MMOs should cater to few so we have many mmos to choose from that bring different ideas to the table instead of several hundred mmos doing the same thing.
And I disagree entirely with your initial premise that the first few MMOs all catered to the entire community.
I mean, look at the big three. EQ, UO, AC. All very very different, and very good in their own ways.
Agreed completely. The big three had very different and extremely loyal audiences. All three games were very different from one another as well. I would say that each game was specialized in many regards, additionally, I'd argue that the game that tried to really cater to all was WoW.
Many mmos did specialize before the WoW era, and each of them was successful in their own right. The problem now is that too many believe sub numbers rule the world. I don't think AC had many more than 25k users, but it was considered successful. Hell, even EQ which peaked around 500k (iirc), would be considered a flop by today's standards. Unless you retain millions the game "failed".
The answer to the question was already answered. It should have a target audience. It doesn't matter if that audience is niche or general, go for that audience and do what you can to retain them. As long as the game is fun, everything else will fall in place.
AC had 120k subscribers at its peak but yea I agree with you on the rest.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
If one book is trying to please me and one isn't, I'm not sure that scenario plays out the way you expect.
the first book is only trying to please your and your 3 friends, the second situation is trying to please you, your 3 friends and also 50000 other guys.
Both are trying to please you, but the second situation I said, is trying to please at the same time more guys other than just you (and your 3 friends).
If there are 50000 players, the odds that I'm the one person it's trying to please is almost zero. And if there are 50 000 different games being made for each of us, each has an almost-zero budget. It's the economies of scale that matter.
on the analogy you (and your 3 friends) and the other 50000 are the ones he is collectivelly trying to please (on the second part of the analogy). Lets imagine he to some degree succeded on it and made a book those 50004 liked to read.
Also my analogy was not about making a different game to every single person, just that making a game to few is better.
Just one simple example, an extreme amount of guys hate permadeath at the point of not only not playing but as some thread here showed (with polls), to the polnt of complaining even about a game that has a permadeath server and a normal one (servers that are 100%, [not 99.9999% ] similar excluding the permadeath feature).
If some guy X would love a game with permadeath, when trying to make a game to cater to alot of gamers, this feature would be removed, and the game will be worse to the guy X.
If some guy X would love a game with permadeath, when trying to make a game to cater to alot of gamers, this feature would be removed, and the game will be worse to the guy X.
There is no reason you can't add a permadeath option - you just have to make sure that permadeath and non-permadeath characters are not in direct competition with each other.
If some guy X would love a game with permadeath, when trying to make a game to cater to alot of gamers, this feature would be removed, and the game will be worse to the guy X.
There is no reason you can't add a permadeath option - you just have to make sure that permadeath and non-permadeath characters are not in direct competition with each other.
Which is done in D3 to great success. Stats shows that 9% of all the characters created are hard core. So while not everyone plays perma-death, it is quite a few, given D3's big numbers.
If some guy X would love a game with permadeath, when trying to make a game to cater to alot of gamers, this feature would be removed, and the game will be worse to the guy X.
There is no reason you can't add a permadeath option - you just have to make sure that permadeath and non-permadeath characters are not in direct competition with each other.
As proved by some thread about permadeath I made, asking if permadeath ultra haters (not the only that would just not play a permadeath game but the ones that would complain if one was released on the situation right now, where almost no permadeath game is made), permadeath haters would complain even if the game had 2 servers one with permeadeath and other (100% similar to the first one excluding permadeath ) dont.
And anyway, some permadeath likers would prefer a 1000x times more game where everyone is a permadeath character.
Comments
AC had 120k subscribers at its peak but yea I agree with you on the rest.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
on the analogy you (and your 3 friends) and the other 50000 are the ones he is collectivelly trying to please (on the second part of the analogy). Lets imagine he to some degree succeded on it and made a book those 50004 liked to read.
Also my analogy was not about making a different game to every single person, just that making a game to few is better.
Just one simple example, an extreme amount of guys hate permadeath at the point of not only not playing but as some thread here showed (with polls), to the polnt of complaining even about a game that has a permadeath server and a normal one (servers that are 100%, [not 99.9999% ] similar excluding the permadeath feature).
If some guy X would love a game with permadeath, when trying to make a game to cater to alot of gamers, this feature would be removed, and the game will be worse to the guy X.
There is no reason you can't add a permadeath option - you just have to make sure that permadeath and non-permadeath characters are not in direct competition with each other.
Which is done in D3 to great success. Stats shows that 9% of all the characters created are hard core. So while not everyone plays perma-death, it is quite a few, given D3's big numbers.
As proved by some thread about permadeath I made, asking if permadeath ultra haters (not the only that would just not play a permadeath game but the ones that would complain if one was released on the situation right now, where almost no permadeath game is made), permadeath haters would complain even if the game had 2 servers one with permeadeath and other (100% similar to the first one excluding permadeath ) dont.
And anyway, some permadeath likers would prefer a 1000x times more game where everyone is a permadeath character.
PS: The thread I was talking about http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/364518/page/1