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Greg Kasavin
Executive Editor
Normally I write something and then try to come up with a clever title for it. This time someone else came up with a clever title for me, so I'm stealing it. If it fits, why not steal it and call it an homage? But let me get to the point. I'm writing about massively multiplayer online RPGs--every last one of them. Want me to list them? Forget it--there are more MMORPGs now in development than you've got time to read about in this article. Want me to draw sweeping conclusions about every last one of them? No problem! After all, these games have plenty more in common than an ugly abbreviation.
One thing most every MMORPG now in development has in common is that they will be an utter commercial failure. That sounds like a mean-spirited, nasty, polemical thing to say, but just stop and think about it: For the most part, every last one of these games is being designed as the end-all, be-all, absolute-last MMORPG you'll ever need to play. They don't leave a lot of room for one another to compete. What's an EverQuest player to do?
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Can you tell the difference between this game... |
Just as online RPGs have a lot in common, so do the people who play them. These probably aren't people who're totally strapped for cash. It doesn't take long to see that paying a monthly fee for a game quickly adds up to being a lot more expensive than your typical lump-sum gaming purchase. So instead of money, the resource that these players really have to watch out for is time. The statistics that companies like Electronic Arts (publisher of Ultima Online) and Sony (publisher of EverQuest) cite are just insane: These companies claim most users play their games about 20 hours a week. That's a staggering number--it's practically a full day out of the entire week. After all, regardless of how many good games are out there, until further notice, we're still stuck with just 24 hours in a day. For most people, that's not enough time to dedicate to even one online RPG. For online RPG players, that's hardly enough time to devote to more than one.
Besides, when you're talking about people playing more than one of these games simultaneously, you're also talking about twice the monthly fee being incurred. Suddenly, money can become an issue as well. Having an idle account keeping your Ultima Online and Asheron's Call characters alive on a couple of dusty old servers is $20 a month down the hole--the same money you could've, and probably should've, spent on Serious Sam.
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...and this game... |
Vivendi Universal, the parent company of Sierra, recently announced that it will publish the online RPG Dark Age of Camelot later this year. Days later, Ubi Soft got one of its own, by securing the rights to Shadowbane. Both of these games have strong fan communities, built on the backs of beta testers getting to play these games for free and getting excited about the direction the games are taking. Once the games are released commercially, no doubt their respective player communities will continue to ardently support both of them. Everyone else will wonder what they're missing. Actually, the hell they will--they might be missing out on a couple of well-designed games, but there aren't enough players to go around to build great communities for each online game. Without critical mass, these games can't really take off.
Let's say I've spent 800 hours of my life developing one or two EverQuest characters. That's a really, really intense commitment. Many serious personal relationships don't last nearly that long. And now, there's this new batch of online RPGs that's come to woo me away from my beloved EverQuest. What chance do they have? Little or none. Anarchy Online, despite its horrendous launch, at least has a plainly obvious science-fiction setting that will be inherently more appealing to some players than the fantasy settings offered by its competitors. Most of these other online RPGs can't be characterized quite so easily. Their best features are in the details, and most people aren't experienced enough with the genre, aren't perceptive enough, or simply won't care enough to take notice.
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...and this game? |
You've probably heard about Star Wars Galaxies. Initially, there was a lot of commotion over how good it looked at E3. Then, there was a lot of commotion about how those who saw it were too quick to judge it, since it's so far away from being finished. Regardless of how you may feel about it, though, you have to admit that Star Wars Galaxies is a winning concept. You know it--that's the next EverQuest. And between now and then, my money's on the official EverQuest expansion, The Shadows of Luclin, to renew interest in the game and reestablish EverQuest as the only online RPG of any real importance.
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