Part 2 of the article series Massively Multiplayer Online Games - The Past, The Present, and The Future has just been posted.
Two "Blizz quotes" from this week's article:
Two "Blizz quotes" from this week's article:
Quote:Bill Roper, the former Blizzard ingénue who recently set off on his own, agrees that player attachment is critical in online games, but feels that players' initial experiences need to be much more accessible for MMORPGs to appeal to broader audiences. "We build these highly complex models, but there's not a lot of thought given to how we can introduce people to them," he observes. "These games are still directed at a very niche market. Every single game has a steep learning curve and tons of statistics. I find myself getting frustrated, and I'm a core, core gamer. How is a casual player going to feel?"
Quote:Roper, who personally admits to falling head-first into Ultima Online and EverQuest before getting completely hooked on Dark Ages of Camelot, occasionally wonders why game developers have consistently chosen EverQuest as the model for their online games while ignoring Ultima Online. "Maybe UO's early launch difficulties compared to EQ discouraged people, but who knows? It's just one of those things. Why did VHS get chosen over Beta?"
"Man only plays when in the full meaning of the word he is a man, and he is only completely a man when he plays." -- Friedrich von Schiller