Nintendo is doing fine.

They have decent saturation in their target audience, which is younger.  Additionally, they don't sell their systems at much of a loss so they see a profit earlier than Sony or MS.

We have 3 kids in our home and have purchased way more Nintendo products than Sony or MS. If anything my Sony and MS title purchases have gone down as I don't feel comfortable playing them in front of the kids.

Originally posted by DoubleDragon
Oh, thank you. I had so much fun reading this article. And learned a bit. So much innovation in AO? Damn, I should have played it back then and not listen to naysayers.

AO  was ahead of it's time:

One of the first flying classes  (Meta Physician)

Player housing on day one

 The first game I can remember that had player owned aircraft.

A full length novel describing the back story of the game

CGI vignettes that set up the story that the newest update revolved around

Changes to places and factions based on those vignettes

It was also the only group I have seen that appointed a player advisory council and actually tried to implement information they got from them.

It's a shame they were saddled with a bad launch, slow patches,  and billing issues. It hurt the prospects for what eventually became an awesome game.

I would say the aspect of community is on the decline in MMO's as of now.

I would attribute it to the removal of many of the things that players found annoying in MMO's over the decade.

Death Penalties

Corpse Recovery

Slow xp gain to next level

All of these made useful/efficient soloing much more difficult and encouraged a sense of and respect for the server community.

They also forced you to explore more

Ask the help of other players more

On the downside all those facets were terribly conducive to making an unlucky play session range from  non-productive to a downright disaster

( Any older players experience that corpse run in an area they shouldn't have ventured just to get back the LAST items you wanted to drop on death only to leave a wagonload of your own corpses behind, gain a massive death penalty, and find your first corpse decomposed or looted? )

Much like real life, when you no longer have to cooperate and compromise to achieve a shared goal, you don't... So, when that shared goal does present itself, you have no network to turn to accomplish it and no idea what's acceptable in working with others to achieve it.

I really don't think there is a ready-made answer to the dilemma, sadly. Mine would truly be to allow both types of games to exist in the space. The problem is that it would appear that most companies are more interested with being #1 in the MMO race than turning a long term profit.

I'm good without raiding. I want to explore a game with friends and family.

Raiding seems to accentuate the mercenary personality found in some players/guilds and creates friction amongst regular and elite players.

Vanilla WoW did it right. You needed to have met the pre-requisites to go to a certain dungeon, then find a group of others interested in doing the same thing. Then go to the dungoen and something unique had a chance to drop that would further a personal quest of your own along while exposing you to the ongoing story.

Nowadays, It's an area with tough mobs and epic loot that needs a bunch of people doing the hokey pokey while playing musical chairs to expose you to an item drop that you MIGHT be able to roll on and , if so, you MIGHT be lucky enough to acquire. Only to have said item devalued by the next patch or expansion.

I'd rather continue to enjoy exploring the game world I'm in and undertaking quests with my friends as opposed to hopping on that brand of crazy train.

Originally posted by Onomas
AH was a horrible introduction to mmorpg's. Everyone crammed around 1 npc and killed the business aspect along with social interaction.

Speaking from the standpoint of one who has spent days worth of hours offering goods and services in MMO's and  even more shopping for the same from others, I can't entirely agree with you.

It's an excellent idea that was poorly implemented, imo.

The AH Model has created rampant inflation in games. This has lead to a host of unpleasant practices that MMO's would have been better served without. But it resolved the days long waits to find needed goods and services as well.

I like the system in GW2: For items you need RIGHT NOW or could get no other way you pay the premium to get it . Or alternately, if you can be patient, you will see your buy order filled at a moderate price instead.

What would help GW2 most would be a Looking for Crafter function that would allow crafters the opportunity to craft  for others directly for commision.

Having both would encourage a well rounded community.

While I take no issue with your articles at all, I do find your choice of topic interesting for your first 2 articles on this site.

One would posit that since the gaming audience is predominantly male, that your opening salvos definitely couldn't have been better targetted.

Discrimination, in general, is disgsuting... I don't think that this only applies to gender, but to race, size,  and sexual orientation as well. Discrimination in those areas is, easily, just as pervasive as gender discrimination and just as poorly handled in the gaming community.

