Casual Games Quickly Transforming the MMO Market 238
An anonymous reader writes "Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick disclosed that their forthcoming, unnamed MMOG will have 'a little more broad appeal' than its market-leading MMO World of Warcraft. This is adding to speculation that the game might be free to play, since such games now take more in digital revenue than any other genre. In his GDC Austin keynote today, Sony Online Entertainment president Jon Smedley said, 'As a company, we knew we had to evolve ... to expand [our] audience ... and to get a much wider female audience.' The article notes that SOE hasn't abandoned hardcore MMOs, but his talk focused on Free Realms, SOE's free-to-play MMO that has grown to 5 million users in 5 months. Marketed to kids, 51% of Free Realms gamers are under 13, with around 75% under 18, who pose a challenge to attract and retain. Since they only play for about 20 minutes per session and aren't focused on the mechanics of the game, SOE can get away with changes that are unfair to some players, as shown by a recent, oddly-handled item nerf in Free Realms."
Re:WoW was ruined (Score:2, Informative)
The only thing I can compare this to is the Marine Corps. I was punched, kicked, tackled, thrown, slammed on a table repeatedly, forced to drink water until everyone in the platoon puked, etc... not to mention the mental abuse. I've never been punched in the face until I joined the Marine Corps. BTW, I joined in 2002 (I don't care if you believe or not, that shit still happens).
It would upset me if someone is handed that Eagle, Globe, and Anchor for doing anything less.
It is a much more... less PC... way of thinking. It has more to do with pride, and "I had to go through this bullshit in order to acquire whatever, so you should have to do the same.... blah blah blah."
I'm not saying that you are wrong, I'm just trying to point out a possible explanation to why people might get upset when someone who does far less work achieves something much easier than the work that they put into it. I'm sure many people could relate to this in many different situations. (I don't play WoW btw).
Re:Casual players vs. unmanaged development (Score:2, Informative)
In most "free" MMOs, the process is roughly similar: release something, screw something up, patch it and screw people over. I'll list an example from Goonzu (they call it Luminary sometimes). There was a glitch where if you claimed a hunting ground for your guild, your guild would gain roughly 30-40 levels. So, some guilds went from level 30-70 overnight. They patched it swiftly but did nothing to undo the guild level ups. So there was a huge gap between the 20 or so guilds that did it, and the hundreds that couldn't. And that's just one example: glitches, bugs, hacks, cheats...just spend about a week on any MMO and you'll see it. Another example: Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine recently had an FC (Fortune Card) snafu where they forgot to code in the rare item you could get from it. To fix it, they changed it into a raffle: the more rl cash you spent on the FC's, the more rare items you would get. This didn't count prior purchases, though, so anyone who spent money trying to get it before the patch was shit out of luck.
Just some examples; I'm sure I could find more. And somehow, MMO free-to-players are fine with the constant bludgeoning they get...
Re:WoW was ruined (Score:3, Informative)
In WoW that's not so much the case; gear is vitally important. It's the difference between 1000 dps/15,000 hps and 4000 dps/30,000 hps.
That's actually one of the things I like least about WoW: weenies like the OP who have zero life can become little demi-deities.
Re:WoW was ruined (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe you could look here:
http://www.onrpg.com/MMO/Free-MMORPG?sort=&dir=&data%5Bgenre%5D=&data%5Bdeveloper%5D=&data%5Bstate%5D=&data%5Brating%5D=9 [onrpg.com]
I dunno about the validity of that site's ratings but I guess it's a start :)