This is a case of people interpreting the term "Friend" as used on Facebook too literally. I have hundreds of "friends" on Facebook. I don't have hundreds of real friends. What I have is hundreds of people whom I have met, perhaps quite briefly, through work, socialization, hobbies and happenstance.
Forgive any other typos as well, ubiquitous edit features elsewhere have resulted in my normally proofreading a post a couple times in the minutes after.
"In my opinion, this is way too early to give up on any MMORPG title since these kinds of games usually take a bit to get going, WoW didn't start off as the juggernaut it is today either."
Sure WoW has been building for a long time, but its launch was so strong that their biggest issue was underestimating how quickly they'd have to expand their server base. There were tremendous complaints about the lag early on as servers were absolutely swamped.
If you don't have a strong opening, it's going to take something remarkable to build the base required to justify the expense of a major MMO. From what I've seen major commercial MMOs that have weak releases rarely reverse that condition. Most simply limp along. A weak release can be the kiss of death for several reasons, including low player density driving off the few players you do have, and lack of a sufficient mass of customers to generate positive buzz and drive long term growth.
Basically, you don't throw good money after bad.
"After the SOE buyout of the game the LESIG team was reduced to playing minor characters before eventually being phased out and replaced with a Live Event Team (LET) comprised purely of volunteers."
When your game isn't bringing in enough money to justify a paid team of in-game actors, of course there are going to be cuts. This is a business. How much sooner would doors have had to close if the budget had not been scaled back? Of course this costs customers, but it very much seems that there were already not enough customers to justify this level of cost. It's no secret that most MMOs already have incredibly lead customer service departments. This is, I epxect, basically like employing a second CS department.
"You could never be an equal to a storyline character."
The interesting thing about MMO pricing is how well your profits scale as you add players. While some additional expenses are incurred with each new player development costs largely remain the same at 100k players and 10,000k players. This means that a company like Blizzard can invest enormous resources into ongoing development compared to a company like Turbine, and still be making vastly more money on a per subscription basis.
This makes it difficult to determine a fair rate, since a game like WoW is basically printing money while a smaller company may be scraping by on the same monthly fee. Further, as a customer the companies profit isn't really a concern, so the company pulling in 50 times the money but spending only 5 times what the smaller company does on continuing development is still likely to be a better proposition.
It is interesting that you mention raiding in WoW, because Blizzard has come to the same conclusion you have in that their raids were not reaching enough of their audience. Wrath of the Lich King has shown a different philosophy from Blizzard in raid design, where they have tried to make raiding more accessible to players by offering raid options for smaller groups, lowering the difficulty of standard raid encounters and making the gear onramp easier. The end game is still clearly focused on raid rather than small group instances, but raids are being run by a greater percentage of the players than in the past. I do however have friends who have canceled recently because they are not presently able to devote the amount of contiguous time required for raiding. I personally have stopped playing for the time being simply because I am weary of having my evenings scheduled for raiding week after week.
I always see incredibly negative feedback to micro transactions in subscription games. While forum polls are obviously very biased by the vocal minority, they tend to also have an overwhelmingly negative response to questions about integrating micro payments into subscription MMOs. My impression is that a non-trivial percent of MMO players will not subscribe to a game that also integrates micro payments in a substantial way. Perhaps marketing research has shown that the revenue from micro payments will more than offset the cost of lost subscriptions, but I personally consider it to be a bold gamble. There's a certain value proposition in the MMO market, and if you're saying your game is worth both a subscription fee and micro payments you're really going to have to deliver something that other companies aren't.
Even in WoW, where the micro transactions are hidden behind the card game there is often a general sentiment of contempt for those players who show off their card game items. Ride your Goblin Rocket around and while some players will ooh and aah others will be laughing at you.
The comparison to Rock Band, or to paid character transfers are entirely ridiculous when talking about access to items and content in an MMO.
The only time such reckoning really matters is in PVP, and most PVP players who know what they're doing jitter about like caffeine addled monkeys. Either the latency is low enough to get an accurate postion, or it's not and my largely random hammering of WASD as I try to move in and out of you viewing (casting, swing, etc.) arc isn't going to provide that much predictive information.
"If you work for a defense contractor, for example, Lockheed Martin, they will make you sign an agreement that you will not work for Boeing, Northrop, Raytheon, etc for a 3 year period."
