Like any business/industry...they go where the money is, money talks.  Id rather games be like they use to be, a bit more thought intensive, but i have fun with the games that are out now. 

People spend way too much time on mmorpgs, ive been guilty of this, as have all of us here.  Some people are going to get attached to a game, like they would a girl/boyfriend.  Things dont work out and years later they are bitter and hateful toward the game that has scorned them.  They come to these forums and let the world know that they had a less than perfect experience.  Tie in some deep emotional scarring and it becomes almost like jealously.  A lot of the trolls on the site (havent played the game in forever but cant stop flooding every post about how much the game and company sucks) really do seem jealous of the players who do have fun playing.  Some of these people cant find a game they like, and dont even really know what they want in a game, when they get it they hate it for some reason.  All they know is what they dont like, and it seems to be everything...theres so much hate focused toward games and the people who make them, and enjoy them its crazy.

When mmorpgs are no longer  the #1 focus in your life you start to see this battle over which game is better as a very sad affair.

People need to worry less about how perfect a game is, quitting over minor issues, and start having fun again.  Developers are going to keep improving games if the money is there.  Its like people act like if they dont bitch on a 3rd party site the next gen mmorpgs are jump backwards and devolve into atari style games.  The reality is the motivation to make better games is there, but its not keeping 3rd party forum members happy, its making money.

This site, and sites like this are good for know what games are out there, but as far as community rankings and reviews, its absolute garbage, youll walk out of here never wanting to touch a mmorpg is you read the forum posts about just about anygame here.

and im not even getting into the f2p vote bot armys and viral marketers.....thats a whole new can of worms.

so stop taking a game so damn seriously, have fun with it and enjoy it for what it is, and for gods sake, stop expecting every game to be flawless and to keep you entertained for 15 hours a day for 5 years.

Originally posted by crunchyblack

People need to worry less about how perfect a game is, quitting over minor issues, and start having fun again.  Developers are going to keep improving games if the money is there.  Its like people act like if they dont bitch on a 3rd party site the next gen mmorpgs are jump backwards and devolve into atari style games.  The reality is the motivation to make better games is there, but its not keeping 3rd party forum members happy, its making money.

This site, and sites like this are good for know what games are out there, but as far as community rankings and reviews, its absolute garbage, youll walk out of here never wanting to touch a mmorpg is you read the forum posts about just about anygame here.

and im not even getting into the f2p vote bot armys and viral marketers.....thats a whole new can of worms.

so stop taking a game so damn seriously, have fun with it and enjoy it for what it is, and for gods sake, stop expecting every game to be flawless and to keep you entertained for 15 hours a day for 5 years.

I dont really have much to say to the rest of your post.  But as far as this goes, I agree with you, but you have to understand that many people (not the majority that lurk these forums) care about graphics and other unimportant characteristics and base their rating of fun on those characteristics.  And I think this can partially be blamed on the developers?  Many of us can agree that UO was a decent game, but UO lacked in prettiness.  It just seems like from there, one of the first things companies would tell potential consumers about their upcoming game is that its going to be using this new graphics engine that will be able to produce this many pixels and this amount of eye candy!  I don't THINK I judge a game very much on its graphics, but I THINK many people do because I THINK companies started to make that a bigger priority.  So its harder to thoroughly enjoy a game because it isn't as fun because developers are focusing those resources elsewhere, probably for more money.

  Feel free to flame, just my humble opinion.

Originally posted by Ihmotepp

Rabid fanboism just like rabid haterism will probably have ZERO affect on the MMORPG genre.

The vast majority, probably 80% or more, of people that purchase Pay to Play MMORPGs and keep a subscription don't read any forums or post on them.

They simply buy games they like and pay the monthly sub fee, and quit subscribing to games they don't like. The end.

Then there's the probably 5% of MMORPG players that rant and rave on forums and act like they are the entire player base.

And, those 5% are generally enough people to support an MMO, and - therefore - there's no real need to innovate or polish up gameplay. In biology, it's called selection pressure, which we don't have in MMOs yet, because we've still got people who'll support a crippled game.

And, to someone who mentioned Darkfall as an example of "innovation", you should really think about that statement. The game was already on life support by it's fanbois, and now it's alienated them. Also, it's not really innovative in any way, shape or form, as everything it's done, Shadowbane and UO did better.

Originally posted by heartless

Originally posted by Ilvaldyr

Originally posted by heartless

I don't think that fanbots make anyone nervous. What they do though is create a hostile environment on a medium used to share opinions and hold discussions.

See the biggest problem is that they jump down the throat of anyone who dares to even slightly hint at anything negative about their 'worshiped' game. This happens on the other (hater) side of the fence as well.

I have no problems with people hating or loving the game. What I do have a problem with is people insulting others for having different opinions.

Your contention is that people with positive outlooks are the hostile element?

Talk about living in a fantasy world; it's like an MMO of the mind and you're the only one playing.

Fanbois insult haters, haters insult fanbois. That's just the way it is.

Both parties are to blame, but villainising the fanbois is especially stupid since we're so massively outnumbered by the haters.

I guess you missed the orange part.

I guess you forgot about the first orange part.

You blamed fanbois for creating the hostile environment; that's what I called you on.

Your admission that both haters and fanbois "throat-jump" (to which I agreed above) was a separate point.

Originally posted by Ihmotepp

Rabid fanboism just like rabid haterism will probably have ZERO affect on the MMORPG genre.

The vast majority, probably 80% or more, of people that purchase Pay to Play MMORPGs and keep a subscription don't read any forums or post on them.

They simply buy games they like and pay the monthly sub fee, and quit subscribing to games they don't like. The end.

Then there's the probably 5% of MMORPG players that rant and rave on forums and act like they are the entire player base.

Bull, it's the 80% of clueless people who keep buying the games without any preconceived notion of MMO or it's developer who are turning this genre into the watered down UO/EQ and never ending WoW cloning garbage we have today. In short, the people who never read forums.

Let me tell you how the average consumer spends their money:

Aion: OMG WINGS >>>>>>>>> SOLD

WoW: OMG MOUNTAIN DEW DRINKS >>>>>> SOLD

AoC: OMG BOOBS >>>>>>>>>>> SOLD

Free Realms: OMG "FREEE" >>>>>>> SOLD

These people also drop the MMO after they need to pay a monthly sub, because they just now realise how dumb they were for buying it or didn't even know that many MMO have a monthly sub.

I don't think MMO going mainstream and the never ending armies of fanboys helped the genre at all, it basically meant that anyone could now enjoy MMO but it also meant that we have a tenfold of people who have no clue what a good MMO or even game is about.

kinda hard to not realize there's a monthly sub when you have to enter in a cc number when you set up your account.  I've yet to play a p2p mmo that didn't require that at setup, barring a free trial.