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MMOGs Branch Out
Via Kotaku, a Wall Street Journal article looking at ways the Massively Multiplayer genre are opening up to new players. Besides new game genres, the article discusses changes in revenue collection schemes. From the article: "The industry's traditional business model is to charge about $50 for the game software and a monthly subscription fee of about $15 for online play. That model has proved risky: When a game is highly popular, the monthly fees yield steady revenue streams for many years. Some of the industry's earliest hits, such as EverQuest, released in 1999, still have many users. But monthly fees have been "a significant barrier" to growing the market, said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, based in San Diego."
But I bought it a couple of weeks ago and have played it for maybe 20 hours so far. It seems pretty good but for the last few days I've been struck down with a horrible illness that's left me with little energy to do anything except sit and wait to get better, including...playing games.
There's the beauty of the Guild Wars model for me, when I played WoW I'd be annoyed if I couldn't play for an extended period of time (my trip to the USA for the whole of June last year, for example) since I'd be paying for that time even though I wasn't actually getting anything out of it. With GW I don't have that annoyance and don't feel I should be playing more than I feel like just to make sure I get a "good deal" on a monthly subscription charge.
I would consider a game, were it truly fun to play, that was free to download but has a monthly fee, though. The big problem with no monthly fee is that there's not as much incentive to play. That's why I have guildmates that haven't logged in in a month.
I don't see these expenses as connected- wether I play an MMOG or not, I'm still going to have cable, a phone (although I don't know why anyone needs a land and a cel these days), and cable. An MMO is an additional means of entertainment. And fairly cheap at that- about the cost of a movie for a month of play time. If the game is fun, its worth it. Do you not go to the movies/rent movies/read books/go to a bar/see a concert/etc because you have those fees already too?
I find the alternate ways of paying to be worrying. Those selling in game money or enhancements for cash- I'm worried that I'm going to have to spend large amounts of money on gear to continue to play. No thanks, I went through that with Magic once. I want to know how much I'll be shelling out up front. In game ads? I refuse to ever buy ANYTHING thats ad supported, I find ads annoying, insulting, and just plain rude. I don't watch TV, buy magazines, or listen to radio anymore because of them (in fact, I subscribe to satelite radio to avoid them). I'm quite happy to pay for my entertainment, just don't force ads down my throat.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
I'm currently hooked on Dark Age of Camelot. One of the things I absolutely hate about it is that each new expansion pack has introduced obscenely overpowered races, classes, and items, presumably to entice everyone to rush out and buy it. In the process, classic races and classes have been rendered obsolete, and whole zones of the game world have been left empty and forgotten. Not only is this a source of frustration for players who don't feel like starting a new character, but from a business standpoint, it seems like a terribly inefficient way to develop a game. They've basically thrown out all the time and energy they invested into designing those old zones and classes. And in their rush to market, the quality control on the expansions is terrible. Trials of Atlantis was released, what, two and a half years ago? They've come out with two major expansions since then, Catacombs and Darkness Rising, yet the ToA encounters are still riddled with bugs, and they're still grudgingly undoing the horrible game balance issues introduced by ToA.
Oh sure, there will always be people who say they won't pay a subscription on top of the box fee. Some of the more insane even bring up their internet connection fee. This is a bit like people who object to having to pay for gas after they bought a car. Even when they pay roadtax!!! The outrage!
WoW has proven that whatever anyone thought about the MMO industry was wrong. The market had not been saturated. There was no objection against paying a monthly fee. People were not tired of fantasy worlds with orcs and elves.
People just wanted a game that was fun to play without to many game crippling bugs. No matter how rough WoW has been it was nothing compared to games like EQ and UO wich were at launch so bad it begged believe.
The subscription fee however is indeed a barrier. Against kiddies seeking to grief. While it doesn't stop them the costs involved keep games like WoW and EQ/SWG cleaner then say a guildwars. As to the few totally free games. Well, browse slashdot at -1 for an instant impression.
There will be different ways of "selling" an MMO but I think the old and tried box+monthy subscription model is far from death. In fact WoW should have revived it a lot. Wich company could possibly resists years of receiving hundreds of millions of revenue. Most game companies drool at the thought of making that during the launch of a game and Blizzard is doing it month after month after month.
SOE failed, Blizzard succeeded. Now it will be intresting to see if anyone else can copy WoW's success or wether it was something unique.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
2-3 hours at a movie = $15.
If you spend more than 3 hours having fun in a MMORPG, it's well worth the $15/month.
I don't get why people are adverse to such a small monthly fee.
Guild Wars is NOT an MMOG. Or, rather, if you call GW a MMOG, then all games that consist of a lobby area and instanced versions of the game are also MMOG: Counterstrike, Unreal Tournament, etc. There's a big difference between playing with a group of people in an instance and with a large number of players in a large zone.
Guild Wars is an evolution of Diablo 2 and it is a fun game, but it isn't a MMOG comparable to WoW, Everquest, etc. In fact, Battlefield 2 is more of a MMOG than Guild Wars, I'd argue.
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
EverQuest is still chugging along seven years after launch, still making money, still releasing expansions and enhancing the game. In what universe could you ever call SOE and by extension, EQ a failure. It's been an unqualified success.
In six more years, then you can compare WoW and EQ.
I play WoW. I sit in long queues every night. I get random disconnects. Farmers own places I would like to solo (they even try to sell people stuff in BGs). Some things are severely broken. The endgame is deathly dull and repetitive.
It's hardly the end-all, be-all of games.
I agree with you, though... the subscription model still seems like a wild success. But wouldn't it be even nicer if one subscription let you play any of a dozen games? And by that I mean real games, not a big game and ten you would never ever play.
Sort of like the cable service. 500 games. One fee.