A Look At the Growth of MMOs In 2008 122
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."
Re:With all the failing MMOs on this chart (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Funny to see (Score:1, Informative)
A better translation would be:
Ultima Online. (Score:4, Informative)
Hey, it's still hanging in there! Don't forget the granddaddy of MMOs!
Re:Did they count.. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:With all the failing MMOs on this chart (Score:3, Informative)
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 for "easy prey" monsters, making them worth soloing for the squishier jobs that couldn't handle even the "decent challenge" monsters. And, as someone else has mentioned, they just added Fields of Valor, which gives you extra XP for killing a certain number monsters from a list (one set per hour), most of which can be done solo, and being 5+ levels above the "recommended" range doesn't nerf the bonus XP.
Also, while it may be difficult for many jobs to solo many monsters without perfect gear and weapon/magic skills capped from a previously leveled job, duos and trios work very well for many jobs. Duo blue mage can really kick some ass.
And then, of course, there's the whole point of why you apparently could never find people to party up with from a linkshell. Though admittedly this was much harder before Level Sync, it would still have been easier to find a duo or trio in a linkshell. There's more to leveling up than forming a party of 6 and going to the same overcamped areas that everyone else does. And there's also crafting, which is very solo. I have as much fun playing the economic game as anything else.
Thanks to the campaign battles and Besieged (both of which favor white mages at levels much lower than every else), I've been mostly soloing white mage as my first job, up to 61 so far. Experience points for healing FTW. I turn down the random party invites I get with my LFG flag off because guerilla healing in campaign battles is much more fun than sitting in the back row in trying to keep people alive, while trying to not attract the monster's attention by healing too much, lest it come back and smack me down. And WotG areas are much nicer looking than the infinte mud and shrubbery of ToAU areas.
Re:With all the failing MMOs on this chart (Score:3, Informative)
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 working together could duo their way up with little difficulty. Granted, a full party CAN be more efficient gaining XP, but I've actually had better xp gain in some duos and trios.
And there are jobs designed to solo as well. I'm not just talking about Beastmaster. You were actually on one of the jobs (Dragoon) that could solo pretty much from the beginning. Slap on a mage sub and go fight piercing-weak creatures like birds and crabs. I took Dragoon to 75, mostly solo, in a couple of months of casual leveling. With status bolts, Thief can level pretty easily to 75 solo. Red Mage and Black mage, also, by picking the right targets and using the nuke/sleep/bind method of killing. And these days, any melee job can solo indefinitely with a Dancer subjob.
In addition, SE has made solo play much easier, especially in the last year. XP rings, lowered XP requirements, boost to XP given by weaker enemies, Signet/Sigil XP bonuses given to parties of less than 6 players, and things like Campaign and the new Fields of Valor. I wouldn't say that FFXI is as solo-friendly as WoW, but these days, it sure isn't hard.
Now, most quests and missions, especially final missions, require a group. Nothing wrong with that. Those are epic fights.
Re:With all the failing MMOs on this chart (Score:2, Informative)
Anyway, I havnet played in a month, work schedule and a new Wii may have something to do with it.