MMORPG article in well-known german news magazine

[SolArisa]

Hello,

a world-renowned german news magazine called "DER SPIEGEL" published an article today (the original is here: http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/games...821779,00.html). I translated the article into english to be able to share it with you - please excuse me if some details like class names are not translated correctly.

In there, they talk about the decline of MMORPGs and they use WoW as an example. Normally this would not be worth mentioning, but the article made me think again because it emphasized my concerns when thinking about my beloved FF XIV. Nearly everything the author says in this article can be projected directly on FF XIV (and XI of course) - either because it already happenend in Eorzea, or because it had been announced by Yoshi-P and/or his CEO already as turning the game, which "damaged the FF brand" (as stated by SE officially), into a rewarding and profitable experience, with XIV 2.0 as the final solution to all the troubles.

I think that someone should pass this article to our director and his supervisor and point out once more, that they decided this game from being a product called "Rapture" into a major Final Fantasy title with an expected lifespan of a decade. Breaking products by design is surely not the best option here.

Okay, and now do your worst and flame me into oblivion.

Sol

---8<---

Online role-playing game: Why "World of Warcraft" just sucks

by Denis Krick

"World of Warcraft" is no longer fun. The giant role-playing game has been getting easier and more comfortable, performance-hungry loners are struggling today at a rapid pace through an adventure without charm - and a dwindling numbers of users. Settlement with a once beloved game world.

The Maya have prophesied doomsday in their calendar for 2012. As a friend of disaster films, I know what unpleasant side effects such a final big event brings with it. Good manners are brutalized, everyone is his own best friend - and at the end comes a mass exodus (wherever to). There is a world which fits this prophecy: the "World of Warcraft" .

For seven years, the online role-playing game from Activision Blizzard dominated the market for massively multiplayer online games (MMO). Over twelve million subscribers had "World of Warcraft" (WoW) once. But the numbers are already declining. According to the manufacturer, the game lost nearly 1.8 million customers last year. Also, my membership expired last month. Forever.

Computer games have always had an expiration date. Graphics and sound are outdated, so a game is not interesting at some point. My wistful farewell to "WoW" has nothing to do with such superficial factors. On the contrary: The MMO ran for nearly seven years without any problems and smoothly on my now elderly computer. The animations were fluid until the last day, the game world colorful. But "WoW" has mutated from a demanding role playi to a boring occupational therapy.

Tactics are no longer necessary

Blizzard has chosen the casual gamers, the "Casuals", as the new target group. Those who spend little time in the virtual world, but still want to experience everything and see what "WoW" offers. Within a few years, the difficulty of the game was reduced to a minimum. Almost all the components that supposedly ate unnecessary time were removed. Each subscriber should come as quickly and without major obstacles in the enjoyment of the so-called endgame and reach the maximum level 85.

I have little time to play and earn the stigma of "casual gamers", too.
I am still not understood by Blizzard. The opponents are not a threat anymore. The preservation of legendary weapons, lofty titles, or special abilities is no longer a question of skill, but only of playing long enough. Tactics in the fights are no longer necessary during endgame. Often enough, random key presses are enough to get rid of the dangers of the war world. The gameplay has remained dead on the track.

As if you beat a six-year-old boy in arm wrestling

It's like facing a chess computer on the lowest difficulty level. Or struggling with a six-year-old boy in arm wrestling. In the end you are still unbeaten, but it is not a real feat.

Blizzard has acted like a weak mother whose child is screaming at the supermarket checkout for sweets: The company has given his whining customers almost everything they demanded. For years, players bleated in the forums, that any class or race is too weak or strong, some tasks are too difficult or time consuming. For years, the developers struggled to respond. The result of the efforts is a world champion of the character classes, doing almost all tasks alone. Warriors and Rogues can heal themselves by now, paladins and priests deal high amounts of damage.

