Is there any brand loyalty in the MMO world?  In the material universe, there is a considerable amount of brand loyalty out there.  I only buy Nissan cars, or Fords, or Honda, or BMW...etc.  In electronics, some people only buy Sony or Panosonic.  Airlines... do you have a favorite?  If possible, I personally only fly Delta, I prefer Nissans, although my only true rule is not to buy American cars, and I don't have a particular loyalty to my electronics.  For computers, I prefer ording from cyberpower.

In the cyberworld, I have no brand loyalty whatsoever.  I just a game in and of itself.  I don't see much of brand loyalty in the MMO world from most people, although I definitely see an 'anti-brand loyalty.'  What has caused this break with brand loyalty.  Does it in fact exist?  I understand the fact that if a company makes a series of bad games, a person avoids it.  But in this community, a single bad game will forever put a company on the no list.  

Brand loyalty... does it exist or is there only 'Anti Brand loyalty?

Most MMOS require a lot of time investment AND money...

is normal some are very attached to those MMOS.

Not many companies are running more than One MMO at the time... and the ones that do...are running cheap ones :P

Therefore is also normal some players are attached to that company or brand.

I do believe there is brand loyalty..we see it everyday with Blizzard,ArenaNet,Trion,Bioware...

I think there is some sort of brand loyalty. However, it does not seem to be accepted very well on the forum. The people who are loyal to a brand are its "fanboys".

I was going to write that I purchase every game that Blizzard makes and a voice in my head told me, "man you are such a fanboy", I had to laugh....I think it is degeneration from spending too much time on the forum.

Anyway, it is true. I have bought many games from Blizz and I have never been disappointed (well, a little with D3, but I think it was partially my fault for setting expectations too high). Now I can say that I will buy practically any game they make since I can expect to get decent fun based on my previous experience.

So yeah...I guess I am loyal to the brand...

Originally posted by Zzad

I do believe there is brand loyalty..we see it everyday with Blizzard,ArenaNet,Trion,Bioware...

agree

altho ANET is the only company ill buy a game from sight unseen

There is brand loyalty, I'd probably try any MMORPG from CCP (but not Dust514) but can't really think of too many others.

Outside of them, I don't really trust anyone to make the type of MMORPG that I'm looking for because, well, basically no one is these days.

Too little competition, too many one-hit wonders. If we had more equally impressive products competing for the same audience, maybe then brands would matter more, but as it is... not so much.

Funcom allegedly made a good game once. Mythic, Cryptic, SOE, Garriot and many others too, but I am not impressed. Any newcomer is likely to make a product as good or even better.

CCP is still with their first game.

as far as i m concerned i m loyal to SOE (pve-wise) & CCP (pvp-wise)

edit : actualy i should say i m loyal to ccp as a brand and everquest as a game franchise from SoE (vanguard was nice too, and i d like to try wizardry), it might be more relevant. and on second thought i have to admit even tho i m waiting for eqnext, i m a bit afraid of what they ll do with if it ever comes out, so wait and see.

no other company kept me playing 4+ years to any of their games like EQ, EQ2 and EvE

the only games i m realy waiting for are WoD and EQNext, all the others i m trying em and usualy bored after a few weeks (xcept for war online)

Originally posted by Calerxes
Yes I feel it does some players choose there MMO's by brand name if it is perceived as cool and makes them look good to other gamers.

I'd say it's more the other way around for me; I find a company that makes a good product, the company stands by its product, they provide excellent service, are innovative, supportive, listen to their customers, and I become loyal to the company.  I don't care if it makes me look "cool": it's a good product and I know it.

Brand loyalty definitely exists for online games.  I am extremely loyal to Guild Software (Vendetta Online).  I am getting my MBA at Lynn University, and in MBA 620 (Marketing) I have a fond memory of the teacher asking the class "Are there any brands you are loyal to?"  I raise my hand and, after being called on, reply "Guild Software".  The teacher nods knowingly, with a look that says "I have no idea what you are talking about", and the student sitting behind me mumbles incredulously "Guild Software..." as though trying to place the organization somewhere along the psychographic spectrum.

It brings an inward smile, replaying the whole sequence mentally.  Cool is a feeling, an unquantifyable instance that defies monetization.  However, sometimes the market aligns itself such that belonging to a particular brand, subculture, or product brings it about in a way that is fleeting, transient, and real.  When I read authors like William Gibson or Neal Stephenson (try in the beginning was the command line) I can't help but feel like they get this.

I'm not entirely sure there is a 'brand' loyalty as such for me. I have subscribed to Wow now since launch, but i do so because it entertains me as have some other games in the past like AO or EvE but when they no longer entertained me i stopped subbing to them or playing them. If WoW was to stop entertaining me i would have no problem with stopping my sub tomorrow (well i would as my sons would argue that they play it as well) and i have no other links with Blizzard other than that because as i own the warcraft games i have never played them (my sons do) and i got Diablo as part of the sign up for a year deal.

