World of Warcraft

[Morgoth]

Like I'd care for free community content. Lame lamer MMOs. But yes, it's teh future.

[metadigital]

So you don't think that the NwN community content is worth anything, then?

WoW has become its own separate little universe. Like here, folks know each other in WoW as someone distinct from their real life personas. It's like the person playing WoW is somehow different from the person on this message board who is also different from the person walking through life. Now, my attitudes, and my opinions, are largely the same in both places, but I'm sure there's some difference. I'm sure that some folks prefer the anonymity that MMORPGs grant them. I can't imagine not sharing something of myself with regular guildies.

Nothing unusual about that: people behave differently depending on the role they are currently fulfilling, be it parent, teacher, student, worker, boss, etc. It's called the power of the situation in psychology.

[Calax]

if one were to give complete content control to every player you'd have them all walking around with the same stuff because they'd just spawn a bunny that dropped what they wanted (at least some of them would) while others would manipulate the mobs so that newbies would come up against a block of guys who could murder them, their mother, their grandmother, and Cant's evil twin in one fell swoop.

 

Role players would build up armies of mobs to attack the main cities then when the mobs won the players would beef up the mobs in the city and proclaim that nobody could enter the city because it had fallen to the evil forces... then the geeks who planed all this would cyber in the 'throne room' of each place.

[Cantousent]

Apart from the scary cyber image, Calax was right on when he said, "...you'd have the devs working overtime to find things that they could change only to have the same group on each server change it asap." The regulars would be all over every new experience. Even if the developers could afford to create mass amounts of real-time content (and to make it decent real time content would require resources money couldn't buy), then they'd still have regulars snatching up almost all the good stuff right away.

 

CoH/V is great, but I don't want to go overboard with custom content in an open MMORPG setting. At least with NWN/2, the end user can control what content they use right away. In an MMORPG, the content is out there in the world, even if it has limited use. Then I'm suddenly seeing hordes of vorpal bunnies dropping fangs of the Jabberwocky.

[metadigital]

Um, I think you are interpreting the whole "user content" stuff completely wrongly. And going overboard with that baby and her bathwater, too.

 

User content is just a side quest. And, just as there is a restriction for levels, so too there would be some limiting factor for people to become a "local DM", and even penalties for abuse of power, if an arbitration decided such (if you want to go overboard with that baby).

 

But seriously, just as some people enjoy being PCs, so too some enjoy being a DM. I think you are being completely over-the-top in your analysis, after all, I can equally come up with hysterical examples of players who hack servers and such like ... and I would hold them up as equivalent examples to yours.

 

Seriously, it's nothing more than a guild. The guildmaster gets to set a quest, and some sort of notional reward, whether that be a story or a non-transferable item, or even a custom tatoo. Problem solved.

[Cantousent]

I guess I can't see anything wrong with that. I agree that I was completely confused on the issue. ...But I also think that should not surprise you. :D

[Aram]

WoW is balls.

 

That is all.

[Morgoth]

WoW is balls.

 

That is all.

I don't even think it has balls.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

15$ x 9 000 000 players = 135 000 000 (135 million) dollars a month.

135 000 000$ x 12 months = 1 620 000 000 (1.62 billion) dollars a year.

Think about it. Does anyone else feel WoW players are being screwed?

Edited June 1, 2007 by WILL THE ALMIGHTY

[Morgoth]

Thanks to these huge incomings, we only have (had) to wait ~10 years for Starcraft 2. I love you Blizzard!

[Cantousent]

15$ x 9 000 000 players = 135 000 000 (135 million) dollars a month.

135 000 000$ x 12 months = 1 620 000 000 (1.62 billion) dollars a year.

Think about it. Does anyone else feel WoW players are being screwed?

 

 

Not really. If I had to pay but didn't play it, I might. On the other hand, I play it regularly with my wife, and we have a payment plan that costs less.

 

If you want to rail about something, how about this? I've bought considerably fewer games since I switched over to WoW. I'm not getting screwed, but other gaming companies aren't getting my money. So, the people who really get screwed, other than other dev houses, are the folks who hate wow and would like more games that get less money for development cause folks like me are shelling out the cash for WoW.

 

...But me? I'm perfectly happy. 15 bucks a month (actually less, but why split hairs?) for one game or 50 bucks a month for a game each month.

[Hurlshort]

I'm a bit surprised it took this long for the WoW flamers to come out of the work. Blizzard is a company trying to make money. They released a very successful product, whether it interests you or not. They have a pricing plan that is no different than most other MMO's on the market, they just sell more.

 

Most MMO's companies do not make a ton of money due to monthly fees. They have a very large overhead and incur monthly costs that non-MMO developers don't need to worry about. Many MMO companies have gone under, some even before releasing the product, some even while managing tens of thousands of subscribers. You need about 100,000 subscribers to be profitable, but of course that has a lot of variables.

 

So I really don't get the whole bashing of a succesful PC gaming franchise. It's one of the few things keeping PC gaming going, so I consider it a blessing.

[LadyCrimson]

I'd agree w/Cant's analysis about pay-to-play - particularly in terms of the cost to the player.

 

But there's only so many players, even if it does number in the billions, and most aren't likely to become monetarily dedicated to more than a 1-3 at a time. So I do wonder if, in order for the concept to become truly common, vs. a few "giants", if the price isn't going to have to come down. By that I mean, how many never-ending pay-to-play MMORPG's can the market really support?

 

I haven't kept up with GuildWars news - how is their method of paying (theoretically more frequent expansions instead of per-month) working out, anyone know?

[metadigital]

But revenue equals pr0ff1tts!!1!11eleven!

[Hurlshort]

I'd agree w/Cant's analysis about pay-to-play - particularly in terms of the cost to the player.

 

But there's only so many players, even if it does number in the billions, and most aren't likely to become monetarily dedicated to more than a 1-3 at a time. So I do wonder if, in order for the concept to become truly common, vs. a few "giants", if the price isn't going to have to come down. By that I mean, how many never-ending pay-to-play MMORPG's can the market really support?

 

I haven't kept up with GuildWars news - how is their method of paying (theoretically more frequent expansions instead of per-month) working out, anyone know?

 

GW is successful, but the whole game is designed very differently. It doesn't require the same servers that an mmo does, because it is all small instances. It also isn't that much cheaper when you pay $50 every 6-months for a GW expansion, which was the original goal of the developers (although they haven't kept that release date timetable.)

[LadyCrimson]

I remember that breakdown of GW cost before - which is why I asked - and it did assume they'd keep up with those expansions. They were banking on the fact players psychologically might be more willing to buy a tangilble in-my-hands product (expansion) vs. the idea of a constant monthly add to their credit cards, or whatever. So was curious if that actually seemed to be so.

[Calax]

I think that LOTR online actually has the right idea, they had several payment plans with the most expensive (clocking in at I think close to 200) being that once you buy the game and pay that particular price, you get a lifetime membership to the game. until the servers shut down your account will still be active.

 

Great for consumers but horrible if the game is like wow for the devs (because a large portion of your fanbase would put the money together and buy the lifetime rather than pay incrementally more)

[Aram]

WoW is balls.

 

That is all.

I don't even think it has balls.

 

Being balls and having balls are two different things.

[Cantousent]

I've thought about trying LotRO. Since I started my dreadful commute, I just don't get a chance to play very much. I wish more folks played TOMBS. I can catch a few minutes of that without breaking my workflow.