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Probably most of us are aware of all the problems Toyota has been having recently. One of their top execs responded with this:
"Toyoda [man's name, not a typo btw] pledged his company would change the way it handles consumer complaints, including seeking greater input from drivers and outside safety experts when considering recalls. Toyota managers will also drive cars under investigation to experience potential problems first hand, he said.
He suggested his company's "priorities became confused" in its quest for growth over the past decade at the expense of safety concerns."
Of course safety concerns aren't the issue for MMOs. Customer satisfaction is. I think many MMO development houses could take a lesson here. Listen to consumer complaints, seek greater input from customers, and make sure your priorities don't become confused in a quest for growth.
Comments
So very right. Wish more companies had the balls to man up and admit they screwed up. This gives me nothing but a new found respect for Toyota.
In most companies the simple employees at the lower end know full well the issues. But those big headed top guys ignore it and follow their "visions". This is true in almost every industry. Management doesn't listen to their emloyees who are in contanct with the everyday business of things and much less to customers. For a manager, the customer is the enemy.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I completely disagree. My sanity is very much a concern. I demand safety for my brain each time I take that first step into a poorly prepare and untested MMO
Developers will only ever make what they can reliably sell. They don't listen to anyone, even if those people have 10,000x more experience with games than they do. They only listen to their customers after they've made their mistakes and by then it's often too late. Some MMOs have even made things much worse by trying to placate their customers.
To me his words are empty until I see results because with the progression that articles say about Toyota over the past years, it definitely has followed the American corporate way of thinking. That also includes the b.s. words many corporate executives use to minimize damage especially when things become political with them. To me, it just looks like their way of covering their own asses.
So no, I don't think its a great lesson when Toyota has carried a history of this regression since their company has switched hands over the past few years and they waited until something real bad happens before they stop being cheap about everything? No, never great when the CEO/President of a company has to show up to Capitol Hill to explain themselves...
This is where Blizz/WoW leads the industry.
Message to dev's: Pretend your mmog is a grocery store. Brightly lit, fresh, regular hours, and free of bugs
Now that he's admitted to "confused priorities," the world will be watching to see if he backs this up with action. I agree that this will be the real test.
How many times, for example, have we heard MMO execs say, "sorry, we've learned from our mistake," and then we see them do the same bloody thing all over again, and again, and again. Like Toyota is sure to be hit by consumer backlash, these MMO companies have also seen their games drastically down-sized or closed outright. This is what comes of confused priorities, and I see plenty of this confusion in the MMO industry.
Except Toyota is not like MMO industry. MMO industry is heatlhy, growing, getting stronger and making more money...
Don't they produce games you would like to see? They do listen to players, they listen to majority and the games are made accordingly. Then, if you do not like the type of games they produce, it is because you are a minority and only indy studios will focus at such market because then they do not have to compete with big companies directly...
There already exists a great lesson for the makers of MMOs
1) Look what Mythic/EA did with WAR
2) Do the polar opposite
3) Rack up billions of profit with the most successful MMO in history
Auto-Assault (closed), Tabula Rasa (closed), Vanguard (struggled), Champions Online (struggled), Age of Conan (struggled), WAR (struggled), Matrix Online (closed), StarWars Galaxies (brutal revamps, massive server closure)--and that's just off the top of my head.
Healthy? Growing? Getting Stronger? Not from where I'm sitting.
Evidence of not listening to customers? Plenty. Possiblity of confused priorities? Wouldn't surprise me a bit.
I wouldn't listen to armchair-MMO-developers either. Vast majority of their ideas fall apart and turn to dust right there in the drawing table.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Auto-Assault (closed), Tabula Rasa (closed), Vanguard (struggled), Champions Online (struggled), Age of Conan (struggled), WAR (struggled), Matrix Online (closed), StarWars Galaxies (brutal revamps, massive server closure)--and that's just off the top of my head.
Healthy? Growing? Getting Stronger? Not from where I'm sitting.
Evidence of not listening to customers? Plenty. Possiblity of confused priorities? Wouldn't surprise me a bit.
Vanguard will probably shut down it's servers this year or the next, oh and Pirates of the Burning Sea (struggled).
When it comes to the P2P MMORPGs that are successful in the west it really is a short list:
World of Warcraft
Aion
Champions Online (may soon be struggling)
Star Trek Online (may soon be struggling)
EVE
Lord of the Rings Online (may soon be struggling)
As you can see it really is a short list.
All those memories will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.
Agree....but at the same time, we as consumers need to do our part on our end and not put up with it and actually boycott as a collective group to get them to listen. Otherwise, they will just continue to stick it to us because they know they can get away with it and still get paid.
Don't give them too much credit. They only did it to save face and so they wouldn't go under because of this. Otherwise, they would more than likely of continued to cut corners to make more profit like any other greedy company.
Auto-Assault (closed), Tabula Rasa (closed), Vanguard (struggled), Champions Online (struggled), Age of Conan (struggled), WAR (struggled), Matrix Online (closed), StarWars Galaxies (brutal revamps, massive server closure)--and that's just off the top of my head.
Healthy? Growing? Getting Stronger? Not from where I'm sitting.
Evidence of not listening to customers? Plenty. Possiblity of confused priorities? Wouldn't surprise me a bit.