No, they don't. Engineers make that hop all the time. You can't disclose proprietary information.
Offhand mousing isn't hard. I used to mouse left when my right hand was injured. The on;y thing I had any trouble with was first person shooters, and even that wasn't too bad.
Still, I'd prefer devices were either hand-neutral of released for both hands, since I can reduce stress on my hands by swapping.
I attended a presentation by a company trying to do something like this in Pittsburgh a few years back when I was hunting for a job. I'm pretty sure that company died soon after, but I can't recall their name...
They were working on a mathematical system to model dropping cloth over a surface, so online stores could let people try clothes on 3d models with their dimensions. I thought it was an interesting idea, but decided that I didn't want to interview with them as I expected they wouldn't make it. I was just hoping the cloth modeling they developed would end up making it to video game development;)
I want to buy the latest A Perfect Circle album, but I can't buy it new and act in a way I find morally acceptable. I refuse to give any financial support to the RIAA, so unless I find it used I won't be getting it.
"Let's screw the platform that made the Myst franchise what it is today!"
Or, more likely, let's not waste money on developing for a platform that represents almost no market share until we get an idea of how the game will sell from the much larger PC market and determine if the cost is justified.
Slashdot Mirror
I am shocked, SHOCKED to discover that one machine can do what another does.
Music doesn't come from the "soul" because THERE. IS. NO. SUCH. THING. You aren't driven by magical faeries or a mystical man in the sky.
We are all just biological machines.
This is a case of people interpreting the term "Friend" as used on Facebook too literally. I have hundreds of "friends" on Facebook. I don't have hundreds of real friends. What I have is hundreds of people whom I have met, perhaps quite briefly, through work, socialization, hobbies and happenstance.
"Essentially, I think I would have felt like playing someone playing an MMO. And playing it myself is already pathetic enough for my tastes."
God bless The Onion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw8gE3lnpLQ
err, "incredibly lean"
Forgive any other typos as well, ubiquitous edit features elsewhere have resulted in my normally proofreading a post a couple times in the minutes after.
"In my opinion, this is way too early to give up on any MMORPG title since these kinds of games usually take a bit to get going, WoW didn't start off as the juggernaut it is today either."
Sure WoW has been building for a long time, but its launch was so strong that their biggest issue was underestimating how quickly they'd have to expand their server base. There were tremendous complaints about the lag early on as servers were absolutely swamped.
If you don't have a strong opening, it's going to take something remarkable to build the base required to justify the expense of a major MMO. From what I've seen major commercial MMOs that have weak releases rarely reverse that condition. Most simply limp along. A weak release can be the kiss of death for several reasons, including low player density driving off the few players you do have, and lack of a sufficient mass of customers to generate positive buzz and drive long term growth.
Basically, you don't throw good money after bad.
"After the SOE buyout of the game the LESIG team was reduced to playing minor characters before eventually being phased out and replaced with a Live Event Team (LET) comprised purely of volunteers."
When your game isn't bringing in enough money to justify a paid team of in-game actors, of course there are going to be cuts. This is a business. How much sooner would doors have had to close if the budget had not been scaled back? Of course this costs customers, but it very much seems that there were already not enough customers to justify this level of cost. It's no secret that most MMOs already have incredibly lead customer service departments. This is, I epxect, basically like employing a second CS department.
"You could never be an equal to a storyline character."
Welcome to MMOs.
The interesting thing about MMO pricing is how well your profits scale as you add players. While some additional expenses are incurred with each new player development costs largely remain the same at 100k players and 10,000k players. This means that a company like Blizzard can invest enormous resources into ongoing development compared to a company like Turbine, and still be making vastly more money on a per subscription basis.
This makes it difficult to determine a fair rate, since a game like WoW is basically printing money while a smaller company may be scraping by on the same monthly fee. Further, as a customer the companies profit isn't really a concern, so the company pulling in 50 times the money but spending only 5 times what the smaller company does on continuing development is still likely to be a better proposition.
It is interesting that you mention raiding in WoW, because Blizzard has come to the same conclusion you have in that their raids were not reaching enough of their audience. Wrath of the Lich King has shown a different philosophy from Blizzard in raid design, where they have tried to make raiding more accessible to players by offering raid options for smaller groups, lowering the difficulty of standard raid encounters and making the gear onramp easier. The end game is still clearly focused on raid rather than small group instances, but raids are being run by a greater percentage of the players than in the past. I do however have friends who have canceled recently because they are not presently able to devote the amount of contiguous time required for raiding. I personally have stopped playing for the time being simply because I am weary of having my evenings scheduled for raiding week after week.
