Comments on: “Roofle pwned, scrubs”

By: sinij

sinij — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 03:06:03 +0000

What I think article meant to say – STOP FUCKING CLONING DUKI MUD, you uncreative bastards.

By: Xanthippe

Xanthippe — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 19:07:58 +0000

D-One said,

“Maybe Sims online was before it\’e2\’80\’99s time or perhaps it lacked a basic story. Was probably the story part that killed the game.”

I think it was the lack of achievement that killed it – for me at least. There was no ding in Sims Online. So I could make pizzas. That took all of a few hours to master if that. There was a lack of conflict. There was a lack of things to do. Sure, I could dress up and dress up my house, but that’s not enough. I like fluff, but I don’t want my entire experience to be fluff.

By: Zen of Design»Blog Archive » June 2006 Quick Hits

Zen of Design»Blog Archive » June 2006 Quick Hits — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 18:19:02 +0000

[...] The Frag Dolls are protesting the Miss World Series Video Games beauty contest. Next week, I hear David Caruso will be protesting ridiculous overacting. THQ decides that World of Warcraft is too strong to compete against. News flash: in the 3 years it would optimistically take you to make a new entrant into the market, WoW will be five years old, and the MMO landscape will be very different. News flash #2: You don’t have to hit 6 Million to be successful in this market. UO and EQ were money hat factories with an order of magnitude fewer customers. Apparently EA took the opposite lesson from the success of WoW. After months of rumor, EA has finally bought Mythic. Congratulations to everyone over at Mythic, especially the ones who just got rich. [...]

By: pika

pika — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 15:53:13 +0000

500,000 seemed like a lot of subscribers back when EQ hit that mark. To say ’5 million people are playing WoW, game over’, in a world of 6 billion people who increasingly have access to computers and broadband seems…ridiculous? Short sighted? Eh, pick your own description.
One day there will be an MMORPG with 50 million people and I suppose we’ll hear the same arguments then.

By: D-0ne

D-0ne — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 14:38:22 +0000

almagill,

Exactly except for one thing\’e2\’80\’a6 most people enjoy stories about things they can relate to directly. From \’e2\’80\’9cM.A.S.H.\’e2\’80\’9d to \’e2\’80\’9cJerry Seinfeld\’e2\’80\’9d to \’e2\’80\’9cFriends\’e2\’80\’9d to \’e2\’80\’9cCheers\’e2\’80\’9d the longest running most successful RPGs on TV (and yes, I don\’e2\’80\’99t care in my opinion they aren\’e2\’80\’99t sitcoms they are RPGs) have been 180 degrees away from where the most successful online RPGs have been. Maybe Sims online was before it\’e2\’80\’99s time or perhaps it lacked a basic story. Was probably the story part that killed the game.

By: almagill

almagill — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 11:47:47 +0000

Zoinks! The man's got a point. Don't get into making 'yet another elves and pixies hammerfest' till WoW is losing subs. In fact, just stop it already with the 'yet another elves and pixies hammerfest' and do something bonkers nuts off the wall different...

! "The Black Death MMO" 14th century Europe, no 'magic' just pustule raddled hags... with laser swords and tanks.

! "2001 A Space Odyssey MMO" Psychotic giant supercomputer, monkeys and lots and lots of space. With laser swords and tanks.

No?

By: Heartless Gamer

Heartless Gamer — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 03:00:16 +0000

I understand why we see articles like this because of the nature of the beast. It is all but a fact now that playing an MMORPG cuts down on your spending habits in other genres. So companies get all foozled out thinking that you can't jump in and compete.

However, I think companies are just looking at the MMORPG market wrong. You don't need to make WoW. You can budget a half way decent game ala EVE Online and cut yourself a nice piece of the pie that pays the bills.

The problem is developers just want to smash and grab. They want that magic formula that guarantees the bills get paid. Once they have their foot in they damned well don't want to lose it, but the arguement can easily be made that making the same game over and over just secures your demise rather than ensure a future.

By: J.

J. — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 01:44:57 +0000

THQ has had a “no online games” policy for years. I think Jessica Mulligan even mentions them specifically in her book about online game production. Yeah, they bought that semi-NCSoft spinoff in Austin, Vigil Games, but I don’t think they’re going to make online games now.

And yeah, I agree with them. Unless you’re prepared to go head to head with WoW, there’s that much less of a point to do a MMOG now. And I don’t believe most people making a MMOG right now are prepared.

By: Patrick McKenzie

Patrick McKenzie — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 01:09:37 +0000

What SirBruce said. The future of MMORPGs is a few top dogs aiming for the “mass market” and subscription numbers from six figures to WoW-like to beyond and a plain crazy variety of offerings with “subscription” numbers in the five figures which monetize the heck out of their playerbase. Sooner or later someone is going to figure out “Hey, many of our customers are time-sensitive and mostly price-insensitive if the experience is right”. Many of these models will not resemble “X people paying Y dollars each for service which is identical”.

Or, basically, the future of MMORPGs is the present in Korea

By: TPRJones

TPRJones — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 01:04:19 +0000

“I think there’s a world market for about five computers.” – Thomas J. Watson, chairman of the board of IBM