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APB First Impressions

All Points Bulletin is the new game from Realtime Worlds now in open beta with the Key to the City event.  Somehow, whether being an unselected beta applicant or just on the mailing list, I received a key to the event.  I had already decided not to purchase the game at this time without having played it, and I will get to that.  Yet, a little “beta” preview never hurt anybody. 

I loaded up the game, and there was an impressive character creator.  I pressed random a couple times (the best way) until the generator gave me a character that I liked.  The best part was making a pudgy guy.  I am so sick of male Adonis figures, and I like “flawed” characters in all my RPG’s (table-top or elsewhere).  I don’t think anybody would love Sam Gamgee quite as much if he was the WWE-equivalent of a hobbit paladin instead of a pudgy, pie-eating stalwart.  So, I was happy to make a fat Irish Enforcer.

Continue reading APB First Impressions

Did You Know

“…you can donate one or all of your vital organs to the Aperture Science Self Esteem Fund for Girls? It’s true!”

Portal received a couple of updates this year, but I had not checked what. The ending now differs slightly (story, not gameplay). There is also a new achievement, “Transmission Received,” which is a sort of mini-game in which you take radios scattered throughout the levels to unmarked points for coded messages. You can tell that you are close because the radio starts getting static; when the light turns green, you’re there. Veteran players will notice far more radios than before in the game.

The radio in the starting chamber is one of them. Just carry it with you until you hear static. That will get you started. Do you know Morse code?

: Zubon

Content Drip

I am very used to a content explosion.  The devs have been silent for months on an upcoming patch or expansion, and then CKZABOOM! we get new zones, quests, skills, etc., etc., etc.  One shift I am really starting to notice is a more agile content presentation.  With the current MMO direction in terms of business model, casual play, and, in my opinion, market saturation, perhaps a more frequent content drip is in order.

Surely the marketing people understand the gravitational pull of a content explosion.  Everybody has already got World of Warcraft’s next expansion on the radar even if they don’t play.  Even the MMO whipping boy du jour, Age of Conan, received a lot of positive attention from across the board with its latest expansion.  Yet, I wonder now having a library of MMOs, where no sub is necessary, if such a content explosion is necessary or even the best option.  To get subs back, a content explosion’s gravity might be necessary to overcome the activation energy required to pull out a credit card and resubscribe, but what if the player could simply log in.

Continue reading Content Drip

Positive Affects and Effects

To adapt a line from Scott Adams, what matters is how many people love your game, not how many people hate your game.

If you make the best MMO ever, the most popular MMO ever, there will still be approximately 300 million Americans and 6.5 billion other people who will not be playing your game. That is your best case scenario. Even amongst gamers, most will not play it, and you will be ridiculously successful if you can get most MMORPG players to download the trial. Even if you are the WoW-killer, your game is still a niche in a niche.

This is a freeing insight. It does not matter how many people hate your game. Their dislike has no more effect on your success than the indifferent billions. Your game is not going to be all things to all people or even most things to 0.2% of people. You can focus on the base and make the game for them, rather than trying to reduce the scorn of people who are never going to be on your side anyway.

It does not matter how many people hate Darkfall. They quite happily fill a niche that has some very passionate support. It does not matter how many people hate Twilight. Stephenie Meyer is making her millions from the people who love it. It does not matter how many people hate xkcd or Rob Liefeld or Justin Bieber or the New York Yankees (although you can monetize some of that anti-fandom).

For the success of your game, vaguely positive is the same as indifferent is the same as opposed is about the same as vocal hatred. They are all non-subscribers. The people who matter are the ones who will play your game, who will pay to support it, who will recruit their friends and set up fan sites and build support tools and run in-game events. Unless you actually do suck, you get ahead by increasing your positives, not decreasing your negatives.

: Zubon

Guild Wars 2 – Warrior

The second confirmed Guild Wars 2 profession has been released, with six more waiting in the wings. The warrior profession is a re-envisioning of this iconic choice where the melee class gets a little more diverse piece of the color pie. The warrior in Guild Wars is a mainstay throughout every type of gameplay. They are known for their durability and constant damage output in the first Guild Wars, and in Guild Wars 2, I don’t think they will disappoint.

 

Continue reading Guild Wars 2 – Warrior

Free-2-Misnomer

Misnomer: (noun) – 2 a : a use of a wrong or inappropriate name b : a wrong name or inappropriate designation.
Is Lord of the Rings Online going Free-to-Play (F2P)?  I’ve seen a lot of debate around the ‘sphere and re-amplified by the latest Spouse Aggro podcast on how to define F2P MMOs.  Those that prefer the narrow definition seem to say that F2P games will not bar content by requiring purchase, and the business model works because players buy extras in the cash shops.  A slightly broader definition lumps games that sell content into F2P.  However, then it becomes a question of degree. 

Comment Spotlight

Our very own Ethic comments on LotRO going free-to-play:

Since we are going this way now, let’s get Asheron’s Call and heck even Asheron’s Call 2 running on the same model.

The return of AC2 is an appealing notion. If that happens, I need a way to reclaim an old account with just the associated e-mail address (not the log-in name). I never made that Lugian Tactician. I also have an old AC1 account in storage; I might remember the account name on that one.

: Zubon

Holy Crap

Ardwulf explains why a game doing well might change its pricing model:

The key factor here, I think, and the one that led Turbine to this decision, is that DDO subscriptions have increased under its free-to-play model. And not just jumped a bit, but tripled. Not to mention that overall revenue is up tenfold, last we heard.

Pretend for a moment that you are a Turbine executive, circa 2008. Someone on the DDO team presents the free-to-play proposal. S/he includes a slide predicting that subscriptions would triple. You would have laughed him/her out of the room, wouldn’t you? I would have expected some decline in month-to-month subscribers with potentially increased revenues from new and old players engaging in microtransactions. This must be the most successful free trial program ever, to say nothing of the microtransaction revenue.

: Zubon

On the Value of Your Opinion

Some people are very unhappy with LotRO moving to DDO’s payment model. Keen has a harshly worded example with more comments then we’ll ever see on a post. This is not just LotRO-specific, however, as many people like to say things about games that they neither play nor would have played.

If you are neither a customer nor a likely customer, the company does not care about your opinion. They are not losing any money by doing things you don’t like. They are not gaining money by doing exactly what you want. If you are already not a customer and their business model moves further from you, you cannot become any less of a customer. Yes, there is some chance that you could have become one, but most people who are “planning to play next year” will still be planning to play next year rather than actually playing and paying. Odds are, you are not the marginal customer.

If I am a vegan, KFC does not care about my perspective on the Double Down. My opinion on the latest patch to Warcraft, Warhammer, or City of Heroes does not matter much unless it includes the phrase “I resubscribed” or drives you to that state (or out of it). This will not stop me from commenting, I’m sure, as that is kind of what we do here in the blogosphere. But let’s keep perspective, considering the normal importance of an online gaming blog post.

: Zubon