An editorial about subscription MMOs and why they're so important.
Exerpt
"There seems to be two main arguments for the death of the subscription mmo era..
However there are reasons why the community of players should support the notion of subscription mmos. These reasons are important. Very important."
EverQuest Next was cancelled last month almost as an afterthought in a blog post by Daybreak president Russell Shanks, to the surprise of no-one. What is surprising, however, is the strange malaise that led to it and the hopeful solution.
MMO's, especially F2P MMO's, can be a sweet poison you fondly recall or a bitter one that eats away at your wallet.
iGR "Everybody wants to make an MMO now a days and it’s a gamble, a rather big one. You have to sell your product in an already crowded market. You have to sit there and throw out something that the others don’t have. Maybe just maybe come up with something that hasn’t been done before and make it work. That within itself is a large hurdle developers have to overcome."
I think there's plenty of room for lots of different type of MMO's... But the problem is that the genre is too crowded with cookie-cutter-WoW-wannabes. To the point where even WoW has become a WoW wannabe as it tries to reclaim lost glories.
I agree with the article. What MMOs industry need is this:
#1 Variety in their server rule set. I like PvP, I like full loot also. Why not a server that has that rules set? I am not talking about every server, just one. What about permadeath? I know most people say that it would fail, but how do you know? Create one server that is PvP, full look and permadeath, unless they are rezzed by a player, just one server. If it fails you just migrate the player base to another server of their choosing, not a big damn deal.
#2 Variety in payment options. When EQ1 made the price per month $14.99, I know then that everyone else would do it. Why not $8.00 for two weeks? Or $5.00 for a weekend? There should be a ton of options for all types of people. I would love a family option, where I spend $300 for 4 people for a year subscription.
#3 Make it hard. Most people are tired of games on easy mode. At least do a server like on Fing hard.
#4 Random Shit, make random stuff happen, anything! A nemesis, a public event, a quest only for you.