What’s In a Name?
ByWith the recent hype over Halo 3, it got me to thinking about the brand power of a name – of the excitement, hype, disappointment, anger or apathy it can invoke. What makes that difference? Quantitative data of how the company has performed? Experiential data from the players themselves? Marketing gaffes, “nerfs” or quality of launch?
In the MMO world, developer names often have as much or more influence and sway than an individual title name has. A good example of this for me was Lord of the Rings and Turbine. I love LoTR, have read the books since I was a kid, loved the movies, etc. So I was completely sold on the IP. However, having played Asheron’s Call, I knew what type of game Turbine made. I had fun in AC, but it probably wouldn’t rank in my top 5 MMOs ever played. On top of that, I love the D&D IP but didn’t like what they did with DDO. So when LoTRO came around, it was the developer name swaying me not to purchase rather than the title name.
On the flipside, we can take Warhammer. I’ve never played the Warhammer miniatures game, never read Warhammer books, etc., so I know very little relatively speaking about the IP. However, I know Mythic is developing the title. I loved DaoC, playing it almost two years, and it would rate in my top 5 MMOs ever played. So even though the game isn’t out and I know little about the IP, the fact that Mythic is developing the game has me sold already.
So what types of emotions, reactions, and thoughts do the following developer names invoke in you when you see and hear them? People talk about names like Bioware or Bethesda as being no-brainers – they make it, you buy it because it’s going to be top notch. Here are my personal takes on just a few of our MMO developers:
SOE: I will always take a look at SOE products, though I might not buy and play them all. Generally I have enjoyed enough of their games and had good experiences that they have a good reputation and credibility in my book. I never had the “hate-on” for SOE that many EQ and/or SWG folks had. I really like what SOE is doing these days with the top notch EQII expansions, the real investment in turning around Vanguard, and fun looking titles like FreeRealms and The Agency.
Mythic: Loved DaoC and had a very positive experience with Mythic in that game. They have instant credibility with me and anything they make I will likely purchase and play.
Sigil: I guess I feel mostly a sense of “what might have been” when I think of Sigil. I feel more disappointment and sadness about what happened to them, the layoffs, etc. I had followed Sigil and Vanguard for a long time and used to have a great deal of excitement and trust in what they were doing. A lot of that died during the first 3-4 months of Vanguard’s release.
Blizzard: Blizzard has never failed me. More than any other company on this list, they have made so many top notch games that I have played which sucked away years of playtime. Polish, fun and excitement come to mind when I think of Blizzard. I may have gotten tired of WoW after awhile, but boy was it a fun ride while it lasted. Would definitely buy other Blizzard products in the future without much thought.
Turbine: Really apathy these days – I’m just not excited by what their company is doing. Maybe I’m weird or my playstyle is on some extreme, but even with IP’s I love, I can’t seem to get into the style of game they make. I would definitely read about future Turbine products, but I can’t say I’m chomping at the bit for what they do next. Definitely would take a “wait and see” attitude with Turbine.
Can an MMO ever escape it’s past? Can it renew and re-brand itself in the eyes of both veteran and new gamers? Newbies to the genre will only know what the company’s name stands for at that moment in time. They will typically judge the company on what they know of it, that is, the games they’re immediately playing. In that sense, most of the newbies to the genre will have higher opinions of things and won’t judge as harshly.
On the contrary, veteran gamers oftentimes carry with them the collective history and baggage of these games and developers over the years. SOE is the perfect example of this phenomenon, with legions of players carrying scrapbooks with them from EQ and/or SWG with all the nerfs and mistakes SOE has made over the years. That information will forever taint SOE products for them, despite changes the company may make to it’s culture, management, processes, and future games.
So what’s in a name? An awful lot in terms of reputation and credibility with the playerbase. Every developer should constantly be assessing it’s name brand recognition and acceptance within the MMO market. It’s every bit as much of an asset or liability as anything on the balance sheet. The name is either going to be an obstacle for a developer to overcome, or a golden ticket into the land of hype and insta-acceptance.
