Jorb & Loftar, Avoid These Mistakes:

[Vaku]

MMO Gamers are a temperamental and fickle crowd, always on migration, but sometimes we abandon an MMO due to some glaring error of the developers.

What mistakes have developers made to make you no longer follow their game?

I think everyone, from back in the day, remembers hearing a million voices all cry out at once, and then silence, when the New Game Enhancement killed thousands of people's interest in Star Wars Galaxies.

The mistake, as far as I can recall, was simply a drastic and irrevocable change to the gameplay that made SWG complex and intriguing. Subscribers received zero warning, and obviously didn't fall in love with the changes, so they left.

Fast forward several years with a new mistake; I'm following ArcheAge's localization efforts, and I am definitely wary about the Cash Shop the game could be launching with. It's a new era, and unlike subscriptions which have survived the test of time, Free to Play business plans still struggle in creating a happy medium for all its players, and at the moment, Trion and XLGames could very nearly kill my interest in ArcheAge by doing Free to Play, wrong.

Check this video to see what challenges successful FtP models have overcome: In-Game Economies in Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2


That's it for me! Now it's your turn to list the Dev Mistake that Killed Your Interest!

[NOOBY93]

For me it's the little things. A really long time ago I used to play a very simplistic 2D multiplayer world-editing game. One map, you can put or remove 2D blocks on it, and walk around it on your little smiley character. The rest is up to your imagination.
I left the game when they added an "energy shop", sort of like the energy in every single Facebook game, and added a chat and accounts which kills the whole point.

I semi-stopped playing Haven in w7 because leaving scents damages you, and since I'm not into grinding I'd always have low constitution so it would bug me. Leaving scents was all I ever did.
That, and nerfing movement combat.
Nothing big, but it makes a difference.

[Sarge]

I don't mean to keep harping on this - no wait I do - but the best F2P success I have seen in the last decade lies with Path of Exile. Haven might not have the numbers (at least for the moment) but they have every opportunity to implement the same model.

JLo, why not pick up the phone and call Chris at GGG, or write him?... from one Indie dev crew to another, I am sure you guys would have a pleasant time shooting the breeze.

[Apocoreo]

I play Mechwarrior Online, or MWO, and I have to say, the developer PGI is the absolute worst I've ever seen, worse than Ubisoft, worse than EA... Or they would be, but MWO is their first game. It seems recently PGI has been making improvements.

Anyway, their biggest fuckups have been not appreciating their biggest supporters, the "Founders" who kickstarted the game (I mean on KickStarter, with money). And the biggest kick in the balls was a promised feature consisting of basic community elements (like a pregame lobby) being delayed for two years. Recently there has been outrage as they released a series of new exclusive skins costing $500. That's right, 5 hundred buck for an exclusive skin, while promised features were being delayed.

I guess my message to Jorbtar is to appreciate the players. The little things you do, like the statues and the Ring of Brodgar being spawned at Brodgar are really cool, and hopefully don't cost you anything. That's all we really ask for.

... I should probably donate to HnH.

[Kaios]

ArcheAge

Man I am so tired of this shit game. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the game for what it is for the most part, unfortunately however I was foolish enough to be one of those to invest $150 towards the Alpha, and every day Trion (And in turn XL Games) does something that is slowly decreasing my excitement for this game.

Since I've begun testing this game out, I have been hacked and lost credits and loyalty tokens and I have been banned from the game after reporting that hacking shit (unbanned after several days of waiting and pretty active thread I made) and I have become terribly annoyed with the insane amount of gold spammers and botters and now I have been banned from the forum for a bit for some other bullshit. Trion is absolutely terrible with their customer service and I have been more and more turned off from the game every day and it's not even in its final release yet.

[MagicManICT]

I've not really followed AA closely, so couldn't say that Trion really have fallen flat on their face in delivering. What drives the crowds in Korea and Japan doesn't always drive the crowds in the US/NA and EU, so I think it's as much Trion trying to balance what XLGames is wanting with what Trion thinks will sell. As far as the customer service, I've heard complaints about everyone, and no more about Trion than anyone else. What's irked me about AA is the housing/farms being "patron only" at this point. I realize that's a huge balance when one only needs to make a new account to get more space, and if space is very limited, it could mean people using dirty tactics to keep others from having a house or farm. Do I really want/need to play in a beta that isn't really testing anything other than their server stability when all my progress is going to be wiped and everything else is pretty much like every other MMO I've played in the last 15 years?

