Comments on: This Just In: The Sky Is Not Falling

By: Success or failure of MMOGs (part 1/3)

Success or failure of MMOGs (part 1/3) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:30:06 +0000

[...] came LTM Scott Jennings: This just in the sky is not falling Huge megaprojects like Tabula Rasa that don’t have a clear goal and defined market will fail – [...]

By: RJL

RJL — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:54:20 +0000

Tabula Rasa is a tragedy because it will only re-enforce the established idea that only fantasy sells, and that nobody wants more twitch-based mechanics in an MMO.

By: What Happened to Tabula Rasa? « Double Buffered

What Happened to Tabula Rasa? « Double Buffered — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:50:21 +0000

[...] that NCSoft employees “let” Tabula Rasa fail. Scott Jennings (aka Lum the Mad) posted a response as well. If you’re curious about how the rest of NCSoft felt about Tabula Rasa, go give both [...]

By: T=Machine » We need to talk about Tabula Rasa; when will we talk about Tabula Rasa?

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 07:28:04 +0000

[...] Unlike Scott, I actually (superficially speaking) agree with this statement as to why Tabula Rasa, Age of Conan, Pirates of the Burning Sea, and Hellgate:London failed (TR, AoC, PotBS, and HL from now now…) “No, these games failed because their developers let it happen.” [...]

By: bonedead

bonedead — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:31:05 +0000

What about SWG? People still act like their childhood was raped.

By: Dirk

Dirk — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:57:51 +0000

here’s a thought for devs; listen (at least a little) to what your customers think. Sure, we don’t always know exactly the right way to fix something but when a good portion of people tell you “disables suck!”, then maybe you should listen or not be surprised when people cancel their sub.

yes, I was just playing Warhammer… *sigh*

Funny thing is, I just popped into the 10-day free trial in WoW and its amazing how smooth it runs, and how little bugs there are. I’m not a WoW fanboi but they are doing it right and making it fun, at least for short increments of time.

By: Sheepherder

Sheepherder — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:11:24 +0000

How many players does WoW have? How many players did all other MMO’s have combined prior to the release of WoW? How many players do current MMO’s have compared to WoW?

Most games leech players off to an extent, but they all seem to return back to WoW after their free trials for other games are over.

By: The Claw

The Claw — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 04:50:14 +0000

“Yet I look at the mistakes made, and wonder what kind of work environment these people live in.”

Sentack, my bet would be that they’re well into the desperation of territory where they approach every task with the desire to just get it done, with any care as to doing it WELL having been left behind long ago. That was the mindset most developers (myself included) fell into at a couple of the (failing) game companies I worked at.

“I seem to recall reading that, WoW’s success hasn’t float the MMO industry, but instead it leaches players from other MMO’s and drags them down”

That really doesn’t mesh with what I’ve always heard to be the conventional wisdom. I know mmogchart isn’t 100% reliable but if you look at http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart4.html they certainly estimate the total MMO subscriber base as having grown by roughly 10 million in the period of WoW being out there.

By: Sentack

Sentack — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:07:19 +0000

While in general, the whole statement, “The developers let it happen.” is clearly false. There are select cases where developers act irrationally or with poor judgment. And sadly, it seems that this happens a lot in the gaming industry in general.

What causes these poor management decisions, is beyond me. I’m just in the software industry, but not in gaming. Yet I look at the mistakes made, and wonder what kind of work environment these people live in. Do the managers manage or dictate? Do they help or hinder? Do developers and coders follow more modern software development approaches? Or is the all mighty deadline still to blame? I don’t know. I really do wonder at times.

Blizzard is one of those rare companies that seems to have the cash flow, and the structure to get things done really well. But I’m not going to say that if a company does everything right, they’ll have equal success. I seem to recall reading that, WoW’s success hasn’t float the MMO industry, but instead it leaches players from other MMO’s and drags them down, while rising above.

By: Sullee

Sullee — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:41:24 +0000

The market evolution concept is nice on paper but it doesn’t hold water as you’ve presented. Mostly because the only point you are really making is choosing to mince popularity and financial success with quality.

Your dismissal of HG:L is off as is your WoW fanboiism. The McDonalds analogy that people toss around is apt here.

I’m not sure how anyone who slogs through the uninspired MOTS that is WoW can for a second knock the repetition in anything else. End of the day I would think the insiders would be beacons of insight rather than trying to foist off some good game (play) vs. bad game (don’t play) model that has no basis in reality.