mpirooz's forum posts
I agree with you completely on the fact that if developers are trying to cash in on the MMO boom, we're going to get slack on all other genres of games, especially if their respective developer is pursuing an MMO on a large scale.
Nevereathim
You're absolutely right, if this happened in the States, Blizz could be sued, and it's only a matter of time until something similar happens and proceeds throughout the justice system. However, to say whether or not the gaming company would be held accountable or not would be putting my foot in my mouth, but I am extremely curious as to how the competence over responsibility/liability would play out in court!
Everybody knows that World of Warcraft is a great game. To say it's not would be to say that 8 million plus subscribers are wrong and wasting their money, good luck with that. However, to say that the game has not had any negative effects on their players is also incorrect.
Gamers have been playing games that WoW mimics for over a decade. Text-based games have been around since the early 90s and have had equally if not greater amounts of depth and social interaction than current MMOs.
Anybody that has played a text-based game, and I mean really played them, knows that they are addictive and embedding. The social interactions and the almost cultural experience these games can offer is truly unique.
Some of the problems that arise with extremely engrossing games such as these is the shear amount of time a person can play. Average MMO gamers play at least 2 hours a day, while a very large amount play for 4 hours plus every single day. Also, because of the social-based structure of the game (bosses requiring 40 man raids, or groups to kill etc.), gamers often have to follow a strict schedule so that all the members of their guild, or team can get online at the same time.
It didn't take long for the press to pick up on the effects of addictive gameplay. Within a year the term "internet addict" was coined. It might have had something to do with a Chinese man that died from playing World of Warcraft for 36 hours straight, not even taking time to eat or drinking anything. Ahem... But is that Blizzard's fault? I think not, however I think it's important for us to understand why it's happening and why all of a sudden it's such a big deal? The answer? 8 million subscribers.
Text based games have similar qualities and effects on gamers that MMOs have. One term for a text based game is MUD, or multi-user dungeon. That doesn't sound entirely different than MMO, and it's not. So, if internet addiction (particularly with MMOs) is not a new thing, what gives? Well, for starters, text-based games required the player to read and respond completely in text, typing in commands where an MMO would require a mouse click. Because of this, a lot of gamers were turned away. After all, a lot of gamers probably don't think reading text for hours on end is a lot of fun when compared to Halo. But soon they wouldn't need to read to get the same experience, not with the steady increase in computer technology, particularly GPUs. New technology has enabled game developers to bring almost anything to life, and the ability to mainstream text-based games. Because of this, MUDS etc. were essentially upgraded into full-fledged video games. I mean this quite literally, as many text-based online games have had their engines bought by larger companies. This is not an old strategy either. It's been going on for years, and is still going on. Just recently, BioWare purchased an in-house text-based online game engine for a yet unrevealed MMO.
But there are other MMOs out there other than WoW, so why is it getting all the hype, and the blame for producing such an addictive game? The answer is simple, because they did it right. The framework they created for a game offers all the variety, adventure, individualism and an extremely user-friendly, well organized user interface. Other, newer MMOs are beginning to take from WoW where it was successful, and add their own unique features and subtle changes.
A lot of the above is pretty obvious, and anybody that follows the game industry probably knows what I'm saying before they read it. But when I checked the Gamespot poll today (3/5/07) I was surprised by the results. The question was related to the Lego brand announcing a Lego-based MMO in development. Eighty-five percent plus agreed that there were already too many MMOs, while the remaining said "there's another MMO other than WoW?" and "Great, MMO's are the future of gaming". Those quotes aren't exact but you get the idea.
The reason the results surprised me is because MMOs aren't necessarily very different from any other online gaming experience. First person shooters, racing games, sports games... they all can have thousands and thousands of people playing together. Some people would argue that they don't all play in the same world. Well, neither do MMO gamers. The online network is separated into a vast array of servers or worlds that players can log into. The only real difference is that there can be hundreds or even in the of players thousands on each server respectively. So RPG's offer a little bit bigger of a playing field, but it only suits the type of game and the limits of the hardware.
All in all, MMOs were an inevitable part of the gaming industry's progression. The way in which they exploded on the market was, by many, unforeseen. However, I think the gap they created will soon be filled by games that offer a little bit lighter of an MMO, possibly intertwined with single player adventure games, as well as connecting the massive online genre gaps such as fighting or shooters. An FPSMMOG... how cool would that be, minus the mouth-full. So I guess what I'm saying is the more MMOs the better. They truly are the future of gaming. However, they don't all have to be like World of Warcraft to offer a great MMO experience. I'm extremely curious as to what the industry is going to come out with next.
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