@Bokusatsu_Tenshi: i guess. but its like theyre fighting in a dark environment and then suddenly theres a burst of color from them.. oh well. it looks just as good as mabinogi heroes anyways.
Let me go on record and say that constantly claiming "voiced NPCs" as your MMO's selling point is like trying to sell a race car by singling out its rims.
Shiny as they may be, we're all left wondering what's under the hood that made this guy feel as though he had to pitch in some spinners.
Kim is right about more games being free, its the way the industry is going. Developers are going to have to start finding more creative ways to monetize their games.
Allow everyone who wants to play to actually player, a small portion of which paying for services. The larger the base audience, the larger the percentage of people actually paying money.
Its going to be an interesting model for the industry, one which I hope doesn't bankrupt it.
@TheOmnitron: You actually bring up a good point, because it's an interesting gamble from the perspective of the MMO company. In the long run, game purchases are only a fraction of what you're really trying to earn: Namely, subscriptions, which can become cash cows once you hook them in, and more importantly: Stable Revenue, which in the sometimes volitile industry is something of a holy grail. However, MMO's require substantially more overhead than your average game, to say nothing of the infrastructure required to keep it running. Because of this, initial game sales are often used to off-set the development costs, which leads to a second conundrum: It must sell really well right off the bat.
To further befuddle matters: From a consumer/gamer perspective, I am particularly leery of buying a new MMO for any price unless I'm sure I'm going to be into it: Buying a game for $50 that, if I don't like enough to pay a monthly fee, it's wasted. It's something of a risk from a consumer perspective because you're 'buying in' to a subscription purchase, and get nothing tangible for it. This is why MMO players are so hesitant to look at another one to buy in the first place, because they're already paying a monthly fee, and it would take something considerable to get them to switch over.
The fact is: Part of me feels like if they're asking me to pay a monthly fee, that shelling out $50 for the game is almost too much: It makes me hesitant, and a few MMOs have gotten almost no chance from me because of it, but removing it takes away the safety net of MMOs and makes them more of a gamble than ever. It will be interesting to see if things change, and into what.
I think this article sort of points to a difficulty in the video game industry. Diagnosing real issues with a genre and then coming up with a strategy to effectively resolve them.
The comments about cross platform gaming and accessibility are decent steps, but neither of them really speak to the root of why some MMO's fail. Sure there are tons of bad MMO's, but what about decent ones that just don't pass muster?
In my opinion the topic is not about technological advancements, but rather ideological stagnation. There are a few things here and there that have changed with how MMO's are handled since UO and EQ, but by and large they have stayed relatively the same. There have been some small ideological shifts, but there is still lots of resistance to major changes.
I like the idea of MMO's, I have played plenty. I think one of the defining characteristics of an MMO is a persistent online environment. Aside from that, there are additional defining elements depending on the type of MMO. Bearing those few things in mind, it seems there should be myriad opportunities to differentiate and innovate (conceptually speaking). Instead, developers copy their more successful competitors and hope to gain a small bit of market share. Unfortunately, not very many people want to play a poorly made WoW knock off when the real deal is so readily available.
Wow itself was guilty of this same thing. Blizzard took numerous pages from the EQ book for Vanilla WoW. Yes, things have changed since then and much of it for the better, but the core model is still the same.
Maybe one of those five devs sitting on the panel has some ground breaking ideological shift prepared for their MMO, but from the article it sure doesn't sound like they are doing anything too different. I guess that would just be too risky. They should take a page from their own models, if the risk is low, the reward will be too.
@ankhenaten: While I agree with you wholeheartedly, we need some real new ideas, I feel compelled to point out that it's far easier said than done. Many of the small changes, tweaks, and 'innovations' companies experiment with will ultimately pave the way for a shift in the future. You almost have to feel bad for the upstarts, because they'll take the risks, possibly fall flat, and other companies will lift their ideas, add new ones, and further refine them: Hell, WoW pretty much owes its existence to that model.
I dont mind if the dialogue is in either text or dialogue. This may be because I either dont care much about the story (then why bother with RPGs right?), have ADD or that I can read in the first place.
Spoken dialogues are good to have but I would still purchase an RPG if it didnt have VAs for the whole game. To me the only point in an RPG where spoken dialogue is a must, is during a cutscene.
During a cutscene, I would also like to have some music to set the atmosphere/mood. What grinds my gears is that some games opt to omit the tunes during these FMVs.
@Pombar: Stop playing JRPGs and this will change. :P
Going back from Mass Effect to replay Shadow Hearts 2 I had the same reaction, bummed I had to read all the dialogue again. Thankfully, I have the game almost devoted to memory.
@Pombar: Yeah, I agree with you on this one. I can read a lot faster than people talk anyway, so on games that have voice, I'm generally always cutting people off, because I've read the whole text box and they're only halfway done.
It seems that hearing only half-sentences all the time would be more annoying than hearing none.
@ShDragon: Not to mention the low hit-to-miss ratio of voice acting in the industry (especially with child characters), and the fact that dragging out a few lines of dialogue to a minute or more can make a throwaway gag tedious and dull.
@RevProtocol: Now you're talking my language.
But again, there's a difference in direction when you plan it to have speech - the camera zooms in, focuses on the characters faces as if we're all that interested that the lips are synching, etc. So I dunno. I guess I'll continue to whine by myself as usual.
@saady87: I was surprised too, but I guess the back-and-forth may have consisted of all the other guests saying how WoW is the present and their games are the future, while the Blizzard guy would be saying how much actual right-now proven success they're having with the innovations they are putting in.
