I'm kind of simple when it comes to the internet.  I log on and have very few sites I view and maybe one mmo I'll play at any given time.  Mmorpg.com being one of them.  I have over two thousand post here so that proves that I enjoy this site.

Mmorpg.com has 2,002,487 members, 579 games and 5,247,799 post.  This is a good site to find out whats going on in the mmo market, finding out about batas, and if you know how to read between the lines you can tell a lot about a game by reading fan made threads and post.  Now we need sites like this because at times it's us against the developers or we would have to rely on the back of the box or the front page of there site.

Now something happened recently that made me sit back and really think.  I got a 24 hour band because I found a great private server thats becoming very popular, and I came here to tell others about it.  I understand that its against the rules here.  But it was a disappointment never the less.  It makes me step back and really think.  What good are we really doing as fans here?

Do we have any impact at all ?....Are developers ever reading this?..... I'm sure most would agree that of 579 games 570 are disappointments.  And of the 9 or so games that are liked 6 of them have changed to our un-liking.  Mmoprg.com solves half our problem.  We can vent, we can learn off others mistakes, we can correct each other on bad information along with a few other perks of reading players post.  BUT HOW ABOUT IMPACT  or  REAL FEED BACK TO DEVELOPERS ?

Originally posted by delete5230

I'm kind of simple when it comes to the internet.  I log on and have very few sites I view and maybe one mmo I'll play at any given time.  Mmorpg.com being one of them.  I have over two thousand post here so that proves that I enjoy this site.

Mmorpg.com has 2,002,487 members, 579 games and 5,247,799 post.  This is a good site to find out whats going on in the mmo market, finding out about batas, and if you know how to read between the lines you can tell a lot about a game by reading fan made threads and post.  Now we need sites like this because at times it's us against the developers or we would have to rely on the back of the box or the front page of there site.

 

Now something happened recently that made me sit back and really think.  I got a 24 hour band because I found a great private server thats becoming very popular, and I came here to tell others about it.  I understand that its against the rules here.  But it was a disappointment never the less.  It makes me step back and really think.  What good are we really doing as fans here?

Do we have any impact at all ?....Are developers ever reading this?..... I'm sure most would agree that of 579 games 570 are disappointments.  And of the 9 or so games that are liked 6 of them have changed to our un-liking.  Mmoprg.com solves half our problem.  We can vent, we can learn off others mistakes, we can correct each other on bad information along with a few other perks of reading players post.  BUT HOW ABOUT IMPACT  or  REAL FEED BACK TO DEVELOPERS ?

     First.. don't put too much faith into numbers.. I would guess that of the 2 million members since inception,  1.9 million of those member accounds have been dead for years (meaning not actively on the site)..  I know I have generated accounts in lifetime that I no longer use but I'm sure they are still listed out there..  As to your question "Do we make any impact?".. Honestly, I don't think so.. At least nothing that is measurable or substantial..  I have read some great post here that reflect similar post elsewhere, and go completely ignored.. I'm sure there are times a complany like Blizzard will make reference to a post somewhere about an new development, but I don't belive it was because of the post that a company makes those changes..  It was a change that was going to occur anyways, but often companies are willing to toss the public a bone to give the impression they had a voice..   This tactic is used countless times in the business and govt. areas..

     I know there have been thousands of post on this site alone asking for something MORE, then these linear themepark gear grinds, and have we truely gotten anything from it?  NOPE.. not really..

To answer the threads question, "Do we make any impact at all here?'

Absolutely not. To think otherwise is foolish bordering on egomanical.

You have opinions, and Ihave opinions,are either of us the "majority" that most

developers are chasing after? Doubtful.

Nope, no difference whatsoever.  The numbers on MMORPG.com are ridiculously over-inflated anyhow.  Note, the OP said there are over 2 million members and about 5.5 million posts.  How many people have you seen with 2.5 posts?  The number of *ACTIVE* accounts here is relatively small, most of those memberships are either lurkers or inactive, people who got an account and never used it, or left the site and never deleted their account.  MMORPG.com keeps them around to make their numbers look good.  I'd say there are under 1000 actual active accounts here.

