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Marvel Heroes Omega - Three Lessons I Learned From the Gazillion Shutdown - MMORPG.com

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
edited December 2017 in News & Features Discussion

imageMarvel Heroes Omega - Three Lessons I Learned From the Gazillion Shutdown - MMORPG.com

As I’ve been playing games for decades, the red flags of what Gazillion did were stark, and often. As we currently live in an unprecedented era of gaming, and by unprecedented I mean an era of gaming where monetization is affluent, in many cases, when the game is not only unfinished, but these days monetization happens with nary more than an idea or grasp of a game is apparent, I still believed that brand integrity meant something. Oh, how wrong I turned out to be.

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Comments

  • ananitananit Member RarePosts: 293
    the only red flags anyone should have ever needed was when both david brevik and ryan collins (ryolnir) jumped ship, they mostly were the reason the game went from a terrible pile of shit at release to something rather enjoyable to play albeit not perfect in any way.
    soon after they left, the design decision and focus shifted horribly (or they left because of this, who knows ...) and this fiasco is the direct result of it.
    CogohiNarlhMindTrickedwingoodNordicApacheTokken
  • ElvocElvoc Member RarePosts: 546
    Its just really sad that we cant get a super hero MMO to last very long, this just seems to be a pattern among these types of games. Its amazing DC Universe is still running..
    sschruppNordicApacheTokken
  • WylfWylf Member UncommonPosts: 376
    I think you are overthinking this. NEVER underestimate the greed of Disney. Micky loves his money.
    cmacqTokken
  • DauzqulDauzqul Member RarePosts: 1,982
    This is what sucks about licensing. The game was actually very fun.
    StjerneoddOctagon7711BillMurphyCogohivalofreaksschruppTokken
  • cranthugcranthug Member UncommonPosts: 102
    Heard this game went under, had no idea why. Thank you for the info.
    maskedweasel
  • cheyanecheyane Member LegendaryPosts: 9,067
    I remember being shocked when this game initially came out at the price of the Hero packs.
    FrodoFragins
    Chamber of Chains
  • Octagon7711Octagon7711 Member LegendaryPosts: 9,000
    I had so much fun playing this game on PC. Leveling my favorite heroes was a big addiction for awhile.
    BillMurphymaskedweaselBruceYeeMindTrickedTokken

    "We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa      "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."  SR Covey

  • calibekcalibek Member UncommonPosts: 300
    I read the game was suppose to close down on black Friday. Did it end up closing down?

    image
  • CazrielCazriel Member RarePosts: 419

    calibek said:

    I read the game was suppose to close down on black Friday. Did it end up closing down?



    Yes, it did.

    Very insightful comment about throwing money at a game in hopes it will pick your interest up. I've done this any number of times with games over the past few years, most notably with WoW. Bored. New mount maybe? What's for sale in the store? When I'm logging into a game to find out what's on sale in the cash shop, I know I've gone too far.

    Good article.
    MadFrenchie
  • LobotomistLobotomist Member EpicPosts: 5,963
    I dont know why everyone is saying it was a bad game ?

    I didnt play it year or so, but year ago the game was generally considered very decent Diablo clone. And honestly was real blast to play.
    BillMurphysschruppNordicApacheTokken



  • MadFrenchieMadFrenchie Member LegendaryPosts: 8,505

    Cazriel said:



    calibek said:


    I read the game was suppose to close down on black Friday. Did it end up closing down?






    Yes, it did.



    Very insightful comment about throwing money at a game in hopes it will pick your interest up. I've done this any number of times with games over the past few years, most notably with WoW. Bored. New mount maybe? What's for sale in the store? When I'm logging into a game to find out what's on sale in the cash shop, I know I've gone too far.



    Good article.



    The sunk cost fallacy is very, very persuasive. Placing convenience items behind individual paywalls is a double whammy. "The game will be more fun with this mount!" Buys mount. "Oh, it's not much different. But if I don't play it now I'll have wasted the money I spent on the mount!"

    All of us are susceptible to that kind of thinking, so don't take this as me criticizing you. It's more a criticism of how microtransactions are structured around these games in a way that's not at all consumer friendly.
    maskedweasel

    image
  • RobbgobbRobbgobb Member UncommonPosts: 674
    I am sorry the game is gone. I started way back when MMORPG.com had contests to get a key to play before release. I played a lot. A couple of years ago, I just got tired of the direction of the game and stopped but was not mad about it. It just grew in way I did not like because I could tell it was about making money (the goal of course but promises broken to do so). Very sad for the players when this happened. It really was a great game to me.
    maskedweasel
  • CogohiCogohi Member UncommonPosts: 84
    Elvoc said:
    Its just really sad that we cant get a super hero MMO to last very long, this just seems to be a pattern among these types of games. Its amazing DC Universe is still running..

