The MMO launch subscriber bubble
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Betas, Age of Conan, EVE Online, Business models, Culture, Launches, MMO industry, New titles, Warhammer Online, Academic, Education, Virtual worlds, Star Wars: The Old Republic
It feels like a new MMO is being released every month these days and the market for persistent online games is certainly expanding. At the head of this market is a set of games commonly referred to “triple A” titles. These are popular games from big name studios or games using popular intellectual properties. New games that are considered “triple A” have a unique ability to build unparalleled levels of anticipation and hype around themselves prior to release. In order to draw in as many players as possible, an obscene amount of cash is often spent on advertising to hype these games up for release. But is this appropriate and cost-effective or does it show a fundamental misunderstanding of of the MMO market?
In this article, we look at what can go wrong with over-hyped MMO launches and what happens when the subscriber bubble bursts.
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The MMO launch subscriber bubble originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The World outside Warcraft
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Age of Conan, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, Opinion, Vanguard
Blizzard’s fantasy title World of Warcraft is everywhere these days, perhaps the only title to really pierce the veil between MMOs and mainstream media. For some massively multiplayer online gamers, WoW is the end-all be-all of titles out there. Can over 11 million people be wrong? Definitely not, we’d say. World of Warcraft has very much shaped the industry and writers at Massively have racked up ludicrous amounts of time spent in the game. But there are other engaging options out there, which is the point of an article written by Earnest Cavalli for The Portland Mercury’s ‘Blogtown’.
In “What’s Your Anti-Warcraft?” Cavalli looks at the good, bad, and the ugly among the MMOs on the market. He praises the virtues of Lord of the Rings Online with its ability to pull you into the setting, the riskier style of EVE Online, and the personal legacy of achievements you can establish in Warhammer Online. Cavalli takes aim at Age of Conan though, and lambasts Vanguard: Saga of Heroes as well.
If you’re offended by strong language, look away, because Cavalli doesn’t really pull any punches in his assessment of these titles. Check out “What’s Your Anti-Warcraft?” and see if you agree with his take on the MMO world beyond WoW’s ever-expanding borders.
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The World outside Warcraft originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Best of Massively: Five stories that scandalized you
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Age of Conan, Culture, Warhammer Online
Massively is just a week and a half away from its first birthday, and we’re winding our Best of Massively series down in the final days! This week we’re listing five stories we wrote that caused a lot of people to get very angry — sometimes at us, sometimes at game developers or other industry figures, and sometimes at all of the above!
If you have a thick skin for controversy (or if you’re drawn to it like a moth to a flame like a lot of us are!), check out the list. Just… let’s not let it come to violence, okay?
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Funcom speaks out openly about Age of Conan criticisms
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, News items
In an interview with MTV Multiplayer, Funcom’s Jørgen Tharaldsen speaks surprisingly frank about the many criticisms Age of Conan has been dealt. Topics cover everything from the current state of the game to what Funcom is doing to bring back players with a “come back and play for free” invite sometime in 2009, according to Jørgen. The whole read is just generally very interesting and well worth your time if you’ve any interest in Age of Conan and where it’s headed in the coming months.
At the end of the interview, the question of Warhammer Online and Wrath of the Lich King come up in relation to any possibly concerns for Funcom. Jørgen delivers one of his most lucid comments about AoC when he says, “I don’t think anything is easy in the world of MMO’s, and fighting to get new subscribers is a constant challenge. Now it’s ‘WAR’ and ‘Lich King’ - going forward there will be many others.” The list of other contenders is indeed longer than a Dream Theater solo and in a couple of weeks we may have to add yet another large contender to that laundry list.
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The Best of Massively: Our most helpful guides
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Galleries, Age of Conan, EVE Online, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, Guides, Warhammer Online, Massively meta
In just over one month, Massively will celebrate its first birthday! Last week we started a countdown to the event by kicking off a series of features highlighting the best stuff from the site so far. We started with our ten most important interviews. Today, we’re continuing the weekly countdown by listing some of your (and our) favorite guides!
We broke them out into six categories, counting down to the best and most popular. A wide variety of games are covered, so chances are you’ll find something useful in here. This list can serve as a springboard to a ton of content — dozens and dozens of articles. So consider this your go-to place for info on some of the hottest games.
