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On The Over-Saturation Of MMO Games
An anonymous reader writes "Stratics has an editorial discussing MMO market saturation, specifically triggered by the recent closure of Microsoft's massively multiplayer PC game, Mythica. The piece argues: 'But there is a dark realization that is now being considered, just when does it end? When does the genre hit the ceiling and all that ends up happening is [that] companies resort to passing around subscriptions with no real growth. This is a question that is haunting corporations who have potential products laid before senior management - just how long can it continue? When does the opportunity cost grow larger than any potential earning?'"
You're looking at those text editors the wrong way. Pretty soon, emacs will have a MMO in it.
Two opposite things will happen that will allow more growth and diversity in the MMO market. First, the tools that are used to create MMO's will become more sophisticated and easy to use allowing smaller and smaller groups of designers to create worlds. Soon very small shops will be able to create intriguing niche worlds/games that will only require a small group of dedicated players to maintain.
Secondly, the big boys/girls in the field will finally figure out that the real money isn't in creating a specific game or world, but creating and maintaining a META-world in which other developers can create their own games/worlds. Then independent shops can create MMO games that operate in a particular world much as they would create games that operate on a particular gaming platform. So in "Nintendo World" you would be able to race cars, adventure in dungeons, space battles, and buy in to new "games/areas" when they are created...
The MMO model has just started. I can see a future in which ALL games are actually contained (or at least accessed from) within larger meta MMO worlds.
Kinda off topic, but there's a lot of stuff on this subject and various related ones in "Designing Virtual Worlds" by Richard Bartle. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in MMOs.
Going back on topic, there's a fairly good argument that's there's no real growth now-except in the switch from ticks to turn based real time(not a contradiction in terms-rather than each turn approximating 6 seconds, each turn is 6 seconds) the mechanics are extremely similar to the first MUDs. Just as Japanese RPGs are all remaking Dragon Warrior, MMORPGs are still stuck in the levels/classes mold, with repetitive mob killing and a levelling treadmill
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I think that the tech industry has felt this pretty bad with every aspect of new growth. When will it end? Should I realease my product and waste all of this capital? You won't know until it happens. Even then, I think it's a pointless question. The video game industry as a whole is still growing. As long as a product is in some way innovative, there will be people willing to pay for it. I think a better question is how many clones will people be willing to swallow, until they demand something new again.
No persistent world to date has cannibalized the user base of its predecessors, so why should we expect that to happen any time soon? Sure there is a steady decline in players later in a persistent world's lifespan - but that occurs with or without competition.
What about, in the intervening 3 years between major commercial releases, the million or so teenage gamers who make that transition into gamers-with-disposable-income-and-creditcards?
What about the games like World of Warcraft that are positioned to bring in non-peristent-world gamers into the market? Even if WoW fails, it will expose the genre to new players, and pull some of them in.
These games self-sustain and remain successful with well less than 100,000 players(ww2o,planetside,meridian59,second life,eve,etc). So every 3 years, when on the order of a million gamers become a new viable market for a persistent world game - publishers need only capture less than 5% of that to break even, or 10% to make mad cash. Add in the players who're naturally leaving older games - and why should we expect the market to ever level off?
Sure, theoretically, the rate of persistent world development could outstrip the rate of gamer-defection + the rate of new-gamer-arrival. But we're quite a ways away from that.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
I could be totally wrong, but whoever puts out the first MMO that's fun to play without investing ludicrous amounts of time in it will make a pretty penny. Something along the lines of online PS2 game My Street, except, you know, good. Problem is, it's a lot easier to make some more shitty monster models and yet another barren wasteland in EQ than to make some interesting content.
So far all I've seen is leveling with swords, leveling with light sabers, etc. Who is going to innovate first?
I'm on top of my game like I'm standin' on Xbox.
The main problem for me with these games - except for this I could probably see pitching in for maybe two a month - is the absolute time suckers these games are. Now some games I can spend a lot of time on don't get me wrong, but the problem with a MMOG is that you can't just hit "pause" or save and quit when something IRL comes up. There's always a battle to finish or a safe spot to find. The publishers are so worried about the cheaters that they place ever more demanding conditions on the player exiting the game.
:)
Now clearly if my son starts crying or something like that I can just pull the plug and attend to my RL responsibilities, these are after all, only games. But what fun is it to return at a later time, stripped naked, missing hard earned XP, and with a corpse to find?
Ironically Mythica might've been a bit better - as I understood it, it revolved around shorter, pocket dungeons, making it easier to pick up and play and leave.
Ah well back to X2
I was never very attracted to MMO gaming because of my ego I guess. For the same reasons online FPSs aren't very fun to me unless it's with people I know. It's the little fish, big pond story. IMHO MMO games need to have some sort of mechanism besides keeping track of kills, experience and money that lets you know you've made a difference in the world.
Pretty widgets? What pretty widgets?
