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A Look At the Growth of MMOs In 2008
Posted by
Soulskill
on Wed Dec 31, 2008 05:37 AM
from the world-of-evertabconanhammer-online dept.
from the world-of-evertabconanhammer-online dept.
Zonk writes with news of a collaboration between Massively and GamerDNA to analyze the state of MMO player bases for 2008. Sifting through the data brought out several interesting trends. For example, Age of Conan took a substantial hit when Warhammer arrived on the scene, but none of the other major MMOs were significantly affected. Also, it seems Lord of the Rings: Online got a big shot in the arm from its Mines of Moria expansion — even moreso than World of Warcraft from Wrath of the Lich King, relatively speaking. The article also asserts the following about the recently-canceled Tabula Rasa: "... until the cancellation announcement in November, numbers were trending in the right direction, however slightly. Players were growing more interested in the sci fi MMO shooter, and logins were on the rise. If its development had not been so long, so expensive, and so vastly overhyped and mismarketed, this title could have been left alone to find its legs and found some small measure of success in a long tail environment akin to the Sony Station Pass."
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<em>Tabula Rasa</em> To Shut Down 244 comments
NCSoft announced today that it will be closing down Tabula Rasa on February 28th. The sci-fi shooter-flavored MMO struggled for quite some time, despite recent attempts to draw in new players by announcements of new features, price reductions, and using Richard Garriott's trip into space as a promotion. We discussed Garriott's departure from NCSoft a couple weeks ago. This is NCSoft's second failed MMO, and apparently layoffs are in the works. They seem to be making an effort to make the game's last few months as fun as they can for their remaining players, though. "Before we end the service, we'll make Tabula Rasa servers free to play starting on January 10, 2009. We can assure you that through the next couple of months we'll be doing some really fun things in Tabula Rasa, and we plan to make staying on a little longer worth your while."
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Funny to see (Score:4, Interesting)
I think its quite amusing to see exactly how bad AoC failed. Just wish I could say I wasn't one of the people who fell for the hype and bought it on release.
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I think that the MMORPG are nothing more qu' a epic waste of time. I to avoid them like the plague l' assassination of the children who they are
How can they be wasting your time if you avoid them?
PVP focus (Score:2)
AOC has absolutely the most fun combat mechanic of any MMO I've played. It was an interesting experiment in social gaming to have free for all PVP, as well. The problem AOC had was it didn't have a good mechanic for leveling up besides PVE, and PVE was completely ignored by the dev team after around lvl 60. There were no instances and no quests for me to do at lvl 64, so I quit the game. The instances they had pre-60 were pretty awful anyway, so I didn't hold much hope. They did so many things right (P
With all the failing MMOs on this chart (Score:2)
Re:With all the failing MMOs on this chart (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, but how many of those are chinese farmers trying to sell in-game money to the 4 americans that play?
Parent
Re:With all the failing MMOs on this chart (Score:5, Funny)
Because just like in the game, it takes too long to travel from the article to the statistics.
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Re:With all the failing MMOs on this chart (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly, I'll give FFXI kudos for staying alive all this time, but personally I found that requiring players to party in groups of 6 to level up was a bad idea. When you can log in, and want to be leveling dragoon, then sit at the zone entrance with your looking for party tag up for 30-60 minutes before you get a message for a party invite, then travel out to the party only to have it disband after 1 kill. Yeah that's pretty dumb.
FFXI major flaw, in my humble opinion, was the inability to do anything on your own if you wanted to. There is no progressing your character if you can't find a group.
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How many expansions and updates ago did you stop playing?
First of all, there are the constant campaign battles from WotG (and the infrequent Besieged battles from ToAU) which work rather like a "group solo" kind of play, though mostly intended for level 60+. Then there was the introduction of Level Sync back in September, which meant that you weren't endlessly LFG just because nobody wanted your level range (FFXI needs a tight level range in a party to get decent XP). At the same time, they increased XP fo
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I quit during Treasures. The problem with grouping with your LS is that your LS had to want to level jobs around your level. When you're stuck at lv30 something and your LS is all trying to get lv60 ish leveling done, you're kind of SoL.
