Player Perspectives (Archived): Industry Layoffs and How They Affect Players
MMORPG.com columnist Jaime Skelton addresses the number of layoffs that we have seen in and around the MMO industry recently and talks about how this kind of news can affect players.
Column By Jaime Skelton on November 13, 2009
This week's layoffs at EA - particularly at Mythic Entertainment, who run Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot, and Warhammer Online - are a sore reminder of the economic situation. In the past year, we've seen several MMOs close their doors: Shadowbane, The Matrix Online, Dungeon Runners, Tabula Rasa, and about half a dozen various free to play MMOs. Other games, named and unnamed, have been axed before they even entered a playable phase of testing.
As gamers, sure, we're concerned about the economy. But we're also very concerned about how it affects our gaming. Budget cuts, or staffing cuts, mean a lot more at an MMO. Because MMOs are staff-heavy and require constant supervision from multiple teams (customer service, server maintenance, new content development, etc.), we have good reason to be concerned. Our MMOs aren't just games that can be cranked out of a basement. They aren't Torchlight (at least, not for another two years.)
Our gaming addiction of choice isn't one that can just be put on a shelf of a store and never be touched by the game staff again. MMOs require maintenance, and players expect three things: new content, maintenance on current content, and customer service. So layoffs scare us, particularly when they're at a company backing our favorite game (or game to be). We're a group of gamers who have seen good games cut before they hit market, watched decent games die off before their prime, and watched bad games continue to thrive. We're skeptics of the industry.
So a letter, like Jeff Hickman's recent one, while good intentioned, doesn't do a lot in terms of reassurance. Generally, we know things are worse than we are told. The letter is really no better than a press release: sugar coated truth. It further doesn't help that EA is being tight-lipped about the layoffs to the press. We have no way of knowing whether Mythic's games will continue to be sheltered under a special economic fallout umbrella or if we're sailing a doomed ship. Our skepticism will continue, however, and an Executive Producer letter won't stop the rumors that Warhammer Online is going to be crushed within a year.
There's talk, too, of players needing to adjust to new subscription models. Yes, of course we're adjusting to the fact that there are free to play and freemium games, and many of them, in fact, are - gasp - fun to play. I'm referring to the attitude that "micro-transactions are the way of the future;" the idea that players should become accustomed to having to pay not just for "perks" but standard game play in little chunks that end up costing more than a subscription fee. I'm not calling micro-transactions inherently bad. I'm calling the attitude that we should be good little gamers and swallow whatever the companies give us a load of bull. This is an industry of luxury, where our dollars make decisions for the industry. We shouldn't be bullied around.
Unfortunately, it seems that at least the larger half of the industry is going to continue to press us into their business models. MMO players are viewed largely by society as addicts, enough to be labeled such by psychiatrists and financial analysts alike. In ways, the MMO industry is becoming, in attitude, much like the coffee, tobacco, and alcohol industries - it doesn't matter to some what they make, because there are paying addicts who will keep the cash flow rolling in. Consumers may have a choice among brands, but the industry as a whole continues to profit. And as historical evidence will show, addictive substances - vices, as they're called in the investing world - rise in profit when people are suffering economically. Misery seeks escape, and company, when it comes to an MMO, and clearly video games are an escape from real world dilemmas and disasters.
;)
Open Communication is key.
That, too, is something the industry doesn't seem to understand: most of us aren't in denial when we say we aren't addicts. By all means, there are addicts among us, addicts who should be seeking professional help, or at least seeking the aid of an organization like Online Gamers Anonymous. However, most of us that play MMOs are fully in control of our hobby. We may be more involved in our game development process than any other subsection of the gaming industry, maybe more vocal, but that doesn't make us addicts any more than someone who has to watch the newest episode of So You Think You're Smart Enough to Sing in My Glee Club every week. Just like we don't need to be bullied, we also don't need to be labeled or treated like socially handicapped people.
I think we all understand that times are tight, and that sometimes good games, just like good people, get tossed aside to keep companies afloat. Still, there are a few things as players we want from the other side of the fence:
- Communication. Don't leave players hanging in the dark, wondering if a game they've supported for years may be in the trash bin within a few months.
- Honesty. Stop feeding us feel good press releases, and give us the facts. Optimism is good, but not when it obscures a very real chance of bad news.
- Respect. Don't assume that we're addicts, escapists, or otherwise unconcerned about how we spend our entertainment money.
I realize that gamers may not be entitled to any of these things, but their use goes a long way in a very personable gaming industry.
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One important thing to note here is the different philosophies pertaining to huge corporate companies vs the independents in times of strife.
The huge company just cares about profits. They will cut and slash until they get the job done at the right profit level. They will also change the payment models to suit their needs.