I have had a loyalty to certain gaming brands in the past, one of them being Westwood Studios which led me to playing Earth & Beyond just off the back of me liking what they did in the past and it was a game i loved until EA destroyed both Westwood and the game which has led me to never buying another EA game for myself since, so i guess there is a flip side to it as well.

It is hard for there to be any brand loyalty, when companies are being bought/sold and conglomerated all the time.

BW is not really the BW of old, since it was bought by EA, same with Mythic and whole lot of other companies over the years, so from that perspective, it is not that the brand itself is changing, so much as the people behind it.

And then there is the "get burned" factor. How many of the large MMO production companies have done a shitty job with MMOs/IPs that people expected more from? Most of them. How many promised a lot of stuff in their games, only to have it not be there or not work come launch day? Most of them.

If you say there is a problem with brand loyalty in the MMO space, I say there is a problem with treating the customer well by the major companies in that MMO space. Over the years, game makers have become dominated by the "money-men" who are more concerned with their business model than in ACTUALLY MAKING A GOOD GAME.

For years the producers have subscribed to the "it's good enough, people will buy/play anything" mentality. And considering that many people buy every MMO that comes along, they are not wholly wrong in their thinking. But it makes for crappy MMOs, which we have seen all too often these last 6-8 years in MMO gaming.

The makers of most of the "old school" MMOs that were certain more feature rich and deep than the ones coming out now CARED about making great games, because they had to. They were smaller companies, had invested years of the time, own money, and creativity in the products they put out, so they cared about making things well. Plus, because they were small companies they could not afford even a single failure or they were out of business. The companies these days don't care as much, because most can have any one particular product fail, and they can take the hit, so they don't care as much about every single product.

I think there is brand loyalty where it is deserved, CCP for one, even Square Enix, based on how they did things to try to make up for FFXIV out of the gate.

Most other companies have lost sight of the fact that they are in the "make a good/great game" business before anything else. They are in the "make a good enough" game business and they are learning people will no longer pay for that.

I'll tell you about my brand loyality in mmorpg's. 

If someone would make UO2 and it would be something else than great sandbox with expanded ideas from it's precedesor and without any sort of rmt (no CS, no rmah, no plex)  then I would not touch it with 10 th feet pole.

I don't really have much BRAND loyality.  I have gameplay loyality.  I very much prefer playing mmorpg's long-term rather than hopping between them and playing them short-term. 

So I will stay with mmorpg if it is decenly updated and supported (effective fight with bots, cheaters, gold sellers) and it expand on it's gameplay, making it's features better and fixing bugs. 

Gameplay TYPE and business model have to stay the same.   Changing virtual world game into lobby grinder is as bad as changing lobby grinder into virtual world game.    Changing game focus from core playerbase to casual playerbase is as bad as changing from casual to core / hardcore. 

After all I don't start playing i.e. casual FPS in order for it to change to e-sport high twitch one.  Or other way around.

I have no brand loyalty when it comes specifically to MMORPGs. I do however have a brand aversion to EA (for everything) and CCP.

I do have strong loyalties to certain developers of non-MMORPGs though, such as Relic Entertainment, Gearbox, Runic Games, Blizzard (somewhat), From Software (ARPG-wise at least), CDProjekt, and Irrational Games, to name a few.

I know the aforementioned companies turn out quality products, and I've yet to be disappointed by a game from any of them.

Such a shame that Bioware used to be first and foremost on that list though.

Originally posted by Nadia

Originally posted by Zzad

I do believe there is brand loyalty..we see it everyday with Blizzard,ArenaNet,Trion,Bioware...

agree

altho ANET is the only company ill buy a game from sight unseen

i,m the opposite..while i agree with blizz,trion,bio. i wont touch Anet again..but thats a personal choice..each to their own if you know what i mean.

I would have to say it's somewhat hard to maintain 'brand loyalty' in the MMO world.  Most of us have played/tried soooooo many games by now.  And we've all been burned more often than not.  "Once bitten, twice shy."

If I were to show 'brand loyalty' to Blizzard, then the only MMORPG I could play would be WoW.  I don't consider Diablo to be an MMORPG at all.  So really, I would be stuck with 1 game... until 'Titan' releases. 

If I were to show 'brand loyalty' to SOE, then... well... I likely wouldn't do that either.  While I enjoyed EQ2 somewhat for a while @ launch, what SOE did with Star Wars Galaxies was enough to really keep me away from any game they will likely ever manage in the future.

On top of that, you have all of these games that launched with $70-100 'Collector's Editions' with 'Life-Time Sub' options that end up going F2P in 12-18 months after launch... no way in hell I could really see myself sticking it out and showing them 'loyalty'.

...

To be honest, this really reaches far beyond MMO's.  Look at divorce rates these days, lol.  How many people do you really know that work for a single company their entire working life/career?  A few generations ago, that was common... now, it's extremely rare (unless you're military).  Not a whole lotta loyalty anywhere, tbh.