MMO games are crap.I mean, they seem fun for a while untill you are smart enought to realise that it is a complete waste of time.The more stupid people try to become some sort of freaky clan boss killing monsters with one hit.
@Pult|Ost - Dark Days Are Coming:
The thing is all mmo's are fun at the begining but it's hard to tell which one you will enjoy on the long term scale.That is the reason I hate MMO's, the ones I played seemed to be the wrong ones for me.
@ShoopDaBoofs:
I don't see the problem with what I said other than the fact that I said "stupidER people" accidently when it should just be "the more stupid people".
BTW I can just edit my post so :p
@Pult|Ost - Dark Days Are Coming: Really? That looks like the first half of a comparison sentence to me "the more X do Y, the more/less something else happens".
I think the way you'd write it would be; "The stupider people try to become some sort of etc etc etc". Even then it's a little clumsy in the phrasing, but you could sort it out by making it "stupidest" or "stupider people among us" or something.
08/14/09
Free with in game monetizing?
08/14/09
08/14/09
08/14/09
08/14/09
And it probably wouldn't look as good with non cartoony characters.
08/14/09
08/14/09
07/24/09
Shiny as they may be, we're all left wondering what's under the hood that made this guy feel as though he had to pitch in some spinners.
07/24/09
Allow everyone who wants to play to actually player, a small portion of which paying for services. The larger the base audience, the larger the percentage of people actually paying money.
Its going to be an interesting model for the industry, one which I hope doesn't bankrupt it.
07/24/09
To further befuddle matters: From a consumer/gamer perspective, I am particularly leery of buying a new MMO for any price unless I'm sure I'm going to be into it: Buying a game for $50 that, if I don't like enough to pay a monthly fee, it's wasted. It's something of a risk from a consumer perspective because you're 'buying in' to a subscription purchase, and get nothing tangible for it. This is why MMO players are so hesitant to look at another one to buy in the first place, because they're already paying a monthly fee, and it would take something considerable to get them to switch over.
The fact is: Part of me feels like if they're asking me to pay a monthly fee, that shelling out $50 for the game is almost too much: It makes me hesitant, and a few MMOs have gotten almost no chance from me because of it, but removing it takes away the safety net of MMOs and makes them more of a gamble than ever. It will be interesting to see if things change, and into what.
07/24/09
The comments about cross platform gaming and accessibility are decent steps, but neither of them really speak to the root of why some MMO's fail. Sure there are tons of bad MMO's, but what about decent ones that just don't pass muster?
In my opinion the topic is not about technological advancements, but rather ideological stagnation. There are a few things here and there that have changed with how MMO's are handled since UO and EQ, but by and large they have stayed relatively the same. There have been some small ideological shifts, but there is still lots of resistance to major changes.
I like the idea of MMO's, I have played plenty. I think one of the defining characteristics of an MMO is a persistent online environment. Aside from that, there are additional defining elements depending on the type of MMO. Bearing those few things in mind, it seems there should be myriad opportunities to differentiate and innovate (conceptually speaking). Instead, developers copy their more successful competitors and hope to gain a small bit of market share. Unfortunately, not very many people want to play a poorly made WoW knock off when the real deal is so readily available.
Wow itself was guilty of this same thing. Blizzard took numerous pages from the EQ book for Vanilla WoW. Yes, things have changed since then and much of it for the better, but the core model is still the same.
Maybe one of those five devs sitting on the panel has some ground breaking ideological shift prepared for their MMO, but from the article it sure doesn't sound like they are doing anything too different. I guess that would just be too risky. They should take a page from their own models, if the risk is low, the reward will be too.
07/24/09
07/24/09
I dont mind if the dialogue is in either text or dialogue. This may be because I either dont care much about the story (then why bother with RPGs right?), have ADD or that I can read in the first place.
Spoken dialogues are good to have but I would still purchase an RPG if it didnt have VAs for the whole game. To me the only point in an RPG where spoken dialogue is a must, is during a cutscene.
During a cutscene, I would also like to have some music to set the atmosphere/mood. What grinds my gears is that some games opt to omit the tunes during these FMVs.
Namely, KH.
07/24/09
07/24/09
Going back from Mass Effect to replay Shadow Hearts 2 I had the same reaction, bummed I had to read all the dialogue again. Thankfully, I have the game almost devoted to memory.
07/24/09
07/24/09
It seems that hearing only half-sentences all the time would be more annoying than hearing none.
07/24/09
07/24/09
07/24/09
But again, there's a difference in direction when you plan it to have speech - the camera zooms in, focuses on the characters faces as if we're all that interested that the lips are synching, etc. So I dunno. I guess I'll continue to whine by myself as usual.
07/24/09
07/24/09
07/24/09
07/24/09
I've been playing the wrong MMOs evidently. Freak clan boss killing monsters ftw.
07/24/09
The thing is all mmo's are fun at the begining but it's hard to tell which one you will enjoy on the long term scale.That is the reason I hate MMO's, the ones I played seemed to be the wrong ones for me.
07/24/09
I don't think I even want to address the irony in this statement.
07/24/09
I don't see the problem with what I said other than the fact that I said "stupidER people" accidently when it should just be "the more stupid people".
BTW I can just edit my post so :p
07/24/09
07/24/09
As long as we can keep
"The more stupid people try to become some sort of freaky clan boss killing monsters with one hit."
I'm fine.
07/24/09
I think the way you'd write it would be; "The stupider people try to become some sort of etc etc etc". Even then it's a little clumsy in the phrasing, but you could sort it out by making it "stupidest" or "stupider people among us" or something.
11/15/08
How interesting!
11/13/08
11/13/08
And I will be competing for the Ninja side.
That is a good idea btw lol.
11/13/08