The independents are just trying to make a livelihood. They will nurture and pour everything they have into their game to ensure that the customer is satisfied.
Totally agreed here, and the way alot of Asian games handle the micro transactions we lose out.
I did the math on one game(all be it not accurate) and we pay 20$ for say like 10000 points too spend in game but most of the item you can buy are #### points in price so you at the minimum you are paying 2$ for alot of the items. Where as I navigated too the native version website and saw their prices 10x lower then ours. I believe the Asian gaming market views us more so as ignorant addicts. I only fear that US and EU developed micro games might follow the same model and on average charge 1-2$ for a single ingame item.
Quote-------"This week's layoffs at EA - particularly at Mythic Entertainment, who run Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot, and Warhammer Online - are a sore reminder of the economic situation. In the past year, we've seen several MMOs close their doors: Shadowbane, The Matrix Online, Dungeon Runners, Tabula Rasa, and about half a dozen various free to play MMOs. Other games, named and unnamed, have been axed before they even entered a playable phase of testing.
As gamers, sure, we're concerned about the economy. But we're also very concerned about how it affects our gaming. Budget cuts, or staffing cuts, mean a lot more at an MMO. Because MMOs are staff-heavy and require constant supervision from multiple teams (customer service, server maintenance, new content development, etc.), we have good reason to be concerned. Our MMOs aren't just games that can be cranked out of a basement. They aren't Torchlight (at least, not for another two years.)"
Remeber it also puts more people into the job market, that will take a job for less pay. Lowering the cost of making MMO's., or even lowering the pay of people that make a living writing about MMO's. What is minimum wage these days? $7.25 per hour. I love being Retired at the age of 49.
Your only going to see more of this until the economy rebounds.
Take for instance Lotro changing the model for payments, trying one last desperate attempt to hold onto their share of the gameing industry. You go multi month and get the XPAC for free. That is depseration, it speaks of hoq many folks are not renewing on a month to month basis, while those of us who have a lifetime acocunt get to play virtually for free, while our lifetime 199 money has already been used and gone.
I too fear that they will get the axe even if they do go to FTP, wich is something I am all sure we can see headed our way. They had to go there to save DDO, and I expect the same.
The real problem is if these game and I mean all of them would give us good content, make the game fun, make it to where you wanted to spend you ever loving life there and skip work to even play, then these games would not be having these money problems
And yes layoff affect the amount of content and what happens in game, thus driving of more folks this goes for all games.
All "Industry of luxury" are Micro transaction based.
I found it funny that the article states this, then rally's agent it.
Nice article, i like the fact that your straight up. I too was disappointed with the War letter but well i guess i understand why they did it too.
"Communication. Don't leave players hanging in the dark, wondering if a game they've supported for years may be in the trash bin within a few months.
Honesty. Stop feeding us feel good press releases, and give us the facts. Optimism is good, but not when it obscures a very real chance of bad news. "
From a player prospective of course that type of information would be good, from an industry standpoint that information would be terrible.
If a company says it is going to shut down a game in 3 months, they basically just shut it down that day instead. Players won't want to pay for the next 3 months knowing it is going away and so they'll quit instantly. Why toss money down the drain? That is money the company will lose that it could put towards it's other or future products. Also players that do stay in game will get obnoxious and ruin the fun remaining for other players since they realize it isn't in the companies interest to devote time and money to controlling the players anymore.
Giving the truth to players, if it is bad information, causes panic. Players read into every statement ever mentioned by a producer and come up with crazy stories on what it means, and that the game is closing etc etc. So players then react to this false information and it costs the companies money again. There aren't enough mature players who can take statements at face value and not explode. How many times has a game closed servers to boost population on the other servers and had players scream from the roof tops that the game is doomed and will be gone in 3 months and then quit? Happens everytime and makes the situation worse. They forget games like EQ that closed servers to boost population and then later had to reopen new servers to handle the increased population gains.
Sadly MMO players don't handle information well enough for companies to be upfront and honest.
Also in these times I think it's a good idea to support the games you like, I support the ones I want to see stay around even if I don't get to play much. But I also don't have any financial troubles and have a solid job.
Some games seem to not be effected much at all. WoW obviously would have to take a crisis to be hurt by a bad economy, in fact the top few MMOs seem to be exhibiting no change at all.
Even the game I love, AC, just released a large free update and continues to release free monthly updates. This last large update seems to have increased the population significantly and they've already announced new player races and other interesting features being added in late spring. I'm sure there's plenty of other companies still working hard and improving their games without any worry to the economy as well.
EA was a big one, but it was also an extremely bloated company with a lot of bad products both in the works and released. So it's not surprising that it had a huge layoff. But I don't think most MMO players should be concerned at all.
