Dana Massey Asks Why Not?: Stop The Hype Train
MMOs announce too early and it's become a problem. In this week's column, Dana Massey looks at the harm that comes from this and makes an argument that MMOs should only be announced about a year before launch.
Column By Dana Massey on September 24, 2009
;)
It's hard to tell, I know, but this
train is leaving the station... EARLY!
When we authored a list of games people might love in 2012, it struck me as almost comical that we were able to name them so specifically. Of the 10 entries, only two were on the market at the time, yet as an outlet, we could go into pretty good detail on them all. I began to wonder, why is it that we know so much about MMOs so early in the process?
This isn’t the norm for game development. Console games and non-MMOs tend to really only receive this attention in the last year before their launch. Assassin’s Creed 2 should hit shelves just about a year after Ubisoft confirmed it. Bioware’s Dragon Age was first announced in 2004, but again, they remained relatively quiet until last fall.
There’s a reason they use this formula. Obviously, hype is a necessary part of the promotional machine. People need to be aware of a game, and the console gaming marketers have worked out how to build that hype. They work hard to get people excited and bring them to their peak just as the game becomes available.
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MMOs on the other hand take years. Sometimes they’re announced out of necessity (hiring), sometimes it’s financial (stock prices) and sometimes it’s just bad planning.
While this isn’t something someone at an MMORPG coverage website should be saying: there is no good reason we should know so much about these games so early.
Want an example? Think about Star Wars: The Old Republic, then look at our forums. There are already entrenched opinions on what Bioware should or should not do. Some have decided it's a terrible idea destined to fail, some think it's going to be the ultimate savior of the genre and may even topple World of Warcraft. Both opinions are equally hysterical at this stage. Aside from a limited demo and some info they’ve doled out online, information remains limited. Anyone here played it? I thought not.
The Internet is a powerful thing and when its citizens several years to toss possibilities around in their minds, they come up with expectations so large that no company, not even Bioware, can ever hope to meet them.
It’s telling that regular game companies fight so strongly to grab attention and build hype, while MMOs companies often talk about "managing expectations." Fact is, they have to.
;)
Like this car, your
community will suffer burn out.
In some cases, the hardcore MMO community – such as most people reading this column – too often become fans of the genre, not the games themselves. People spend years on the forums, thinking, talking and wondering about a game. When it actually comes out, they’re already burnt out. This isn’t universal by any stretch, but there is a segment of the market that does this.
And guess what? It’s not their fault.
MMO companies need to learn that what limited benefit that comes out of a super early announcement is more than offset by what can go wrong.
I don’t care who you are, at more than a year out, you have no idea when you’re going to launch. Fans have picked up on this. MMO launch dates have become such a farce that “delays” may not even be a bad thing anymore, since no one bought that original date in the first place.
More time also means more lies. It’s not intentional, but when your Associate Producer promises perma-death three weeks after you rented office space, you’re kind of stuck with that. Some games never live down the promises of people who were designing right on the message boards.
And then there’s just fan fatigue. Four years is a long time and some people will visit your official forums 14 times a day between the day you tell them you’re making Master Blasters Online and the day you finally release it. I cannot stress this enough. It doesn’t matter how awesome a game is, nothing can stand up to that kind of hype.
Not everyone out there is making the same mistake. Anyone know what ZeniMax Online is working on? We heard that the studio had been founded and it’s not hard to narrow down the list given they’re part of the same family as Bethesda (developers of Fallout and Oblivion), but we do not officially know what they’re doing. They do the bare the minimum amount of press necessary to recruit talent and I honestly do not expect that to change until they’re within a year of launch.
God bless them if they pull it off. They’re one of the few companies out there that at a glance has the resources, history and talent to make a really great game. Yet, compare the web buzz to Bioware’s and you know there is a big difference. No one has false assumptions and expectations (well, less so). Sure, they’re running under the radar right now, but the moment they unveil their game, that will all change.
;)
There will always be something
shiny on the horizon, so maximize
your time there.
MMOs do need to come out of hiding a bit earlier than most games due to the need of external QA: see Beta. Too often it’s a marketing ploy, but there are real issues that need to be nailed down in the process. Sure, to get a Beta going, you need to admit what you’re doing. That’s why, in my opinion, games should ride that initial wave of announcement hype straight into Beta.