The thing is, adding new features to make it easier isn't likely going to attract old players back, it's going to make new players easier to integrate in and match up to the old players that still play.
Actually, the most intriguing leveling feature I've seen so far has been
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First of all, that was never true. The game never required you to level in a group of 6. It's just that the player base wasn't willing to try anything else, because they always insisted on fighting critters 5-10 levels higher than they were.
While I agree that, for most jobs, soloing to 75 was a task not worth contemplating (especially a few years ago) that doesn't mean that you needed six people to gain decent XP. Really, any damage dealer job + a healer job wor
Unrepresentative sample (Score:5, Insightful)
The sample of players used for this article (only GamerDNA members with profiles) is so skewed that the second biggest MMO of all (Runescape) doesn't feature in the article at all.
This is probably an excellent article if you are interested in what GamerDNA members are up to, but it's not very relevant outside that.
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mmogchart.com seems to get some figures from the companies directly (and others from anonymous sources inside the companies). Unfortunately for the purposes of this discussion it doesn't seem to have been updated for months.
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The author acctually says that the increase in WOW''s share is probally not due to rising useage rather increase in GamerDNA registrations. He also said that GW has a higher than average users with GamerDNA.
it's a she actually, the article is posted by Michael Zenke but it says at the top "Written by the highly talented Sanya Weathers", which perhaps ought to merit a mention that she worked at EA/Mythic for 6 years [linkedin.com]
Tabula Rasa failed ... but why? (Score:5, Insightful)
TR was a very interesting experiment. It offered a completely different and new gameplay (in terms of MMOs), it offered a kinda-sorta-FPS experience which created, at least in my opinion, a much better immersion experience than the various other MMOs. It had a good storyline that offered the player a little more freedom in his choices than the average MMO out there when it comes to quests. The quests themselves were usually a touch more interesting than the usual "kill X of Y" treadmill. It had a lot of new and exciting features that appealed to some people, so the question why it failed regardless should be asked.
Is it that people don't want any other gameplay than the usuall point-n-click style the usual MMOs offer? Now, I doubt that. I did a few interviews with people who played (some of which quitted), and usually the interface was either the feature that kept them playing for as long as they did, or at least they thought it was interesting. It never was the reason why people quitted.
It was the usual, people. It was the same reason why all the other failed MMO projects sunk.
1. Being barely beta quality. Frequent crashes, buggy quests, buggy skills, buggy everything. Until well into mid-2008, the game was barely playable.
2. Broken balance. Actually a subset of the first reason, but you can see long time successful MMOs fail when balance goes out the window. And for the longest time, balance was a huge problem for TR. Some classes could solo base attacks (something that should be "hard" in this game, akind to boss battles in normal MMOs), some classes could barely do equal level quests. Some classes would get fantastic rich without trying, some could barely afford their standard ammo. And so on.
3. Quick leveling and no endgame content. This straw actually broke the camel's back. It's trivially fast to get to top level in TR. An experienced player needs less than two weeks of more or less dedicated playing (faster even when he can start from a clone, a feature of the game that allows you to start at mid level under certain circumstances). And there isn't anything to be done when you're 50. No item harvesting, no boss runs, no nothing. You can just shelf your top level character and start over.
In my opinion, and from what I gather I'm not alone with this feeling, TR failed not because it dared to be different. If anything, this difference allowed the game to stay alive for as long as it did. The slow but steady increase in subscribers (until the announcement of its demise) showed that people did come back when the devs started to iron out the problems and add "stuff to do" for the top level players.
It's sad to see this game go. It's one of those things where you know it could've been great if they just hadn't committed the cardinal sins of MMO design.