Previously, players had to add these archetypes, to search, find, and then perform tasks together. They did so, giving the multiplayer game its name - they played together with other people.
Today, searching and finding in "WoW" is a waste of time. Complex quests for which you need assistance have disappeared almost completely from the game. For multi-player instances, battlegrounds, and raids, cross-server tools like the Dungeon Finder were created to provide a party with game partners within a few seconds.

Hailing is not more, for more verbally insults

Staying in "WoW" has degenerated into an impersonal ego trip. In the randomly motley groups, everybody is his own best friend. The goal is no longer the common experience, but the speedy play through the instances. Communication is rare, often not even a "hello" or simple "hi" at the beginning. But more players insult verbally.

The introduction of the LFG tool also devastated many regions. Almost nobody travels around the country anymore, instead hordes of players are waiting in the capitals of the virtual world for teleporting easily into the multiplayer instances, arenas and battlegrounds.

The relatively new "phasing", where players are invisible from each other on different time layers in the same area, ensures that a massive number of players is not seeing each other - and playing together is even more unlikely.

The lack of fair play is tolerated

Besides the gameplay, the game culture has suffered badly. The so-called "wintrading", where the result of player-versus-player battles is agreed upon beforehand, is used to cheat players into arena rankings, and to get glorious titles and equipment easier than intended. Multi-boxers - so called smarty-pants who simultaneously serve more than a "WoW" account - distort competition in the multiplayer battlefields. Blizzard not only tolerates this lack of fair play, but considers it being legal. Of course, this pours more account subscription fees into the coffers.

Despite the reduced difficulty, newcomers to WoW hardly have an easy life. The community is not very helpful anymore. Beginners only slow you down.

Those responsible at Blizzard, meanwhile, are trying to tap into new markets. After the Portuguese language version, which was provided primarily for boosting sales in Brazil, now the Italians get are their own "WoW". The current subscriber base is lured by annual memberships, with the new Blizzard game "Diablo 3" on top. Almost an act of desperation. It has not helped much so far: "WoW" lost another 100,000 players in the last quarter of 2011. The bleeding has not been stopped, only slowed.

Kung Fu Panda and Pokémon

The company believes to have found reason for the loss of players: The endgame of the previous expansion, "Cataclysm", is considered being too difficult. Accordingly, it is repaired. More boredom is to be feared.

The next add-on is announced to turn everything into niceness. "Mist of Panderia" comes up with a pandarian race who mastered the Kung Fu. Furthermore, there will be an arena in which the players can send their collected domestic pets in the fight. Kung Fu Panda and Pokémon in the world of war. The only thing missing may be that you shoot with angry birds around.

Blizzard is very fortunate today that there are few real alternatives to the MMO market. The highly touted "Star Wars: The Old Republic" has not yet fulfilled the expectations - and is also designed for casual gamers.

Anyone who complains today in "WoW" forums on the current state of play, complains about the lack of complexity and difficulty, which is quickly abused and called, at best, as nostalgic. previously nothing had been not been anything better, they say. If it does not fit your expectations, then you should just leave.

Which has happenend.

----8<----

[Atoli]

He just says the same thing some people here say.
"Meh, meh, game is too easy, meh." And others will reply "Mimimi..not easy..mi!"
It's a matter of opinion. Just because his opinion was featured in an article does not make it more valuable than the opinions of other people in this forum. Therefore..

[SolArisa]

Maybe nothing to do for you, but a lot for Square Enix.

Well, maybe using the 2.0 powerpoints as toilet paper would be an option. If you're not up to reading and understanding why you were offered a 6 month payment with rebates, why the game was turned into what it is today, and why people give answers like you just did. So you really believe that our thoughts in this forums mean more to the SE top level management than the voice of a single sharesholder?

There is still a LOT to do, for everyone.

[Atoli]

So you really believe that our thoughts in this forums mean more to the SE top level management than the voice of a single sharesholder?

No, I don't think so.
But "breaking products by design" is just your opinion, just as it is just an opinion what the guy in the article says. Both of you are not share holders. That guy isn't even talking about FFXIV; he's talking about WoW which is way beyond it's prime anyway, casual mode or not.
Catering to casuals is not bad, it's just one way of doing things. You can cater to both casual and hardcore gamers.