If they do that, people don’t have time to get carried away. They’re in, they’re playing and they know what they’re dealing with. The game still has to be good to succeed, but plenty of hugely hyped games have failed. A confident company will let the game speak for itself. In fact, I’d argue the bigger the hype, the higher the bar, and the more likely a game is to fail.
Look at Age of Conan and Warhammer Online. They’re not bad games. They have their flaws, especially at launch, but there are plenty of games out there that have bigger flaws and don’t get half the flack Mythic and Funcom do. The fact is, people expected so much, that when these games admittedly disappointed, there was no going back.
High expectations are great when you meet them, but they’ve gotten so out of control in recent years that only one game has met them: World of Warcraft. And as far as the tradition hype channels go, they were a lot quieter than most until the time came.
It’s natural to get excited and love what you’re working on, but while that sounds great on paper and feels awesome at first, the pre-release phase can also be emotionally draining and distracting. The constant abuse for each decision is tougher to swallow when the project is just eating money. After launch, people know where they stand. Before launch, it’s all up in the air. This amplifies complaints and opinions, and leads developers to put undue weight on what might be a small, but vocal, minority in the community.
So, as much as it pains me to say it: MMO developers need to keep those lips sealed. The pitfalls are too many, the benefits too few. While it might be less fun for reporters and fans alike in the short term, the games themselves would be better served by silence. And when games are successful, it's more fun for everyone.
More Dana Massey Asks Why Not? Features:
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Each Thursday, he asks the question "Why Not?" about some element of MMOs.
this is exactly what i have been thinking for years. If only the marketing department would just avoid revealing the game or any information more than a year from release we would all be better for it. If i was incharge you would hear the announcement of a secret project when they normally announce the full thing. 4 Months before releae (or beta) i would reveal the project but keep the marketing low. Build it up over that 4 months and i bet you it will do a whole lot better than the game that are hyped to death 6 months before release.
Anyway that wont ever happen
Easy to say
You know what I don't think the game companies have all the blame here either, we are just as to blame as they are. If a games doesn't pour out with tons of detail we flame it, call it vaporware, call it boring, discredit its dev team for being unimagintive, claim it will be a wow clone. Then when they do we complain they over-hype? Of course some do take it too far, and do over hype but when you think about it we really dont do ourselves very many favors in that regard :p
mm used top be we got hyped during the same month of the release now its hyped too long in advance soon they ll hype the
futur wow replacement
blizzard will call it wow 12
release date 12 of the 12 2012
I agree with the article. Anyone who was following War knows that the city change really pissed off a lot of people because Mythic hyped something they couldn't deliver.
I agree, but loose lips and the itnernet make it hard to do. Even Cataclysm for WoW was leaked before the official anouncement. That is just one example, there are plenty more.
I think most dev's would love to wait, but this is the "beast of burden" known as Marketing. Unfortunately the metrics that the industry uses to measure marketing success are highly circumstantial. As much as we would all love to hear about a game when its almost complete, instead of pre-alpha..."opportunity" to help the word get out will always be weighted higher :(
But as with anything else -- Only time will tell :)
The thing about financial necessity got me thinking about the business side of game development. Really, i believe there seems to be something of a lack of sotisfication on a number of investors, and it sometimes appears that games get hurt by the choices made in corporate boardrooms. MMOs do undergo a lenghty process and it seems silly that many of the key decissions in their life cycle may hinge on people without a working knowledge of the dynamics of online comunities. Game developers should be better able to comit to better planing and more realistic deadlines, and companies would certainly benefit from depending less on genius designers and more on teams of people whose experience range includes the everyday management of online games... IMO gamers need to step up to the plate and get involved with the legal and financial sides to MMOs and provide a perspective that would help avoid mistakes such as a game being defeated by it's own PR and marketing processes.
Also, think about the miserable years of anticipation between finding out a certain genre or IP will become a game, and actual release. I truly think I would be happier if I did not know until a year or so before release that a MMORPG was coming out.
For example: I've been waiting for World of Darkness since 2004 or so. It has switched dev teams, lost and gained funding, all the while dangling carrots of cool details and potential developers in front of our noses on the White Wolf Games forums.
I shouldn't not enjoy other games just because I'm miserably hyped about a game that has been in development for years and may or may not ever come out.