While I understand your position in regards to the letter from the EP of Mythic, the reality is that he couldn't really have said anything else. He had to calm some of the fears and rumors that have resulted from EA's personnel cuts, These types of games operate very much on belief. If the player base starts to buy in to some of the rumors, then subscription levels start to decline, and a nasty spiral feed back starts. Thats the LAST thing Mythic needs at this point.
I'll buy a box and pay a monthly subscription for an MMO and periodically buy major content upgrades.
I won't give in to micro-transactions...ever. If the game goes free-to-play but with paid for premium content, I'll quit. If the game tells me I have to buy premium items one at a time instead of buying major expansions once every 6 months to a year, I'll quit and go elsewhere. If premium items are available for real dollars, I'll quit and take my dollars elsewhere. If experience bumps or experience bonuses are available for real dollars, I'll take my business elsewhere.
Micro-transactions look great to a bean counter, but he's counting unhatched chickens IMHO. I refuse to be nickled and dimed, and I'm not the only one that feels this way.
i don't min MT's as long as they don't take away from the game. Some people want a little more then the norm, i don't mind paying for "extra frills"
Take CO for example.
i bought 20 extra costume slots, by defaut you get 4
How many people need 24 costumes on 1 character?
Magazine subscriptions, Readers Digest condensed books, and cigar clubs are three luxury industry business models I can name off the top of my head that are subscription based rather than micro transaction. So no not all luxury industries are micro transaction based. The premise fails. The article doesn't state that either.
Some key points of this article, like the being bullied part or as I stated a day or so ago that these companies truly think we are stupid, have come up time and again on this forums in the recent few days. The communication part is something I touched on in Jon's thread yesterday's far as these companies, even if they say they are listening to their consumers, sure do very little action wise in showing it.
We know this stuff. I'm not trying to take away from Ms. Skelton's article, but the plain truth is we know this. The questions that remains as far as I see it is:
What do we do about it?
What can we do about it?
As I said in Jon's thread trying to organize people to vote with their dollars just isn't really feasible as there is no central "authority" to marshal such courses of action. Is the course to start such organizations that essentially equate to the NFL's Player's Union? If so, how and who should start it? Does congress get involved seeing as they already have set a precedent by interjecting their will in regulatory fashion in other forms of entertainment?
Something has to be done, that's for certain.
Magazine subscriptions, Readers Digest condensed books, and cigar clubs are three luxury industry business models I can name off the top of my head that are subscription based rather than micro transaction. So no not all luxury industries are micro transaction based. The premise fails. The article doesn't state that either.
Just with your examples, you are leaving off the fringe purchases.
Very objective in that report, thankyou.
I think MMOs have just about seen the golden age are about to pop into some of the crappest things around (if not already). Wizard of the Coast might be getting another go at vaccuming up my account.
I've seen great MMOs come and then die as the next latest and greatest company that promises so much then disappoints in failure after failure to correct issues that were in the last great MMO.... Seriously, Wizard isn't nearly as back about screawing up in MTG as Blizzard, Mythic, and Sony have been to the MMO world... Laying off the backbone of the MMO creation is a sign of the death of MMOs....
As for why MTG is messed up , not as bad as MMOs: damage is no longer on the stack wracks many a extended, legecy, and vintage red deck...
I am not willing to pay for micro-trans in full priced and/or full priced games. Period. LOTRO, dragon-age, not a chance. Other people are, and they'll give you a laundry list of excuses as to why it's okay for companies to do that. As long as you have those people with money to burn, the industry is just going to keep doing it.
"Some key points of this article, like the being bullied part or as I stated a day or so ago that these companies truly think we are stupid, have come up time and again on this forums in the recent few days. The communication part is something I touched on in Jon's thread yesterday's far as these companies, even if they say they are listening to their consumers, sure do very little action wise in showing it."
Totally agree to that point.
As far as Mythic's lay offs and other MMO closing I see no problem with that. The market is brutally honest. Warhammer was not doing well ( no shit) and they laid people off. Having crap games die is good. I loved shadowbane but I know games need to be profitable.
As far as us getting gaming companys to be more truthful and direct with their customers I have no idea how we can do that.
Although in time stuff gets out.
Trimming the fat is good. WoW has shown the genre can be very profitable so it will not abandoned. It might just be slow for awhile. This can be good. I would rather have 3 well funded games instead of dispersing the cash over 20 games that blow.
Oh lord... Don't get the morons in congress assembled involved... Unless you want things REALLY screwed up. That "something" that "has to be done" is to not play games that you don't like/enjoy. Beyond that you are simply asking for serious trouble.