I completely agree with your initial article's musings on threats and harrassment used based on discrimination.

I completely disagree with you on your comments regarding "jiggle physics and giggle tracks". If a game has them and you find it offensive, don't play the game. Vote with your wallet.

To say that such is "offensive to women" presumes you took a poll.

I'd say you went back on your "Being Honest" commitment with that one, but the comment was made before the commitment.

Chargebacks is what customers call this action. Banks term it as a Fraud Affidavit. Any company hit with one has an obligation to submit to the research and if found liable they have an obligation to return your money and should the expense of the processing fees assesed by your card carrier, netowork, and processing companies.

Enough of those actions and the company can lose the aility to process credit cards altogether.

Banning  from additional service for this isn't uncommon for virtual transactions.

I wouldn't "feel" too much about it were I you... It is what it is.

I haven't really seen the issue posed here and have been playing since launch.  I am on Sanctum of Rall and have never looked to see how it truly stacks up to other server's activity.

I have a number of characters running the gamut in levels and have yet to notice an instance where a Champion or DE chain didn't get a sufficient amount of players to make it doable with sole exception of Krait-based DEs and Champions.

I don't think most folks care for those blasted Krait...

My advice to those that feel they are having this problem would be to just go exploring. See what new thing you can find.

No Youtube.

Players get so bent on achievement they forget why they got the game in the first place: new experiences.

If you want constant interaction with other players I feel that's what the dungeons, WvW, spvp, and town pursuits (crafting, brokering, and etc) are for. They are also great places to find exploration and dungeon groups forming.

I'm inclined to think of this as an issue or profit margin rather than profit as well.

NCSoft has a history of axing games that don't trend to their expectations when it comes to profit margin. 

What I don't entirely understand is why the game couldn't get sold.

It seems silly to me that NCSoft would turn down any potential profits able to be realized with the sale of a game with an installed and rather loyal fanbase. There are tons of companies that would pay handsomely for this. Likewise,  the IP is so niche that it's highly unlikely NCSoft will ever use it again constructively.

Originally posted by velmax
So i was expecting the worse! Super grindy game, boring combat, and horrible gameplay in general. To be honest, i didn't get any of that. The story was pretty amazing, one of my favorite aspects of the game, the combat wasn't anything new, but still enjoyable. I really liked the PVP especially Huttball, that's probably the best PVP map I've played, and the PVP is pretty balanced. The dungeons were cool since they were Star Wars themed and i liked how all classes got a knockback and stun skill, balances the PVP out very well.  So overall, dont let other players freak you out, the game is great and the RESTRICTION for F2P arn't that bad, at least 1-50.

The game isn't bad. It's got some rather large shoes to fill given that it's part of the Star Wars Universe and it follows behind  SW:G.

That's two strikes either for or against it off the bat.

It also sets a couple of bars for expectations outside of those that come with any new mmo no matter what.

If the game doesn't measure up to those expectations people are going to complain.  Add into that the amount it cost in production and the statements made by Bioware and how those statements were fulfilled in game and you have a bad set-up.

Had this mmo been from their Mass Effect IP, I think we'd have seen a better result. The W0W playbook would, most likely,  have had to be thrown out to make such a game and the IP isn't as polarizing in general.

I like the game for what it is and am enjoying it. I don't see a noticeable deficit of content compared to subscription games of the same relative age.

But then, I'm a casual gamer now.  I don't play hardcore games any longer because I have a life to live.

I think some of your argument has merit.

Scripted Storylines shouldn't be so encompassing that it overshadows the story you are writing for yourself by playing. If anything this is where BW got it wrong with SWTOR as compared to some of their console titles.

SWTOR was too scripted ( and I am a fan of story first) which made everyone's individual story the same es everyone else's. I am more a fan of lore being made available in the world or the website as a primer for related dungeons and quests.

Vanilla WoW gave you the whole story on how the world came to be the way it was at the time if you were willing to play each race and read the lore. the lore was of relevance in every dungeon and each dungeon offered lore about itself. WoW:BC and WotLK took advantage of that fact and made a great and a poor expansion but didn't build on the concept of lore.