Tisiphone: Man, you and me both. At this point, I almost wish I'd never heard of World of Darkness Online. Stop playing with my heart strings! And just think; they've been better than some companies about controlling the hype machine.
Was that an accidental leak or a strategically timed release of information to steal another game's thunder?
Agreed. And that's one thing I appreciate SE for - they didn't announce anything or hint at anything regarding FFXIV until this year and it's due out next year. Thank you SE for standing up against the urge to say anything too soon!
I agree 100%, so many players hype themselves, that no matter how good the game is it will never live up to what is expected, good example of this will be Star Wars Old Repulic, this game has no chance of a fresh launch, with all the the old SWG fans that are still bitter over the nge, to the general anticipation of the game, I expect to see many negative posts because it will be way over hyped at launch.. I have learned the wait and see approach, on games these days, it is just a game..:)
I think what you are talking about can also be described as a hunger, MMO fans out there myself included want to play great games, we love MMOS! And like most I've come to hate the hype that surrounds MMO's these days.
A few years ago I was totally out of the MMO 'scene' and games in general when one day I decided to check out this very site and saw a game called Lord Of The Rings Online.. I'd not followed or even heard about the game at all but decided to give it a go, I spent a good 4 months playing it, fantastic - I escaped the hype.
In contrast to that I knew all about age of conan for years! and well as Dana mentions in the article it didn't go too well.. also in part to unfulfilled features.
I think maybe the problem isn't with the specific game developers but with the MMO scene itself, and perhaps MMORPG.com has a role to play in this.
The forum on this site wouldn't have anything else to complain about other than this issue. I mostly watch this site to see all the idiotic comments that are made about games. The Darkfall pre-launch vaporware threads were hysterical. The AION threads are getting just as good.
And of course, hype meters are not the best to keep companies quiet. the longer they can stay on the hype meter, the more free advertisement they get. It is kind of a self-fulfilling problem. MMO sites are trying to make money by reporting on games people want to see and watch to get traffic to their site to make $$$. The game companies want people to take notice of their game so they let the news out to the gaming sites.
Besides. There is no game that will ever launch and get positive reviews by the board monkeys on this stie.
Good ideas though.
I think the dude from WAR was the best at hyping any game.
That man could sell anything
I don't think you read the article thoroughly enough. He was basically saying that the community is the problem the whole time. He also talked about NOT TALKING ABOUT IT UNTIL SOON BEFORE IT CAME OUT, which I think you also missed. Usually things are called vaporware when it doesn't come out for years. Like it evaporates. Vaporware. Get it?
I saw him on TV once. He was SO excited about the game and was hyping every single thing. Unfortunately, half the things he was talking about that I got excited about were taken out, and the stuff that stayed in didn't seem as cool as he said they would be. Or at least as cool as the volume of his voice suggested.
What I find troublesome is the cycle this industry is heading. Companies are fereting out the top features that casual players want and expect from a genere or IP without fleshing out its content beyond simply expected features that are common to all of its catagory. Some examples are:
1) Combat must match the theme and be quick and easy to play,
2) Character progression needs to be quick and easy to understand,
3) Reward system needs to reflect the theme and be instant and gratifying,
4) Game play must be dominately soloable with maxed progression geared towards group play,
5) In game journel or guide that keeps players focused on a linear path,
6) Crafting, Player Market, Failing Penelties, Travel Functions and Roleplay Features are all secondary to the former issues.
This pattern of developement has become formula to this industry when trying to adapt an IP and is used to outline genere games. Focus of development follows this as now investors know better what the high yeild life of an MMO is coupled with the compition for gamer attention. Targeting a game for anything outside this emphasis puts it in a niche demographic which will not maximize its earning potential. Investors become commited to handing out thier money when sold on the broad projected numbers pitch folks suduce them with. These pitches always speak of casual market target on a specialized IP or genere.
What is totally ignored now is the niche end of a game. Those players that would be commited and continue to fill coffers year after year and often promote that same game to new players. Community builders in concept. Instead building solid games with long term earning potential (Cash Cows) the get it quick "boxes on the shelf" attitude is sinking in with little faith for a lasting life. A obvious change in the market now, after WOW, is most games released have only average 10 servers instead of 20. This is mostly because there are many more games via for the same set of players even though higher demographics are targeted.
