Comments on: Locusts and Lemmings

By: wilhelm2451

wilhelm2451 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:05:55 +0000

I am 100% with Ravious that this is yet another reason, and a serious economic reason, for the game companies to “solve” the discreet server architecture issue that causes players so many problems.

By: Sean

Sean — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:54:00 +0000

Agreeing with Wilhelm. Warhammer and AoC (the most known failures) didn’t fail because they were flooded with droves of unsatisfiable WoW players. They failed because they weren’t fun to play. Maybe four or five years ago you could get away with publishing something that wasn’t fun at release but now the market has grown and there are expectations. Functional chat, smooth combat, fundamentally sound gameplay, and most of all.. is it fun? Take the ‘I know it when I see it’ stance and play your own game or find somebody else to play it if you can’t objectively look at your own game and say ‘I could do this as a hobby’ then DON’T RELEASE IT.

By: NBarnes

NBarnes — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:02:40 +0000

Nice A Tale In The Desert shout-out. I don’t play ATITD anymore, but I am forever rooting for Teppy et al to keep on keeping it real.

By: Ravious

Ravious — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:44:13 +0000

Great post, Zubon. I think WoW tourists are a huge deal, which must be considered by all upcoming MMOs. Hopefully this might get MMOs off the horrible “shard” technology, and into something more fluid like a nieghborhood. I also hereby nominate Julian as the KTR ninja poster.

By: Stropp

Stropp — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:26:13 +0000

The thing is, it’s not 1998, 2000, or even 2004 any more when there were maybe a million or two customers interested in MMO games. Things have changed, and yes WoW is responsible for that, and the game developers need to respond to the market of 2008.

http://stroppsworld.com/2009/02/16/wow-tourists-the-market-is-not-to-blame/

Before 2004 the MMORPG was a niche market of the bigger computer game market, which in itself was a niche of the much bigger entertainment market. The bulk of which was/is a mass market.

For years MMORPG fans have been hoping for a wider acceptance of our favorite hobby. We’ve all secretly, or perhaps not so secretly, hoped that the next MMORPG to be released will be wildly successful, and will bring in a multitude of players new to the genre.

WoW did that, and kicked the MMORPG market into the beginnings of a mass market, and the results are what we’re seeing now.

Perhaps a case of be careful what you wish for. :-)

By: Armagon

Armagon — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 10:29:59 +0000

There’s only one thing you forget when talking about dying servers. It was announced that people with pre-ordered games may have a headstart. This headstart was completely eaten up by incompetent management (on Europe servers at least). I didn’t even hand in the month I had bought with the game. I was gone after the 10 days pre-order time (plus the few “Sorry, we fucked up”-days). Had there been the real pre-order play time before launch, I would’ve be gone before the majority had hit the servers.
On a very different note. It’s an excellent game, I loved it. But WoW was just better.

By: Grimjakk

Grimjakk — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 07:04:48 +0000

“Don’t come to Seattle… the sun don’t shine ’round here.
It comes out accident’lly, maybe once or twice a year!
It rains so hard, the moss grows on the southern side of the trees,
And Summer feels like Winter in that clammy ocean breeze!”

Sadly, the song didn’t do much good for the city the rest of the state now thinks of as “San Francisco North”. :P

And release month look-i-loo’s are just something devs are going to have to start dealing with too.

Maybe the next MMO would be wise to start off with two to three times the servers they think they’re going to need… with names like North Fennin Ro, South Fennin Ro, and East Fennin Ro… and with the stated intention that those servers WOULD be merged after the first month.

By: Julian

Julian — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:56:28 +0000

“And I never did get that ‘lunch’ from Turbine :)”

It was yummy. For about 30 levels or so, but it was yummy :)

By: Rog

Rog — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:15:09 +0000

Today I ran into a Lore-Master in LOTRO with the name Medivh. I couldn’t help but think he was probably in the wrong game.

By: LurbyJo

LurbyJo — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:12:57 +0000

While the guy talking about paying locusts is somewhat correct, in my opinion so are you. The new generation of players are a swarm and CAN strip something worthy down to bones in just a few months. This post was a great reflection of what we see out there today and rather horrifying to read. Thank you!