This week much of the community's focus was on what goes on behind the scenes. Our readers chatted about development decisions from launch onward; from the brand-new Earthrise to the reincarnated Gods & Heroes, "how it's done in MMO development" came under scrutiny.
Each discussion of individual games branched into interesting insights regarding MMO development and mechanics in general, so follow along after the jump to see what everyone had to say this week!
Jef's first impressions of Earthrise prompted some discussion of an always-popular topic: MMOs that launch with a rough or unfinished feel. Many readers had suggestions and opinions, including Nucleon: "Game companies really need to re-evaluate the small-cash MMO business model. This is a clear case of 'we need money now in order to continue development,' so they throw it on the market at $50. In the process, they piss off a whole metric ton of people who buy it because it clearly is not worth $50. (Think FFXIV.) Honestly, if that is the business situation, then they need to figure some way to do a 'soft-release' or 'paid-beta.' Basically, let players play for like $5 a month or some rather small amount of money to play a development product. That way they get a little cash flow, hopefully from a larger audience than they would boxed sales, and can continue development. The problem is that, when you put a product on shelves and charge $50, people expect something, and when that fails, you may never get the chance again. If you tell people, hey you can play for $3 a month but it's buggy and rough while we continue development, then I think you'll find a surprising number of players willing to commit. It's all about managing expectations and being honest with players."
The announcement that Gods & Heroes is searching for Praetorian Guards contained a brief but interesting tangent in the comments, thanks to Massively reader real65rcncon: "I agree [that players] shouldn't break NDA, but seriously... those things are a joke really. It's just stuff they put in there for lawyers, but breaking NDAs in this day/age doesn't mean anything much. It goes against the agreement, but no one reads an NDA fully anyhow. And companies don't go after people that 'break' them. NDAs are kind of like mattress and pillow tags that say, 'Do Not Remove Under Penalty Of Law.' If companies don't sue sites that allow people to put up broken NDA agreement videos from alpha/beta trials, it can't really be all that important. I think NDAs are more of a propriety thing so no one can steal your ideas or mechanics, but we've seen how well that worked for games over the years."
Massively reader eyeball2452 joined in the debate about EXP in FFXIV with a response to this comment: "Once you get a taste of 120k/hr in Abyssea and you drop back down to the lower levels where you only get 2-20k/hr, the difference is astounding." He replied: "I haven't played FFXIV, but I think the above statement is applicable to many current MMOs. I play MMOs because the game mechanics are fun and the story is interesting. I'm not necessarily concerned about what my gear level is or how efficiently I'm leveling. However, it seems like many of the players in the genre are only focused on getting to the level cap and obtaining the best gear with little regard for anything else. I wonder whether this is perception or the reality of what MMOs have turned into over the past 6-7 years. I don't know if my view is correct, but if the only thing players care about is the virtual accomplishment of leveling speed and gear levels, why not just play a Facebook game? There's no story, you increase in level, time = better loot, and you can compare yourself to everyone else without actually having to group."
That's some of what our readers had to say this week; now it's your turn. Hit the comment button and let us know what you think of these discussions!
Global Chat is the weekly feature that's all about you, our readers. Every Sunday we collect the best, funniest, and most thought-provoking comments from the Massively readers and round them up into Global Chat for discussion. Read over them for yourself, hit the comment button, and add your own thoughts!