WOW toughts 11 mil subs but those are not total active accounts which this giant wants back. In the current economic down turn this is just not going to happen. With its established mechanics it has offered little change in its life span beyond really cosmetics in its expansions. Now its offering a radical departure in its next release to earn back players with something new and drastic. I just don't know if it will lead to thier goal. WOW is still the top earner and is still the brand favorite like Coke Cola but even Pepsi has good days.
So what does all this have to do with Hype? This is what PR has to wade through to tell you why thier POS in a box is going to change your life for just $60 plus other fees.
IMHO
Good read, thanks for posting this. I agree.
In think companies are missing a crucial aspect to success. 90%+ of an successful MMO's earnings happens well after launch. Concentrating on pre-launch hype and building a game that fades almost immediately after launch is wasted potential.
I really have to agree with this article. I agree that it is best for developers to actually let the game speak for itself, rather than get everyone all excited about some features that might not actually make it on the day itself, or would only come in at a later date. And true, continuing to discuss and argue on forums about developing games might actually make us sick of the game before the game even launches. That is why I tend not to take part in any of the hype threads, because I know that I'll burn myself out. That's also why I tend not to have any expectations on developing games, other than a 'let's try it when it comes out' attitude. If you remain neutral about a game, there is a higher chance of it surprising, or even surpassing your expectations.
I personally think that Arenanet did the correct thing when generating hype on Guild Wars, if it actually can be called that. There was barely any advertisment, they chose to let the game actually speak for itself, and it is certainly doing quite well right now. Wish they had decided to stay with that mentality now that Guild Wars 2 is being hyped up to the heavens...
Secondly, I also agree that one year before release is a good time to start doing PR on the game. After all, at least most of the game is finished, so the features would have already been implimented, or about to be implimented. And, psycologically, it would also make me more excited about a game, especially since most of it is completed, and it seems that it would actually follow it's schedule on launch. And, I would only have to be impatient for a year instead of two or more years until the game finally comes out.
I'm a game developer for a large company. I totally agree with you; however, marketing departments for these large companies like Mythic, BioWare, and Funcom do not seem to agree with you (as is obvious). Now, I'd have to assume that these folks in the marketing departments have actually done their research. I am rather curious to know, if they have done this research, what it shows them. Because it does seem obvious to me as a developer and a gamer that when you announce too early, you can't possibly hope to manage the hype.
I remember my expectations for Civilization III. I was so excited. Civ2 was so good, I just knew that Civ3 was going to be even bettter. Just like you mentioned, I was glued to various Civilization fan forums before its release. When the game finally came out and I played it, I was so incredibly disappointed.
But then, I know there were plenty of folks who loved Civ3 (most of which had never played Civ or Civ2, but they loved it none-the-less). I think what it comes down to is that marketing departments want to make sure that their game gets plenty of exposure. They want to make sure that people know about their game BEFORE the pre-order boxes show up on the shelves. Marketing departments probably care a lot less about meeting expectations, and a lot more about just getting the word out.
So while you, me, and a bunch of other hardcore gamers think that it's a terrible idea to let people know about your game so early, there are probably plenty of casual gamer folks that never would have heard of the game if it weren't announced so early. But now, they did hear about it. And they're going to buy it. Who knows? Only the people that work in marketing departments...and they are pretty tight-lipped.
Would MMORG.com suffer from us not knowing about MMO releases so early? I think not, we would instead be focusing our attention on games due to come out in the next six months rather than the next 2 years.
The driving force behind the hype is marketing departments. Once these guys are hired you can’t expect them to twiddle their thumbs and wait for the right time to start making releases. Anyone in any job feels a need to prove that it is worthwhile them being there. So the key is to start the marketing department very small and be as sure as you can of the date of the beta launch before you increase it’s size.
The bigger the company the later we need to be told about a game. The large established studios already have a player group they can quietly tap for a closed beta (with known hardware and network performance). Since their games tend to rely on "quality" and implementation more than on fully experimental systems/concepts, there is less need for pre-beta forums*. And finally, they are the companies that will have plenty of shelf space, signage and top result listings for pre-orders and sales.
These guys don't need 2 years to build steam, a 2 month interview and video blitz leading to a pre-order required "open beta" (or early access) would do just as well. Yes it is a bit slimy to have an interview that ends with "operators are standing by", but just maybe the near impulse buy nature of it will lead to less frustration.
*- more evolution than genre redefining revolution.
