http://wired.com/news/games/0,2101,6415 ... _tophead_1
Looks like Everquest is theoretically still on top.
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Peijen
- Minion to the Exalted Pooh-Bah
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EQ is what's wrong with this genre. I was reading a UO story thread on SA, and one of the guy commented he should've play UO instead of EQ because there are no good memories/stories with EQ. It's all leveling and camping.
Most of MMO out there are too restrictive and people spend most of their time build up a character instead of "playing" (this is why vinny is having a lot of fun in FFXI because he is playing the game, not leveling up).
[somehow I didn't finish this sentence]Unfortunately it's not going to change until some company shows that you can create a game that can make money using something other than treadmill model.
I was thinking about this the last few days because I was bored. You can get alot of premade component of a game, communication/game engine/object models/AI libraries, maybe a company can focus on creating content and out source the coding to other companies. Hire story tellers instead of programmers. I wonder how much people would pay for a really well made game with human run events.
Most of MMO out there are too restrictive and people spend most of their time build up a character instead of "playing" (this is why vinny is having a lot of fun in FFXI because he is playing the game, not leveling up).
[somehow I didn't finish this sentence]Unfortunately it's not going to change until some company shows that you can create a game that can make money using something other than treadmill model.
I was thinking about this the last few days because I was bored. You can get alot of premade component of a game, communication/game engine/object models/AI libraries, maybe a company can focus on creating content and out source the coding to other companies. Hire story tellers instead of programmers. I wonder how much people would pay for a really well made game with human run events.
Last edited by Peijen on Fri Jul 16, 2004 8:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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quantus
- Tenth Dan Procrastinator
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The game dev's for PP spend a lot of time in game playing and listening to the players. They also spent a lot of time making 24/48-hour bashes and all as well. Also, there really is no level treadmill in PP. If you're good at a puzzle, your notoriety ranking goes up really quickly and plateaus about where you are in comparison to everyone else. You still have the experience treadmill too, but it tends to mean less than just being good at the puzzle. Anyways, I've said this all before. I need to get back to work.
This is the important part.Peijen wrote:[somehow I didn't finish this sentence]Unfortunately it's not going to change until some company shows that you can create a game that can make money using something other than treadmill model.
Last edited by Alan on Fri Jul 16, 2004 8:58 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Peijen
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I definitely agree that PP has something unique to offer, however the game is sort of limited to solving puzzle and socialize. The market appeal is somewhat limited, but I think the model is very good. Does PP have some sort of on going story, or multiple on going stories? I think a human run event will be the next selling point of MMO genre.
Also allow quick action for people who doesn't have enough time to play. Maybe some kind of random quest system... kind of like warcraft 3 match up system. A player would sign up to be grouped with random people and given a quest to complete. Once enough people sign up, they will be teleported to the same location and a quest of appropriate difficulty is generated.
Also allow quick action for people who doesn't have enough time to play. Maybe some kind of random quest system... kind of like warcraft 3 match up system. A player would sign up to be grouped with random people and given a quest to complete. Once enough people sign up, they will be teleported to the same location and a quest of appropriate difficulty is generated.
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Jonathan
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Something of this sort is the key. I think you'll find a power law effect if you can pair a system of this sort to attract casual players with the backend technology to support significantly more than ~5000 players per shard. Your game attracts a broader audience than anything other game, it becomes more popular, and more people sign up to play because all their friends play it.Peijen wrote:Also allow quick action for people who doesn't have enough time to play. Maybe some kind of random quest system... kind of like warcraft 3 match up system. A player would sign up to be grouped with random people and given a quest to complete. Once enough people sign up, they will be teleported to the same location and a quest of appropriate difficulty is generated.
I think Guild Wars, if it develops the way it seems to be headed from the Alpha, could fill this niche.
But it's a very fine line to walk between allowing enough advancement that it's worth doing and allowing players who don't spend a lot of time with advancement to compete with those who do.
And maybe it's actually impossible, I don't know. Can't please everyone, I think.
But it's a very fine line to walk between allowing enough advancement that it's worth doing and allowing players who don't spend a lot of time with advancement to compete with those who do.
And maybe it's actually impossible, I don't know. Can't please everyone, I think.
One idea I had at some point, but I don't think it's economically feasible yet, is to schedule a game like a recurring tv show. 9pm every wednesday you can enter the game for an hour and have dynamic and new content every week. It would be a series so you'd have to tune in every week or else the other members in your time slot will have to deal with you being weaker or not knowing what's going on. Things would be fairly scripted, but you could have GMs there to make things interesting.
It would probably take as much time as a regular tv show takes now to create the weekly content. (look at how much time they spend on stargate right now for a weekly show and they have an extended season) The real money-maker isn't in the first time showing, but rather in the reruns.
It would probably take as much time as a regular tv show takes now to create the weekly content. (look at how much time they spend on stargate right now for a weekly show and they have an extended season) The real money-maker isn't in the first time showing, but rather in the reruns.