Post by Morreion on Mar 2, 2010 6:15:55 GMT -5
Lasting Appeal and Scope (Keen and Graev's Gaming Blog)
Keen starts out by praising EQ2, WoW, EVE and LOTRO for having staying power. Here's his list of recent games that suffered from scope issues:
I think Keen is onto something here. Games with a larger scope definitely catch my attention much better than games with a narrow scope.
Keen starts out by praising EQ2, WoW, EVE and LOTRO for having staying power. Here's his list of recent games that suffered from scope issues:
Dungeons and Dragons Online – Too narrow a scope. The game pidgeonholed players and promptly flopped.
Vanguard – Such an immense scope that the game buckled underneath the pressure.
Pirates of the Burning Sea – Needed Vanguard’s delusions of grandeur. This game needed the scope but sorely lacked it in every area.
Age of Conan – I think it suffered from both a lack of scope and biting off more than they could chew. It felt so one-track while somehow managing to promise the moon.
Warhammer Online – When you show people the potential of RvR in DAOC but then fail so miserably in delivering anywhere near the scope… expect a kick in the e-nads.
Darkfall – Attempted way too much and in order to deliver it all they neglected it all at the same time.
Champions Online – The scope of this game was so narrow water could not pass through. Felt like the entire game was being presented a spoonful at a time.
Aion – Skirted the line just a tad too far on the wrong side. Tough to pin scope as a big problem though when it had other more glaring issues.
Global Agenda – Not a MMO, but I’ll use it to provide an example. When asked why you didn’t do anything with the enormous amount of potential and instead chose to lock yourself in a box, the right answer is never “We didn’t want to go that route”. Reality is that they went with a realistic scope and underachieved. I’m willing to bet they were trying to play it safe.
Vanguard – Such an immense scope that the game buckled underneath the pressure.
Pirates of the Burning Sea – Needed Vanguard’s delusions of grandeur. This game needed the scope but sorely lacked it in every area.
Age of Conan – I think it suffered from both a lack of scope and biting off more than they could chew. It felt so one-track while somehow managing to promise the moon.
Warhammer Online – When you show people the potential of RvR in DAOC but then fail so miserably in delivering anywhere near the scope… expect a kick in the e-nads.
Darkfall – Attempted way too much and in order to deliver it all they neglected it all at the same time.
Champions Online – The scope of this game was so narrow water could not pass through. Felt like the entire game was being presented a spoonful at a time.
Aion – Skirted the line just a tad too far on the wrong side. Tough to pin scope as a big problem though when it had other more glaring issues.
Global Agenda – Not a MMO, but I’ll use it to provide an example. When asked why you didn’t do anything with the enormous amount of potential and instead chose to lock yourself in a box, the right answer is never “We didn’t want to go that route”. Reality is that they went with a realistic scope and underachieved. I’m willing to bet they were trying to play it safe.
Setting a realistic scope is important. However, from the games above we see that 2/3 had serious issues with the scope of their project being too narrow. I don’t know about any of you, but I want my MMORPG’s (and even my MMOG’s) to be beyond my ability to perceive in their entirety. I want to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the game. There needs to be a lot of content – a lot! I need to feel like I have options and I should definitely not be pigeonholed. I think erring on the side of overdoing it is probably better.
Getting your scope right probably means the rest of your game is in good shape. It’s at this point that I think a game has the potential for lasting appeal. I say potential because a game like SWG or DAOC, which both nailed their scope, doomed themselves after the fact. It only makes sense to me that if a game is going to last me many years that there would be a lot to do in the game and that it would be about more than logging in the chop wood or compete in repeating scenarios.
...While it is definitely not enough to have a large scope, a game isn’t going to last without one. The games with a huge scope, or at least the promise of one, are always the ones we imagine being the best. They’re the ones we see ourselves settling in for years. There are a few of you out there who know what I’m talking about. It’s the feeling you had when Vanguard launched or maybe even Darkfall.
Getting your scope right probably means the rest of your game is in good shape. It’s at this point that I think a game has the potential for lasting appeal. I say potential because a game like SWG or DAOC, which both nailed their scope, doomed themselves after the fact. It only makes sense to me that if a game is going to last me many years that there would be a lot to do in the game and that it would be about more than logging in the chop wood or compete in repeating scenarios.
...While it is definitely not enough to have a large scope, a game isn’t going to last without one. The games with a huge scope, or at least the promise of one, are always the ones we imagine being the best. They’re the ones we see ourselves settling in for years. There are a few of you out there who know what I’m talking about. It’s the feeling you had when Vanguard launched or maybe even Darkfall.
I think Keen is onto something here. Games with a larger scope definitely catch my attention much better than games with a narrow scope.