/cough
Three words: Funding. Investors. Awareness
Those three things will outweigh your valid concerns every time. Without awareness you won't get investors. Without investors, funding becomes difficult. Without funding, the game will never be. If the game never gets built, we won't have the chance to play it and love it or hate it.
Good article and coincidence? ::shrugs:: I was over at the Secret World forums and I asked if people think that Funcom has not released enough info since the announcement of this game? Seeing that it has been in the works since 2006, there is very little info on it. In the mean time, players are speculating and trying to discuss a game we know next to nothing bout dreaming up all kinds of great ideals and things we'd like to see in the game...basically playing it before it is even out!
What this does is set up us players for eventual disappointment. We're seeing this vision of how we'd like the game to be and then when the game company(Funcom in this case) decides to finally tell us more about the game I think a lot of us(me included) will be disappointed and turned off about the game.
Like how I am not even looking forward to SW:ToR because after seeing it I just do not care to play it because it is not as I wished it would be.
I am excited and also dreading the day when Funcom finally releases more info on the Secret World because I all ready have this ideal of how I'd like the game to be. This is my fault, and I accept that. But I also blame Funcom because they just toss out this smattering of info on what looks like a cool game and then leave it up to us players to feel in the gaps and if our gaps are filled with stuff we'll never see in the game I will surely probably never play that game because it won't be the game I was envisioning. This could all be avoided if Funcom would just come out and tell us more about the game so we're not sitting around on their forums dreaming about the game we'd like to see them make.
Same for SW:ToR. Just apply what I said about the Secret World with this game. It applies to it as well.
it's funny how you're trying to derail a hype train while mentioning zenlmax. Way to punch irony in the dick with a iron fist of opinions. Cool article (not really)
Personally I guess I find it a bit ironic.. this article that is.
I'll try to explain ... The basic idea is that "MMO" in general is a "computer game". So we have someone writing an article aimed at MMO's (computer games) that realisticly is talking about Hype and non existent ship dates...
As if its new and exclusive to MMO's (for computer games).
When I was working at Chips and Bits... You know how many times the release date changed on Falcon 3.0 ? Wizardry 7? I mean just two off the top of my head. I think Falcon 3.0 release at least 2 years (maybe 3) after the initial "release date".
Ultima 9 would be another great example for hype, expected release and delays. They finally released a product they knew (and said) wasn't ready due to the overwhelming pressure from "fans" and it was pretty much epic fail because as they stated it wasn't ready. So oddly the industry is a great example of "some things never change".
Altho I would say you really didn't see much hype like that until the very late 1980's or early 1990's. Pretty much before then when you saw an ad for a game it was pretty much going to be shipping soon(tm) .. but for real. Then again there used to be multiple games worth buying a month... now you're lucky sometimes to find ONE game a year worth buying.
I'm actually surprised that Dana didn't mention this one. FFXIV came out of nowhere and it's going to be released next year, and I think it's a brilliant move. Less wait, less dragged-out hype.
I'm actually surprised that Dana didn't mention this one. FFXIV came out of nowhere and it's going to be released next year, and I think it's a brilliant move. Less wait, less dragged-out hype.
The game's not as popular in western media as it should be, imo. I think it'll stay that way until the release at least, and most people will be surprised by what SE has to offer to MMO genre this time. It's quite comical in a way.
I don't think timeframes at which information is released really matters that much. we knew about World of Warcraft a couple years in advance as well, there were a lot of naysayers about it as well. When it first came out it had initial bugs like any other MMO. But it's the overall design of the game that makes is fun and exciting. Blizzard just like Bioware or even Bethesda. They are tried and true companies that have a clue about how to make a game the right way. They all of course have their very own speciality to their game development.
So if you are a fan of the company's games then most likely it won't matter the hype. you can dissect this until you are blue in the face. But all in all, there is no perfect formulae on MMO or even regular game development. The one thing is for sure is to have high quality and not to release a game early. And that is one thing Blizzard did not make the mistake of doing. they tested then tested more plus they moved their release date back two times throughout development. I was one of the few waiting in the wings forever on it.
Just like That i will definitely be the first in line for anything Bioware makes or Bethesda, all are very favorite companies of mine. They all make high quality games... RPGs primarily which i'm sure Bioware will turn the MMO genre on its ear when they come out with SWTOG. And then when bethesda makes one they will do the same. So hardcore fans of their previous games will most likely be eager to play their online versions as well. some maybe hesitant at first but overall the hype and chatter on the web will suck them in, in due time. It's how WoW got so big, plus word of mouth to all family and friends... it's all relative.
