design curriculum. These aren't programming classes, they are classes that teach how to make Pen and Paper or board games from scratch. The point is few new people are coming to game development with this skill set in tow. I have bought some of the textbooks for these classes, but even I haven't read one yet.
FYI, Minecraft is a clone of a clone, making it a third generation game at least. In the overall history of voxel gaming it may even be a tenth or fifteenth generation depending on where it branches off.
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
Try not to use the overly loose definition of MMO please, if it doesn't support 500+ people in a single environment, leave it off the list.
"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