Companies need to pitch something totally different that'll set them apart from the others. Having weekly events. Set up contests. Have the dev team make their presence known in the game and then give the players a chance to kill them (a la Ultima Online). Come up with a totally different cast of races to play as (humans, elves and dwarves are overdone. Get over it.) Let monsters be proactive, instead of being reactive. Maybe even let monsters roam into town and destroy if players don't kill it. TRY SOMETHING NEW.
MMO games are changing IMO. The problem is by the time they become good enough to earn my money, chances are I'll be playing CS2 and Quake 4.
One real problem is that as newer MMO's come out, the cost of entry is getting very high. Not in dollars, but time.
My cousin used to be a pretty fanatical Everquest player. As new expansion packs would come out, he'd have to spend hundreds of hours leveling his character up just so he'd be strong enough to try out the Planes of Power, or whatever the new hotness was. All his friends played, and played a lot too, so if he wants to quest with them he has to be fairly close in levels or he'll be pasted in any combat.
So with any new MMO people have to start over. They have a new character, no skills, and lose all their previous investment of time. If their friends don't switch, then it's another reason not to embrace a new MMO. Why go play if all your friends are still playing EQ?
The only MMO coming out that says they plan to address this is World of Warcraft. According to early interviews and alpha impressions at Gamespy, it seems that Blizzard wants you to be able to jump right in and have fun, regardless of what level you are. No more spending a few hundred hours killing giant rats and spiders so you can be tough enough to actually try doing something FUN.
So I don't know if MMO's will be inherently limited if they have proper design. The current crop of MMO's is getting very saturated however. Lowering the cost of entry (level treadmills, money, in-game loot) will certainly allow newer MMO's to compete however.
--
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No games exist that yet have the variables to account for everything. There are several factors influencing the growth of MMORPGs:
1) Built-in console gaming. Many more people play on consoles than PCs. Sure, there are console MMORPGs and the Xbox has built-in ethernet, but the PS2 and GameCube require adapters and the Xbox charges a yearly fee for access. You won't see true growth until a huge penetration in this market takes place. I'm thinking the next gen stuff will begin to do this.
2) Undeveloped/underdeveloped worlds. There is no server farm currently available that has the ability to create an entire world not bound by limits, and it may never happen, although I think it may happen in the next twenty years. MMORPGs have bought into the expansion pack mentality, which means you not only pay a monthly fee but you have to pay more now so you can access more? It's a ripoff. Of course, let's be realistic, no one can spend 7 years *cough* Doom 3 *cough* working on one project without releasing it, but most of the MMORPGs I've seen are released with tons and tons of buggy code.
3) Realistic worlds. Can we please cut down that tree with an axe, or set fire to a village, or smash that city wall? Can players then be set on fire when in a burning building? Can they be strangled to death? I think we're heading more and more toward VR but no one has yet managed to make a leap to it.
4) Boring leveling. Why is every game so hardcore on what level you are at? Why can't games be skill-based? You play a game long enough and you become skilled, in the same way you play a fighting game long enough and you can beat the button-smashers. Currently there is nothing like that, the 'skill' involves playing for months on end and killing boring creatures.
5) Player-built material. When will it finally move away from big companies supplying these, and go into open source type of framework like neverwinter nights? Maybe never, unless you want to allow anyone to release a console gaming title. And for that matter, why can't anyone release a console gaming title? Why do they have to pay Nintendo and Sony rediculous licensing fees? I have no answer to this, but it seems worlds would be much more interesting if you built a skeleton and allowed people to build on it. Playing a MMORPG game is like an amusement park ride. You ride it a few times, you enjoy it some, eventually it loses interest. Games that allow for player creativity do more for players. Games that allow for object building will the new norm, if you ask me. The more a person can do with a world, the more immersion, the longer the person will stay.
I hope the market becomes hyper-competitive where weak projects are snuffed out with little notice and warning.
Maybe then, the genre could actually have some quality control. Anyone remember the last MMO release that didn't require excessive patching?
It's not just a event-play issue. These games just aren't DONE. I cannot think of a single release that came out feature-complete, let alone balanced and finished.
MMO developers and marketers need to learn to finish their projects and deliver what they promise. I can think of no greater justice then having them prey upon each other for customers/development fees.
OK, so we have one huge "games" zone that everyone jacks into the One True Metaverse to get to. Now we have the same problem: I set up my own part of this zone where people can, for example, take part in a game based loosely on the RPG "Paranoia" (or any other such game). How do I attract enough people to my part of the zone so that you always meet lots of people there?
As you can see from this example, you haven't solved the problem, you've merely renamed it. The capitalism part comes in because there is a natural scarcity: of players who want to play MMOs. If you don't try to compete to gain your share of this market, or if there is a glut on the market, your "zone of the Metaverse" will be deserted.