I'm sure until WoW really bores the crap out of it's player base it will stay huge for a long time. unless of course people are looking for a more in-depth RPG experience then they will find games by Bioware more appealing. But if they are looking for something with more character customization as well as freedom of character skill/class design then Bethesda will be the best for that.
But as far as the other companies out there, Funcom and Mythic are both fairly young companies, although they have shown to be pretty good at making MMOs they are still not the greatest at "game development". they know how to make a data base run right, but when it comes to keeping people interesting in the game, they still lack in some areas. Especially when it comes to content and things that really matter.
Nonetheless, it doesn't take multi millions of subscribers to make an MMO successful either. Look at SOE, they still keep going good and i'm sure they are lucky to have a million subs in all of their games combined. Even before the days of WoW, most companies got by with only a quarter of million just fine. there are even some with way less that still run. So honestly... who cares?
If people burn themselves out due to hype then that's their own goofy fault. There are tons of other things in the world to do than hang out endlessly at some game's website forum pestering the moderators every 10 seconds for new info. It will be done when they are ready. and if they choose to release early in a sub-par quality then that's the company's fault. you either have faith they will eventually make it better or move on to something that is from a more reputable company.
Hype has effectively killed so many games its hard to count them anymore. Games that aren't even close to a high standard are brushed off by the masses.
Yep....a few extra bucks buys advertising. But kills a company that fail to live up to the hype.
Marketing strategy has always been better than the actual MMO. It's hard not to bite but they really make you believe sometimes. I've wasted money on some garbage MMOs because of hype. War and AoC being the latest two, probably the worst money I've ever spent on games...ever.
I think mmo's are very very different in terms of hype compared to normal games (such as the mentioned Assassins Creed 2). One of the big factors is the fact that these games are aimed at being massive, which means there needs to be triple the hype to build up a large fan base so that the game as enough plays in its world for people to consider it massive. Thus hyping a game way in advance makes a lot of sense, you aren't trying to sell a half a million copies of a game in the first couple of months like a single player game, you're aiming for millions (in some cases companies are aiming quite so high) and thats a big difference. You aren't going to have millions of people playing your game if people have only known about it for a month and thats the bottom line. I'm not saying i think its a good think, im just saying expectations are different in this genre, and there are a lot of very unique issues that a company developing an mmo faces, that a normal game company does not.
For awhile I've come to the conclusion it's me and not the game. I think I fall into this rut, like last year I pre-ordered in full Warhammer, and didn't pick it up until it already had a price-drop, so my local EB had to pay me $10 back. I still haven't installed it actually. I played it in the beta and it was fun, but I got so burned out I have no desire to play the actual launch. Aion's the same, I pre-ordered for the open beta, I put down $5.00, but having played that and the game releasing, I have no desire to actually play that game too. It's like a tamer more accessible L2.
Way OT but I found it interesting that the engine number on the train graphic was 486. Nice touch.
Ken
Heheh, i think that todays games, and especially MMOs are really being played by gamers EVEN BEFORE they are released- Heck! Even before they are created! As the author of the article pointed out, ppl are getting burned out of a MMO before they have a chance to play coz they have allready played the game so many hours in their heads. And when the game is finally released, the real/actual game cannot compete with the dream that they had in their minds :D
The gamers folly? Or the MMO industries? Personally i think we players might be at some ''fault'' but the greatest responsibility lies with the MMO company nonetheless. I appriciate the need for hype in the name of marketing and such, but i humbly believe that sometimes this is taken to the extremes by the companies. (Ex; releasing lotsa info 3 yrs before the release of a game:D That information is bound to get changed (at least to some degree) eventually=disappointment/broken promises and the opportunity for such an extremly early(mostly/generally unhealthy hype)
OOOps,to summarize: i guess in the end i mostly agree with the article written above,
cheers
Games such as AoC and WAR get the crap that other games don't get because we expect more from developers who have such a large amount of money at their disposal. It is ridiculous to assume the same level of quality from indy devs as from EA and Funcom. And if an indy game is made that is the same level as the top guys, that is when a company becomes big, like EVE.