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My first MMO experience *ever* was the AC2 trial, so Turbine has always had a soft spot with me. I never played AC1 though, but I’m enjoying the hell out of both DDO and LOTRO. I guess I respect their attitude to do what they want, to hell with everyone else. While not everyone can get past the instances, ya gotta admit DDO is one helluva innovative MMO, there’s just nothing else like it out there.
Blizzard, good games, had fun in WoW but honestly I don’t know if I’ll ever be jumping at the bit to get a Blizzard game. I rushed out on launch day to get Starcraft. That’s it. And the battle.net kiddies infested WoW and I have no use for that aspect of Blizzard’s “community” whatsoever.
SOE, yeah I’m an ex-SWGer but I’m no hater. SWG wasn’t that great of a *game* to begin with. Still isn’t. That said, SWG was my first subscription to any MMO and I very much had the EverCrack moments (even called in sick for a short day-trip to play). Lots of great memories, but little of them actually have anything to do with the actual gameplay. No desire for EQ1. I recently got Vanguard and EQ2 the same day. Started playing them this week. Enjoying the hell out of Vanguard too. EQ2 is… painful. I’m guessing there’s something in there somewhere you people enjoy, but goddamn if it’s even able to keep me interested enough to get off the noob isle.
All in all, I just don’t buy into the hype anymore. We’ve all seen “great” companies release utter turds of games. Halo 3 could be “just another shooter.” Sure, it’s a great *console* shooter, but… I got my deathmatch rocks off ten years ago. What if Mass Effect sucks? Worse yet, what if Bioware’s MMO turns out to be a steaming pile?
I’ll pay attention to bits and pieces of the hype just to see if it piques my interest at all, but I won’t “follow” games anymore, and it’s a rare day indeed if I spend cash on pre-orders for any product sight-unseen.
My thoughts…
Turbine-Until LOTRO I never played a Turbine product. Mostly it was due to a lack of interest in the races that populated their games and the lack of classes that caught my eye. Im a lifetime subber to LOTRO and if there is nothing else around, I will play LOTOR but otherwise, I wouldnt want it to be my main game. They seem like a company that listens to the players though.
NCsoft-I didnt see you mention this one. Maybe I overlooked it. I played Cox and GW. Guild Wars I gave every chance I could and I found it boring. They did get my cash though so they win. Cox started out well enough for me. But around level 12 you realize its just an endless treadmill. Nothing to work for, no reason to be there. Not a bad company just dont seem to grasp that you need a world to immerse someone to keep them coming back for more.
Mythic-I played DAoC early in my MMO gaming life and coming straight from text based MUDs to that was confusing and I found myself caught in my old ways. There was no one to guide me and I found myself dropping this title pretty quick, not really understanding why anyone would play it. I dont regret it. That said, I think Mythic getting Warhammer was quite a coup and I expect them to give WoW a run for their money.
SOE-Well Im not a Sony fanboy, but they have hooked at the moment. I got the station pass and I play Vanguard, EQII and SWG and Im hoping that POTBS will be one more game I add to my station pass. To Talyn if you can get past the initial Island things get a bit more interesting. You get your starter house, can set up your auctions from your house which is nice, so on. Its a grind though I wont lie about that. SWG while not perfect, has potential. The RP tools they give the player in that game (the storyteller function where you buy props that include combat NPCs to full on Tie fighter bombing runs is pretty sweet), player run cities, an incredibly deep and complicated crafting system, its not bad. Vanguard, my poor little game that could. Its gonna be something once they finish the game, and thats not me saying that, thats the Devs of the game themselves.