    *sigh* It's comments like this that keeps us locked into stale fantasy settings and tropes. 

    There's nothing inherently wrong with superhero or sci-fi settings.  Correlation is not causation!  Name one MMO that died because it didn't conform to the fantasy cliche. 

    When you look at the post mortems the vast majority of failed MMO's never had a viable post-launch operations plan.  A good chunk simply don't have the professional discipline necessary to maintain a functional 24x7 service.  MMO's are not the disposable software many of the hacks that call themselves games developers are trained to produce.  Not to mention the plethora of design gaffes that plague us to this day (ProTip: Western audiences hate grinding)

    And when the manure hits the fan their Customer Disservice departments actively insult their customers.  Way to make that brand shine!  There is no excuse in the world to be stingy over pixels especially when a customer suffers loss due to bugs.

    Before blaming "the setting" or the "lore" take a hard look at their operational support, customer service and development teams and ask yourself if you'd trust them to write a high availability web presence.  Then look to see how predatory their business model is.  Do the designers have too much of a hard-on for their own lore? etc.

    flame off
    [Deleted User]
  • vomomotovomomoto Member UncommonPosts: 82
    Good article.

    You didn't actually mention that Gazillion was still selling things on the PC version, even after they lost the license.
    Here is a discord chat log of a developer admitting this.
    https://ibb.co/einZcw

    Easy to verify, just go to their discord (http://www.discord.gg/marvelheroes) and search for "Zurick".

    No idea how this isn't a bigger deal actually.
    maskedweasel
  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 22,824
    "But these days monetization happens with nary more than an idea or grasp of a game is apparent"

    The drive for cash before you get the product is now huge, we used to pay for a box that had a game we could play right away. Now with pre-order, cash shops open before the game launches, land sales, ship sales, it is all about paying before you see anything for your money. With gambling boxes, it just reaches a new low.

    The Marvel community was one of the best I have seen. In fact friends I were gaming with would say stuff like "Come on have you finished yet in chat about the way the films should have been, or what happened in some series you never saw? Can we play now?" :D
    maskedweasel
  • BruceYeeBruceYee Member EpicPosts: 2,556
    Good article.

    The lesson I learned is to not spend money on Marvel games anymore just like I decided to do the same for DC after they shut down Infinite Crisis.

    Both Marvel and DC are terrible in the way they treat their gamers and they don't even attempt to try which is the part that baffles my mind cause they have two of the most beloved IP's in the world. I guess the earnings from one movie can equal to 10-100 times more profit with 1/15th the effort of making a quality game so it is understandable that they don't but it still makes me sad nonetheless.
    maskedweasel
  • WhiteLanternWhiteLantern Member RarePosts: 3,306
    The biggest red flag for me was Brian Michael Bendis telling us during development that "No one wants to create their own character, everyone wants to be Wolverine or Spiderman".

    I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil

  • GruntyGrunty Member EpicPosts: 8,657
    edited December 2017
    I enjoyed the game when I played it.  I never spent any money on it.  When I heard it was shutting down I said 'oh well' and uninstalled it.  No tears of joy or despair were shed.  It was a game.

    Edit: Actually I did spend some money.  I bought a few inventory packs.  I believe their monetization scheme failed.  They wanted people to buy heroes to pay for the game. People found with a little time and effort they could easily get heroes without paying.
    "I used to think the worst thing in life was to be all alone.  It's not.  The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone."  Robin Williams
  • MindTrickedMindTricked Member UncommonPosts: 41
    I played since PC Beta. It was FUN. At launch, though, it was... not enough to keep my attention. A few months later, when they started redoing the characters (the 52 update), and seemed to find more focus as to what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go, it became my go-to, and I stuck with it hard until earlier this year. BUE hurt my enthusiasm, but I still played every day for at least an hour. That stopped once the Anniversary events ended and, for the first time since a few months after launch, I stopped played. Cold turkey. I'd log in every day for the Daily "reward" and to maintain my perfect attendance, but I was more-or-less done. The devs seemed to have abandoned us (after seeing the insights posted on the forums in the last week or two, I now know why), and what was once a very good dog became Old Yeller and needed to be put down.