I think the problem is deeper. The author makes the mistake himself. He calls the people here, fans... but fans of what? He suggests that we are all fans of the same thing, MMO's. But to each of us, what is an MMO is diifferent.
Some think the best MMO ever is Lineage (they are stupid) and some think it is SWG (They are wise and noble) and some think it is WoW (they are 12).
The point (apart from some name calling) is that there is no such thing as an MMO audience.
Deus Ex, Quake, Half-Life are ALL first person shooters. But they are NOT the same game and a fan of one might hate the others.
Yet MMO companies seem desperate to attract every single MMO player to their property. Understandable but REALLY bad business. The Coca Cola Company sells more then just cola, because they know different people have different tastes.
I like Turbines Lotro but think DDO was boring as hell. Pretty sure some DDO players feel the same in reverse. (they are wrong but still, we got to respect their bad tastes)
If you follow the SWTOR hype machine what you really get is some sleazy politician who changes his speech to whatever he thinks his current audience wants to hear, apparently unable to realize that his audience has SEEN his other speeches. Blair (british PM) was famous for this. It is like a popstar who at every concert proclaims city X is their favorite spot.
Lets see about SWTOR, it is going to be solo friendly, but have group end content, going to heavy on story but also have plenty of other content, crafting but also looting, easy but a challenge... STOP! No cook can please everyone. PICK an audience and stick to it.
Or you end up as SWG, trying to appeal to more and more until you appeal to no-one.
MMO developers like to announce early. That in itself is NOT the problem. The problem is that they are desperatly afraid to be clear about what they are going to do. What is so damn hard about simply stating, "this game will NOT launch this year". This game will have PvP as the end game. STOP the endless fan speculation that drives not so much hype as resentment over features not implemented that you never planned to implement in the first place.
When SWTOR or TSW launches people will be more upset about the fact these games are NOT F2P as has been suggested by some kid on the forum then the bugs. When even such a simple business decision becomes the subject of speculation and rabid fans tearing each other apart, you no long have hype. You got hysteria.
Take a que from blizzard. We know what Diablo 3 is going to be and how it is going to be played the second after the first announcement.
Oh and as for Beta's for QA. If that really worked, why are all the games so buggy on launch?
Dev's, as part of your tool development, develop some tools for automatic testing. Have a bot run through all the logic paths. Real programmers do this all the time and it works. My own beta testst are little more then UI testing. I know it works, but does the user know how to use it.
I feel bad for poor SW:TOR. It really doesn't stand a chance against the hype machine. People wanted to know what MMO Bioware was working on and as soon as they revealed what it was, the hype train left the station and has been picking up speed ever since. What's worse is it still has at least a year of development left (my guess).
This dude writes the worst articles ever...........
While this article is insightful, it proposes no action plan.
From the comments on this thread, many readers are already aware of the hype train. Therefore, this article offers no newsbreaking information for most of us gamers.
With no concrete action plans proposed, there won't be any changes to where this hype train is going. Neither the author nor others offered any real solution to marketers on stopping the hype yet still achieving the aim of generating interest in their games. Unless we as gamers stand firm on "enough is enough", marketers will just keep shove games in our faces, while the same failing miserably as the final disparage greatly from how we played them in our heads.
I did find myself agreeing with another post, and that is developers should stand firm on keeping the game the way they had it meant it to be played, rather than trying so hard to please every MMO gamer that it gets lost in the sea of the vast number of games out there trying to do the exact same thing.
I agree completly with this article, games should just come out in beta with all publicity, not before, nowadays with internet a great game will be known within a week, i waited for so long for so many games that when they actually came out i didint wanted to play them anymore, so there you go.
What do you mean by this? You just wanted to two your 2 cents in but no reason for your opinion? Nice
But I agree with the article in some ways hype for too long can lead to expectations that are too high to match even if they made good on all their promises.
I think you might be the only columnist on this site that is worth reading.
