MMOGs Only For the Hardcore?

Gamepro has an editorial up asking the question are Massive Games only for the hardcore? From the article: "Part of it has to do with the conventional pricing model. With a game demanding $15 a month, you can't afford to just casually log in a few hours on the weekend without feeling jipped. So the casual gamer's MMO has to be a game entertaining enough to pull people away from their usual games (let's face it, most MMOs are boring), and rewarding enough in a 1-2 hour timeframe so it doesn't require you to neglect your daily routines."

On the face of it, yes

[Dancin_Santa]

But consider how deeply some lives of normal non-geeks have been affected by MMOGs like Everquest. The difference between MMOGs and a monthly pass at your local video arcade is that the MMOG provides for a level of social interaction that simply isn't present in normal games.

The communication aspect of the game is built directly into the game, so for many people who are not typical gamers are able to enjoy the MMOG whereas they would be turned off by something like Pac-man. So it isn't that MMOGs need hardcore players to survive. Rather it is the style of the game itself that leads players to become "hardcore players" that are online all the time.

This may have been true..

[Meph_the_Balrog]

of early ORPG's, but everyone I hear harping about WoW and Eq2 and how they get XP boosts if they don't log in for a few days, tell me that they easily catch up to their guildmates who game almost constantly. With this solution to the problem of leveling gaps, the game becomes much more social, as friends can game together more regularly.

Casual and hardcore cannot be mixed...

[agent oranje]

The problem with MMOGs is that casual players cannot compete with those who dedicate a significant portion of every day to playing. Someone who plays for a couple of hours on a boring Sunday afternoon is fresh meat for seasoned veterans of a game - and there's really no way to change this other than limiting how much people can play. I'm not entirely opposed to that, either.

Re:Casual and hardcore cannot be mixed...

[JVert]

Limiting daily gameplay per character would definatly force everyone to be a casual player. Maybe this is a new server idea vs the player vs player and role playing and carebear servers. You would just add a "not in school anymore" server.
I like this... You still never get to play with the hardcore gamers, but you would have alot more casual gamers to group with and be able to make friends with and all level together.

Guild Wars.

[McKinney83]

(note I did not RTFA):
"With a game demanding $15 a month, you can't afford to just casually log in a few hours on the weekend without feeling jipped."

Guild Wars has the one time cost of $50, and there's no monthly fee.
And about the whole leveling up and everything, in Player vs Player in Guild Wars, it's all skill based, so having a higher level doesn't really help that much.

Re:Guild Wars.

[SnoopJeDi]

As much as I know about GW (I haven't played PvP yet, but I know somebody who does), level does come into play, but it's not hard to get to level 20.

I played on his account for a little while using a fresh character, and I had a ball. I could log on for an hour or two and actually get something done. No screwing around for half an hour to get buffed, get prepared to go out into combat, get a group, etc.

It's nice, but it's not my cup o' tea.

Re:site slow

[mogalpha]

Well, in China (and most likely other parts of Asia) they price MMOG's by the hour (I know WoW is, and I'm fairly sure Lineage II is as well). If companies like Blizzard can adapt to the economics of other countries, they can, and should adapt themselves here in the US to tap into the market of (softcore) gamers who are currently undecided on whether or not to join a MMOG. It doesn't even involve coming up with any new pricing models; all they have to do is have pay-by-the-hour plans at reasonable US dollar prices.

Re:oh no! Not a dollar an hour!

[Mike570]

I saw this one game called Dragonrealms that is entirely text based and you'll never believe how much they charge. The last time I checked, their rates were around $40 for a premium account (basically gives you a text based house and a few extra characters) and around $15 for a standard account (just one character). So considering that there's actually graphics in these games, $15 hardly seems unreasonable.

Re:This may have been true..

[d3kk]

The XP boost is pretty minimal - at least in WoW. Staying logged out for two days will net you the same amount of bonus exp as playing for an hour or so. It's hardly a balanced trade-off (and rightfully so).

How about this (casual vs hardcore)

[The Great Alonzo]

Okay we've all identified the problems that exist in MMOs with hardcore gamers vs more casual, sunday afternoon type players.
All MMOs will discriminate in favour of the hardcore gamer, so what about keeping them apart ?
Most MMOs use multiple servers, this is usually for geographic or language reasons, they may then deploy multiple servers within each region in a sort of load balancing solution.
Why not move the player's characters around so that they wind up on a server where folks tend to play as much (or as little) as they do.
Obviously the players should be aware of this before they sign up.
And note I said characters not players, we've all got some "alts" we only wheel out on odd occasions.
Everyone starts off on an entry level server, if a character is played more than, say 6 hours a week, he is graduated to the next server, more than 10 hours a week, onto a more senior server.
Obviously players should be informed their character is about to move and be informed ahead of time (game time not real time) and possibly be given the option to lock their character to a particular server, though I can that last bit could be open to abuse.
The oldtimers wouldn't be mixing with the n00bs for very long before moving on and likewise the n00bs wouldn't get pwned as much.
That's it, thoughts ?