And no, the industry realizes that and pays virtually no attention to anything that happens here.

I'm of the opinion that forum goers, both on community and developer sites, have little if any influence over the direction the market is headed.  Public opinion is established by the majority, and minority voices are simply ignored.  Even public opinion itself is ignored when a developer / publisher cannot accept that the public doesn't like the direction taken.

However, the few forum goers who are sufficiently open minded to look at both sides of issues, rather than just battle over them, do gain from the experience.  This doesn't change the industry nor the public opinion by any significant amount.  But it can be, and in my experience often is, helpful to the individual.

I use this page and others to gather information and opinions. That's about it. I also express mine when I think there's a reason for doing so.

But no, I don't think devs give a dime about this site. Heh, I often think they don't even check their respective official game's forums.

The biggest effect we have on games is after they are developed. Our opinions are considered "white noise" by game developers who have already decided for us, what we like. When we respond with our gripes, the number of complaints gets attention, instead of the content:

"500,000 people are complaining on forums about [insert game mechanic]. It's time to go free to play."

do we make an impact?

to each other - yes.

to the industry - no.

but we don't own the inustry so it doesn't matter does it? we indirectly affect it as well since we're the customers.

I'm not here to change the future of MMOs...just to get an idea of what's worth playing. This site introduced me to EVE a few years ago...

www.mmorpg.com as sad as it may sound is merely a mean for it owners to earn money as their popularity grows - nothing more anymore. Perhaps at some point it was a site that could give You a honest and insightful glimpse about a mmorpg but it's no longer so. Unfortunately this post will probably be deleted as it is uncomfortable to mmorpg mods but the fact stands : with every passing year this site becomes more of an Origin leaflet than a serious gamers site.

Originally posted by Sp!k3

www.mmorpg.com as sad as it may sound is merely a mean for it owners to earn money as their popularity grows - nothing more anymore. Perhaps at some point it was a site that could give You a honest and insightful glimpse about a mmorpg but it's no longer so. Unfortunately this post will probably be deleted as it is uncomfortable to mmorpg mods but the fact stands : with every passing year this site becomes more of an Origin leaflet than a serious gamers site.

Pretty much this, but, let's be honest they aren't the only ones.

Originally posted by gordiflu

I use this page and others to gather information and opinions. That's about it. I also express mine when I think there's a reason for doing so.

But no, I don't think devs give a dime about this site. Heh, I often think they don't even check their respective official game's forums.

^This and as another poster said, many members use the site mainly for beta keys or whatever giveaways are going down that month.  

Don't let the mods fool ya otherwise.  However, even the info and opinions tend to be skewed here as well so take most with a grain of salt as they say.

Originally posted by Robokapp

do we make an impact?

to each other - yes.

to the industry - no.

but we don't own the inustry so it doesn't matter does it? we indirectly affect it as well since we're the customers.

I'm not here to change the future of MMOs...just to get an idea of what's worth playing. This site introduced me to EVE a few years ago...

This. Can spread the word on a game you enjoy and can ward others of games you may have a problem with. May result in some purchases or the lack of some purchases.

I don't think so-- not in the least. Cept maybe the odd small mom 'n pop game or indie gaming house. Otherwise if a game publisher comes here it's probably searching for a bug or exploit or something similar.

Look at the average pageviews of a thread. Miniscule at best.

You're just trying to get people to private message you about the private server.

Originally posted by Sp!k3

www.mmorpg.com as sad as it may sound is merely a mean for it owners to earn money as their popularity grows - nothing more anymore. Perhaps at some point it was a site that could give You a honest and insightful glimpse about a mmorpg but it's no longer so. Unfortunately this post will probably be deleted as it is uncomfortable to mmorpg mods but the fact stands : with every passing year this site becomes more of an Origin leaflet than a serious gamers site.

true

the stuff written by the staff has no meaning to me. they cant criticise games because then they will lose their advertising contracts or potential to get advertising contracts.  i wish there was a mmo watchdog site or something like that.