What I'm trying to say is..the opinion of the author of the article is even less valuable than the opinion of the people on these forums, because he's neither a share holder of SE nor a player.

[Sephrick]

It's just the opinion of one person out of about 12 million. WoW may have lost 1.8 million players, but that means there's still 10 million who enjoy it. I doubt Blizzard is loosing sleep.

The who article can be summed up to the writer saying "I don't like change."

But the thing is, companies have to keep their products fresh. In addition, they need to justify the money they spend on a new or continued product by bringing in untapped markets.

I'm sure there is a market out there for old school traditional MMO style gaming. But not large enough to justify a game the scope of XIV. Plenty of those old games still are online. So whose going to make a product to limp along with dinosaurs that still are around?

Change is good. It means these companies are trimming the fat and making a more complete gaming experience. But at the end of the day, if a game doesn't have the features you want, then you shouldn't play it.

It's like Demons' Souls. That game was designed for a hardcore audience. And as such was considered a success even though it took two years to sell 500,000 copies. There are games out there that would be a financial disaster if they sold only 500,000 units before the second hand market factored in.

Some people just can't grasp the fact that just because you don't like a game doesn't mean other people don't. The game isn't doomed without those people and, in most cases, is better off.

[SolArisa]

No, I don't think so.
But "breaking products by design" is just your opinion, just as it is just an opinion what the guy in the article says.

Not really. It's not just my opinion. It's also been the position taken by reviewers (e.g. IGN or Gamespot), it's been the position of many thousand players who first caused the servers to explode after street date and were run away long before their free trial period ended, it's most probably the position of many of those people who were "taking a break" and never come back, and it's in even the position of the current director when he declared core aspects of the original game being phased out until 2.0 (like levequests, which were even the sole subject of the game intro and marketing campaign).
Maybe all those people are a minority, but I am certainly not alone.

Both of you are not share holders.

Actually I am, but sadly not suited financially well enough to have a personal SE employee in on-call standby for the case that I may pop in Tokyo. A little fish, but a fish nevertheless.

That guy isn't even talking about FFXIV; he's talking about WoW which is way beyond it's prime anyway, casual mode or not.

Yup. Two things come into my mind instantly after reading your sentence.

The first thing is about being "beyond the prime". Well, I honestly fear that FF XIV has reached this point one day after it has hit the streets. I am not sure if the game will ever reach a customer base this large again. I hope so, but I would prefer to really believe in it, not to mention knowing it.

The second thought is that not much time has passed, 2 years maybe, when WoW was the antithesis of a good MMORPG for many of us guys who were FF addicts over many years. "If it's too hard, go back to WoW" was a common phrase, nearly a running gag, even here in the Lodestone forums. And since 15 months we struggle to be the same, as if that game which is "beyond its prime" is something to idolize. We even copy the things which bombed over there, slavishly, like 90% of the things pointed out in this article which proved to be unsuccessful for both the customers and the stock exchange (even the dungeon finder had been announced by Yoshi-P for XIV once, how ridiculous can it be?). And this thought sends shivers of fear down my spine. Not because I love Square Enix that much. It's because I have no other place to go after 30 years of playing Final Fantasy.

Catering to casuals is not bad, it's just one way of doing things. You can cater to both casual and hardcore gamers.

Yes, I would wish they would do it this way. But having a mindset which makes a director state in public, that content will become easier and items being invalidated with the next update does not give me the feeling that both sides are treated in a meaningful manner.

Really, if you are leading a company with thousands of employees, and you want to address casual gamers - then the most stupid thing you can do is spending millions of dollars for a high-end PC and console only product with motion capturing and an overall development time of over half a decade, plus expecting casual gamers to pay another 200 bucks per year as a subscription fee. Such a concept is broken by design, too. If you want to address casuals mostly, then create a f2p game which runs in your browser and/or produce an app for iPhone and Android, maybe together with an attractive billing model which uses your monthly internet invoice. Casual gamers play Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies, but not a full-featered MMORPG which requires them to spend a thousand bucks just to be able to run it properly.

