Post by Morreion on May 24, 2010 6:44:38 GMT -5
Why the MMO Industry Needs a Real Cataclysm (Wolfshead Online)
Read the whole article. This is a powerful critique of the MMO industry, and I am quite sympathetic. Lack of innovation and a single-player focus is killing the industry. Making MMOs like other types of games- or every game franchise making an 'mmo' that is barely in the genre- seems to be an odd solution.
I've stopped automatically piurchasing major MMO releases like I used to do. For instance, I did not purchase STO, and from what I've read about it, I'm glad I didn't. I enjoy the Star Trek franchise, but a repetitious collection of instances with little need to socialize is not an MMO to my way of thinking.
I'd like to see a return to community and innovation at least in independent niche games. There's too much money in the rapidly unrecognizable current MMO industry to hope for much change there.
As each year passes MMOs have become more infantile and simplistic in order to pander to the lowest common denominator. This alarming trend has been caused by the need for companies to grow the demographic in order to placate shareholders. We’ve known about this problem for years now thanks to the insight offered by virtual world prophet Richard Bartle. Somehow we never thought that day would never come but reality tells us we are watching this apocalypse unfold before our very eyes.
You Get the MMO You Deserve
Blizzard has seduced and fooled us with their Hollywood polish. We traded in the important exhilarating virtues of being part of a virtual world — community, camaraderie, danger, player interdependence, role-playing and player freedom– and instead opted for a safe and scripted amusement park ride.
There’s an old saying that goes like this: people get the government they deserve. This same logic applies to MMOs: players get the MMO they deserve because ultimately we vote with our dollars.
As long as is there are copious amounts of reward with almost no risk, as long as content remains static and non-dynamic, as long as players have no sense of ownership in their world, as long as players have no need of other players, as long as player freedoms keep getting curtailed, as long as extracting money from subscribers is the end all and be all of game design — you will have the disease that is World of Warcraft.
Blizzard has seduced and fooled us with their Hollywood polish. We traded in the important exhilarating virtues of being part of a virtual world — community, camaraderie, danger, player interdependence, role-playing and player freedom– and instead opted for a safe and scripted amusement park ride.
There’s an old saying that goes like this: people get the government they deserve. This same logic applies to MMOs: players get the MMO they deserve because ultimately we vote with our dollars.
As long as is there are copious amounts of reward with almost no risk, as long as content remains static and non-dynamic, as long as players have no sense of ownership in their world, as long as players have no need of other players, as long as player freedoms keep getting curtailed, as long as extracting money from subscribers is the end all and be all of game design — you will have the disease that is World of Warcraft.
We need to stop playing the same unoriginal MMOs out there and cancel our accounts. We need to stop supporting lazy companies that refuse to innovate and reinvest adequate funds into their MMOs. We need to stop playing MMOs until something worthwhile comes out.
Let me close with another relationship metaphor, we all know a friend or family member that absolutely needs a man or woman to get by. Perhaps we too need to be single and independent for a while and take a break from the MMO hamster wheel. What I’m going to say will sound trite but it needs to be said: read a book, take up a hobby, plant a real garden, walk a dog, spend some time with your family and friends, seek out the meaning of life. Get some perspective and open your eyes. At least for me, maybe I need to realize that there’s more to this life than looking at a computer screen and hoping for salvation from a virtual world.
Let me close with another relationship metaphor, we all know a friend or family member that absolutely needs a man or woman to get by. Perhaps we too need to be single and independent for a while and take a break from the MMO hamster wheel. What I’m going to say will sound trite but it needs to be said: read a book, take up a hobby, plant a real garden, walk a dog, spend some time with your family and friends, seek out the meaning of life. Get some perspective and open your eyes. At least for me, maybe I need to realize that there’s more to this life than looking at a computer screen and hoping for salvation from a virtual world.
Read the whole article. This is a powerful critique of the MMO industry, and I am quite sympathetic. Lack of innovation and a single-player focus is killing the industry. Making MMOs like other types of games- or every game franchise making an 'mmo' that is barely in the genre- seems to be an odd solution.
I've stopped automatically piurchasing major MMO releases like I used to do. For instance, I did not purchase STO, and from what I've read about it, I'm glad I didn't. I enjoy the Star Trek franchise, but a repetitious collection of instances with little need to socialize is not an MMO to my way of thinking.
I'd like to see a return to community and innovation at least in independent niche games. There's too much money in the rapidly unrecognizable current MMO industry to hope for much change there.