    I learned no lesson from all this. I spent money sporadically, but money was spent. It was a F2P game that was 100% not P2W, and I appreciated that. It had really good people in the community and behind the scenes (at one point), and I don't regret a damn thing about my time (or money) spent there. I didn't get into the console version (thankfully), so I really hold no ill-will towards the people that made the game. I *will* be wary of some of them should they become involved in other games, though.
    vomomotomaskedweasel
  • RenantonRenanton Member UncommonPosts: 26
    This is exactly what happened when SWG went away. It had to because something new is coming under new direction. Folks are left with wondering why and will use this game in the same sentence as SWG in the future. Hmmmm...who holds the rights now to both Star Wars and Marvel?
  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,898


    I dont know why everyone is saying it was a bad game ?



    I didnt play it year or so, but year ago the game was generally considered very decent Diablo clone. And honestly was real blast to play.



    It was good for new players on PC. Console content was seriously lacking and the Biggest Update Ever ruined the game for many on PC. Gazillion lied repeatedly to players and they were ready to milk them up to the point of the license expiring last June.
  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,898
    edited December 2017

    Cogohi said:


    Elvoc said:

    Its just really sad that we cant get a super hero MMO to last very long, this just seems to be a pattern among these types of games. Its amazing DC Universe is still running..



    *sigh* It's comments like this that keeps us locked into stale fantasy settings and tropes. 

    There's nothing inherently wrong with superhero or sci-fi settings.  Correlation is not causation!  Name one MMO that died because it didn't conform to the fantasy cliche. 

    When you look at the post mortems the vast majority of failed MMO's never had a viable post-launch operations plan.  A good chunk simply don't have the professional discipline necessary to maintain a functional 24x7 service.  MMO's are not the disposable software many of the hacks that call themselves games developers are trained to produce.  Not to mention the plethora of design gaffes that plague us to this day (ProTip: Western audiences hate grinding)

    And when the manure hits the fan their Customer Disservice departments actively insult their customers.  Way to make that brand shine!  There is no excuse in the world to be stingy over pixels especially when a customer suffers loss due to bugs.

    Before blaming "the setting" or the "lore" take a hard look at their operational support, customer service and development teams and ask yourself if you'd trust them to write a high availability web presence.  Then look to see how predatory their business model is.  Do the designers have too much of a hard-on for their own lore? etc.

    flame off



    A lot of potential players seem to look down on comic characters in games. I'm not sure why, but it is an issue that exists. Even I don't quite understand the appeal of super heroes in typical MMO settings. But I don't see the issue in an ARPG or MOBA. License holders are VERY limiting though and tend do prevent quick turnaround of content or flexibility toward changes that are good for the game.
    Kyleran
  • BC_AnimusBC_Animus Member UncommonPosts: 115


    I dont know why everyone is saying it was a bad game ?



    I didnt play it year or so, but year ago the game was generally considered very decent Diablo clone. And honestly was real blast to play.



    It was a decent game for the most part - I actually played it during beta and launch, and on and off since then. It had its ups and downs, but most would agree the game placed too much focus on making money, and not on the content. All development focus were on costumes basically, with next to no gameplay content in the past couple of years. In fact, when they debuted on the consoles the PC version was basically dumbed down, and then abandoned, which had angered a lot of players.
  • Tiamat64Tiamat64 Member RarePosts: 1,545
    Renanton said:
    This is exactly what happened when SWG went away. It had to because something new is coming under new direction. Folks are left with wondering why and will use this game in the same sentence as SWG in the future. Hmmmm...who holds the rights now to both Star Wars and Marvel?
    The game was dying long before the BUE.  The downhill spiral due to drought of content and slower hero release schedule etc started soon after Brevik and several other developers left (or, as stated, possibly they left because it was starting).  That's why they ended up having to rush the BUE and port the game to consoles in the first place.  The BUE did help speed up the death process, though.

    The BUE is different from the NGE in terms of intent, too. The NGE was an attempt to revitalize the game. The BUE instead was just dumbing the game down so it could work on consoles (they claimed it was to revitalize the game but that was revealed to be a huge fat lie).
  • alivenaliven Member UncommonPosts: 346
    Dont be a whale. You will sooner or later look like giant idiot. 
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