The MMOG (RPG is sometimes a misnomer) will not reach saturation until there is a game that:
... large enough user base to get kickstarted AND it has portability outside of the online domain in the form of D&D (not a requirement, but awfully nice). I look forward to Warhammer online but it has far less mass appeal. The ideas behind Anarchy Online (I don't feel an MMOG has to be a tolkien-esque fantasy) were quite nice but the game engine itself had too many problems. There? No. Star Wars isn't my particular cup of tea genre-wise and while I could get over that it still seems to be the same basic "kill the MOB" type that AO became.
a) is not too expensive to preclude play by people who are cash poor (over $10 is too much to pay for alot of folks).
b) has enough programmed intelligence to allow suspension of disbelief during gameplay (that includes graphics, UI, "AI", lack of serious bugs, etc)
c) does not require one to play for dozens of hours per week or even a couple of hours every day just to "keep up" to have a level of enjoyment
d) converse of c) does not easily allow the game to become boring if you -do- play a large number of hours
e) runs on more than just Windows
So far, each of the above (with the possible exception of "B") has been reached, but no more than 2 in any one game that I've played. I have been trying MMOGs since the early days and have played 5 of them commercially (ie, I was paying for it).
So far I have a couple of old MUDs that I still play on occasion, but no MMOGs are currently installed anywhere in our house. Not because I wouldn't like to have one to play, but because so far there isn't one.
Neverwinter Nights as an MMORPG (the way it started out) would have been possible
When a -good- MMO game does come, it won't matter if the market for -bad- MMO games is saturated, it will grow. It may be parasitic growth from the base of other MMO games, but that doesn't mean it won't be a good investment for the right company. Capitalist theory rules this beast.
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
Oversaturated is an exaggerated term. Right now you have a few big ones, world of warcraft coming up. Apart from that there's not much really. 10-15 years ago there were also hundreds of muds, but not nearly as many people as now with internet connectivity (basically only students then).
What is definitely missing are some good free 3D MMORPG's. The only one I know that's good and fun is Runescape, the rest seem to be abandoned projects or stuff that doesn't go anywhere.
Neverwinter nights is just about the only game that allows you to host your own RPG server.
But not because MMO's have hit their peak. It's that all of the MMO's are the same. As another poster pointed out, they all have the same classes. But on top of that, they pretty much all have the same rules. No, or very limited PKing. Horrid point and click combat systems which don't appeal to the mainstream gamer. I think MMO's will really take off when they are blended correctly with fps games. Picture a MMO where combat is like Quake or Unreal but you can gain experence and new items/powers/gold from killing people/NPC's ala a RPG. Sure your level 60 character might be able to kill that level 1 guy, unless level 1 guy happens to be thresh.
Most of the MMO's now cater to the care bears, have too many rules, are overly complex, have poor combat systems,and are a time sink. Once this stuff goes, MMO's will really go mainstream.
MMO makers need to get off their high horse of "Creating Virtual Worlds" and focus on the fact that they are creating games. The thing to remember when making games is "Easy to play/learn, difficult to master". The current MMO's are "Difficult to learn, easy to master" (as long as you are willing to spend the time)
1) Games are diverse. While people want application software all to look and work alike, they want all games to look and work different. A cookie-cutter game won't sell.
2) Game designers know it is a huge mistake to try to put too many different things in a game. You should not burden a racing game with puzzles, role playing aspects, RTS elements and first-person shooter stuff. Different types of games work for different people, and if you try to be everything at once you'll please no-one.
3) The required support would be devastating for any company.
Now, you might find some middleware for graphics and even for basic gaming functions, but not a toolbox that requires the game designer to just have a good idea. Any game worth anything will require a dedicated team of good technicians to build it.
Lessons learned from all the past attempts to create the ultimate program design tool/language. Remember Visual Basic? ADA? Clipper?
I've basically played all of the main ones until FFXI.
:)
UO, EQ, AC1, AO, DAoC, EnB, EVE, AC2, SWG, FFXI, even Project Entropia and Endless Ages.. and some other misc ones nobody ever heard of.
Problem is, 9 out of every 10 MMOs are pretty much version 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, etc of EQ. It's like AOL here, they all try to emulate EQ because from a business standpoint it was a successful model.
That's where the investors go wrong in their thinking. In most other industries you can emulate something and make a good profit off of it because it is proven. The only time you can do that in THIS industry is if you are selling a NAME (SWG, FFXI folks?), or if you have a hell of a marketing director.
If you really want to hook people into this, you have to go about it in a way that makes them feel like they're transitioning from playing their normal sp/mp games to something where they still feel that magic that the sp/mp games give, but have that epic touch with hundreds if not thousands of people playing at the same time.
Once broadband completely replaces 56k, we'll hopefully start seeing MMO "twitch" games that play like your standard Counterstrike-esque game, low pings, high twitch. Planetside type stuff, only really feeling like the 16 person mp games of old, with thousands of people.
Turn them into the new "club", where people decide to login instead of wasting 50 dollars a friday night getting trashed. Centralize the genre into 'hubs' where you login to a central service and navigate to which game(world) you want to play that day, be it medieval/shooter/racer/sports/strategy/hybrid, whatever. Have a central avatar that you navigate to these portals that can also be used just to socialize instead of playing those games as well. Games within games.
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