Planned Obsolescence and MMORPGs

Thanks to Stratics for their column discussing the concept of 'planned obsolescence' as it relates to MMORPG expansion packs. The author explains: "Planned obsolescence is, at its root, a strategy to get you to buy more... a design mechanism that would encourage additional purchases by creating the impression that a product had been improved over its early - though still perfectly functional - incarnation." He argues that expansions for MMO titles are controversial because "MMOs are service-based products [and] it is difficult to justify this double charging of the customer for development", and ends on a cautionary note: "While a full sequel... certainly merits an additional purchase, I fear that the practice of planning obsolescence into MMOs by subtly out-moding earlier releases of a given title will ultimately undermine the genre and, therefore, the industry."

Comments

This is the Problem

[cyan]

This is just the problem with MMORPG's, no matter how hard you try, and unless you have absolutely no life, no job, and don't mind going a few days without a shower, there's absolutely no way you can expect to complete any MMORPG in any satisfying amount of time. In fact, they'll usually take years to complete even if you *do* spend obscene amounts of time working on it.

Then, in about ten years from now, it'll be gone. Unlike the other games on your shelf, which you can play for nostalgic purposes whenever you like, the MMORPG won't be available for you to play. At least now I can still check out my old Final Fantasy IV games, or play through again in a matter of 30 hours or so. MMORPG's don't offer that, and nobody will be saying "hey, let's check out Everquest" 10 or 20 years from now.

This is all notwithstanding that most MMORPG's are boring click-a-thons, of course. Click, watch your character go *hrf* over and over, and then watch as you gain a fraction of a percentage to advance to the next level. Yay.

Strangely, MUDs still retain their appeal for me even after these MMORPG's have emerged. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I need to fork out nothing as opposed to a bill for an MMORPG that rivals my power bill? Who knows.

no expansions = no ongoing publicity

[shepuk]

"A Tale in the Desert" is an MMORPG that charges people *just* the way I think it should be done. You don't pay for the client. You don't pay an initial connection charge. You don't even have to pony up any credit card details until you've finished your trial period... All you pay is a monthly subscription *after* you've made the decision to keep playing.

Where other games put out "expansion packs", the developers add new content to the game on an ongoing basis - new stuff seems to appear every few days (and all client patching is done seamlessly while you're actually playing) ...which from the players point of view is great stuff...

BUT...

According to the developers, not releasing expansion packs is actually *hurting* their PR! The thing is, each time the likes of Anarchy Online brings out something like "Shadowlands", they suddenly get big spreads in glossy magazines, headlines on all the news sites, and a new boost of publicity. Expansions that are given away for free, on an ongoing drip-feed basis, just don't blip on the gaming press radar. It's actually becoming a problem for the ATITD people; they're adding new (and pretty revolutionary) content to the game all the time, but the gaming press won't touch them because they assume the game is the same thing it was back at launch, and therefore old news... Seems they're just not interested in revisiting games unless there's a new shrinkwrapped box on the shop shelves... and, of course, no publicity = no new customers.

Sadly, it seems that this is one MMORPG company that's suffering by using a payment model that treats it's subscribers the "right" way :(