Sorry, this is exactly the brainwashed mentality I ve heard from too many people, primarily americans: "Trimming the fat is good." Its like the trickle-down theory, the concept of passing savings on to the customer and other myths that they have taught us in business school as well.... and then added they mostly do not work.
"Trimming the fat" does what? It removes a lot of games and companies, pooling the playerbase around a few of them. These may be well supported... or they may not, as less games means less competition means less need to actually put some of that revenue back in.
Also, "trimming the fat" is making it much harder for a good, original idea to break into a stagnant market. How is that good? Do you want to play the same games and concepts for years, because there is no need to further innovate, as the barrier of entry is so high that "fat" that is smaller companies and experimental game concepts gets "trimmed" ?
"Trimming the fat" is an ingeniously chosen phrase for its purpose, and as anyone with a degree, hell, with experience in marketing can tell you, it is almost the perfect catchphrase to shove anything down your customers throat. It combines a lot of subtext.... but in the end, its just a phrase with no actual content, that hides a pretty bad consequence:
Fewer companies get larger market shares, and are less threatened by new competitors, while the general number of products offered to us, games in this case, goes down, and the market becomes extremely hard to enter.
Sorry, this is exactly the brainwashed mentality I ve heard from too many people, primarily americans: "Trimming the fat is good." Its like the trickle-down theory, the concept of passing savings on to the customer and other myths that they have taught us in business school as well.... and then added they mostly do not work.
"Trimming the fat" does what? It removes a lot of games and companies, pooling the playerbase around a few of them. These may be well supported... or they may not, as less games means less competition means less need to actually put some of that revenue back in.
Also, "trimming the fat" is making it much harder for a good, original idea to break into a stagnant market. How is that good? Do you want to play the same games and concepts for years, because there is no need to further innovate, as the barrier of entry is so high that "fat" that is smaller companies and experimental game concepts gets "trimmed" ?
"Trimming the fat" is an ingeniously chosen phrase for its purpose, and as anyone with a degree, hell, with experience in marketing can tell you, it is almost the perfect catchphrase to shove anything down your customers throat. It combines a lot of subtext.... but in the end, its just a phrase with no actual content, that hides a pretty bad consequence:
Fewer companies get larger market shares, and are less threatened by new competitors, while the general number of products offered to us, games in this case, goes down, and the market becomes extremely hard to enter.
So proppoing up failures is both wise and anti-American? Free market forces decide. No government interference, industry welfare, or demand economy foolishness changes that. The strong games profit the weak ones are consigned to the trash bin. Mythic is laying off people because their games and business model cannot support their workforce. End of story.
I wonder what games would fit the category "and watched bad games continue to thrive."?
Obviously, any game that is thriving isn't a 'bad' game from the companies perspective. If the game really is bad, why would players continue to pay for it? I know there are always a few die-hards that believe that their favorite game, which has a poor implimentation of what they hope for, will soon be fixed and the world will then see its hidden beauty. But the majority of players will see the poor game and drop it, maybe revisiting it in 6 months to see if it has been turned around.
History has shown that games that are in bad shape on release have a huge uphill struggle to survive. AO is one of a few that were a mess on release and after a few years of fixes have managed to survive (I play on a free account occasionally when I'm bored with what I've currently been playing). So does anyone have an example of "a bad game that continues to thrive"?
Something that surprises me in the discussions here are how some people talk like micro-transactions are some kind of game poison (i.e., they would quit immediately if added to a game they play). Personally, I love the current DDO model. It gives the players a choice:
1) Play it as a subscription based game will full access to most content.
2) Play it as a F2P game, buying the content they want access to.
3) Play is as a F2P game, and earn points in-game to get enough content to continue playing.
I don't see how having a choice can be a bad thing as long as there is no deception involved (and DDO is very up front about it).
I would MUCH rather just buy the content that I'm interested in, rather than pay a monthly fee to get everything, half of which I may not be making use of. Games with micro-transactions get immediate truthful feedback about what players are willing to pay for instead of biased feedback in the forums where vocal players typically dominate and may push the game in a directing that the majority isn't interested in (i.e., "give us unrestricted PvP").
So proppoing up failures is both wise and anti-American? Free market forces decide. No government interference, industry welfare, or demand economy foolishness changes that. The strong games profit the weak ones are consigned to the trash bin. Mythic is laying off people because their games and business model cannot support their workforce. End of story.
Its not about propping up failures, its that there is no value at all in reducing the number of products in a segment to us, the customers. If a game is bad enough that you dont want to play it, dont play it. Its existence does not hurt you. You gain nothing from having it removed, but you lose something, and that is diversity and competition. A game that fails to attract enough gamers isnt going to stay around for long, yes. But for the customer, at best that doesnt matter, at worst it reduces the quality of other games over time.