Its almost as if SOE had some meeting somewhere with the devs and GMs from all games and said guys, we need an image change bad. It seems that Sony is listening to the players now. Seems anyway.
and one more company not many have heard of I will throw in…
Simutronics-A maker of P2P MUDs. Now I present this one because for starters it was my first real online gaming experience back in 97. Secondly to show you have good all you EQ vets and so on have it. Simu makes several games, one being Dragon Realms (my first game and their biggest), Modus Operandi (the red headed no sub step child of simu) and Gemstone (whether its still III or on iteration IV now I dont know). Dragon Realms has one server, one. You pay 15 dollars a month for one character slot, no house for you btw. To get housing rights and more slots..that will be 35 dollars a month. Thats ten slots on one server. Because there are no other servers. Oh and if you have the basic 15 dollar account, your money stays in one bank in one city. Oh there is PvP but the GM’s discourage it. In fact if two players fight the GMs usually show up, review logs, find out who started what, then start banning accounts. So the mechanic is live and running but you better not do it. There are no rogues, only thieves. And they actively steal from other players. Which usually starts a fight which brings GMs…so on. There is no uber gear, you have store bought and you have forged or crafted. Oh you cant craft till your around level 50 btw. To power level in this game means you make 30 in…oh a year.
No guilds in this game as you know it. In fact your fellow class members, thats called your guild. A player association is usually considered a gang IG and that is against the TOS. No raids, no dungeons..beyond the ones you pay extra for. Those trips usually run 30-50 bucks extra. And you get to go on them when they are scheduled.
Now there is more I could complain about, like the GMs basically giving the players a true Us vs Them attitude on the boards and such. The enchanting Nerf pretty much collapsed the game from a 2000 person player base to around 600 at this point.
Bottom line is, next time someone wants to talk about the horrors of SOE, ask a former Simu player about their experience.
BTW I left Dragon Realms 5 years ago and never looked back. Yes I was dumb enough to pay 35 bucks a month for roughly 3 years of on again off again play. After that much time my main was only 33. That was 12 hours a day of grinding.
Simutronics is the worst company I ever dealt with on all levels. That includes terrible customer service.
Simu is working on Hero’s Journey now too, an actual MMORPG. Looks and sounds cool, but I don’t even know if it’s up to alpha stage yet. They seem to rely a lot on volunteer workers which is a double-edged sword: it lets people in (if Simu brings them in) but projects stagnate just like FOSS projects do.
EQ2: wow. Maybe I need one of you guys to roll a lowbie and enlighten me because holy.freaking.crap I just can’t believe anyone plays this thing. Iffy and inconsistent graphics aside, this is the first MMO I’ve seen that screams “I’m just a game!” at me. The animations, etc. are so unbelievably cartoony, and I don’t mean that in a good way. WoW has a cartoony art direction, which sticks with their previous Warcraft art but the animations are appropriate. If there were no quests and mouse-click movement, I’d swear this was a Korean MMO… Obviously there’s something I’m just not “getting” about it. And WTF is with this ranged combat??? I click the button and the mob aggros me from 100′ before my character even draws his bow. Then they run at me so fast I keep waiting to hear the Benny Hill theme play in the background. I mean… you guys are able to take this stuff seriously? /boggle
Talyn,
Yeah Hero’s Journey has been in dev for years now. They sold the engine to Bioware which started all the rumors of a new Star Wars MMO, but nothing has been said since they bought the engine.
Simu is so far behind the times now I dont see any way the current regime there can catch up.
Oh some more complaints about Simu and Dragon Realms. Empaths are the only healing class in the game. If you are injured, not only do you have visible scarring that must be healed and can only truly be healed by an Empath, but you have internal scarring you cant see that must be healed by an Empath. Run your mouth too much to an Empath, they black ball you and make sure that not only do you not get healed, you wont ever get a rez from the only rezzing class, a Cleric. Paladins in that game cannot heal or rez. Heck there are no buffs in that game either.
Okay, EQII, the drawing something before you even hit it happens in VG as well as EQII. Its irritating for sure. Right now this is the only game I know of other than Dragon Realms that allows a feline race to be Paladins. *shrugs* For me its just simply an RP choice. Not to mention I like the housing system and the crafting. I do have a ranger as my highest character there right now. I have him at 15 and I have a 15 Warden. I play it off and on but I do enjoy it at least.
