Scott Jennings puts a cap on the whole "Fixing MMOs" thing

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This whole back-and-forth on fixing broken MMOs really cracks me up.

Blizzard is raking in megabucks and laughing (at this discussion) all the way to the bank. A game is not "broken" if people enjoy playing it -- and, more importantly -- are willing to pay to play.

All the moaning about MMOs being broken sounds like peevish whining to me.

The whole process of MMO development is one of constant (attempted) "one-upsmanship". So far, no one has been really able to "one-up" WoW and I'm cool with that, but someone will, eventually, develop a new MMO that makes WoW look stodgy, dull, and old hat.

And the whiners will come out in force and rail against *that* MMO for a while and so on it goes. Meanwhile, bazillions of people are just playing these games and having fun.

On a side note: Guild Wars handled the leveling issue with great ingenuity and panache. Basically, in that game, you (quickly) level to the cap of 20 -- and they kept it there. I really think this is an ideal MMO model, one I wish more MMOs would follow. It means, for players, that they can "skip an expansion" if they so choose. I also think Guild Wars had a nifty way of merging class distinctions with its dual-class feature.

Whenever I read these kinds of blogs, I marvel at how the authors act as though WoW is the only MMO on the playing field. Look around guys, there are a lot of MMO flavors out there.

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A game is not "broken" if people enjoy playing it -- and, more importantly -- are willing to pay to play.

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From a financial point of view, of course it's a success, but - to be a pretentious prick for a moment - there's the "artistic" consideration to look at and in many ways, WoW fails to deliver beyond expectations or "challenge" the player in meaningful ways.

Okay now I've got my artwank bit out of the way, the point I'm making - and I think others are trying to address in their blogs - is that without meaningful innovation, the genre will die. And for all the stuff WoW does well, it's not an innovative game.

So where is the innovation WoW needs going to come from?

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But the thing is, the genre *deserves* to die if it's not fun. MMO developers have a vested interest in continually improving their games and the MMO genre in general. Even Blizzard recognizes this, and they may be the ones who actually "one-up" WoW with some even more inventive and entertaining MMO.

I admire Blizzard (and their prize product, WoW). They took a genre of entertainment and really made it soar.

I am former WoW player; I found the game got repetitious and dull, so I left, but, clearly, lots of people are very happy with WoW, based on the sales and subscription revenues. Blizzard has the savvy to recognize that they need to constantly innovate and consider new ideas and game mechanics. To some extent, they will do this in WoW with each patch and new expansion and to some extent they will do this with their next(-gen) MMO. Give them a little credit, for Pete's sake.

Other MMO developers are champing at the bit to get a piece of the pie, and they, too, will innovate to achieve this. Some will fail spectacularly (and deservedly so), but others will introduce new features and the genre will gradually evolve and improve, just as all computer games today are an improvement over ... Pong.

What I don't get is the all the effete moaning and groaning about the "state of the game". Maybe it's just that people aren't getting what they want *fast enough*. And that, to me, sounds pretty peevish.

I am currently playing LotRO. I like LotRO. Is it innovative? Well, yes, in some ways, I consider it an improvement over WoW, but I also think it owes a lot to what WoW has done before it. Each new MMO builds on the last one, innovating here and there with mixed success. But the genre overall continues to improve. Just once, I'd like to see a blog about *that* ...

The MMO glass is half-full, not half empty, imo, and -- unlike so many of these bloggers -- I am very satisfied with the current state of MMOs and also quite optimistic about the future of this form of game and the many improvements we will see in the months and years ahead. Personally, I think SWTOR is going to really strike out in a new direction and offer players an experience that's very different, new, and better than what we've seen thus far.

Bloggers like Chick utter (non)profundities like "MMOs need to be better" as though they are Oracles of Delphi and have received some sort of special insight revealed only to the enlightened. All I want to say is "Doh!" Of course they need to get better -- and they will.

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