"Chase after money and your heart will never unclench," said the Buddha. "The love of money is the root of all evil," said Christ. "Money... it's a gas," said Pink Floyd. These days money is on every cash strapped studios' collective mind, but something lies deeper than than the almighty buck, for investors and players alike, and I'll prove it in today's Loading...
Catch 8 new Ten Ton Hammer articles and the first ever Voon podcast in Loading... Trust Issues.
Also, be sure to join us tonight for the 2nd episode of Loading... Live in Voon room Ten Ton Events, where Shay and AutumnKiss will be discussing the role of official boards and forum communities in game development.
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Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle Editor-in-Chief - The Ten Ton Hammer Network
It amazes me how long it has taken the main stream game financiers to even start to listen to the concept of quality over quantity (money). It took the overwhelming power of success Blizzard has snowballed into for other game companies to finally get the point and I'm sure many have still yet to learn this.
But if you noticed (and I'm sure you have being in the gaming press) SOE has changed their rhetoric on development cycles to promote quality and picked up a little of Blizzard's "its ready when its ready" mantra. Because of that I am hoping their upcoming releases (Free Realms and Agency) (I'm looking forward to Champions Online over DC Online myself) will be higher caliber than we have seen out of the gates in the past.
Last edited by Zan; 01-06-2009 at 12:52 PM.
Reason: Slip of the pen - I said City of Champions instead of Champions Online lol
Good post - I think NCSoft with the shutting down of Tabula Rasa after all the hype and especially with Richard Garriott's involvement really is going to feel that "trust" issue if and when they release another MMO. People will take a "wait and see" approach.
Using WoW as an example - all these MMO designers want their level 80 toon right now. They see what Blizzard does and thinks they can handle it and know what to do. They don't want to start at level 1 and work their way up, they want the rewards right now. They do not want to "level" and learn the intricacies of the class so that by the time they do get to 80 - from word of mouth or a relatively smooth release - they are ready to handle what it takes to run a level 80 toon. Yes a lot of this is impatient investors but as noted with NCSoft the results from said impatience can have big consequences.
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The trouble with being a god is that you've got no one to pray to - Terry Pratchett, Small Gods
You sure Davinci painted the Sistine Chapel? Michelangelo did much of the ceiling.
As to the story you are right at least so far as those of us who have played multiple MMOs. I for one doubt I will ever play a game made by SOE ever again. They have just done too many things wrong with theit MMOs. They don't make bad MMOs per se, but I can't stand the company and the way they run things. And SOE can "say" anything they want about going for quality over money, but they are still the same old SOE to me.
Star Wars the Old Republic has the makings of a great game, if they can keep EA and George Lucas/Lucasarts out of it.
Star Wars the Old Republic has the makings of a great game, if they can keep EA and George Lucas/Lucasarts out of it.
The Old Republic definitely has the potential to be one of the better MMOGs out there once it launches. EA seems to have at least partially turned a corner over the past year as well thankfully - at the very least they've said they trust Bioware will make a solid game, so hopefully they won't go into Dark Overlord mode on the project.
It seems to me that EA's main goal these days is to support proven and reliable talent and not to invade their space and demand they do things their way. That's ideally what a publisher should always do, in any medium. Be there for guidance, but not in the Joseph Stalin way.
It seems to me that EA's main goal these days is to support proven and reliable talent and not to invade their space and demand they do things their way. That's ideally what a publisher should always do, in any medium. Be there for guidance, but not in the Joseph Stalin way.
That always ends up being the biggest issue with any major publisher no matter what creative medium it is - letting the talent do what they do best without trying to control the process in the meantime.
Between music and art, I've dealt with my fair share of ego-tripping business execs over the years who think they know how to do what you're doing better than you do. Art dealers want you to paint X because they think it will sell, and will refuse the new Y you brought them. Record labels want you to sound more like Z even though they signed you because you sound like you, and shelf anything you record that doesn't sound like Z.
EA seems to have gotten much smarter in that area though. Maybe they've analyzed how the music industry ran itself into the ground, or player reactions to crappy DRM and how it only fuels illegal downloads rather than prevents it. By partnering with Steam, they've at least shown they realize that digital distribution isn't going away anytime soon - and they've even been learning the concept of letting the creative people be creative, without telling them how to do it. That job belongs to "forum devs" anyway.
"BioWare is also in a unique position when it comes to EA as well. EA's CEO, John Riccitiello, used to be the BioWare/Pandemic CEO before going to EA. The Docs had a very close working relationship with him for years.
This is why, on multiple levels, I think BioWare is in a very unique position and has a serious chance of pulling this off in far better than style than some may give them credit for.
Of course we'll have to wait and see, but I'm willing to have a little faith here. BioWare is the only company I can think of that has a perfect track record, at least in my opinion. I can't think of one game of theirs I haven't enjoyed."
BioWare is the only company I can think of that has a perfect track record, at least in my opinion. I can't think of one game of theirs I haven't enjoyed."
BioWare definitely tops the list for me as well in that department. Call it what you will, but they're one company who's games I'd purchase without ever giving it a second thought at this point.
Valve makes that list as well, even though they cater directly to a very different part of my gamer brain. With such an increased focus on multiplayer over the past couple of releases (TF2 and L4D) I keep wondering how long it'll be before they decide to allow a bigger number of players into the party and announce an MMOG project loosely based in the extended Half-Life universe.
I just want to see games of a different genre succeed. I love WoW but one of the reasons I was drawn to Tabula Rasa was that it was completely different but yet it just did not do what it should have done. I have mentioned many a time how I did not like the social interface and felt it was a microcosm of how the game felt rushed. I am holping The Old Republic delivers on what's said, same for Stargate Worlds or The Agency (spy stuff does sound like a lot of fun).
I think companies have realized they are not going to compete with Blizzard head-to-head and have given up on that approach. They have seen the "disasters" that were Vanguard and Age of Conan on release and hopefully have come to realize what the course needs to be if they are going to have any success at all. While Warhammer has been mixed in reviews I consider its launch much more successful and a beacon of hope.
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The trouble with being a god is that you've got no one to pray to - Terry Pratchett, Small Gods
Loading... Trust Issues
Excellent point
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