Thats all I am saying. Not sure how you put "anti-american" in there, because frankly I am neither american nor do I care. I just have seen the phrase "trimming the fat" used a lot in discussions on other forums, mainly business-related, and it seems to be a popular catchphrase for a big delusion.
For us, the gamers, the best outcome is a lot of MMOs catering to different playerbases, each competing with the other so they do their best to deliver a great game.
The worst outcome is close to what we have now: One or two juggernauts who raise the barrier of entry to insane heights, so competitors can no longer outperform them, they do what WAR, AoC and maybe Aion have done and out-market them. We get a lot of hollow short-term games that try to grab a quick buck, and nobody cares about creating quality, because quality alone does not sell as well as no quality, but lots of noise.
As a gamer, thats a lose-lose, even if for the companies, it may come out even in financial terms, because rather than spend our cash for good games for long stretches of time, we dump our money into overhyped crapgames which blow out after a short while and make us buy the next one. Overall, the same cash goes into the industry, but we just get crappy games.
In the case of Mythic, I think this was a classic case of mismanagment from the day EA and Mythic merged, and possibly before. Mythic needed cash, and they struck a deal with the devil. Maybe at the time it looked different, but EA has a very singular reputation on their business side, and its not a lenient one.
EA pushed Mythic, Mythic pushed WAR, and we got a bad game. When subs went bleeding, Mythic went into damage control mode, and swerved left and right with their attempts to please all kinds of playertypes, probably already having EA breath down their necks. Instead of trying to go down the road they originally planned and intended, too much was compromised to try and hold onto the big numbers and the somewhat different audience than they expected.
Now, the gamble did not pay off, so EA is cutting cost and basically dropping Mythic and WAR to a degree, in favor of the next big thing. EA desperately needs income, and I wouldnt be surprised if BioWare is already feeling an accelerated timetable to release ToR, because WAR as the big money-maker didnt happen.
If they hadnt gone delusional and aimed for the stars, and then refused to give up when the game impoded, they could well have a nice tidy MMO there for a niche audience, and not a shipwreck and a half-dead and cannibalized company a year later.
Its the whole "make game, rush game for early money, get rich NOW" scheme that doesnt work, but the developers are those who have to pay the price.
Oh lord... Don't get the morons in congress assembled involved... Unless you want things REALLY screwed up. That "something" that "has to be done" is to not play games that you don't like/enjoy. Beyond that you are simply asking for serious trouble.
Why not have the "loonies" police the "loonies"?
Such a shame that BioWare will end up chewed up, swallowed and spit out again, an unrecognizable mess of its former glory, thanks to their spectacular sell-out to EA.
Their latest game, Dragon Age, is already suffering criticism for incorporating in-game advertising for DLC. No other bioware game ever did this - but as soon as they hit the EA greed fest it's there in your face.
Things will only get worse :(
Oh, independent game developers, please provide where the greedy cannot. Give us games that are fun and complete.
As for the MMOs, such a pity. Just another reason not to sign up for something under a greed-banner like EA, regardless of how appealing the IP is. EA *will* find a way of perverting it.
Why not have the "loonies" police the "loonies"?
We already have that... Which is why things are going down hill fast.
Finally, someone at MMORPG that doesn't try to push MT on everyone. Bless your heart.
P.S. The feel good press releases are bad because pretty much anyone over 12 has been exposed to enough BS that flags go up when they see something like that. Companies believe their own garbage so much now days they will refuse to say anything "bad" right up until the TARP funds arrive. Then it's a matter of shifting blame and deploying golden chutes...
AMEN! I've got a favorite columnist here, and thy name is Jaime. This one seems to have some credibility.
On the initial topic of industry layoffs & their effect on the games & community...
If a company is doing layoffs (&/or closing games), they've just told me that my next purchase/investment of another MMO should not be from them because they have no loyalty to their customers or employees.
NCSoft is a prime example. I bought Guild Wars & enjoyed it, but started seeing NCSoft layoffs & held back from buying Tabula Rasa & Dungeon Runners. Now both of those games are gone (or going soon) & they want me to buy Aion?
No thanks. I'll take my money elsewhere. Now I'm even skeptical of buying Guild Wars 2.
The market is an unforgiving place, but it rewards success and punishes failure very efficiently.
Industry laying people off? Guess certain companies should have been more concerned with putting out quality product than trying to wring every single cent out of players for everything.
Getting fired out of a gaming company? Too bad for you, blame management.
It is the inevitable consequence of the corporate management being to far removed from the "designers" and the "the players" for too long. It is not an accident that sometimes people/companies become victims of their own success and "forgot" what made them successful in the first place. And this is not a phenomenon restricted the the computer gaming industry, either.