Vanguard will probably shut down it's servers this year or the next, oh and Pirates of the Burning Sea (struggled).
When it comes to the P2P MMORPGs that are successful in the west it really is a short list:
World of Warcraft
Aion
Champions Online (may soon be struggling)
Star Trek Online (may soon be struggling)
EVE
Lord of the Rings Online (may soon be struggling)
As you can see it really is a short list.
But a bit longer than that.
Final Fantasy XI.
EverQuest is not what it was, but can still be characterized as "successful"
Toyota finally confessed when our government got involved and FBI started to raid their factories. Where's that new found respect coming from? Oh and a Toyota representative wants to change his sworn testimony after stating that Toyota knew the current Accelerator fix would NOT completely fix the problem that the cars are having? Please, give me a break. Toyota blew this one. Profit before safety was on their mind the whole time, worried about not being the #1 Automaker.
Toyota finally confessed when our government got involved and FBI started to raid their factories. Where's that new found respect coming from? Oh and a Toyota representative wants to change his sworn testimony after stating that Toyota knew the current Accelerator fix would NOT completely fix the problem that the cars are having? Please, give me a break. Toyota blew this one. Profit before safety was on their mind the whole time, worried about not being the #1 Automaker.
I'm referring specifically to Mr. Toyoda's admission that his company got its priorities confused. I have to wonder how many MMO execs would be willing to admit this. I think many could, if they were honest with themselves. I'd hate to think they'd have to be persuaded by something like a federal investigation into their business practices, but heh, who knows.
Auto-Assault (closed), Tabula Rasa (closed), Vanguard (struggled), Champions Online (struggled), Age of Conan (struggled), WAR (struggled), Matrix Online (closed), StarWars Galaxies (brutal revamps, massive server closure)--and that's just off the top of my head.
Healthy? Growing? Getting Stronger? Not from where I'm sitting.
Evidence of not listening to customers? Plenty. Possiblity of confused priorities? Wouldn't surprise me a bit.
Vanguard will probably shut down it's servers this year or the next, oh and Pirates of the Burning Sea (struggled).
When it comes to the P2P MMORPGs that are successful in the west it really is a short list:
World of Warcraft
Aion
Champions Online (may soon be struggling)
Star Trek Online (may soon be struggling)
EVE
Lord of the Rings Online (may soon be struggling)
As you can see it really is a short list.
Your list seems pretty accurate to me. When I read posts about how the industry is thriving, I have to wonder where that notion comes from.
So many games, especially recent ones, have crashed and burned completely or stumbled badly out of the gate. Layoffs and server closures abound.
I don't know if it's denial, marketting or what. Admitting there's a problem seems to be the first logical step to some kind of recovery.
Subscription numbers.
How many people were playing MMOs in 2000? .. 2005? .. how many today?
Sure, a lot of the recent MMO's have sucked balls on an epic scale, but the industry itself, i.e. the number of people playing MMOs has risen dramatically, and I've yet to see any evidence of it slowing down/decreasing.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
Didn't half of the US economy admit they fudged up after something blatant like the American economy taking a crap on the world here? And of course the resolution behind that was give them all our money. So, no, its not too hard to admit to a mistake when the rest of the world already knows it and all he can do is say sorry? Yeah last time I remember, sorry never brought those dead people back from their graves and this isn't no MMORPG. We can't go to church and ask the priest to cast a res on them either.
Again, it appears its to cover their own asses and if the lid wasn't blown open on this case, Toyota would still continue to do the same things they were doing and possibly regress into a more corporate, profit-first state.
Market exposure is the main reason for growth of the industry in the mid 2000's. Not only was China, Japan, and Russia(EA now has an office there) opened up to MMOG's, but advertising became commonplace in North America. Some major game companies have been experiencing some layoffs the past two years, something close to unavoidable for any major business in north america at this time. When the market is downtrending, game companies will find they have to be a bit more creative in what they produce. When the market is healthy, the likelyhood of most anything selling is greater.
I've always thought customer satisfaction was the way to go. However, in this industry, most people don't know what they want; listening too much could be detrimental to the game at hand. Not listening at all by being stubborn will isolate customers, shown via a few failed games.
[Mod Edit]
Subscription numbers.
How many people were playing MMOs in 2000? .. 2005? .. how many today?
Sure, a lot of the recent MMO's have sucked balls on an epic scale, but the industry itself, i.e. the number of people playing MMOs has risen dramatically, and I've yet to see any evidence of it slowing down/decreasing.
I think that most of those subscription numbers have congregated in games made by companies that have earned a degree of consumer confidence. This, I think, is one reason Blizz has so many customers compared to other companies that really don't seem to focus on consumer satisfaction.
Also, in response to someone else's comment, I think gamers do know what they want. MMO companies don't seem to be very skilled listeners in my experience. Games launch even though core systems are broken or missing, despite the fact that a majority of beta testers say the game is not ready. Games are revamped, despite the fact that a majority of players who test the revamp say that it does not address any of their concerns, that it makes the game less enjoyable, and that it is actually broken. Struggling games add ever increasing layers of fees, despite the negative response this tends to draw from players, and despite net subscription loss.
In all the examples listed above, players are speaking very clearly. They do not seem to be heard, however, and that begs the question, "why not?"