Oh, wait, Bill Roper...now I see. I guess the backlash to Hellgate's ridiculous payment model didn't burn him deeply enough.
I always see incredibly negative feedback to micro transactions in subscription games. While forum polls are obviously very biased by the vocal minority, they tend to also have an overwhelmingly negative response to questions about integrating micro payments into subscription MMOs. My impression is that a non-trivial percent of MMO players will not subscribe to a game that also integrates micro payments in a substantial way. Perhaps marketing research has shown that the revenue from micro payments will more than offset the cost of lost subscriptions, but I personally consider it to be a bold gamble. There's a certain value proposition in the MMO market, and if you're saying your game is worth both a subscription fee and micro payments you're really going to have to deliver something that other companies aren't.
Even in WoW, where the micro transactions are hidden behind the card game there is often a general sentiment of contempt for those players who show off their card game items. Ride your Goblin Rocket around and while some players will ooh and aah others will be laughing at you.
The comparison to Rock Band, or to paid character transfers are entirely ridiculous when talking about access to items and content in an MMO.
Reciprocate? What, because we, the invaders, say it's time to stop?
We invaded their country. Be glad they can't genuinely "reciprocate."
"They were shooting at us. We shot back"
Yeah, it's funny how people shoot at you when you violently occupy their nation. You'd think they'd be all hugs and kisses.
"Honestly, Sheepdot really sucks these days. To paraphrase Death, "you're all so fucking pompous... and none of you have got any balls."
Is that why you're posting anonymously?
The only time such reckoning really matters is in PVP, and most PVP players who know what they're doing jitter about like caffeine addled monkeys. Either the latency is low enough to get an accurate postion, or it's not and my largely random hammering of WASD as I try to move in and out of you viewing (casting, swing, etc.) arc isn't going to provide that much predictive information.
Other people aren't responsible for your idiocy.
24 year olds have the money that counts, disposable income.
"If you work for a defense contractor, for example, Lockheed Martin, they will make you sign an agreement that you will not work for Boeing, Northrop, Raytheon, etc for a 3 year period."
No, they don't. Engineers make that hop all the time. You can't disclose proprietary information.
Offhand mousing isn't hard. I used to mouse left when my right hand was injured. The on;y thing I had any trouble with was first person shooters, and even that wasn't too bad.
Still, I'd prefer devices were either hand-neutral of released for both hands, since I can reduce stress on my hands by swapping.
I attended a presentation by a company trying to do something like this in Pittsburgh a few years back when I was hunting for a job. I'm pretty sure that company died soon after, but I can't recall their name...
;)
They were working on a mathematical system to model dropping cloth over a surface, so online stores could let people try clothes on 3d models with their dimensions. I thought it was an interesting idea, but decided that I didn't want to interview with them as I expected they wouldn't make it. I was just hoping the cloth modeling they developed would end up making it to video game development
I want to buy the latest A Perfect Circle album, but I can't buy it new and act in a way I find morally acceptable. I refuse to give any financial support to the RIAA, so unless I find it used I won't be getting it.
"Let's screw the platform that made the Myst franchise what it is today!"
Or, more likely, let's not waste money on developing for a platform that represents almost no market share until we get an idea of how the game will sell from the much larger PC market and determine if the cost is justified.
Shocking, how business is about money...
Then cancel you cable. You'll be better off.
And someone used modpoints to rate this offtopic...I am supremely impressed. I hope I'll be seeing you in metamoderation.
Once again I submit that case mods should have their own category.
For the love of god, please make casemods their own category so I can choose to never see Slashdot articles about them again...
for my next philosophical mindf*ck...
"What I liked most about the original was the way it blended stunning action with a subtle philosphical theme about how we percieve reality."
Yeah, I was rocked to my very foundation by a theme that people should have already pondered by the time they were about 12...
It was a great action movie. That people would be impressed by its "philosophical theme" is a depressing thought.
New fabs aren't free...
Average is not a precise term. It usually refers to the mean, but it can also be used to refer to the median.