| Tuesday, July 6, 2010 |
| Taking out the Rubbish |
Is the bulk of no cost to play online games just rubbish? WoW runners-up, remakes (or attempts to) of best-selling console games and re-imaginations of previous titles have a hard time proving their worth among the online gaming industry's leaders.In the past few years a number of games have tried and failed.
Explanations for a game's untimely failure may include: chronic hacking and scamming issues by players seeking to economize on others' hard work and gullibility, major quirks and technical problems unsolved by game development teams, and a finisher of course is another title copies and makes an existing one.Economization of games has also taken its toll on game player energy and reverence, causing a gap to form between the free play (f2P) and paying (p2p) games and their fans.Take for example Caesary, a browser RTS game that began not long ago. The title concept, flow and design is nothing to scoff at, but slow-to-repair exploits with in-game manipulation and players' wallets being called upon to enjoy the "complete" content is a potential threat for this Lords Online look-alike.
Now, EVE Online, a proven space mmowhich is pay2play, worked on the best of what its hyperspace-ward predecessors had failed to do: make a spreadable and addicting stellar sandbox for players to truly cultivate and live out a role in a beautifully drawn galaxy of endless detail, intriguing story, and of course smooth cooperative/pvp play. On the other hand, Pirate Galaxy, a f2p browser game looks like the "Little Mac" to EVE Online and Grand Fantasia, but with even less interesting game content, spreadability and noteworthiness to making it worth playing past the tutorial quests. I shouldn't be surprised if Pirate Galaxy becomes like Freelancer, and subsists as an underground title, just like a similar game, "Freelancer" continues currently.But who or what is the true force behind a game's success and fall? Attention will hence be shifted to so-called "f2p" games with micro-transaction systems. Many look similar with negligible differences in visual appeal, story and target audience*. Corporates that make and distribute games have costs to account for, reputations to uphold, and players to acquire and keep playing. Having said this, you can easily assume that titles that don't make it big based on projected cash flow, player membership and online usage numbers, and purchases at the online mall, are doomed to be stopped before they have a chance to catch on to players. Having said that, would the thinking behind open/closed beta be worth anyone's time?*but really, if you reduced all these games to just wire frames, practically all are regenerations of the same game, not including a few root factors.Let's look at p2p hits like WoW, here is a game that dismisses any doubt that brand power combined with a cult of Blizzard-loyal fans was the spark and sustaining power that has made it the most influential player of the mmo genre today. LOTRO which a little while ago announced a shift to free-to-play, has strong brand worth and will move forward to enjoy the gains of strong sources of marketing, namely movies, merchandise, and independent content. Will this and other wannabe WoW-slayers be able to strengthen their stakes in f2p or p2p to the degree that they not only give to the fans what they want but satisfy expectations on the business front?Are lesser-known "f2p" games being distributed Aeria, Perfect World, gPotato, etc. even pondering the long term? Or is it just to make cash, shut down when the players abandon and nonchalantly pass blame on poor performance to player statistics dipping because of "boring," "uninspiring" game creators?A number of issues brought to light above that will not be resolved in this installment, but a final word: Online gaming as we know it can be eliminated or at least strongly affected by insensitive business minds who have no perspective for the games and ignore the magic they hold over players -- the urge to make money from tricks such as f2p with micro-payments, may be in its growth cycle now, but looking to the future, all one can see is a series of potentially great games being cut off by execs over poorly estimated revenue estimations and unemotional CCU statistics, the fortune cookies of the online gaming market. Stop focusing on the figures and put more effort in content and make customers enthusiastic they even heard of your production! That will go a long way in getting fans to play your games in the future.Labels: f2p, free mmorpg, mmorpg, online game, p2p |
posted by Perry's Blog @ 12:01 AM  |
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