Here is an interview with John Smedley about upcoming SOE titles.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24735969/
 

I agree with Smedley that the current crop of MMORPGs only covers a small part of the demographics. But that "getting them early" strategy might backfire when parents consider the MMOs to be too "addictive" for their children.
 

SOE has been quiet for a long time. Almost quiet enough to forget about them, and it will take more than those two games to make them relevant again.
 

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Agreed on the SOE issues..

And last night I log in EQ2 to play as my wife still likes the game...and even though I am playing AoC, I am keeping my account with EQ2 also.

The game was probably the quietest I have seen in the last year I have played..

SOE really does not discuss much in the way of how they plan to proceed..so many low population games...how can they be profitable?
All I know is The Agency actually looks good, and if they can cross the line between PC and Console gaming, like others are looking toward (AoC and the 360)
SOE could get themselves out of that hole..

My suggestion for discussion though is...

Are expectations being set too high on the latest MMO releases.
With WAR on the horizon, and everyone and their WoW brothers expecting the next big thing...and with AoC and the complaints of content and bugs after 5 years of development...
Are people expecting a perfect release out of any MMO now?

Just because WoW, EQ2 or whatever game of choice is stable now...why do people think that these releases were the best thing ever?
And why set higher standards on games releasing now which are 5 times as intricate with triple or even quadruple the amount of code...and expect the stability and playability of a game that has been released for years?

Cheers
 

EQ2 was such a disappointment. It reflected a genuine lack of understanding as to why EQ1 was such a huge success.

Nine years later, and SOE still hasn't shown that they get it.
 

My problem with EQ2 is that it feels like it's been designed by a committee of marketing men rather than a team with a creative vision. It's not a bad game, it's just that it's not a very good one either. I never felt any emotional attachment to it. Every so often I pop back to see if it really has improved like some claim, but it remains, well, lazy, as if someone has said "Elves? Check. Dwarves? Check. Paladins? Check. Quests? Check. That'll do: these MMO fans will put up with any old rubbish".

Unfortunately WOW raised the bar, and I see no sign of SOE raising their game in response. It's a shame, because Blizzard needs competition.
 

@ openedge

I think the devs keep doing it to themselves. Our current crop of game developers grew up as technology drove what the content could do. Now technology has become the crutch. Devs want to raise the bar every game. They seem to be stuck in a "group think" that graphics trump content.

Thus we keep getting games where the graphics are the main thing and the content is just the filler. And that would be ok if they'd realize that a pie without enough filling doesn't give anyone anything they want out of a game.
 

thats interesting Sven. You said the same kinds of thing about eq2 I've been saying about wow since launch of BC. LAZY

I've been waiting for some new exciting content and have yet to see it. Add that to the way loot rewards are done on quests, arena PVP, etc... Every thing in BC except the graphics felt like it had been thrown together in the last month or two before launch.

I truly believe they feel they have no real competitors so they don't have to work any harder than they have been.
 

I'm wondering whether guild wars will start a bunch of games with playstyles based on it (People in groups more often than not, gearing and leveling ending quicker, different sorts of mission/reaid/instances than just pull, fight, pull, fight, fight end boss, etc.)

I'm also wondering if future MMO's will see large scale battles between players and NPC's, almost as if two armies are fighting it out. Guild wars hasa few missions like this, WoW has a few caverns of time possibilities for things like this, and Age of Conan sounds like it has some instances designed around this idea, but it does seem an interesting possibility for future MMO's.

(Related to the above, I think Mt. Hyjal wasreally goofed up in World of Warcraft by sticking it into the raid system, with people following tank/nuke/heal rules, boss loot, etc. The complaints about the trash mobs really show this, since Mt. Hyjal is supposedto be a huge battle, and as such will naturally have lots of "trash mobs". It seems that if it had been removed from the usual raid setup, perhaps given a ruleset with bodyblocking, less aggro dependence, a different llot setup, etc, it would have been more fun.)
 

To respond to earlier posts, I do think that MMO's are a bit overanticipated, some of it for reasons already mentioned, some for similar reasons that anything else gets overanticipated (People's imaginations, sticking to the fond memories rather than bad ones, etc.)
 

I propose that you discuss a little about a very different demographic, how about Hello Kitty Online?
 

I'm uncomfortable with the idea of MMOs for children, although it depends on the age they are targeted to.

It brings up such a host of related problems, I don't think I need to mention any of them specifically, I'm sure you can think of a few too.

The idea that any sizable online community can be moderated correctly for children just seems so unlikely to me.
 

It's funny, but I wouldn't be surprised if a game like Hello Kitty Online weren't the first to implement ground-breaking game elements that noone else had done, and that soon became required for all other games. Kids have been getting 'addicted' to stuff for as long as there have been marketers to kids, so I don't think I'm too worried about the 'MMO for kids' thing. But these games do have less need to follow established 'rules' of MMOs.
 

Given how polished WoW, EQ2 and other MMOs are now (at this stage in their life) I think it's in any company's best interest to have as smooth as launch as possible, with their product being as complete and shiny as possible, with enough product to keep the average player happy for a month or two, while reducing glitches to a minimum.

If a game is hyped up enough and looks good enough, there are many people who will jump on board right from the start (or before even, what with Pre-Orders), but there are many more people who will hang back and wait to see what the game is like at launch, or in the weeks immediately thereafter.

If people see you have three-quarters of a fantastic game but then it's a mindless grind for the last quarter to level cap with nothing waiting for you there because "We're still working on end-game; we didn't realize people would level so fast" then you're going to both lose a lot of your subscribers AND not gain any of the people watching & waiting.

While EQ and WoW may not have had problem-free launches, they've since changed the face of MMO games and any game being released nowadays has to be able to stand up to them if they want to succeed. That, or bring something so new & revolutionary to the table that players are willing to forgive almost anything but the most game-breaking of bugs.

It is unacceptable to bring anything but your A-Game when going up against SOE and Blizzard.