What I'm trying to say is..the opinion of the author of the article is even less valuable than the opinion of the people on these forums, because he's neither a share holder of SE nor a player.

I really don't think you're right here.

First of all, SE should not struggle to reproduce the mistakes their competitors made, just because they regard their commercial success with envy.

Second, Square Enix knows too well that their customer base consists to a high percentage of teens and people in the early 20s, people who look up to them because SE delivers entertainment and idolized trademarks. Stuff like these forums are not for supporting customers in the first place, they are a fan service. And fans are seldom rational, especially when the product they desire is criticized. Forum members are not representative - and most of all, those people who write here and help to make the game better with their inputs and ideas are not the typical "casual gamers".

I doubt Blizzard is loosing sleep.

Oh, Blizzard does not lose sleep, you are absolutely right here.
Blizzard will deliver a perfect successor when the time has come and they will keep the biggest part of their customer base. The marketing campaign has already started.

Square Enix tried the same when FF XI came near the end of its projected lifespan. First they made exactly the same things Blizzard did (delivering an expansion which raises caps, made leveling super-fast, invalidated endgame and so on ,to borrow enough time and press as much juice out of the fruit as possible before dumping it) and they delivered the successor ... and then came primarily the big "Oooops, what's wrong in this picture?" ... and the result is at the moment that the old product which reached the end of its lifespan one year ago still has to cross-finance its successor. Blizzard may sleep well, but the Square Enix CEO certainly doesn't. If XIV fails, his days at SE are most probably over, because he burned hundreds of millions of dollars.

But the thing is, companies have to keep their products fresh. In addition, they need to justify the money they spend on a new or continued product by bringing in untapped markets.

Absolutely correct.
Just makes not much sense here, because the market they tried (and still try) to tap into is hardly untouched. To the contrary, the market of casual gaming is totally saturated, even Nintendo is under a high pressure nowadays. This market, for which FF XIV is still heading so much that it hurts sometimes, lives under the rule that casual gaming is financed by advertisments with optional fees of maybe $5 for downloading a client which is free of ads, fee playing and micropayment facilities. Nothing SE delivers until today, except for the laughable belly flopper they called "Crysta". And, of course, SE chose the totally wrong platform. Casual gaming is done in lunch breaks, bedrooms and in trains, not in your home office or by blocking the TV for the rest of the family.

I'm sure there is a market out there for old school traditional MMO style gaming. But not large enough to justify a game the scope of XIV. Plenty of those old games still are online. So whose going to make a product to limp along with dinosaurs that still are around?

So, they missed the casual market AND the traditional gaming market is not profitable enough? Oh my god, first the earthquake and the flood, and now these poor 300 developers are sitting on ejector seats? Wekll then, the best thing SE could do is turning the XIV development in a limited company and then filing an allowance for depreciation and closing it down. Failed project, every additional Yen would be a misdirected investment?

Damn, then I should sell my shares of the Square Enix Holding quickly, as long as I can buy a bread roll for them.

It's like Demons' Souls. That game was designed for a hardcore audience. And as such was considered a success even though it took two years to sell 500,000 copies.

You cannot compare FF XIV to Demon's Souls. The latter has not been a AAA project with a budget of tens of millions over a period of already 6 years of development. IT was a small project, designed for being released only on the asian market and created with few resources by a relatively small company whose first goal was to find a publisher for distributing their game. Of course, 500'000 copies for $60 each are a huge success, that's 10 times more than the development costs have been. In the case of Square Enix, it's hardly enough to finance the data center required for the operation of this game, not to mention the costs for salaries, marketing, and so on. The 30'000 subscribers XIV has today (that's an educated guess, not an official number) are a joke in comparison, this may be enough to maintain the infrastructure but does not even cover the salaries of the development team.

