I Know What’s Best for You!
Tobold from Tobold’s MMORPG Blog writes:
“There has been some discussion lately in the MMO blogosphere whether game developers should listen more to the proposals from players and bloggers on how to improve their games. Hey, I get 3,000 readers a day, I’m obviously qualified to improve a game with 9 million subscribers and annual revenues of over $1 billion. NOT. Everyone is an armchair game designer, but it is only easy because our ideas never get realized and thus don’t have to prove they actually work. If you poll people about their intelligence, a majority of people will claim to have above average intelligence, and only very few people will say they have below average intelligence. As obviously only half of a population can have above average intelligence, with the other half being below, this just shows that people have a tendancy to overestimate their abilities. Most of us, me included, couldn’t even design Vanguard, and certainly not World of Warcraft…”
In most instances, the people who design these mmorpgs don’t have the *hands on experience* from years of wasting time playing a multitude of games from different developers. This knowledge and experience is invaluable to a development team. The development community tends to listen to the crowd that complains the loudest on their forums (nerf-calling) instead of finding a group of individuals that *don’t* have a personal agenda to meet and only want the game to be the best it can be.
We can separate the mmo gamer into three categories:
Hardcore - I live my life in an mmo. I strive to be the best player ever, have the best loot in game, the highest level, etc. The average person will never see the things that I want to be added to a game because they simply don’t have the time to achieve them. We usually ignore the reality that MMORPGs are designed to make money first.
Casual - I have a busy life that doesn’t allow me to play twelve hours a day. In some cases, I get upset when the minority has an “unfair” advantage because they play more than I do. I may not have enough time to set up huge groups of players to achieve a goal.
Experienced - In most cases I’ve had the opportunity to be a hardcore gamer and a casual gamer. I have years of experience observing what works and what doesn’t work. I’m mature enough to realize stockholders need to be happy as well as the players.
Let’s be honest here, most of the ideas and game mechanics in World of Warcraft are not new and revolutionary. World of Warcraft is successful for several reasons:
- Blizzard is an outstanding company that knows what it takes to handle a community of millions from experience with Diablo, Starcraft, etc.
- Warcraft franchise - Starting with a good franchise will always give an advantage over the competition. You don’t need to spend as much time creating an environment and back story since it is already there. Replace Warcraft with Starcraft and you still have a hit
- Great Marketing - When was the last time you have seen a commercial for other mmorpgs? WoW has millions of subscribers and you still see commercials with Mr. T…
- Find a need, fill a need - World of Warcraft appeals to the casual gamer.
- Don’t reinvent the wheel - Take what has worked in the past from other games and add a Warcraft twist. Save the creativity for expansions.
Ignoring the playerbase is a great approach to product development. SOE has proven it’s effectiveness with Star Wars Galaxies. <–sarcasm for those who aren’t familiar with the SWG disaster.
Once the developers can assemble a group of *experienced* players, the mmo world will change for the better. Then again, Blizzard may consider a 12 month subscription from a player a victory. 12 * 15 = 180 * 1million - 180 million a year…sounds like a victory until you realize it costs more to obtain a new customer than to retain a repeating customer.