Jessica, Ryzom and PvP?

[borg9]

Money makes the world go round.

Lets asume you sell 2 million copies of a new game at 49.49 Euro. I think this is realistic and would bring an income of 99 millions Euro. If the game is not completely bull**** you might keep 500.000 players for 6 month at a fee of 12 Euro. This is another income of 36 million Euro. Then you might be able to keep 200.000 players for 6 month more. This is an income of 14.4 million Euros. All in all you made 1.5 milliard (billion in US) Euros.

Now, would you care about mechanics, gameplay, PvP or content ?

After this 12 months you have finished your next game and it starts all over again...

Note: While those numbers might be to high for Nevrax, they sure are to low for Blizzard, Sony and others. They also might show that a game might be a success if only enough copies are sold by advertising and hyping. Even if noone is playing the game after 1 month anymore.

Are you an ex-blizzard employee? Sounds like you were 'in the know' at their WoW series planning meetings.

[micrix]

Are you an ex-blizzard employee? Sounds like you were 'in the know' at their WoW series planning meetings.

No, i am not. Try a google. Blizzard itself announced over 200.000 sold copies in 24 hours on releaseday in US. In germany they sold about 250.000 preorder. Now add all other countries in europe, add australia and asia. I didnt found reliable information, but WoW might have selled about 6 million copies worldwide. This would be a truck full of money...

About game plannings you can read a lot on the net. The coding of Diablo 3 started before WoW was released in europe.

[dazman76]

Are you an ex-blizzard employee? Sounds like you were 'in the know' at their WoW series planning meetings.

Implying Blizzard followed that strategy, above and beyond delivering their most popular franchise to very eager players around the world, is a pretty weak throw of the stick to be honest. Don't you believe they have employees that wanted to create and launch a game, rather than just soak up as many players as possible? If you don't believe there are people at Blizzard who are just as passionate as the people at Nevrax, you're assumptions are sorely mistaken.

Don't judge a company on the community it's games create.

It's sad to see that every time game mechanics are discussed, someone throws a rotten vegetable at WoW, and now even Blizzard themselves. Sad sad sad. It's not that I love the game or anything - it's that I hate seeing people I respect making empty comments because they have nothing better to talk about.

And so it ends, with drooped shoulders and a bitter taste, as I had feared.

/target subscription
/cancel

[grimjim]

Be fair, they are the Wizards of the Coast of the MMO scene and larger businesses DO thnk like that, even if not at the creator level.

[dazman76]

Be fair, they are the Wizards of the Coast of the MMO scene and larger businesses DO thnk like that, even if not at the creator level.

I feel I am being fair. WoW has been in development for years, and a lot of effort has gone into it. Do you think Blizzard had to use any dirty marketing or sales tactics, or for that matter rush the final development of the product to make their cash? Do you think they really needed to try to sell the 2 million subs they have? The product was in demand for 4 weeks when they realised they had too many subscribers and needed new servers, and took it off the shelves. People were hunting copies down on the high street.

Yeah, big companies think like that. But only when they need to. And Blizzard, with WoW, did not/do not need to. They're also making large and regular improvements and additions to the game. More "big-company" shenanigans eh? Tricks and cons abound

[mmatto]

@Daz&Neun

I think you read micrix post differently than me. I did not see that there was implication that blizzard or sony produces games without content or other features. It was just an argument that you could do a financially succesful mmorpg operation even if game play lasts only one month and income comes from box sales. Big names were presented only to remind that games can have very big box sales. Neun's comment looked more like an attempt at sarcasm...

Actually, Guild Wars is pretty much a mmorpg that has a month worth of content and after that it is just pvp arena matches or going trough more or less same content again to unlock skills for other professions. Also, GW gets income only from box & expansion sales, so it would have been better example. Note that I am not saying that GW is hype based scam, it is a pretty good game.

[dazman76]

Neun's comment looked more like an attempt at sarcasm...

Neun's post was sarcasm, of the bitter variety, and that's what I replied to. When Ryzom talk goes quiet or moves towards PvP, people go on the attack. That is caused by what's lacking in Ryzom, not what's right or wrong with any other game. When it reaches that point, you may as well be playing another game.

My response would be the same regardless of the 'other game' or 'other company' mentioned - it's the act I see as pointless, not the content of the comments made.

Anyhow, this is a PvP thread, the above is off topic, and I should leave you to your 'dicussions'.

[micrix]

Dont get me wrong. Of course Blizz , Sony and Co. do implement features and try to bring fun to the players. But who do you think has the last word on a board meeting ? Mr. Money or Mr. Designer ? At this level of money ?

Dev: We need 2 month more to implement this "ultimate" feature
Clerk: With another two month we probably loose 12 million bucks. We need to release for christmas.
CEO: Release it ! (Not a bad guy, but must satisfy his investors)

BTW: Blizz did not keep their word to have regular updates to the quests in WoW.

Dev: We can deliver a game that keeps 1.5 million players happy and busy for 5 years
Clerk: But we can make much, much more money if we release 5 games that keep the players busy for one year. The sale of copies is much more lucrative then the monthly fees.
CEO: Make 5 small ones ! (Not a bad guy, but must satisfy his investors)

I do belief that it is possible to create "the game". A mmo with perfect graphis, endless features, regular updates, heavenly balancing. But what would happen ? The players would stick for endless times with the game. If you dont get bored, you dont try out other games. Could such lead to the ruin of the industry ?

[borg9]

Neun's post was sarcasm, of the bitter variety, and that's what I replied to. When Ryzom talk goes quiet or moves towards PvP, people go on the attack. That is caused by what's lacking in Ryzom, not what's right or wrong with any other game. When it reaches that point, you may as well be playing another game.

...snip..

No new home to goto atm .... nothing currently on the market, 'floats my boat' and while the ever deceasing list of friends remain I will have people to talk to while I level. (Why level? cas I still believe in one of the promises made. That characters will be able to travel in both directions between episodes in the Saga.)

I am in this for the long haul, even if it means kicking my mind in to idle and freewheeling till something sparks my interest.

I have always been pro PvP. I have read with interest the up and comming changes. I just hope that the players who say they want it can deal with the consequences of their actions.


Fluffy is easy to play, nasty is complicated.

[zerotacg]

well, money is money, but acctually I hoped Jessica would answer ;P so enough of the money