In EQII you can make bows (something wow has yet to achieve) and arrows (yet one more thing wow is missing). I did a check once comparing guns and bows in wow. Guns, most of the time, level per level are able to achieve greater DPS than bows. So bows are pretty pointless in that game. I wanted to play bow using hunters but it was pretty difficult due the lack of gear at your level when you did that. If I wanted to walk around as a 18 hunter with a level 10 bow thats fine. And the ammo for bows was pretty weak compared to what they put out for guns. I liked that EQII gave me that choice. I just felt I had more choices there. I like that too.
Vanguard and SWG are the two I jump between right now. VG, despite the bugs and lack of information about game play, has a ton of potential. Tons of potential.
My lack of enjoying wow was the community pure and simple. Its crap. Even the RPers there seem to feel they are elite somehow. When really its some of the worst RP I have ever been a part of. Vampire blood elves anyone? Ten billion of those things running around now. All the horde players started playing alliance so BG is way out of balance. BC did pretty much toast that game IMHO.
Blizzard has done a good job with the graphics. I give them that. But hearing a goblin say “Keep it real!!” totally pulls me out of immersion and ruins my experience. Was kinda like the first time I found The Diggler Dirk in Diablo II. Yeah sure cute pun. But after a while when they pile the modern puns into a fantasy world, it kinda sacks the whole thing for me.
I think really what it comes down to is what are you there for. And no reason is greater than another. I play games to be immersed in them and relax in a world where I can be a hero. Its not about the graphics to me, but how much fun am I having? Do I look forward to going back?
Thats what pulled me into the game I look back on now with venom, Dragon Realms. I can write ten pages of bullshit I put up with for 3 years. I say that now because I play games that are a better deal. But the bottom line is, for 3 years I kept going back because at the time I found it compelling. No graphics, no uber gear, no dungeons and somehow I found something to bring me back every day.
Eventually that changed though as it does with all things.
Old SWG was my first “player housing” experience and that was fine. I have an apartment in Freeport now but I step in and can’t wait to step back out. EQ2 (and VG) has atrociously horrid-looking interior textures. My rods and cones are irreparably damaged at this point. I dunno… I logged in today to give EQ2 another shot. I got into a single combat encounter, killed the mob, and quit to desktop. It’s seriously coming off to me like a poorly done multiplayer Nintendo game. I hear all you guys talking about the cool stuff out there and it makes me want to see it too, but jeez… I think this is the first time I’ve ever wondered how the hell anyone ever stayed interested enough to actually find the cool content when I can barely make my stay longer than a single combat encounter.
There are a few names that turn me off right from the start… after experiencing Anarchy Online, I can promise that I’ll never touch another game by Funcom.
Blizzard – They make fun games however they sure never do anything inovative. They take others ideas, refine them and turn them into a mass market product. For me, I knew it was time to leave WoW when I realized my ignore list was full
SOE – Loved EQ however that may be because I’m looking back with rose colored glasses. I sure had my frustrations with it way back when. Played EQ2, liked it however it didn’t grab me. VG – loved the dungeon crawling, hated the game performance.
Mythic – loved the RvR, hated the PvE (BaF code was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in an mmo). I will play WAR for the RvR and hope they “fixed” their PvE.
All of my “must buy” game companies no longer exist – Microprose, Interplay, Sirtech, SSI.
I no longer buy based on the distributer – I read the hype, talk to friends and try a demo if I can. If its a game that I liked before and it has the same people behind it, I’ll trust that. Bioshock being a case in point. I loved System Shock 1 & 2 and way way back I loved Ultima Underworld (one of my all time favorite games) so Bioshock was a “must” try.
It’s tough to win the pop culture game. WoW has tons of pop culture which shows on the one hand it’s not taking itself too seriously. Does that ruin my sense of immersion? No, because I’m in a cartoony world and honestly I haven’t had a true immersive experience ever in an MMO. I never forget that I’m sitting in my office at a desk playing a game on the computer. Some games do have various levels of immersion, and I’m all for that, but nothing totally takes me out of the here and now.
On the other hand there’s LOTRO which, while it’s a casual gamer’s paradise, also has complaints of “sheesh it’s always so serious” so… damned if ya do, damned if ya don’t.