Some people just can't grasp the fact that just because you don't like a game doesn't mean other people don't. The game isn't doomed without those people and, in most cases, is better off.

I hope you are right.
/sigh.
On the day when I meet a total newbie in this game who stays for longer for two months and plays on a daily basis ... well, then I'll light a candle for you. But until then, I will continue having the impression that you are playing a different game than I do.
And, more important: In any case I will continue struggle and try to help to turn this game into a success. Simply because it is my refuge after another week with 60-80 hours of work. I will do this, even if it means that some kids or unemployed "hardcor3 gam3rz" think I am just a retarded jerk who repeats what others may have already whispered before, somewhere in a buried region of those forums where their whispering went down unnoticed between all the thousands of whining posts concerning AF quests being too hard and the question if mounts can jump as the highest priority problem in the entire world.

But sure, the posted pic was nice. And important. We should go and have a drink together someday ;-)

And sorry for the wall of text. I am on a sabbatical at the moment, obviously I have too much time.

See you,

Sol

[Sephrick]

You cannot compare FF XIV to Demon's Souls. The latter has not been a AAA project with a budget of tens of millions over a period of already 6 years of development. IT was a small project, designed for being released only on the asian market and created with few resources by a relatively small company whose first goal was to find a publisher for distributing their game. Of course, 500'000 copies for $60 each are a huge success, that's 10 times more than the development costs have been. In the case of Square Enix, it's hardly enough to finance the data center required for the operation of this game, not to mention the costs for salaries, marketing, and so on. The 30'000 subscribers XIV has today (that's an educated guess, not an official number) are a joke in comparison, this may be enough to maintain the infrastructure but does not even cover the salaries of the development team.

I wasn't trying to make a comparison between FF and Demons' Souls. I was merely citing a recent case where a company chose to make a hardcore experience from the onset and budgeted their project to sell low total units especially considering the second hand market.

I was saying there's no reason someone can't make an old school MMO, but they'd need to decide that from the start. SE already is far too invested in XIV not to have it rise from the ashes and be a hit.

At this point it's do or die.

[Morticous]

The op is right, what you "casual" gamers think is good for this game is exactly what is ruining it. You feel like everything must be handed to you because you dont have time to play, this is a flawed concept and will bleed SE of resources to keep up and bury this game 6 feet under. Who spends a monthly $12 on a game they can only play an hour a day anyway?

[Babydoll]

Yeah I agree with op. Please don't ruin the potential this game has.let the developers make the game that is what they are paid for....

I don't want everything handed to me and I dont like casual gaming. I prefer the hardcore, challenging stuff.

[Sephrick]

The op is right, what you "casual" gamers think is good for this game is exactly what is ruining it. You feel like everything must be handed to you because you dont have time to play, this is a flawed concept and will bleed SE of resources to keep up and bury this game 6 feet under. Who spends a monthly $12 on a game they can only play an hour a day anyway?

Ugh, I knew this attitude was going to come up sooner or later.

Look, "casual" doesn't mean there needs to be an instant win button. There's clearly a misunderstanding about what casual means as evident by the article and statements like the above.

Tanaka clearly misunderstood casual as well. Because his vision of casual was to hold more dedicated players back, ala fatigue.

Casual only means accessibility. Giving your personal phone number to a stranger on the Internet so you LS leader can send a mass text at 3 a.m. when the LS gets claim on an HNM isn't gaming, it's insanity.

That's why Yoshida is the best thing to happen to XIV. He realizes that they don't need to hand out gear, or make the fight any easier. Just to make the battles more accessible by putting them in instances.

People need to let go of the "casual" stigma. There can be hardcore experiences in a game built on a casual foundation but those that want those hardcore aspects need to let SE build a casual foundation.

Accessible content that allows for actual progression toward an attainable goal. That's all casual is.

Granted, there are people in the world who expect that the best gear in the game will fall to them just for logging in. But those people aren't casuals, they're crybabies.