Without further ado, here’s the guide to our best guides. Wow, how meta is that!
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The allegedly incontestable momentum of World of Warcraft
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Age of Conan, MMO industry, Warhammer Online
We relish informed opinion pieces here at Massively. That’s what the professional site gamesindustry.biz is serving up for us, in the form of an editorial by site founder Rob Fahey. He tackles a subject we’ve looked at ourselves fairly often in the last few weeks: the nature of World of Warcraft’s dominion, how long it can last, and whether challenging WoW is even worthwhile.
As well as running down the recent challengers to WoW, Rob makes two extremely simple points. Firstly, WoW is successful not just because it’s good now, but because millions of players have invested in it over time and built up inertia. It’s not just the mass of an MMO, but the velocity that counts.
Secondly, given the tremendous inertia, he argues that competing with WoW would be suicide. Games companies would be better advised to seek virgin territory, and ‘avoid WoW’s market like the plague’. Rob clearly has a high opinion of WoW, which he describes as ‘the most polished and perfectly balanced MMOG ever created, regardless of what a small but vocal band of snooty naysayers may argue‘.
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The Best of Massively: Our ten most important interviews
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, Warhammer Online, Stargate Worlds, The Agency, Tabula Rasa, Free Realms
We have exciting news, dear readers. In just over a month, Massively will be one year old! We’re very proud of how far we’ve come since last November, and we’d like to thank you for sticking with us through all these months. To celebrate our first birthday we’re looking back at the most interesting stuff we’ve experienced so far!
We’re starting with our ten most important interviews. We tried to find a good balance between interviews that have insights that are still relevant today, interviews that were important for the history of our site, and interviews that were just plain awesome. We saved the coolest ones for last, so be sure and stick with us to the end!
Think of it as a look back at the past year in the MMO world, if you like. Major releases, major ideas — many of them are here. Enjoy, and be sure and tell us what you think.
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Producer & game director for Age of Conan resigns from Funcom
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, News items
Some big shake-ups seem to be happening over at Funcom today as Gaute Godager resigns from his position at the company as producer and game director for Age of Conan. His replacement is Craig Morrison, who’s held the same position with Anarchy Online for several years prior to this change. While most (or more than half) will agree that Age of Conan is in a very dissatisfying state, this news still comes as a shock. Gaute Godager was one of the founders of Funcom and is leaving the company and the games industry after 16 years. He was also a part of Age of Conan’s development since its conception.
Incoming producer/director Craig Morrison stepped fully into the Conan community to greet the players today, as well. You can read his address to the faithful on the official forums. Follow the break for Godager’s parting words and reasons for leaving Funcom.
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Mythic’s Mark Jacobs really wanted to see Age of Conan succeed
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Culture, Interviews, MMO industry, Opinion, Hellgate: London
MTV Multiplayer’s Tracey John, speaking with head of Mythic Entertainment Mark Jacobs, has been exploring a line of questioning about the MMO industry in general. They noted the high failure rate for the genre, and the equally high expectations that are now placed on new games by fans and industry commentators. Jacobs offered up, as part of this discussion, some analysis on why Hellgate: London didn’t make it, and why Funcom’s Age of Conan has been having so many problems over their long first summer of launch. Of Hellgate, Jacobs noted that it’s not sufficient simply to have really talented people on the team. That’s a straightforward process. In addition to that, “sometimes just having talent is not enough. You need leadership and you need patience. And what’s most important - something that so many developers forget - is you also need to deflate the ego a little bit.”
About Conan, which the site categorizes as ‘failing to deliver on promises to players, Jacobs states that he actually really wanted the game to succeed. Now, with a summer of frustrations and player unrest behind them, he thinks they’re in a tight spot. Ultimately, he just wants someone to show the world that MMOs don’t have to be World of Warcraft to succeed. As for Mythic, “If we don’t succeed with EA behind us, the ‘Warhammer’ IP behind us, with one of the most experienced teams in the industry, that’s not going to be good for the industry. We need to show the world that it’s not just Blizzard who can make a great game, and that the audience is absolutely willing to try new things and to play a game other than ‘WoW.”
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Having fun in Conan’s homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age! |
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