Lore is optional, whereas the story setups offered by WotLK (and Cata!) and SWTOR aren't.

Lore creates the option for adventuring and exploration where personal story merely sends you there and drops you off.

i  think that your article highlights a failing in this current generation of gamers.

They don't read...

Or, rather, they'd prefer not to.

Originally posted by Kyleran
How come all of you are posting on these forums tonight and not playing your favorite games? Me, I'm stuck at the mall watching my wife shop for Christmas. Ugh!

Newborn in the house in conjunction with the other kids so don't have the time to run in the field or dungeons for a bit yet. Was crafting when I wrote that.

Waiting on the baby's formula to heat up while I'm writing this.

Originally posted by jpnz

 

... Someone may want an MMO that they'll play for years, but they are the minority.

I don't know one MMO player IRL that doesn't look for that in an MMO.

Older games had this because it took more work to achieve anything in those days. Levels came slower,  death had consequences, corpse runs, ammo count, item selling took place in chat, etc.

These days it's expected that you shouldn't even really have to log in to buy or sell items in your favorite game. One of FFXIV's largest failing was a trade setup that required that you go find a relevant sales person (which I always found funny given that FFXI was one of the first "auction house" games)

Relevant conversation tends to be kept to a minimum on servers and the average median age of players is closer to 16 than the 26 it used to be 10+ years ago... At least it would appear so given the nature of what does go on in most area chats.

I personally think it's just fine to be a content locust provided that you don't blame the game for your game hopping.  Anyone willing to blow through content truly had no interest in the journey but only in getting to the ending.

Persoanlly, If it was me, I'd save myself the money by reminding myself that the good guys win and the hero gets the girl (or kid, exonerated, the treasure, etc) in almost every fantasy story.

Me? I enjoy the journey.

I tend to agree with your points.

I remember Anarchy Online managing to do something close to these points in its' heyday but still suffered from the stigma of a bad launch.

The other biggie, to me, which no company really has control over is the quality of the community.  More cohesive and inclusive communities tend to go hand in hand with games that do well.

One of the things we've moved away from in MMO's is the cause for a need to interact with other players. Because player's interaction amongst each other is so much more limited now that it was in older games, communities seem to have become more sterile.

So the tie of community that would once bind players to games long term has effectively gone away.

I'm keeping my eye on this one. I've not seen another game company or dev be so candid in regard to thier performance or their intent to correct it .

Yoshi-P has spent more than a year regualrly apprising players of what's going on, why and what's important  to work on next.

He's taken and acted on feedback from players and when something needed to get changed that wasn't popular he does it without waffling.

You can't ask for more than that.

I'm just hopeful that the game manages to be a hit in Japan as well as that's where it needs to hit it big.

My only concern is the monetization given current competition.

Games that have given me more than my money's worth( i.e. more replayability than a console rpg of similar price).

Asheron's Call 

Anarchy Online

Final Fantasy XI 

Asheron's Call 2 (edit:  forgot to add it on first pass...)  Game released unfinished. The fighting between MS and Turbine along with MS Passport and a newGFX engine made this game a comedy of errors that was still fun)

City of Heroes 

World of Warcraft

Global Agenda

Tera

Guild Wars 2

Games that gave me my money's worth (approximately the same amount of time spent playing as I would a good console action/rpg game)

Aion

DC Universe Online (my son would argue this... )

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Trek Online (got caught by the hype train on this one...)

I don't truly think any economic system can be perfect or even "working as intended". There are too many factors to account for when dealing with the concept of value.. perceived or real.

The basis for the majority of complaints I am seeing in regard to the economy deal with expectations born from previous MMO experiences.

The game is solid. The community is still forming though so it's too soon to tell about longevity and your potential opportunity cost.

I'd say that a player who can enjoy a fantasy setting and is more interested int he journey as opposed to what comes after will get their money's worth.

Players only interested in end game may want to look for older games and give this some time to mature. Of course given that there isn't a sub you lose nothing by maxing now and waiting for content additions.

The cash shop doesn't have p2w items in it. It's primarily costumes, xp boosters, items, and character slots.

I'm loving the game so far, but recognize that no game is for everyone.