Actually, most players are NOT complaining.
I have been involved in the gaming community/communities for several years. I have become very familiar with many developers, have become friends with some, and have been able to travel and write for many good people. I am telling you, if there is one hobby/part-time job that will allow you access to it’s inner-workings, it’s playing MMORPG’s. Needless to say, after these years I have a pretty good feel as to what the community, spread throughout hundreds of games, does and feels. I am not claiming to be anything but a good estimator, but I pull from quite a few sources. And let me tell you, game to game to game, the community acts in pretty general ways.
Here are some myths that, if judging only by certain game sites/forums/blogs, spell out doom for the MMO industry. First of all, let me say that a good general rule (one that most community managers know about) is the 1 in 10/ 10 percent rule. That rule says that only about 10 percent of your population visits forums, writes about your game, or gets involved with the community. You will find variations on this rule, but it’s usually about the same everywhere. A site like mmorpg.com represents that 10 percent, spread throughout many games.
1) A game has failed once it has reached a certain number of players: No, it hasn’t. A game has failed when it cannot be played. As long as a server is open, that game is doing more than thousands of games that never got to the point of release. Also, if the game had a several year run and then got down to 10k players, consider the entire history of the game or you are only looking at a small part of the picture.
2) MMORPG’s are less innovative than the games of the past: Actually, they are more innovative than ever. If you do not think so, you are only familiar with a few or several larger games. Saying this would be like judging a genre of music based solely on it’s most popular artists. I would like to say that Hip Hop, for example, does not innovate. But that would be stupid, considering all the garage-practicing Indie Hip Hop bands that will be the next generation or are busy playing live.
3) MMORPG’s are less fun now-a-days: This usually comes from some blogger or podcaster that…get this..does not play those older games anymore and instead plays games that are out now. It might sound cool to call yourself a “vet” (despite MMO’s short, short, short history) and to think of the original EQ as the best game ever, but I for one do not want to go back to one hour loading times and bug ridden horror-fests.
4) Loot didn’t matter back then, and communities were closer: If you think that a player that spent 2 DAYS raiding after a nice sword was freer with his love and his gold than a player that was able to get his in several hours in a less buggy game, then you either very naive, very naive or very naive. Just because we had to sometimes rely on other players for buffs or transportation does not mean that every time you went up to a player providing a service he or she went: “Hi there! I hope all is well, would you like an absolutely free teleport?” The transaction DID go that way many times, but nice things happen these days as well, I assure you.
5) RMT/Cash Shops/Micro-Transactions have ruined MMORPG’s: No, they haven’t. It didn’t happen in EQ2, WoW, EVE, LotRO, or any other game (almost every single one of them) that has had some form of “You give me money, I’ll give you something extra.” Players that say that games have been ruined were fine with RMT when they bought an extra account (RMT) extra character slots (RMT) XP Potions (Cash Shoppery) Server Transfers (RMT) Hairstyle/Name changes (RMT) or that shiny limited edition box-set that gave you (you know what’s next) special items in exchange for your real life money.
Here is the truth:
Most players are playing. Most players are not writing blogs, posting on forums or hosting podcasts.
Game are more innovative, trying new things and adding more functionality all the time.
There are more games that run on cheaper systems and need lower system specs then there were in the past.
There are more choices as to how to pay, and for how long, than there ever were.
Connections are faster, and computers (even cheap ones) are faster. This has made for better looking games that can be downloaded within hours, if not minutes.
Communities are larger, so the proportion of bad-talk is larger. Also, you have a more-varied playerbase that didn’t grow up on PC’s like we did, and are still discovering forums, blogs and podcasts.
In other words, the land of MMORPG’s IS all sunshine and rainbows. Things are freaking WONDERFUL. I think well all get burned out once in a while, and we all get a little angry (well, some VERY angry) once in a while. Most of us are very passionate and intelligent people. Nerds are wonderfully tolerant of others, and come in all shapes and sizes. But one glance at how much money MMOs made last year will tell you that we are all pretty happy in this community. So next time you are visiting some popular forum or gaming site, and it seems like every post is a complaint or whine, remember that while those players are writing their complaints, most are simply having fun in a game.
Now, I need to go log in. This writing stuff is taking me away from my game!
Beau
“In other words, the land of MMORPG’s IS all sunshine and rainbows”
Maybe in your world. Been in Vanguard lately? Age of Conan? Warhammer…
Champions even
But, hey…delusional is cool.
Now, about that innovation in Aion…what is it again?
Yeh, I have been in all those games, lately. lol Maybe you should try a different hobby?
Or, at least try some games that are out of your comfort zone.
Beau
You’re right, its annoying how the minority won’t shut up. In general the majority of people aren’t trolls on the forums, they aren’t big complainers, they just like to play. But that 10% minority sure do get way too much attention. Oh wait, I write a blog, I guess I’m included in that, but I’m not that big of complainer (unless you ask my wife).
IMHO, RMT killed Lineage 2.
Everquest IS the best game ever. It’s still the best MMO now and while I’m not playing it at the moment, I played it for several months during the last year, after the most recent expansion, which was ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. I will certainly be playing it again in the future, and my characters there are going to be with me until I die, even if they switch the servers off before that happens.
That aside, I think you are tilting at windmills (again!). Firstly, people just like to complain. It’s fun. It’s a hobby in itself.
Secondly, I don’t believe for one second that there are more complaints in the MMO space nowadays than there were three, five, eight years ago. Remember how the SOE forums became so utterly toxic that they were completely shut down and then only reintroduced a good while later, with extremely heavy moderation? That must have been, what, 7 years ago?
If I cast my mind back to the pre-WoW days, it seems to me that most of the complaints you hear now you heard then. You also had a whole raft of complaints about the things that have since been “fixed”, many of which are now the fixes that need fixing, according to some.
The rule, as I remember it, used to be 100 – 10 – 1. Everyone plays, ten percent read about playing, one percent post about playing. For that 1%, this IS the game. For the 10% its a spectator sport that they obviously enjoy watching, and for the 90% who just play, what the 1% says simply doesn’t exist.
Of course, most people actually making games are in the 1% or the 10%…
Well, SOE talked about their 10 percent that post, er closer to 8 percent, and some other (I believe it was The Historian?) talked about the 10/1 thing. I have heard a few other numbers, too, hovering around those ranges. Point being , the majority is not involved.
You should have seen us gripe on GEnie in the Gemstone forums about lag and population problems and bad player behavior and broken functionality. That was, what, 20 years ago.
Complaining, in my experience, is a universal constant. It is our tuning into it (or tuning it out) that is the variable.
But as you point out, most people never bother. They either play the game and are in their own happy world, or they decide they aren’t having fun and they move on without a word.
Hah. Gaming forums are a joke. People that complain about innovation and less fun now-a-days have been playing the same style of game for years. These people expect a new game to feel like the first time they played a mmo. Even my dog doesn’t enjoy a tennis ball like he once did. A new style of tennis ball won’t change things.
It is easy to talk about the bad. I love reading comments about people leaving a game they played for years. Always goes like this, “I played nameofgame for number+ years, it sucks.” or it had so much potential. It’s a freaking game not a relationship. If you enjoyed it for months or even years it was a successful game.