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Oh, I almost forgot another cardinal sin of TR: No sensible grouping. For the longest time, it was virtually impossible to heal sensibly because of targeting issues. Now it's "better", meaning that you're almost as successful when you heal as you are when you just continue firing and hope the mob dies first. Grouping mostly means that you split XP, not that you're actually able to get too many synergies. Which, in turn, is mostly also due to people being too used to playing solo simply because there is no c
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Well, that's an interesting list, because it makes a kind of intuitive sense, but doesn't seem to actually pan out when you compare it to games that are successful. For example, when WoW was released, it was horrendously guilty of both #2 (as of 1 year ago when I quit it still wasn't balanced, but it was really bad in the beginning) and #3 (all of the big raids were added after release). Then again, it had so much polish that it avoided #1 and perhaps made up for it on that front.
On the other hand, RuneSc
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WoW didn't commit any of the cardinal sins, actually. Or rather, they managed to hide them much better than most MMOs.
I was in WoW beta and thus got a pretty good look at the steps between the "OMFG, does it sometimes NOT crash within the first hour of play" and release. First of all, unlike for some games, those two things were NOT synonymous anymore at WoWs release.
WoW was actually pretty "ready" at release. Some skills were lacking, balance was so-so, but the two most important things worked at a satisfa
Ultima Online. (Score:4, Informative)
Hey, it's still hanging in there! Don't forget the granddaddy of MMOs!
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You young whippersnappers crack me up.
http://meridian59.neardeathstudios.com/ [neardeathstudios.com]
That's the great-grand-daddy of (graphical) MMO games, still up and running after 15 years.
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OK, 12 years. My bad.
Did they count.. (Score:3, Insightful)
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Have you tried City of Heroes/Villains?
The amount of customization they throw at you for your character (character model not included in this) is staggering.
For example, with just 10 character classes (5 heroes, 5 villains), there's 1150 different possible Lv1 characters. Halve that number for the possible number of primary/secondary power set combinations. You'd need a mathematician to figure out how many unique characters can be made with their system once you factor in ancillary powers and the lv40 power
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...like crap (under OS X). CCP should be lauded for having a 'native' client (albeit under WINE), but the last 6 months under both Empreayn Age and Quantum Rising have horrible graphics bugs.
Oh, and the current "quit game" works, but "log out" doesn't.
Still a great game with different aspects than WoW and similar ilk.
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I know I should be thankful that it works under the OS at all, but a
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While we are still waiting for the first decent iPhone MMPORG, which will quickly dominate the world, I suggest giving Runescape a go.
While it's traditionally been thought of as a kids browser game with shoddy graphics, it's starting to grow up a lot, especially the high level content - there are jokes in 1 recent quest that you wouldn't get unless you know Brecht's Threepenny Opera for example.
It runs in any Java equipped browser, and the recent addition of a full-screen mode with graphics accelleration me
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Also, all numbers are from 'actual' measurement, not estimates of what the larger population is doing. You can potentially make assumptions about what the larger population is doing, but there is little/no error in the
Maybe it's because of DRM full me-too games (Score:4, Insightful)
I think part of the reason why MMORPGs continue to increase in popularity in the PC gaming space is that latest crop of non MMO games is composed mostly of "me-too" titles (games based on previously successful games) and ultra-extreme-DRM filled games (which often won't run because of the DRM or even make your PC unstable because the install buggy drivers).
Personally in the last year I went back to MMORPGs (in the past I used to play EVE-Online and WoW) with LOTRO because I felt that most newer PC games were too simple, too much alike games I had played to death already and/or too risky to install (due to their rootkit-like DRM and the instability problems that often come with it).
Successful MMORPGs like LOTRO and WoW have a huge value for money to gamers because their content is enormous (they're huge virtual worlds) they support multiple playing forms (PvP, solo PvE, cooperative PvE) and they keep getting expanded: to keep people playing and paying their monthly fees, games with a PvE side must continuously expand with new areas/items.