Yes, companies are in business to make money, but you have to provide a quality product first. And it is the paying customer that decides what "quality" is, not some corporate suit that says "Your deadline is this, and not that, and it will have this and not that, based on our business model." Or the spin and viral BS that the various company PR people put out.
I have no pity for companies that are punished because they put out buggy/incomplete/shallow/inferior products. That is what the market does and rightly so. Why have so many of these "recently" released games tanked? Because it was more of the same stuff (be it WoW-like or not) and the market (i.e. the paying public) has had enough of that.
I agree with the rest. And I even somewhat agree with you here. But the thing I have to point out is that no company has ever even TRIED to be honest. They just assume, without any apparent evidence, that people will panic and tank their product as soon as any truth is released, and only tack on truth after all the advertising and marketing jargon has been thrown at their customer so much that truth is just another flying leaf in the hurricane of bull.
I work in the computer service business, so I know the difference between "doom and gloom" and "truth" when a bad situation arises with a customer. MMO companies just use the basis of truth = doom and gloom, and I believe this is false.
For example, last week, we had a customer in who had a notebook in our shop because it was operating extremely slow. She paid us a bench fee of $80, and we diagnosed the computer. We did the cursory tune-up, and the computer actually got worse. So we started the hardware diagnostic, removed her hard drive so we could plug it in to a dock and test it, and found that it was making some pretty awsome noises (think R-Type 3, or Gatica laser sounds). This meant that her computer would soon be useless to her. It's an old notebook, and the hard drive is a type not very commonly sold. And the notebook itself is old enough that an upgrade to a bigger hard drive is simply not possible.
Ultimately, this made our customer very dissapointed. Not with us, the service techs, but with the situation. And as an experienced tech/customer service person, I was able to tell the difference.
So I told her the truth, which was
"Your computer is usable at the moment, but it is due to fail in the near future. The hard drive is the problem component, but due to the age of the computer, it simply isn't worth buying a hard drive for this computer unless you have no other options. A new computer would be your best first choice. I recommend that you get any data that you don't want to lose off of the computer as soon as possible. We can transfer your photos off of the computer for you(for a fee), but you can also do that yourself if you have the time(for free). Let us know what you would like, and we will do what we can for you."
If I were to take a page from the MMO industry in my attempts to then communicate with my customer at this point, I would say something along the lines of
"Your computer is still usable. It boots up into windows. Your photos are able to be accessed. We are committed to providing you with the best service possible, as always, and we have worked hard to improve performance on your product. Keep in mind, we have many years of experience under our belts, and hundreds of references. Our service is the best in the area. We are here to give you the best product possible."
And this would be because the MMO industry simply is afraid of telling the truth. Yes, I realize that the two differ in that an MMO company is defending/condemning THEIR PRODUCT, not trying to fix a product made by someone else. But the dynamic is the same. Despite the fact that the pre-release developer crew and the post-release developer crew are often the same one, we make a distinction between the two regardless. The people who work on MAKING the product are not the same to us as the people who work on FIXING the product, though they may often be the same individuals.
This is because the developers of a released game are in the service industry, not the advertising/entertainment industry. We expect them to "fix" our problems, and are disappointed when they not only do not do so, but feed us marketing jargon and form letters of intent to do well in the future. We are disappointed because we have already bought their product, and we are hoping for a "fix," but our service techs are stuck trying to sell us more of their product.
And they do this because the powers that be are convinced that even post-launch, it is more important to sell their product than to service it. Granted, I can have this attitude because I get paid to fix things... the difference is that my payments are on a fix-by-fix basis. MMO companies are paid a monthly fee.
For our dollar, it should not have to be a chore for our product developers to say simply and eloquently;
"Our's is a quality product. We stand by its continued improvement, and will continue to do so for as long as it is possible to do so. We are going through a rough time due to the market downturn/reccession right now, but we will continue to keep you updated on the product development. You, our loyal customers, are the reason this game is still here, so we will do what we can to keep you satisfied. To that end, we are tightening our belts (<layoffs, demotions, subscription rate increases, etc>) and working on game improvements (<here's some specifics>). Additionally, we are looking at alternative methods of dealing with <problematic game issue>. There isn't a definate timeline on this, but our best guess is <a largely overestimated length of time from right now>, assuming that things go well. Thank you for continuing to use our product. Keep sending us valuable feedback, and we will continue to do everything we can to continue making this product a high quality and enjoyable experience for you. -Management"
It simply amazes me that anyone in the gaming industry who reads a statement like this just sees the line "We are going through a rough time" or anything like it as THE REAL PROBLEM with this kind of statement. I constantly tell people that Norton anti-virus is trash. This causes Norton to never be sold by me. But how do I make money, you ask? By then selling them service (duh) and offering alternatives to their crappy product (which does not make me money directly, but which increases customer satisfaction and retention). Every customer relations statement should bare this in mind with every sentence. "Tell them the awful truth, but offer them hope by way of alternative."
