Lifespan of an MMO

He’s right in a way, but in this day and age I am very wary of spin. I guess when Carl Rove goes into the game business it’s truly”interesting times”

He’s right in a way, but in this day and age I am very wary of spin - it sounds just like the presidential race in the US. If it came from someone “neutral” it would have more weight I guess.

Who knows, maybe Carl Rove is now working for Mythic?

It does sound like spin, yeah. A sound bite, a bit of bumper sticker wisdom that’s less than meaningless; it actually distorts reality a little.

I tried to give WAR an honest go but found it excruciating, which is sad because it’s clearly a full-fledged MMO — that’s an enormous undertaking –and there are some nice ideas in there. I think in the mainstream, WoW simply remains nigh on untouchable in terms of accumulated polish and production value and sheer mass of content.

I also think Blizzard has superior aesthetic judgement than Mythic, but that’s a more personal thing.

There’s actual game lifespan, and there’s personal player boredom lifespan. I think the latter is more relevant here. As mentioned, people can’t do the same thing forever. They’re just not built that way. We seek novelty and innovation (but not massive forced change - which brings the sidetrek topic of how far from WoW in specific or MMO roots in general do you go to make most people not alienated by your new game.)

A game is repetitive by its nature. Sooner or later, people get bored repeating the same motions day in and day out, even if they are/were having fun doing it. My unscientific personal observation suggests 3-4 years is the average before been-there, done-that boredom kicks in. That’s not to say people drop or throw aside the game they once liked. They may still love and support it, continue to pay its subscription, log in for various obligations, but they may also be ready to try something new to see if it appeals to them.

“All online games have a lifespan.” Mark is a little off-base with his comments, however single player console games do follow a predictable sales pattern. As with fads, the mass market can get too much of a good thing and abandon a hugely popular IP. You might think WOW is the ideal target for a backlash. Clearly it hasn’t happened yet, but if it does happen the backlash is going to hit WAR at the same time. WOW may give the mass market just enough fantasy to choke on, but then the whole fantasy MMO sector better watch out. I’m not that worried as WOW, like Star Wars, seems to be quite resilient.

We may be talking about WOW in terms of being a smaller game that refuses to die some day; like Ultima Online and Gemstone. These smaller games can have very long tails as they often become alternative choices for discerning gamers with “taste”. They seem to age more like the rock band RUSH than Brittany Spears or other over played popstars.

(Which reminds me, this is Sherwood’s fifth year - so here’s hoping for the long tail.)

Before I comment, I will share my Bias views first. I am a big fan of Mythic games. They have done a good job and innovation at them too. My path after DAoC took me from here and there, and back again. Games do last for so long until you outgrow them. I played DAoC for 5 years and they were good 5 years. But All good things, must come to an end. It is human nature.

I wanted to try WoW when it first came out. Checking reviews, consulting actual DAoC players who went to WoW and back. And it all came down to basics. Biggest answer was, the game was ‘Stale after 6 months of playing’. And yes, they came out with expansion of this and that. And I am sure that launched WoW into a few more millions of subscribers. But WoW is designed for people with low spec PC and that is also why about 50% of their subscribers are in Asia. It is true, many kids plays WoW. Unfortunately, many of them are also immature. I am not interested in who wins what race. All I care about is playing a good mmorpg for the next 5 years.

I was hesitant to play WAR. I was never into those Warhammer figurines. I didn’t like the orcs they design for that game either. But a true critic will judge a game for what it is, and not based on what I had for breakfast. So, with an open mind, I explore the world of WAR. I did not try to compare it to other MMOs, I did not try to find flaws. All I cared about was trying to learn it and enjoy it. Well, to my great surprise. The game has pulled through amazingly, and still with this open mind set I keep playing, but so far so good.

Mistakes I see about WoW players comparing their game with other mmorpg (WAR or any other). Is that most of the WoW players are first timers to what an mmo is. They are under the effect called ‘nostalgia’. If some of you are not sure what nostalgia means, don’t be afraid to look it up. Nostalgia is not a bad emotion, but it does impair judgment. They compare a new low level new game character to their existing high level 70 character in WoW(or 80 I believe now). So if you need to compare WAR, compare it to WAR. WoW is WoW, and Warhammer is Warhammer. They are two different kind of games.

And to clear things up, you like my comment or not, World of Warcraft was copied off Warhammer(Warhammer was probably copied off something else too). I could tell you dates and fact, but it would simply be a richer experience and more believable if WoW and WAR players just looked up wikipedia and checkout their timeline.

My reasons to like WoW:
- Huge community
- Low spec PC needed
- Blizzard

My dislikes to WoW:
- Too many classes has similar fighting or spells abilities(the names, effects and values might change slightly to fit the class name)
- Overdone repeatable Quests
- Ever changing contents (thins out number of players interested in original zones)
- Extremely rare items that only a few people can get (basically game based on how many hours you can put in, and not based on actual skills)

My reasons to like WAR thus far:
- All classes are nicely differently design
- New starting and growing community
- Public Quests (and yes, you can even invest 15 mins in a day solo into them)
- Mythic Entertainment
- Can invest very few minutes a day into any area and still progress (at the exception of open RvR, not instances RvR)
- Easy access to good gear
- Unique Crafting system
- Tome of knowledge
- Mythic /appeal system
- Dyes (say goodbye to lookalike clones)

My reason to hate WAR thus far:
- Instances RvR always balanced in number of players, but not in levels. (within a certain range of course)
- I miss the /stick, /follow and /face option (probably to prevent exploit, it wasn’t introduce)
- Greenskins are ugly looking
- EA owns Mythic as a publishing division

Hoping my feedback will help you make a better judgment call on the game and “to not judge a book by it’s cover”. I shall see if WAR will last me for 5 years as I always hate having to switch games. And I sincerely hope WoW lives on for another 5 years, so that the market can stay competitive and that game keeps pushing each other limits. (Example: Intel had to bring down their prices when AMD had major increase in sales last decade.)

Devoted mmorpg fan.

My apologies, “EA owns Mythic as a developer division.”