Im looking forward to playing darkfall once I can though I wouldnt say for certain that it will 'succeed'. Time will tell
it wasnt that big until I added xfire. I like to think that portion of my sig is like a collection of badges. On further inspection each portion is different!
Just saw this thread and wanted to add, not only will DFO not succeed, it will be one of the most epics failures in MMO history. On the level of Dark and Light.
I'd like to think that you're wrong. . . but I have a nagging feeling that you just might be on the money!
yeah, thats the way i feel about the Stargate mmo in development... id buy it for the hope that it would be decent, but im not holding my breath on that
you know what they say: once you go troll, you don't reroll of course i changed from a troll priest to a blood elf paladin, so i don't know how much stock to put in that.
Random internet people claiming any MMO to be a "failure" as if they have some overarching universal judgment knowledge on how the industry works and is run - has to be one of my biggest pet peeves as a blogger who covers video games, mainly MMOs, and the entire industry (both business and player side of things). An example of this is people who use phrases like "..fails like WAR" or "...fails like AoC" and so on. Designated games that they deem "failures" because they were either bitter about their time playing it and/or just latch onto the idea from word-of-mouth of other angsty forum-goers who like to bash every game they don't like and declare it a failure. There are tons of factors that would determine an MMO to be a failure, but in layman's I just like to use the "if it is still up and running and people are playing it is not a failure" answer. Just because you did not enjoy a game, feel like your $50 was wasted or they stole $15/mo from you for x months, does not mean that there aren't players around the world still enjoying and living in that virtual world and having a blast doing so. Play what you like, escape into a virtual world that you enjoy, and just leave the other virtual worlds at peace if they aren't to your liking. You don't have cause a ruckus in the community of every game you don't like or consider a "failure" just becuase *YOU* didn't personally enjoy it. My case in point, why do people feel the need to chime in shit like "it will be the biggest MMO failure ever." But then again, this thread is begging for trolls.
well, the topic is more on success than failure... and while they may be opposing sides, as 1080 said, lots of grey in there. i would define success as making a profit from the company standpoint, and lasting long enough to not make future game expectations fall and making the consumer feel they got their money's worth. the problem with with getting your money's worth is that opportunity cost, or how else you'd spend those dollars, varies greatly and is usually not understood very well. take the average gamer playing a subscription mmo: server goes down when they want to play, they feel their being robbed and want free game time or some money back, though in actuality, i pay 82 cents per day to blizzard for 2 accounts of warcraft. if i get booted or can't play when i want in a day, i feel like ive lost a lot more than that cause of the time more than the money. To succeed, it will simply need to support its high demand and continue to bring in those revenue's to pay for more content. when they break into the green and start making new profits from expanded the customer and content base. If you can't sustain and maintain the player base, it's hard to be much of a success.. and test #1 of getting all the people wanting to try it out going and having fun seems to be going well enough as they apparently were down for a few hours but gave people 2-3 free days. not bad honestly.
Problem is everyone's idea of "success" is different as well. In this market, people think if you aren't topping 1mil+ you aren't successful which is just total blasphemy. I'm happy to play a game that has ANY # of people playing it, as long as the community is thriving and friendly. Lineage 2 for example: the community is excellent and very active - yet naysayers would just see it and acknowledge it as "omg fail" because it's off the radar for most and word of mouth has claimed it to be "a failure," when actually it's doing just fine. Go into the Phoenix server on L2 and try to tell the players who are having a fucking blast every night that it's a "failure." (oh and btw, Lineage 2 is banking..they have tons of subscribers worldwide) My definition of "success" varies from that of say the CFO or CEO of a publisher, because I don't really care about the profit-margin, just that the game is still up and has players enjoying it. A good analogy of why "epic fail" people piss me off is that it's like seeing someone enjoy a nice ice cream cone of chocolate ice cream and some person walking up and going "chocolate ice cream sucks, why are you eating that." That analogy sounded way more profound in my head Basically to each their own and don't shit on other people's plate. I'm getting all long winded and ranty though because this is a pet-peeve / sensitive topic of mine. I joined the MMORPG scene way before the wave of WoW and it just pisses me off how much things have changed and how the overall community is so negative and snarky towards any game they aren't playing now. WoW has brought the "fanboy" into MMOs and it makes me a sad panda.
except that longevity of such games is decided by those CEO/CFO's because they aren't non-profit game makers. from the sync problems in other topics, i would contend that the biggest risk currently is having a bigger bark than a bite on the ability to handle the number of people. thats the biggest problem wow has created: too much spent on getting more players and trying to do it without increasing overhead. sure it's brought in a different type into mmo's but it's not all a downside either. i think people that have quit wow seem to have a lot of hate for it left over.
Duh. I realize it's not unicef, but as a player I think it's pointless to worry about how profitable a game is - as long as there are players, the company will be making money. If it's not enough money, they're doing something wrong. Devs/Publishers need to stop being so naive and stop shooting for "WoW Killer" AAA game that costs millions upon millions to develop, before a penny of income is made. Funcom fell victim to this, and now they've lost something like $24 million in Q4 2008. But in the end - I still don't see a game's profit as success. I really doubt Matrix Online is banking, but I wouldn't call it a failure because it's still around and being patched. MMO failures = games that have DIED. Hellgate London, Dark & Light, Auto Assault, etc. But even then, it's a fine line because a game like Tabula Rasa, that gets shut down, will stilll not be considered a failure when I look back on it because there are thousands of fans who are heartbroken by it getting shut down and who *would* keep paying for it. It was a pretty good game - it was just victim of the corporate grind and shitty economy. Peg that failure on NCsoft, not the game though imo. Even though I find this thread to be begging for trolls and rather pointless, I'm going to stop because we're derailing it. :X
Not intended as a troll-lure. Simply wanted to gauge people's opinions on how they think the game will do - especially seeing as some of our members were beta testers and even more so now that the game is live.
Fanboys existed in MMO's long before WoW. There was always a sort of pride attached with playing the MMO you were playing and that everyone else were nubs for playing the game they were instead of the game you were. Its natural to have a sort of pride in your game of choice, or your play style, especially when you are dedicating 20-50 hours a week to that game.
It's natural if you're trying to justify yourself because you have a niggling feeling you're wasting your time.