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Reader Comments (2)

Posted: Jan 26th 2009 2:17PM J Brad Hicks said

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It takes even Blizzard a year to make an expansion like this. It takes less than a month for the average player to be bored with it. That? That right there? That's the fundamental flaw in the "AAA MMO" model: development costs, especially ongoing development costs, are too high. A developer friend of mine predicts the future is procedurally generated content. Last year the industry press was predicting it would be user-developed content. Sony and the company behind Runescape are betting the farm that it's in first developing tools that make it much faster and easier for professional developers to crank out new content. All I know for sure as that all three of those approaches make more financial sense than Wrath of the Lich King did.
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Posted: Jan 26th 2009 3:52PM Holgranth said

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I have to agree with you while I am not a Runescape fan (Truth be told I HATE the game most days) I am however a Jagex fan for several reasons.

1st. They had the balls to get rid of RWT, took the fallout of removing unbalenced trading and moved onwards.
2nd They release decently high quality content (compared tothe existing game) very often.
3rd. They have hit on a subcription model that works well. Smaller f2p section supported by adds that recieves a small number of updates. Larger members section that is updated often.
4th. Game is acessable from almost any computor that can load an internet browser but also has a higher graphics quality setting for mid-high range machines.
5th. The sheer number of payment options they make availible in a huge number of diffferent countries is astounding.
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