Learning from the Mistakes of Others

[komori]

Hello Nevrax staff,

First, let me congratulate you on an interesting premise and backstory. That is what brought me to your game. Im not a hard core gamer but I can put in an hour or two (sometimes more) a night. But that shouldnt matter because MMORPGs dont make more money by my logging in often, just that I maintain interest in the game, and so maintain a subscription.

There are a lot of folks here who have played many of the MMORPGs on the market today -- I havent played a lot, but Ive played a few (AC1, AC2, SWG, DaoC). Ive left these games either because the story line was too static (like DaoC) or they were "balanced" so often that I lost interest in my characters (AC2, SWG). I only left AC1 because of the promise of AC2. Im sorry I left AC1. It had extremely out of date graphics, but a very absorbing story line, with something new and interesting every month. Sure, things like the ability to craft multi-colored pizzas or jack-o-lanterns and give them away as presents doesnt sound like high action -- but its the color that makes the game.

I know you needed to roll out your game in order to start generating revenue, and apply fixes as needed in order to begin and generate the revenue stream needed to power your business. Dont make the mistake of thinking selling an MMORPG is like selling a normal single player game (or application software of other kinds).

There are a lot of unhappy customers right now. Dont think of them as just early adopters who will be replaced by others. All MMORPG players (at least for now) are early adopters, and they will flit off and not return if you make them stop caring about their characters. Dont look at DaoC and think you can survive this -- Mythic has created a successful platform brand that specifically targets PvP types. Dont look at SWG for a different reason -- they have the King of all IP -- you have a great storyline, but you dont have the LucasFilm properties behind you.

So here is my advice: roll back anything that enpowered monsters or nerfed the players. This isnt about you making a balanced game. This is about having a profitable business -- which means your customer's long term happiness (and subscriptions) comes first. AC2 players left that game enmasse because they made players lose interest in their characters.

One more piece of advice: if you dont have any old paper & pen RPG players on your team, go find designers who have left companies like Wizards of the Coast and hire them. They know how to sell storylines without technology, and have sustainable interest in their IP. They know how to keep players from getting angry and leaving.

As someone who is very involved in the industry and who likes what you have been doing, I hope you will take my advice and not make the same mistakes others have made.