About LOTRO:
Before Mines of Moria, LOTRO was indeed getting a bit stale and the number of players online at any time was dwindling. This was visible both in PvE and PvP.
Immediately when MoM came out the number of players online increased a lot (doubled or tripled). At the moment most people are more or less done with exploring the new areas and are starting to do mostly group instances to acquire the necessary kit to go do the single new Raid area that came with MoM (most LOTRO players are casual players, hence the number of power-players that went trough all the new content in 2 or 3 weeks is very low).
To keep momentum going more content will have to start being released in the next month or two (Turbine, the makers of the game, usually release free expansions - "books" - about once every 2 months). As pointed above, the continued success of a MMORPG depends a lot on keeping a steady stream of new content coming out to keep players playing (and paying).
WaW (Score:2)
I know its not really an MMO, but sometimes I think of it as a Mini-MMO (MMMO or MO?)
Anyway Call of Duty 4 and Call of Duty World at War both have great online play. Its a FPS but as you get kills you gain XP and you level up an unlock perks and new weapons.
Also its cool because you don't have to have a huge time investment at any given time. You can sign in, kill stuff, get some XP and be on your merry way.
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Anyway Call of Duty 4 and Call of Duty World at War both have great online play. Its a FPS but as you get kills you gain XP and you level up an unlock perks and new weapons.
Except for that fact that (with CoD4 at least) your rank is stored client side so you can just go and manually make yourself rank 50 or whatever the max was (I haven't played it in ages).
Still Waiting for a MMORGY (Score:4, Funny)
Re:MMOs are Hobbies and a great value. (Score:4, Funny)
TODO: insert masturbation joke here
Parent
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Yep. Photography. And since the camera I'm using was a gift, there wasn't even an initial cost. Oh, and sometimes I even make a little practicing my hobby.
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Except that's the whole purpose (Score:5, Insightful)
Newsflash, buddy: the whole purpose of gaming is to waste some time in a pleasant way. Same as virtually any other hobby.
Yes, I know, people like to pretend that _their_ hobby is some great building skills... which they are only going to use the next time they do that hobby. Whether it's mountaineering, or going camping, or going out in the woods with a compass, or whatever, guess what? You're only going to use those skills at all the next time you go mountaineering, or camping, or going out in the woods with a compass. Chance to actually ever actually need to find your way in a city with a compass and/or by seeing which side of the tree has moss... zero. Actual RL value gotten out of it... zero. They too are just killing time in a more pleasant way than staring at the walls.
Or to quote Publilius Syrus: "Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it."
The whole "if your time has no value" only applies if you were, indeed, planning to sell it. Otherwise, without a purchaser actually paying for it, it has no value whatsoever. I.e., it applies if you were otherwise going to take a second job and get paid. (Self-employed crafting does count, but, again, if you were actually going to produce stuff you sell in that time.)
The same applies to installing Linux, OSS, and god knows where else that retarded meme pops up: only if you were going to otherwise get paid for doing something else in that time.
Were you? No? Then get a brain and find something more productive to do than repeating memes. It's only intelligence if you came up with it, not if you're the 1234567'th guy who parrots it verbatim.
Parent
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Interesting perspective.
Here's a list of the hobbies I tend to engage in: exercising; gardening (mostly foodstuffs); cooking; writing software; making music; watching movies; reading; and the occasional video game - usually vocabulary-based ones, except for the Wii Fit or Wii Sports game at a friend's house. I would argue that most, if not all, of these hobbies provide something of value - health benefits, cost savings, building useful skills, broadening or informing one's perspective. Sitting around on you
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and who is to say MMO players DONT do this as well?
