Are MMOs DYING!?...or are we just expecting too much?

[CVXIV]

It's honestly pretty sad to see, because growing up I was a big fan of MMOs in general and would spend countless hours in those worlds
From Neverwinter, to Wildstar, to Aion, GW2, Eden Eternal, Aura Kingdom, etc. I genuinely enjoyed the genre of games but it definitely seems like companies aren't willing to push forward with it anymore

Ashes of creation seems promising, but we'll see how that goes

I'd personally love if they brought the dragon quest MMO back, considering that's my favorite franchise but I'm pretty sure they made it a singleplayer game lol

[Red-thunder]

But believing they might desperately try to overthrow WoW is probably silly, because Yoshida and co. are perfectly content with being second-place for eternity.

You're not wrong but you're just looking at it from another angle. I think they don't care about making the game the best they can because there's no competition and all their players are already hooked because of in-game social networks. You're suggesting that it could be because they see no point of becoming the best because it's impossible. Regardless of the reason there's obviously very little competition between the MMOs because they are already entrenched and even significant amounts of innovation can't overcome high switching costs (on the part of the player). So ultimately they have no incentive to innovate or to make a good game.

[DiaDeem]

So fire away at the insults

What insults? You literally compared tractors to art. You are ridiculous. If that offends you, that's not my problem.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

“It’s good enough for a game.”

One can only wonder how Soken feels when he read lines like that. Not just him. Maybe other big game music maker like Iwadare, Sakuraba, and Shiina, too tbh.

/smh

[Auro_Seldaris]

You're not wrong but you're just looking at it from another angle. I think they don't care about making the game the best they can because there's no competition and all their players are already hooked because of in-game social networks. You're suggesting that it could be because they see no point of becoming the best because it's impossible. Regardless of the reason there's obviously very little competition between the MMOs because they are already entrenched and even significant amounts of innovation can't overcome high switching costs (on the part of the player). So ultimately they have no incentive to innovate or to make a good game.

You say that, but plenty of people were willing to abandon WoW when it went through it's "bad period" during BfA and (especially) Shadowlands. So to say that people won't ignore their sunk cost fallacy and leave a game is maybe a bit disingeunous. FFXIV literally had its chance to overthrow the king, and it failed. However, it's the fault of Yoshida and co. for not innovating and iterating enough to keep people engaged here in XIV. Did you ever see Pacific Rim? Yoshida didn't "check for a pulse". Endwalker would have been the time to really make serious changes and prove they can offer something Blizzard can't, but they just... stubbornly stuck to their formula. Because there is never a single bit of wiggle room in Yoshida's precious spreadsheets.

The point though is that... they don't want to. They COULD blow WoW out of the water, if they just wanted to, but they don't. They're complacent and lazy. They're fine with being an "also-ran".

Also, it's hard to be hooked because of in-game social networks when all of them are collapsing due to disinterest in the game itself. It's hard to keep up an FC or a group of friends when they disappear for two or three years at a time. Not that I want XIV to take up literally every hour of free time I have. There's so many games I have still not played, that I've missed out on. There's also the aforementioned wargaming hobby. I don't want it to be a second job, no, but I want there to be SOME reason to want to play.

[Miguel85NYC]

FF 14 is dying with the horrible content they have been giving us... Its like they dont care anymore

[Cort1237]

SE in particular is asset constrained, otherwise they wouldn’t be re-using them every expansion.

You know what's cheaper than paying someone to generate AI assets? Reusing old ones.
Asset reuse will always be cheaper and more efficient than making new ones. That's why they do it, not because of constraints. Additionally making new assets for every little thing for no reason would balloon file size absurdly.

[Ath192]

You know what's cheaper than paying someone to generate AI assets? Reusing old ones.
Asset reuse will always be cheaper and more efficient than making new ones. That's why they do it, not because of constraints. Additionally making new assets for every little thing for no reason would balloon file size absurdly.

xD ah yes, the missing piece appeared. Got to love people who self sabotage to score a gotcha. While we're at it why don't they stop the new exploration zones and the next expansition can just be a reskinned heavensward? IMAGINE the savings. Cheaper and efficient.

Doesn't matter if you stop cancer research for the whole world as long as that person doesn't get to "win" by curing it right?

Unfortunately these types of posts are all too common.

[ovIm]

Doesn't matter if you stop cancer research for the whole world as long as that person doesn't get to "win" by curing it right?

Nice whataboutism. This isn't about practical uses for software algorithms in healthcare, its about replacing artistic skill with a generic remixing software algorithm. Try again.

You obviously don't know a thing about software or game development, and it shows. Cort1237 is right here, the bottleneck in the development of FFXIV is not a lack of assets. Just look at how often skeletons are reused(And in case you don't know what it is - look at Träumerei and Hades, and see if you can spot any similarities.), and how little people care.
What this game is lacking is actual Game Designers who work on making future proof, repeatable content, a better project management team, and more talent on the dev floor (you know how hard they try hiring people and fail because you have to speak japanese to get in?) All of those things cannot be replaced by an algorithm.

[Ath192]

Nice whataboutism. This isn't about practical uses for software algorithms in healthcare, its about replacing artistic skill with a generic remixing software algorithm. Try again.

You obviously don't know a thing about software or game development, and it shows. Cort1237 is right here, the bottleneck in the development of FFXIV is not a lack of assets. Just look at how often skeletons are reused(And in case you don't know what it is - look at Träumerei and Hades, and see if you can spot any similarities.), and how little people care.
What this game is lacking is actual Game Designers who work on making future proof, repeatable content, a better project management team, and more talent on the dev floor (you know how hard they try hiring people and fail because you have to speak japanese to get in?) All of those things cannot be replaced by an algorithm.

I even showed you a game designer talk about it and an article of a major game studio admit that they’re using it for a game already. Do they not know about game development either because you don’t like what they’re saying and doing? I don’t think you’re thinking straight. Not liking to hear the truth and it not being actually true are two different things.

While you’re not wrong in that the game does need more game designers and repeatable content, something I’ve argued for plenty in the past, it doesn't invalidate it needs more assets either.

As much as you like Colt, he’s not right, but again, if you want argue in favor of reusing assets to defend a companies bottom line none of us can help you. And it’s one of the reasons this game gets away with all the things it does.

There’s always a multitude of people defending their bad habits for everything so they don’t actually feel any need to improve. And it shows. That is self sabotage. No one but the company benefits from reusing assets but again, people defend it just go on the contrary in an argument.

Let me know if you need more clarification or if you are still confused.