Remade MMOrpgs?

[Zenaku]

They titled it with a roman numeral because the entries with a roman numeral sell more than the spin-offs, and the success of a MMO is based on the number of subscribers it retains. Numbering them has nothing to do with whether they think the story is good enough or not, and everything to do with maximizing profits.

When they number final fantasy is because it good enough to be part of the series so he pretty much right. Your right also but at the end they don't give a number to a final fantasy if it not good enough to be in the main series and the only reason they fixing it because you can't have FF15 without a ff14.

[weeble]

They titled it with a roman numeral because the entries with a roman numeral sell more than the spin-offs, and the success of a MMO is based on the number of subscribers it retains. Numbering them has nothing to do with whether they think the story is good enough or not, and everything to do with maximizing profits.

<<<this lol, the main focus of anything done in this world is money. think money first then the good it does or story behind it second. then you have yourself reason and action. the reason i played ffxi was cause it was part of the series i never played a mmo b4 in my live till then. it sucked me in, ...i played it just like a rpg too. loged in and spend first day just running around city doing quests till i finally went outside to kill my first bunny ....ahhh good times. it will get alot of players who play final fantasy games to try it. at worse they get there box sales and only a few months of monthly payments. all good to the sceam of things. its like using the title of a movie as a part 2 and it totally different actors all the way to plot.

[Rutelor]

Not a comparable predicament, but one of the big "first-gen" MMOs, Star Wars Galaxies (Sony Online Entertainment,) went through an exhaustive redesign that pretty much killed it, in 2005. They called it NGE (New Game Enhancements) and it was universally condemned as an example of throwing the baby away with the proverbial bath water. The game, at launch, was criticized for its many bugs and its daunting complexity and harsh penalties. The NGE oversimplified it, sold it below minimum common denominator standards, and initiated furious reactions amidst the player base, which set off the player exodus that eventually killed the game. Anybody that started playing an MMO the years after SWG heard that horror story as a cautionary tale.

Later on, another Sony Online Entertainment game, Vanguard, Saga of Heroes, suffered one of the most catastrophic launches in the history of the industry. That game, planned as a hardcore paradise to succeed the original Everquest, was plagued by the enormity of its technical shortcomings.

VG, as people came to know it, was planned as a seamless giganormous world. This so monumentally taxed the computers running it, that one of the best designed class systems the industry has known (with its fantastic party interaction design and solo possibilities at the same time) became doomed to slow agony and death. Plus the lack of mid and high end content didn't make the community very patient.

What really killed the game, though, was the tawdry drama that played out as a consequence of all these problems. The conflicts between the stakeholders (which included, at one point or the other, Microsoft--the game was supposed to have launched on the xb360 as well, Sigil Games, and SOE,) were resolved in the least ennobling of manners, in all too public a fashion.

The story of Vanguard is the first chapter of the trilogy of failures written by the three most ground-breaking developers of the first years of the MMORPG: Brad McQuaid (Everquest/Vanguard,) together with Richard Garriot (Ultima Online/Tabula Rasa,) and Hiromichi Tanaka (Final Fantasy XI/XIV) became the three stooges, three giants that fell to folly in trying to repeat the success of their oiriginal games. Which highlights the difficulty of doing the same thing again, but doing it differently.

R

[grandm]

Not a comparable predicament, but one of the big "first-gen" MMOs, Star Wars Galaxies (Sony Online Entertainment,) went through an exhaustive redesign that pretty much killed it, in 2005. They called it NGE (New Game Enhancements) and it was universally condemned as an example of throwing the baby away with the proverbial bath water. The game, at launch, was criticized for its many bugs and its daunting complexity and harsh penalties. The NGE oversimplified it, sold it below minimum common denominator standards, and initiated furious reactions amidst the player base, which set off the player exodus that eventually killed the game. Anybody that started playing an MMO the years after SWG heard that horror story as a cautionary tale.

Later on, another Sony Online Entertainment game, Vanguard, Saga of Heroes, suffered one of the most catastrophic launches in the history of the industry. That game, planned as a hardcore paradise to succeed the original Everquest, was plagued by the enormity of its technical shortcomings.

VG, as people came to know it, was planned as a seamless giganormous world. This so monumentally taxed the computers running it, that one of the best designed class systems the industry has known (with its fantastic party interaction design and solo possibilities at the same time) became doomed to slow agony and death. Plus the lack of mid and high end content didn't make the community very patient.