I garden (well ok its a aerogarden being a apartment and all lol) go to the gym 4 times a week for 1+hours depending on the routine that day model, read, cook, clean my apartment, AND play FFXI about 2-3 hours a night. I hang out with friends, I go to work, have a wonderful wife who also games, and in general have no problems with things. So this idea that MMO players ONLY play MMOs needs to die. I am sure there are people like tha but in general all of t
Except you still don't have a dollar value there (Score:5, Interesting)
1. I think the keywords there, are "if not all." Unless you can tell me that _all_ your hobbies are chosen purely for utility value, then you too have some time simply "whittled away". Same as an MMO player, as falcon5768 was pointing out.
But, more importantly:
2. You still don't have a dollar value there, to make that silly "if your time is worth nothing" meme work in a topic about a $15 a month MMO subscription. Sure, you broadened your horizons, but what is the dollar value of that? Exactly how many more dollars will you be paid for those horizons, to make the comparison to MMO subscription costs?
Ok, you've learned some skills in walking in wilderness or in doing silly tricks with a Wii. How much will you be paid for those skills? Dollar value, please.
Cost savings? Exactly which of your hobbies save costs? Even the health ones, actually, according to recent health insurance data, it's the healthy, lean, non-smokers which cost the most money in treatments during their life time. Just because they live more and end up for 20 years on lots of expensive medicine at the end, while the obese smokers died earlier and cheaper. So in the long run, the dollar worth of that time is actually a negative one.
_That_ is the problem I have: that meme trying to shove some supposed "value of your time" in a discussion about _money_, _costs_, that kind of thing.
I could swallow other arguments about that time, like your health benefits above, but "if your time is worth nothing" is simply the awfully stupid thing there. Unless your whole day, from waking up to crashing back in bed, 7 days a week, 366 days a year, is spent doing _only_ paid stuff -- or heck, let's even include stuff which is arguably useful in some vague way, like in your argument above -- you too have some time which you whittled away, and its value was exactly zero. You too have time worth nothing.
3. If you still want to argue that, do you pick those pastimes to maximize utility per minute? Do you pick exactly which novel will broaden your horizons the most? Do you make an analysis of the benefits of 1 hour with the Wii vs 1 hour at the gym?
Because, if not, you too have more wasted time indirectly. If you need 6 hours with a Wii to get the same equivalent workout as 2 hours at the gym, then you effectively wasted 4 hours in achieving the same result. Same as buying a $20k car for $60k is a waste of $40k. You can do the same maths with time to achieve something, if your time is that valuable. So, really, if your time is worth that much as to judge other people's hobbies by it, why _do_ you waste it like that?
Or maybe, just maybe, we're coming back to the fact that the real purpose was to have fun, and the utility value is secondary at best.
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"Are they the best of hobbies that have great value in the end?"
Out of curiosity, what are the best of hobbies that have great value in the end?
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Out of curiosity, what are the best of hobbies that have great value in the end?
Making ass pennies [youtube.com].
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... led you to become a complete recluse from the "real" world has forced you to seek help because you can't finish school/hold a job/maintain a healthy family life.
whenever I get any thoughts like that, I just shoot up some heroin and I'm OK again.
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4 years into WoW - I'm playing around 12 hours per week right now, my social life is better than it's ever been, I got a promotion at work less than 6 months ago, and my credit score has improved quite a bit (up to 740 now). The reclusive gamer whose life was destroyed by an MMO is a tired stereotype that happens for more often in the mind of some self righteous complainers than it does in reality.
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I don't have that problem. I play for a while, then get bored because you have to run everywhere unless you are level 40 or higher. Stupid arbitrary rule.
I also get tired of quests where you have to 387 critters just to get the 10 drops you need to complete the quest.
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Facton imbalance is a cosntant problem when wide open PvP is supposed to be the goal. It happens in every game. If they don't do something to force the populations to be balanced, you will find some server where the game is totally broken over it.
They really should instance stuff so they can enforce population limits on the fights. You might have to wait in line to get in, but that beats a 200 vs 35 battle.
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Disclaimer:I work for GamerDNA.