To note: several companies have gotten F2P right. One of things is you have to make a game that a mass audience will invest time in so they will then invest money. Example of doing that wrong: MWO--great graphics, but I've got a cheap system (about middle to just better for average PC, lower end for a "gaming/media" system), and it barely runs 15 fps in a fight, sometimes dropping down and stalling on my system long enough I go pop at minimal settings a lower than 1080 resolution. Ain't gonna get money from me if I can't play, and I own every other MechWarrior game made and have played BattleTech since the early 90s. I'm probably one of those customers that would spend money on the game that they'll never get.

Flip side: SOE and Free Realms... these realms were so "free," they had to be shut down from lack of income. They had a couple million active players, but nobody was spending money. (probably due to target audience being under 15, ya think?) I never played it live, but all the beta testers were (supposed to be) 18+. Everyone one of the kids in my family, including nieces and nephews, loved it (except my daughter... if it ain't Pokemon, she just won't play it).

Blizzard (and I know we're all WoW haters here ): while WoW hasn't dropped out of #1 yet (at least from what numbers people can dig up off public records), they had a serious drop in subscribers after the Cataclysm launch because of massive changes to game mechanics. In reality, it wasn't such a huge change (such as the NGE), but was enough many players didn't want to put in the few hours to relearn specs and stats.

Speaking of Blizzard--they seem to have the timing on expansions and amount of content right, because, according to those fudgy numbers that nobody can get directly, every time an expansion comes out, subs seem to swell back up after subsiding for the last six to twelve months.

[Kaios]

What's irked me about AA is the housing/farms being "patron only" at this point. I realize that's a huge balance when one only needs to make a new account to get more space, and if space is very limited, it could mean people using dirty tactics to keep others from having a house or farm.

I agree it's a rather dirty trick considering one of the main selling points of the game is the ability to own your own home as well as a farm to plant on. However, they do include some features to help make this less of an issue. For example, they have a rudimentary permissions system setup that allows even free players to use someone else's land if the owner has allowed use of the land for: Guild, Family or Public use.

They also plan to include a method for free players to obtain credits through an in-game item called Apex. Example, a player purchases the Apex from the cash shop and sells it for in-game gold via the Auction House. A free player purchases the Apex, uses it to obtain a set number of credits and then uses those credits to purchase Patron status.

The only issue is, once Patron status expires you either have to renew it or you are unable to pay taxes on the land you own and eventually it will lapse and you will lose it. (The designs are returned to your mailbox but any items in the home or on the farm are lost)

This also goes for Patron players who are paying a subscription as well. Should the subscription end and they don't renew it, you are unable to pay taxes on your land and will lose it.

[Vaku]

Since I've begun testing this game out, I have been hacked and lost credits and loyalty tokens.

I absolutely have to echo this point. It's embarassing that companies in the little leagues have remarkably greater security than Trion.

Not even a day passed before my account was hacked and banned, and they have the audacity to suggest it is players' faults, that they are not securing their account with good passwords, or are visiting sites of ill-repute and contracting viruses.

I'm absolutely aggravated by their service, and completely empowered to argue for compensation, and at the very least a refund. Then if/when that gets settled, send the money right into this game. I commend how deliberate and reliable Seatribe is. A very no nonsense pair of guys, who are in it to make a fantastic and engrossing MMO.

'Improving Seatribe's Professionalism' comes to mind, but I'll need more time cut away to speak on that.

[DamJNeT]

I don't mean to keep harping on this - no wait I do - but the best F2P success I have seen in the last decade lies with Path of Exile. Haven might not have the numbers (at least for the moment) but they have every opportunity to implement the same model.

JLo, why not pick up the phone and call Chris at GGG, or write him?... from one Indie dev crew to another, I am sure you guys would have a pleasant time shooting the breeze.

TBH POE success isn't about the cash shop. Nearly every Diablo fans were disapointed in D3, and saw POE as what should've been D2 sequel.
Updates nearly every week, new items, new content etc... They are doing a damn good job.
So ofc, when you see such a good product being made by a small company, you want to help.
Specially when you can buy increased stash room for $$$. Ehe it's not pay to win, but playing with 2 pages or 20 pages makes a difference in that game. So yeah I'd say regular players all put at least 20$ to support the cie and get the stash. But would that many player pay if it was only to get a special hat or crown ? Not so sure.

Reminded me of Realm of The Mad God in that sense. I wouldnt pay $$ to get a stupid pet but I did to get increased stash (even tho I played that game for a week).

I think this is where the balance lies, do not sell items that makes the game "pay to win", sell cosmetics for the occasionnal buyers, but find a product that isnt 100% needed to enjoy/play the game, but is really really tempting to buy for the advantages it gives. A stash increase for ARPG is what everyone is gonna buy.
What would it be in Haven ? Increase inventory space ? Like having a free backpack ? I know it sounds OP but eh...

[WarpedWiseMan]

This game just needs two things.

Justice.

Less Russians.


I guess you could say this game is an allegory for the world.