MMO Gaming

People need to stop. More specifically, we, MMO gamers, need to stop. The next time I see someone mention how developer X in interview Y really seems to “get it” and how to design an MMO I’m going to go crazy (more so than I am.)

They don’t “get it”. None of them. There is nothing to get. There is no hard and fast rule on how to create a good MMO or a successful one. Developers need to stop talking about how their game will be similar to World of Warcraft and how easy it is to get into. No, it won’t. I don’t want it to be. I want it to be as easy to get into as whatever the hell the name of your game is. I’m not talking about not comparing games to WoW, that’s impossible. I’m talking about making your game stand on it’s own without having to mention WoW. I’m just really frustrated by it. As if each thing you are doing needs to be specifically stated where else it has appeared.

I don’t care to read you pimping these other games. Just tell me whatever the hell it is you are going to do. If you are going to make a game that is easy to get into and start playing, then just say that. Don’t tell me it will be just like X in Y instance. I don’t care. Pull your head out of your ass for a minute and stop making the comparisons to every other game for us. You wonder where people get the general stupidity of saying things like “it’s a WoW clone/EQ clone/X/Y/Z clone”? It’s from these developers constantly telling us how much like another game it’s going to be.

Here’s a quick tip for doing an interview, if, for instance, you want to say that the game will be easy to get into, you shouldn’t say “It’ll be real simple to just hop in and play like WoW but…” try this one on instead.

“We’re designing a game that has as few barriers to entry as possible, in every sense of the phrase. That means more than just system requirements, it’s also about how easy and intuitive the interface and design is to start with. As you spend more time in the game you’ll see that there is a steady growth in how things work. The entire game is designed such that it builds on itself and gradually becomes more complex, without ever getting complicated.”

Congratulations, you’ve just not mentioned WoW in one %^@$%^# response.

Now shut up and tell me about your game, not how it compares to everyone else’s.