What really killed the game, though, was the tawdry drama that played out as a consequence of all these problems. The conflicts between the stakeholders (which included, at one point or the other, Microsoft--the game was supposed to have launched on the xb360 as well, Sigil Games, and SOE,) were resolved in the least ennobling of manners, in all too public a fashion.

The story of Vanguard is the first chapter of the trilogy of failures written by the three most ground-breaking developers of the first years of the MMORPG: Brad McQuaid (Everquest/Vanguard,) together with Richard Garriot (Ultima Online/Tabula Rasa,) and Hiromichi Tanaka (Final Fantasy XI/XIV) became the three stooges, three giants that fell to folly in trying to repeat the success of their oiriginal games. Which highlights the difficulty of doing the same thing again, but doing it differently.

R

i have a little saying. "there should only be enough room for one MMO in your life" maybe this is more true for developers than players

(nice post interesting read)

[Tetsaru]

Well, I wouldn't call Phantasy Star Universe an MMO, and it wasn't remade, but it might as well have been. Anyone who's played it knows about how badly the servers were split up, how PC/PS2 got taken down, how Japan is over a year ahead of everyone else in content, how people had to start new accounts when they changed servers, etc... long story I don't wanna get into. I just hope PSO2 is handled a lot better, and so far, I'm happy with what has been revealed from the developers, as well as the fact that they're listening to feedback from those who participated in the Alpha testing, which to be honest, I'm surprised Sega is actually doing, lol.

As far as FF14 goes, I like the game, but I agree with a lot of people around here - SE shouldn't be charging subscription fees until 2.0 comes out. There's just not enough content and polish yet.

[Murugan]

Well, I wouldn't call Phantasy Star Universe an MMO, and it wasn't remade, but it might as well have been. Anyone who's played it knows about how badly the servers were split up, how PC/PS2 got taken down, how Japan is over a year ahead of everyone else in content, how people had to start new accounts when they changed servers, etc... long story I don't wanna get into. I just hope PSO2 is handled a lot better, and so far, I'm happy with what has been revealed from the developers, as well as the fact that they're listening to feedback from those who participated in the Alpha testing, which to be honest, I'm surprised Sega is actually doing, lol.

As far as FF14 goes, I like the game, but I agree with a lot of people around here - SE shouldn't be charging subscription fees until 2.0 comes out. There's just not enough content and polish yet.

I disagree they probably should have started charging last year. That is what every other studio would have done in their place.

I played Vanguard, so did a lot of people and they paid for it despite the train wreck of a state it was in at launch and long after (far, far worse than XIV with real bugs like falling through the world regularly). That game has no sustainable player base now because they stopped updating it properly. It had a resurgent population when they finally released content in the form of APW/overland endgame mobs, but SOE pulled the majority of the development team to other projects before it was released so nothing of comparable quality followed it.

I appreciate the free time SE gave us, but it didn't make one bit of difference. Most of the problems from launch will be here until 2.0, and are the very reason a 2.0 complete overhaul to everything is needed. If those issues prohibit someone's enjoyment, not paying hasn't won them over as long term players. The only thing that will do that is a successful and vastly improved 2.0 (which will have a free month).

All free to play has done is give a bonus to people who are fans of the game and want to play it (and would pay for it), and a break to people with nothing better to do than waste their time on something that they not only do not enjoy but also don't have plans to play long term. The "free to play" window shoppers. Pretty much, if the time playing the game regularly up until now hasn't been worth these people's $10 they weren't going to be won over as real subscribers anyways until after 2.0 is released at the very least. This changes nothing.

[Lucifer]

I still play Vanguard from time to time.
It did everything right.

[Renshi]

Hmm... I dare say All Points Bulletin (APB), which at launch failed for many points such as the population (roughly 500 per server, and there were two of them, see this article to understand better). Now it has showed off in Steam as APB Reloaded: Free to play, with a premium membership to pay if you wanna go further.

[Eugenics]

"i think the story itself is playing a major factor into why they are fixing it." Money is the major factor into why they are fixing it.

[viion]

Hmm... I dare say All Points Bulletin (APB), which at launch failed for many points such as the population (roughly 500 per server, and there were two of them, see this article to understand better). Now it has showed off in Steam as APB Reloaded: Free to play, with a premium membership to pay if you wanna go further.

It didnt get an overhaul though, just gameplay changes and massive fixes. It also went down to be republished.

There was also Age of Conan, but wasnt as big as XIV.