You can make money, but you don't have to lie and be a douche to do so. But MMO companies rarely seem to care to try and be anything but middle-ground, stagnantly moderate, and unwilling to tactfully tell the truth while still retaining their integrity and dignity. Instead, they tell us only the "good" parts, assuming that any admission that "bad stuff" exists and is a problem will be their doom. I don't think customers are demanding doom and gloom. They are demanding truth.
Supply and demand and all that.
Whew, long post.
Well... Its not just the MMO industry thats learned not to tell the truth for the most part. In all too many cases when told what they need to know, rather than what they want to hear, people can and for the most part do erupt in rage and/or panic. The other area is obviously politics. Its political suicide for most politicians to tell the truth(Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders being one of the few exceptions). Look at it from their perspective. Between distortions, rumors, and out right lies(haters/fan boys of other games) just about any announcement thats made can be used against ones game/or company. Thats not good for either the game, or the companies share price. Yes, I also wish they would tell the truth, but I realize why so many rely so much on vague PR speak. Its a matter of self defense.
As someone who has used MMOs as escape in the wake of being laid off myself, I find it rather startling just how deep my annoyance at this whole debacle has been. Empathy for fellow working stiffs outweighs the enjoyment of the game and it damages not just loyalty to the game, but to the entire concept of MMOs being an escape.
In a sufficiently long-running game, there is also the element of the blurring of the line between being a customer and being a citizen ... I tend to look at the dev team and its leadership more like a local government than suppliers of a product. It's not that town councils don't need to ever cut staff or make hard, unpopular decisions, but there's a layer of democratic accountability before people express themselves and their tax dollars out of town. *ponders the mechanics of switching a game to subscriber-ownership*
Also, I feel a certain amusement that a company would try to withhold restructuring information from a customer community who have a proven ability to assemble spoiler guides within minutes of new content being published.
Ah well, as good an excuse as any to move on to a new hobby.
Nice Article. Didn't like the Daoc letter wasn't for just that game as it should of been but rather a form letter to all 3 games...i wish they would tell it like it is really..
I've said this a couple of times already. We are heading for a MMORPG crash. We had one with arcade games in the 80s and we are at the start of the MMORPG one right now. Companies who should have known better are learning the painful hard way that MMO does not equate to instant fincial success. In fact most of the time it is a continuing loss on investment. For those of you who read this and think "Oh yeah what about Wow?" I'd be willing to bet that Blizzard would had done far better financially if they had just put all the money time and talent into more games such as Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2. (Of course this being Blizzard, none of the single player games would have been released yet so maybe not.)
We are going to have to wait for some upgrades in technology that make creating tons of MMORPG content cheaper and easier, and some innovative new ideas in mmorpg financial models before we see anything but lackluster success in online gaming.
Those of us in the gaming community weaning ourselves off crap products for lack of anything better to do, and forcing companies to come up with something better would not hurt either.
"One important thing to note here is the different philosophies pertaining to huge corporate companies vs the independents in times of strife.
The huge company just cares about profits. They will cut and slash until they get the job done at the right profit level. They will also change the payment models to suit their needs.
The independents are just trying to make a livelihood. They will nurture and pour everything they have into their game to ensure that the customer is satisfied."
Really Ruyn? Then please explain the wooden headed stupidity of Aventurine's handling of Darkfall.
Tasco's ego for one... It wouldn't be the first(nor the last) game to have serious difficulties due to the head Dev's ego problems. I well remember the console crash of 84. It took years and years for the industry to recover. While its possible, that MMO's are headed that way, I suspect its not going to be nearly as bad. There is WAY too much money to be made, and there are already WAY too many players much more deeply involved than console gamers of that time were. I totally agree that what is needed is some new methods of content creation though. Some of the middle ware suites show promise as they evolve. But again, I suspect thats years in the future. It will be interesting to see if Blizzard can pull off even close to the same subs with their next MMO. If they can, that alone may prevent any general crash and burn.
I agree.
I feel bad for all the people who lost their jobs as usually its the little guy who is struggling with family and bills who gets the axe.
When it should be the asshats who are making the actual bad decisions who get the boot.
No more half assed products=More money being made=more people working not less.
I feel for the folks who got the axe. Having been there myself this year twice. I know the times are hard. Lots of bussines is down.
However if they would make a quality product, folks would stay. IF they would make the game fun folks would stay. Instead they go about cutting the lower end of the specturm, and forcing the palyer base to play with less, and that is when folks get unhappy and leave.
I think all the game companies can learn from this, and that is you better do what it take to keep your player base happy.