I agree with you that the hype from games leads to the ultimate "failure." It is the main reason I have distanced myself from the FFXIV boards here (honestly the only reason I even check is in case someone has info the beta). All they talk about on the forums is how they should include X and Y and they would be stupid if they include A and B and the poster is always right and the people making the game is always wrong. Lord it would have been awful to head about this game 2-3 years ago and have to listen to it for 48 months. I have posted there that everyone needs to chill the f out and get ready to enjoy the game when it comes -- not that they would listen to me anyway. I think SE played this one right with publicity ... maybe a little too early based on your readers fanatical, rabid reaction.
art of the issue here as I see it is that "hype" is equated synonymously with "information". The two, are in fact, entirely different. Information is GOOD for a consumer, as it helps them to make informed purchasing decisions. "Hype" is far less serving of a consumer as it often provides almost no qualitative information... and is simply designed to get a consumer revved up and excited about a product WHETHER THAT PRODUCT IS A GOOD FIT FOR THAT CUSTOMER OR NOT. That is what builds false expectations. The timing of when the information is released is almost of territiary importance (IMO) when compared to the manner of the information that is released.
Unfortunately too many Marketing Departments (and the executives that support them) believe that their job is to try to convince EVERYONE to purchase a particular product (whether it is suited to that customer or not).... and thus all they think about is building "hype", "buzz" etc rather then building "awareness" and providing actual information about the product. This may work in increasing sales....but MMO's tend to be subscription services which means customer retention and monthlies are the real bread and butter. Even for industries where box sales of a product dominate the income stream.....unless the company is planning on cashing out and folding up it's offices never to produce another product a few months after initial release....such a strategy can be very counter-productive. Such a strategy can be seductive in the short term....but long term it will destroy your business.
It's something that so many business executives either fail to understand or lack the discipline to follow through. It's why there are so many fly-by-night businesses that last only a short time after the initial release of a Product. Companies that have real staying power and that are successfull year after year understand one thing. A repeat customer is FAR more proffitable then a one time customer. Studies show that almost universaly it is exponentialy far more expensive to make the first sale to some-one.... then any sale afterwards. The thing that SMART companies who want to be around for a long time take away from that.....is that you are better off NOT selling a product to a customer then selling them one that they will be disappointed with.
They actively work to make sure thier consumers don't have just "hype" or "buzz" but usefull, accurate information that can inform them whether a particular product is a good fit for them or not.... and they will ACTIVELY steer consumers away from purchasing a product which is NOT a good fit for them.
If you fail to sell a customer a product because the information you have provided them informs them THAT product is not well suited to them.... you ALWAYS have the opportunity to do business with them in future. You may come out with a new product in future that may be more suited to them.... and also peoples tastes and circumstances change over time.... so that even your existing product may become something that is suited to them in future. However, once you sell a consumer a product that does NOT meet thier expectations because you've hyped it up and tried to convince them that it would..... you've pretty much written off the opportunity to business with them in future. That customer will be very hard to recapture..... furthermore, people who know and trust that customer may also be steered away from doing business with you.
Smart companies realize that one sale...generaly isn't worth that....unfortunately smart companies are an increasingly rare commodity these days....and smart marketers, even rarer.
Very nice article, making many interesting points but most importantly it does express the player's feeling in all of this with a good degree of accuracy.
"In some cases, the hardcore MMO community – such as most people reading this column – too often become fans of the genre, not the games themselves."
This is true for more reasons than one may think. For instance, our guild has been together since UO 1997, that is 12 years, and through that time an In guild culture develops, for instance our motto is "People First game Second", meaning that no matter the game if we have to choose between a friend and game achievements, the game takes the back seat, the bonds people have between them are more important than the next piece of armor, the amount of XP or the gold to be gotten. These things are temporary toys, bits and bytes on some server that we use to decorate our moody pixels with, but the friendships we hold with our fellow players are there to last, and are far more important.
It is also why, Guilds start and stop playing MMORPG's in mass, people are fans of each other first and foremost above the games they share that fun in.
This is the Social factor, which I think the Industry has neglected since a few years now. And while MMORPG makers have been making games with the idea of "Come play and like our Games as individuals" in mind, in reality, the player's idea is "Lets play this game and see if this caters to our group of Friends sharing the experience".
"High expectations are great when you meet them, but they’ve gotten so out of control in recent years that only one game has met them: World of Warcraft."
In WoW's case, I beleive that Expectations were met because these were not as High as other MMORPG's and since the Bulk of WoW's initial players were not MMORPG players to begin with coming from the General Solo game Blizzard Demographic.
WoW was heralded from introducing the genre to so many new players. But all these players now that they have been introduced to the genre embark on the expectation journey for subsequent MMORPG's, which makes this article's points even more relevant I think.