As a chess player and an observer of Massively-Multiplayer Online Games, I found this very humorous.
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MMORPGs are in many cases a corporate concern, designed by committee, and designed rather than as interesting alternate worlds, as boring (to me) grinds designed to keep the subscription fees coming. Even EVE Online, which isn’t run by one of the major gaming studios, is extremely time consuming, and I realized it has it’s own grind in the form of skills that take days or even months to build up… A pity, because I liked its “spreadsheets in space” aspects, it has the best player-driven economy of any MMORPG.
In a way, it’s good that they’re designed by committee — it ensures that their scope at least partly approaches that of the real world. So long as those subscription fees are paid entirely voluntarily, I have no beef with the business model behind them.
I have no beef with the business model either… Just with the playability. Though apparently my idea of playability is not the same as that of others, WOW is the most popular game by far and has 10 million people online…
If you’re targeting a game to the largest number of people you can get, and you want those people to pay repeatedly, what better audience than bored kids with unlimited free time and their parents’ credit card numbers? Yeah, that’s cynical, but when you’re talking about understanding a business, “cynical” is usually a good trait.
Sigh… Is anyone interested in creating virtual worlds for intelligent 40 year olds? 😉
Most people designing those places are, I suspect, in their twenties, maybe early thirties at the latest. I’m sure they can’t imagine what forty-year-olds would want to do. 😉
MMORPGs are in many cases a corporate concern, designed by committee, and designed rather than as interesting alternate worlds, as boring (to me) grinds designed to keep the subscription fees coming. Even EVE Online, which isn’t run by one of the major gaming studios, is extremely time consuming, and I realized it has it’s own grind in the form of skills that take days or even months to build up… A pity, because I liked its “spreadsheets in space” aspects, it has the best player-driven economy of any MMORPG.
In a way, it’s good that they’re designed by committee — it ensures that their scope at least partly approaches that of the real world. So long as those subscription fees are paid entirely voluntarily, I have no beef with the business model behind them.
I have no beef with the business model either… Just with the playability. Though apparently my idea of playability is not the same as that of others, WOW is the most popular game by far and has 10 million people online…
If you’re targeting a game to the largest number of people you can get, and you want those people to pay repeatedly, what better audience than bored kids with unlimited free time and their parents’ credit card numbers? Yeah, that’s cynical, but when you’re talking about understanding a business, “cynical” is usually a good trait.
Sigh… Is anyone interested in creating virtual worlds for intelligent 40 year olds? 😉
Most people designing those places are, I suspect, in their twenties, maybe early thirties at the latest. I’m sure they can’t imagine what forty-year-olds would want to do. 😉