Comments on: Games Trying to Be Everything, Can End Up Being Nothing

By: Outsider

Outsider — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:46:01 +0000

Because I’m driven to be competitive, the constant massive changes in a game drives me nuts. I dedicate time to learning how to succeed, and spend a fair amount of resources towards achieving what I discovered. If a game then proceeds to change everything and undo all that work, that’s when it’s time to quit, especially if I think they’ll be doing it again in a few months.

Funcom did alot of this with Age of Conan, which is why I quit. My character had a strong build, and was completely gemmed out for it. Then they nerfed the shit out of gems(most gems had their stats nerfed by -90%-). I might have adapted to it and continued, but they said the nerf was just a stop gap until they totally redid the gear system. Which meant I would have to start from scratch with the nerf, and again start from scratch when they redid the gear. I wasn’t willing to do that. That’s the way Funcom worked though. When something was wrong, they’d nerf the shit out of it, with the promise of a proper fix “soon”. In reality, “soon” was usually 4+ months.

By: Muckbeast

Muckbeast — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:36:23 +0000

The first big budget game that ignores WoW-style mechanics and makes an accessible, fun, engaging MMO will have either WoW like numbers or at least near WoW-like numbers.

The question is, how long will it be before someone has the balls to wager $100 million on it.

Serith: That’s an interesting point that with all the sweeping changes, you basically end up with a whole new MMO every 6 months and as a result a new forum community.

If I had to pick ONE thing I hate most about the modern MMO industry, it is the fact that if I like a game I feel like I have to spend half my gaming time on the forum fighting to preserve the game I enjoy.

By: serith78

serith78 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:47:43 +0000

Good points, this problem is actually one of the main reasons I end up quitting MMOs. Devs listen to forum whining, even to the point of changing the entire premise of the game just to try and keep a few wandering WOWlings. Which means in turn those who want the game to stay the way it started end up having to waste time fighting on the forums with those who want everything “dumbed down”.

Aside from obligatory forum debates been a severe waste of time, it’s hard as hell to actually enjoy the game when you know it will probably be completely different six months down the road. This I think plays hugely into the “where did the community go” issue of MMOs, community doesn’t really form when there’s a hardwired assumption you have only a few months to play before the devs totally screw the game up.

Note that by changes I’m not talking about the usual balance and such, but changes like putting guards on PVP servers on a game that was originally advertised as been heavliy PVP focused (Hello Funcom). But WOW did the same thing going from a game that originally required to skill to one where you could win battleground points by going AFK.

By: Adele

Adele — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:50:13 +0000

I agree! This is a good point. A very good point. This is exactly what they have been doing. They have been tweaking and changing the games to make them into something that fits an audience that they weren’t originally meant for. But in the end they are pushing out the old people who fell in love with them in the first place. It is this new ADD generation.

By: Muckbeast

Muckbeast — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:20:06 +0000

From everything I have read, Deux Ex Invisible War was a bomb – for the reasons you mention basically. They betrayed their own franchise.

By: Outsider

Outsider — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:24:43 +0000

Yeah, I agree with this. Games should identify a target audience, and try to make the best game for that audience that they can. Instead they water things down to bring in people that normally wouldn’t play that game(usually failing), costing them a bunch of players that actually want to play the game.

Deus Ex: Invisible War is a good example of this. They pretty much removed all of the rpg elements that made the original Deus Ex so interesting. They decided that the average player doesn’t like stuff like inventory management, character progression, etc, and didn’t include them. While I don’t think I’ve seen any sales numbers(who knows, maybe Invisible War did better than the original), critics and fans alike considered the game a total flop.

From the perspective of a player/consumer, if I don’t like a game, I don’t play it. Plain and simple. I don’t sit around crying for major changes. Typically I don’t even ask for small ones. There’s alot of games out there, and it’s a waste of time playing something that you believe is massively flawed. If you don’t like a game as it is now, odds are pretty good you won’t like the way the game developers change it later on either.