June 2003
- Damage and Stuff (Math and Code) Ben Chambers
- MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Derek Licciardi
- MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Mike Shaver
- MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Daniel Anderson
On Tue, 3 June 2003, Derek Licciardi wrote:
> Will SWG send a signal to investors/publishers/players that MMOs
> can only be accomplished with massive budgets and high profile
> licenses if it is the only successful launch of the year? God
> forbid if even SWG fails to launch smoothly. I hate to see the
> opinion of the investors/publishers if the MMO flagship product
> doesn't go off with a bang. (i.e. the one with the experienced
> team, the big budget, and the great license)
SWG has a lot of leeway just because of the license-- which is sad.
I think people ought to ask themselves if they would play SWG if it
wasn't Star Wars (which I don't think they would because SWG
wouldn't be much different than a mixture of EQ and UO). So, to get
back at the point at hand (sorry to go off on that tangent) I do see
the market for MMOs being overrun by games with bigger and bigger
budgets. It's going to be very hard for a small team to pump out a
fun GOOD game. In order for people to leave their current MMO,
(assuming they only play one a time) the new one would have to
better. I think Raph Koster said that to make a perfect MMO would
take at least 5 years and a $50,000,000 budget.
> If any of this is the case, it is bad for users that want a
> different MMO experience. It's worse for developers without a high
> profile license to lure players in with/convince investors that
> the product will float. How do you convince someone that your
> game will work when the vast majority of your colleagues can't
> seem to get it right is my thinking. My feeling is that
> creativity will be crushed to some degree by the selectivity of
> investment dollars because the genre is shaping up to look like EQ
> clones are the only thing that is commercially viable. All in all
> it's been a pretty bad year for MMOs so far. Subscription numbers
> are dwindling and products are failing left and right. It
> definitely makes one ponder the viability of the market in the
> immediate and long term future.
I think the market is just being over saturated with too many MMOs
currently... Like I previously stated, people only tend to play one
at a time and they don't want to just quit their "investment" after
putting in so much time (character creation time).
Also, I do agree that the creativity is being crushed because
investors aren't willing to try anything new.
Daniel Anderson - MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Chris Holko
- MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Matt Mihaly
- MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Justin Coleman
- MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of th e market. Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of th e market. Jeff Fuller
- MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Matt Mihaly
- MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Luca Girardo
- New Column by Dave Rickey "Engines of Creation" Now at Skotos Christopher Allen
- Announcing Shadow Door: an NPC Control Interface for Neverwinter Nights Robert Zubek
- ADMIN: So, what has been happening? J C Lawrence
- [Meta] Forward of moderated message J C Lawrence
- New Here MIKE MacMartin
- Looking for a GUI Mud Development program Snicker Furfoot
- Looking for a GUI Mud Development program Ben Greear
- ADMIN: List archives are now restored. J C Lawrence
- The Price of Being Male Rayzam
- The Price of Being Male Sasha Hart
- The Price of Being Male Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- The Price of Being Male Rayzam
- The Price of Being Male Byron Ellacott
- The Price of Being Male Dr. Cat
- The Price of Being Male Castronova, Edward
- The Price of Being Male Boyle, Paul
- The Price of Being Male Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
- The Price of Being Male Rayzam
- The Price of Being Male Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
- The Price of Being Male Rayzam
- The Price of Being Male Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
- The Price of Being Male Marian Griffith
- The Price of Being Male Paul Schwanz
- The Price of Being Male Rayzam
- The Price of Being Male Paul Schwanz
- The Price of Being Male Vincent Archer
- The Price of Being Male Rayzam
- The Price of Being Male Castronova, Edward
- The Price of Being Male Sasha Hart
- The Price of Being Male Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
- The Price of Being Male Amanda Walker
- The Price of Being Male Richard A. Bartle
- The Price of Being Male Castronova, Edward
- The Price of Being Male Richard A. Bartle
- The Price of Being Male Tazzik
- The Price of Being Male Richard A. Bartle
- The Price of Being Male Tazzik
- The Price of Being Male Richard A. Bartle
- The Price of Being Male Marian Griffith
- The Price of Being Male Sasha Hart
- The Price of Being Male Tom
- The Price of Being Male Marian Griffith
- The Price of Being Male Sasha Hart
- The Price of Being Male Marian Griffith
- The Price of Being Male Sasha Hart
- The Price of Being Male Richard A. Bartle
- The Price of Being Male Castronova, Edward
- The Price of Being Male Richard A. Bartle
- The Price of Being Male Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- The Price of Being Male Paul Schwanz
- The Price of Being Male Daniel Anderson
- The Price of Being Male Travis Casey
- The Price of Being Male Paul Schwanz
- The Price of Being Male Travis Casey
- The Price of Being Male Chris Holko
- The Price of Being Male Travis Casey
- The Price of Being Male Sanvean
- The Price of Being Male Sasha Hart
- The Price of Being Male Tom
- The Price of Being Male Sanvean
- The Price of Being Male Paul Schwanz
- The Price of Being Male Amanda Walker
- The Price of Being Male shop@isparkinson.co.uk
- The Price of Being Male Boyle, Paul
- The Price of Being Male Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- The Price of Being Male Sheela Caur'Lir
- The Price of Being Male Jeff Crane
- Are gold pieces taxable? Koster, Raph
- Are gold pieces taxable? Boyle, Paul
- Are gold pieces taxable? Amanda Walker
- Are gold pieces taxable? Thomas Leavitt
- Are gold pieces taxable? Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Functors / Loki (was: New Here) Eli Stevens
- Architecture Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Architecture Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Architecture ceo
- Architecture Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- SW:G this is so unfair Marian Griffith
- SW:G this is so unfair Marc Bowden
- SW:G this is so unfair Martin Bassie
- Players policing themselves (was: MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of themarket.) Derek Licciardi
- Q&A with Ken Troop, Lead Designer at Turbine Michael Tresca
- Q&A with Ken Troop, Lead Designer at Turbine Threshold RPG
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Zach Collins {Siege}
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Rossmann Peter
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) ceo
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) J C Lawrence
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) J C Lawrence
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Rossmann Peter
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Rossmann Peter
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) J C Lawrence
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Peter "Pietro" Rossmann