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MMO liefspan is shorter now by design.
dippyzippy
Member Posts: 49
We will never return to the EQ early days when a person could expect to become entangled with a mmorpg for years. Its really simple marketing rules taking effect nowadays.
In the beginning there was little competition. You had basically UO and EQ. It was like owning the first generation of cars and everyone loved them. Think of palm pilots and how big they were when they started, now look at them. Or mobile phones. Market forces like competition changes everything. With more competition, the goal of a company is a big bang followed by a sustainable return for up to 6 months at maximum profit. Then the cost cutting begins to squeeze out a few more dollars. Finally, it ends up on the clearance store shelves. This is basic marketing 101 stuff and mmorpgs are simply following the rules now.
So get used to it folks. Gone are the days when a mmorpg would last more than 5-6 years. Games today and tomorrow will be purposely designed to entertain far less than the "evercrack" days. WoW is a prime examples of this, STILL hasn't hit 12 million. It has finally plateued. So sit back and enjoy your games but keep an eye out for future games. The one you were playing now wasn't designed to last for years.
Comments
But Funcom is coming out with The Seceret World and im sure the press releases dev comments and ground breaking game play will be there just like AO and AOC. It takes years of player support to fund on going projects and work out minor game play issues all of which are necessary for the continueing stockholder support. It is not by design this happens it has always been this way at Funcom.
MAGA
Speak for you own MMO, OP
Signed
- EVE Player
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
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I disagree with you.
MMOs are still designed to keep people paying and playing over the long haul. Wow has been out near five years and isn't declining, Eve has grown steadily over the last six years.
Even with more competition MMOs are still designed to be played for a very longtime.
The problem with the MMO genre are the group of players that game hop, their the sickness of the industry jumpinbg ship after two months, these players would have you think todays MMOs are designed for short play stints to validate their lack of commitment. The majority of these players are new to the genre and are just used to doing this with SP console games so they think its ok.
Those players are yet a small percentage of the community kinda like how the rabid forum community makes up less then 5% of the MMO playerbase. The one thing I see happening is that the majority of todays players play more then one MMO at a time, I see no evidence that games arent beeing played as long though.
Playing: EvE, Ryzom
Err ... EQ is still up and running ?
Most people who played EQ didn't play for years. All good MMOs still have the same churn. The study averaged it around the 6 month mark didn't it? Can't remember when it was done. Heard it at CGDC a few years ago as well.
6 months at a time sounds pretty accurate.
Everyone needs to take a break from a mmo sooner or later but the majority comeback and continue to play.
Playing: EvE, Ryzom
Makes sense. Spend milions of dollars and years developing and then exploit it for 6 months and start a new one. You are a business genius.
"Six month churn" means that players on average stay for about six months at a time. Old ones leave and new ones arrive, but any given player averages a six month stay.
It's a variation of the hotel guest model. The average guest stays for a few days, but that doesn't mean the hotel shuts down after a week.