Close but no cigar

[MMaestro]

The XP boost you gain in WoW (I haven't played Eq2 so I'm commenting on WoW only) is minor at most. The XP boost you gain only affects the XP you gain from killing monsters and at higher levels you quest for XP rather than kill. After a while, killing for XP just isn't worth it, quests either give too little rewards (read: low level quest), or are too hard to be done solo.

Throw in high level raids (which implies teamwork), instanced dungeons (normally done with multiple people) and a weak economic system (crafting has almost no risk involved and costs little) and the game just feels like it tried to achieve too much all at once. At lower levels, everyone solos and theres nearly no reason to team up with others for any reason. At higher levels, everyone teams up and soloing is near impossible. Top off the fact that most players end up reaching the 'end game' content with very little cooperation with other players and you have players that simply do not know how to play their job well at all.

Attn MMOG product developers

[eyeball]

Many of us at the top end of the age bracket for gamers (mid-30s) have few blocks of uninterrupted time to invest in larger quests and campaigns. We're lucky to get a few solid hours on a saturday evening. Even at 2 hours/weekend it's still a bargain when compared to other entertainment, it still seems like a rip-off if the user can't use the game outside of those blocks. MMOG products can address this a number of ways:

- Create longer puzzling or strategic challenges that can require thought, planning, and possibly even group discussion outside the game. (In other words, a guild could chat on IM during the day and plan out how to infiltrate an enemy compound.)

- In addition to the current adventures, make shorter ones.

- Alternative non-play interfaces into the virtual world, such as access to the chat channels, virtual in-game web-cams, real time stats, mail, auctions, etc. The trick would be to do it without the usual 3d game client, using standard desktop technologies like DHTML, Java, RSS feeds, Flash, etc. Anything that allows the user to be a part of the world without a huge time and client investment, so they can be connected at work or in the short gaps between 'real-life' tasks at home.

- Make more real-world resources accessible and standard within the game client. Provide an IM client to major protocols (AIM, ICQ, Y!, etc). Obviously nobody wants windows popping up when they're battling a 60th level tit-mouse, but careful GUI engineering can provide unobtrusive notifications and even auto-responders. Same for other real-world resources, like email clients. Point being, for those of us that do get a few hours to play, keep us there.

- Hire me. :)

Re:The problem is in what people are looking for..

[weave]

I'm up to level 38 (as a hunter, which is a good solo class) without ever going into dungeon or doing an elite quest. Now I admit eventually I'll have to, but I just haven't had the time to devote several hours to a dungeon with a bunch of people and then cut out before it's done.

(There's also the small fact that for some reason no one wants to party with a hunter, despite the fact that if it's played well, it's a great puller and can prevent wipes).

Also, WoW's rested state helps give a boost to people who don't play as often. Hard core guys have to fight twice as many mobs basically.

Re:The problem is in what people are looking for..

[Anonymous Coward]

Like you said hunter's are a great soloing class and are excellent pullers but if so many casual players are hunters they perhaps haven't bonded with others like other classes and that is most likely why they don't get invited into dungeons as much. I think I group 95% of the time with people I've known for more than a couple weeks at least.

Later on in the game you have instances where hunters are a must (Molten Core) but very few are dependable in terms of hours they can spend in front of the computer.

Re:The problem is in what people are looking for..

[JavaLord]

Put simply, it's nearly impossible to create a game where you can advance as quickily by soloing as by grouping. In World of Warcraft, you can almost do this for the first 1/3 of your levels. Almost. Eventually it becomes impossible

I solo'ed 1 - 60 in world of warcraft. The only time I group was for instance runs (which I did 3 of pre-level 60). It is possible to go from 1-60 in WoW without grouping.

Of course, this means soloing, but then if I wanted to solo, why would I play a MMORPG?

To PvP. The sad reason is that there just aren't that many good RPG-esque games out there. I'd love to play a single-player version of WoW, particularly with an added over-arching quest.

I like solo'ing and PvPing in WoW, my only problem is the forced socialization in the end game. If you want to do endgame dungeons you have to make friends with the social misfits that are in the big guilds. It's not enjoyable.

I think World of Warcraft has done so well because levels 1-30 are easly accessable to the casual player. You can log in, play 2 hours and level or get some new gear. After level 40, that totally wears off and it becomes a grind/questfest like every other mmorpg. I found WoW to be very enjoyable for the first few weeks I was playing, but after a while I decided that I was putting too much time in for too little reward. I cancelled my account two days ago. Yey, back to real life. My only regret is not leveling a rogue high enough to pvp, as they seem like the best class for ganking.

Hardcore, or easily amused?

[mattgreen]

Frankly, I'm too easily bored by the rote style of play that MMORPGs tout. You practically need a second computer so you don't become bored.