I don't blame the dev's, who I blame is the management. They are the ones calling the orders, and makking a mess of things.
I just hope these guys get new jobs times are tough.
...
The example is a bit of a different situation, telling someone their computer is dead that they paid you to look at isn't the same as an MMO company telling you something like "We're closing in 3 months" or "Our subscription numbers have been steadily slipping". Telling that customer their computer is broken doesn't effect you at all, in fact it might make your store money if they buy through you. Telling customers the game is closing in 3 months or it is not doing well makes many more players quit which loses you money and then makes more players quit.
Read any official MMO forums, anytime something shows up that players didn't expect they remark along the lines of "This game will be gone in 6 months." For whatever reason MMO players are the most pessimistic people in the world. One single game mechanic changes and they then assume that the whole game will change so they quit. An update gets pushed back, oh the game must not have enough money to support it so they quit. No matter what information you give to players they find a way to twist it into something negative. So imagine what happens when you start with the negative.
I would love more straight forward honesty in the business. I would love to know team sizes and pop numbers. I would like to know if the company is expanding or shrinking and everything they have planned for the next year. But I know I'm not going to get that information because amazingly releasing that information will essentially always cost the game money.
Yes there are certainly those of us who can handle the information without causing us to cancel our subs and put on tinfoil hats, but that isn't the case for most. Even look at the posts on this site. Aion says it will reduce it's queue times, and then the queue times go away. Instantly there are posts of "No wait to get into Aion, the game is dying." It is amazing how people can twist information.
Also every player has a different take on what the company should do and when. The most common thing I read from players on the games I play is "Well that's a waste of the dev time they should do this." and then in responses "No that would be a waste of dev time to they should do this." So even releasing information of what the plan for the next month and year is still has people deciding the company is doing everything wrong.
Hi All,
There's another topic similar to this that i wouldn't mind that one of the Mmorpg.com columnists covered. That of the gaming print journalism shrinking in regards to magazines.
In the last year and a half we as gamers here in the States. Have lost 3 very good gamer magazines that were 10 years plus in circulation. That being "Computer Gaming World" that renamed itself to something else with the "Microsoft" name. Besides that of "Computer Games World" and "Electronic Gaming Monthly" (EGM) also got snuffed out.
I'm sure there are a couple more I could name like "Next Generation". Which lasted like 7 years in total.
Will the Internet be the only viable media outlet for Gaming Journalism? I hope not.
Print media is fading out in general. News papers(local and national) are having a more and more difficult time keeping subscribers as more people move on line for their information. Its just a sign of the times. I don't see the trend doing anything but growing.
While the economy does its thing, I have to say I hope the MMO industry does not go on the micro-transaction route.
I say this because using micro-transactions, as others have stated in this thread, can cost more than a monthly fee. In addition, I think a standard monthly fee puts the customer and developer on the same page financially. The customer knows what they are paying and has a level of expectation tagged to it, while the developer knows how much they're getting in subscription revenues and works off of this, ideally to meet customer expectations.
A micro-transaction model also creates an imbalance between players; those who spend and those who don't. The paying people get nice things, the others don't. A monthly sub model puts them on the same level. If you don't use the time you pay for, you should probably use the money for something better. =P
I hope the industry takes a turn toward being more open with the customer base. Yeah, it can be pretty nasty, but if you're transparent from the start, you can avoid problems and even collaborate with the community to create more appreciated and dynamic content. Being in the open isn't a bad thing unless you have something to hide. Unfortunately, people everywhere have a lot to hide. =(
Hi All,
To quote "TJKazmark":
----------
"I say this because using micro-transactions, as others have stated in this thread, can cost more than a monthly fee. "
Well it seems the MMO Industry is going in the direction of a mix of the two. That being a smaller subscription price and micro-transactions. (ideal example is "Free Realms") As a way to bridge it's inexperience with micro-transactions they are keeping smaller subscription rates for the meanwhile. When the MMO Industry is fully confident in micro-transactions expect to see variant types of micro-transactions as forms of payment in game play.
Yes, micro-transactions can cost more to players than the typical subscription payment model. But that where "self restraint" comes in your house hold budget. The game developer / publisher wants you to splurge like your going to a real life casino.
When you go to the Mall you don't go bonkers buying all the junk you see. Over time that will be the case with players in terms of micro-transactions.
I can agree with that. One thing that I'm unsure of though is the importance of the items obtained from micro-transactions. I wouldn't want to see a model where you won't be able to compete if you don't buy from the shop. I'm actually more keen to see how a hybrid mix would work, with the game having, say, a $5 per month sub and an item shop that actually offers cool stuff. On that note, I'm going to do some musing on the subject and see if I can't come up with a thoughtful blog post. =)