Get a behind-the-scenes look at the new expansion pack to the classic game.
Jeff Hollis is back with another opinion piece looking at failed launches of MMOs. We've asked him to go into marketing, but he's not interested. This is a taster of his popular weekly feature:
"It's not like players aren't looking for something new. If anything, the initial launch figures of several games indicate that players are, in fact, sniffing around for a new MMO. For example, both Conan and Warhammer sold over a million copies of their game early on, only to have their subscription numbers dwindle later. It's rather widely believed that LOTRO, Warhammer, and EVE all boast similar subscription figures, at around 300,000. Of course, hard information on all this is very challenging to come by."
wow is no fun to bash, since it's too well armored with billions of dollars. feels no pain...
Hehe, there that international group that does sales figures should do subscription figures :)
WoW is an aberration, and analysing why it's done quite as well as it has, I think, comes down to the fact that it was a polished game that hit at just the right time and has kept pushing and pushing.
Very good point in the mid-game content, though. Online, there's a lot of people vocal about the endgame, but that tends to be the hardcore minority. The beginning content is obviously important as it's what pulls players in and keeps them there, but yes, the mid-game is hugely important. Weird how I can still think of areas in WoW that I hated so much I've never, ever done again, but that there were always others for me to do. I'd not really thought of the mid-game as being that important before.
Jeff Hollis is back, and this time he's looking at the reasons Sci-Fi MMOs fail.
"Hello there, my fellow avatar jockeys, and welcome to this week's futuristic edition of MMO Weekly. In this week's epic installment, we'll take a hard look at some of the more intriguing sci-fi MMOs of the past few years. We'll also examine why they failed, and why sci-fi MMOs generally fare quite poorly.
"Fare quite poorly" doesn't accurately describe the state of things though, does it? Perhaps a bit more accurate would be the phrase "die a horrid death." If you're a lover of sci-fi, and you find yourself endlessly hoping for a juicy sci-fi MMO to sink your teeth into, you know exactly what I mean. Sci-fi MMOs just don't do very well - and usually go under- especially compared to traditional fantasy MMOs."
Hellgate is one of my favourite games, really..
Well, it WOULD have been, if it had WORKED and not FLOPPED :(
Edit: Also, she is hot, and yes, that is an official pic.
She really is quite hot. I couldn't not slap her on, she can be slapped on anything as far as I'm concerned
In part one of this two part series, Jeff Hollis discusses how to bring the long, slow and painful death to an MMO. Using the most popular MMO available at the moment, Hollis draws comparisons to other, previously more successful, MMOs.
"Yeah, that's right, you heard me. WoW is in the act of committing suicide, and Blizzard don't even know it. Now, before you get all huffy and angry with me (save that for later, you Blizzlovers, you), allow me to give you a bit of background. And when I say background, I mean way, waaaaay back, to the games that inspired WoW in the first place, and to where these games went wrong."
Lol, I love Jeff Hollis.
Retrospects about WoW makes me fly on the wings of nostalgia btw :P
Raids are and were a dreadful idea. They reward work rather than fun; they're annoying and pretty much the opposite of enjoyment. While I have no problem with them being in there, I think it's a terrible idea to reward players who do them with better equipment. A challenge is one thing, but the challenge should be something that almost everyone can *attempt*.
You don't seem to have realised that raids are a challenge almost everyone can attempt.
Besides, as far as I can remember, games always reward work as well as fun and in a lot of cases, the work is part of the fun.
Yes but Aions might over shadow the growth, especially with the way the game is catching light.
WoW is destined to lose subscribers. But I agree with the author’s point. I have been on four to five raids in my MMO gaming career, which started on day one of UO. I played EQ and DAOC and yes they did lack game content that the casual player group could finish at end game.
