History of MMO Games - Part IV

DevilsMMO.com's "History of MMO Games" series continue today with Part 4. Part IV: "The Present" takes us to the years when MMO games started to compete with World of Warcraft and tells us how and why these games failed against the number 1 online game.  

An American couple from Nevada has pleaded guilty to charges of child neglect stemming - apparently - from obsession with a Dungeons & Dragons MMO. They now face maximum jail sentences of 12 years each.

Michael Straw, who was unemployed at the time of the incident, came into a $50,000 (£24,500) inheritance in September, which by December he had apparently spent on computer and gaming equipment, as well as a large plasma screen TV.

“Michael and Iana Straw, 25 and 23, allegedly failed to feed or properly clean their children because they couldn't tear themselves away from the computer. "They had food, they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games", said Deputy District Attorney Kelli Ann Viloria, who is prosecuting the Straws.”

Just one of many examples from the 2006-2007 period, followed by many, many more examples of terrible parents who would rather play video games than care for their child. Any gamer worth their salt would jump to the defence of the past time: “the problem here,” they would say, “is with the people, not with the games.”

And it’s difficult to argue, Mr and Mrs Straw would have been awful parents no matter what. Their own greed and need for entertainment obviously was more important to them than their child’s life.
My favourite part of the story above, incidentally, comes from a spokesman for Nevada Child Abuse Protection.

“As we become more technologically advanced, there's more distractions. It's easy for someone to get addicted to something and neglect their children. Whether it's video games or meth (amphetamine), it's a serious issue, and Nevada needs to become more aware of it."

That’s right, folks, video games are as bad as meth.
Detractors of the genre complained that socially inept people would use the platform to avoid developing areas of their personality; young teens would especially be at risk of this. The argument was made valid thanks in part to the stereotype of the gamer as a spotty 25 year old, living from his parent’s basement, eating junk food and avoiding socializing at all costs. This gamer wouldn’t have a job, wouldn’t have anything in his life to hold his attention except for the game and good luck to anybody who tried to get between them.

While people like this no doubt existed and exist within the fanbase today, it’s a ridiculous thing to think for a second that it’s the norm.

Where World of Warcraft had impressed the crowd that enjoyed raiding and looting, another game was starting to get attention in the press. While not technically an MMO in the eyes of the people who decide these things, Second Life had its own attention in the press.

Second Life allowed players to create, believe it or not, a second life. With a huge range of options to choose from and the option to join servers based entirely around adult themes, Second Life offers something for everyone and it is for this exact reason that it became such a hit.
The vice president of Linden Labs, Cory Ondrejka, best sums up what Second Life offers in an interview with IGN.

“Imagine in your head for a second what you ideally would want gameplay to be like in an interactive virtual world. Most likely you would want your Second Life to give you richly entertaining and rewarding experiences you can't have in your first life. So we've implemented creation tools, rich economic and social systems, and plenty of leeway to enable residents to make their creative vision a reality.”

With so much choice on the market and the strongest of the strong unlikely to be thrown from their virtual thrones, the MMO genre stagnated. More and more games tried to compete with World of Warcraft and, ultimately, failed. Not because they were bad games but because the average user had become attached to WoW and because they’d never stay away too long.

Minor distractions came and went, but nothing could replace WoW. Warcraft had not only filled a niche, it had expanded so that it filled all available space and, thanks to near bottomless financial backing from Blizzard, could continue to develop and adapt to changes in the market.

For a short while MMOs seemed to come and go. The Sims Online, called EA-Online for the last period of its existence, was just one of the games to shut down.

“It is with mixed emotions that we are announcing the EA-Land experiment will soon draw to a close. Since 2002, EA-Land / TSO has attracted a very special group of players and we certainly appreciate your participation in the community. The lifetime of the game has drawn to an end, and now we will be focusing on new ideas and other innovative concepts in the games arena. We would like to thank everyone who has taken part in this online community as a unique experience in the virtual world.”

Tabula Rasa, the follow-up to Ultima Online by Richard Garriet, bombed in only a little over 12 months. Speaking with Massively, David Swofford explains why a relatively popular MMO (it had over 120,000 subs at its peak) can just shut down.

“We had to weigh Tabula Rasa against everything else that was out there. From our standpoint it was strictly a call ... it wasn't as successful as we needed it to be. We had to take this position.”

The MMO gaming world mourned the loss of Tabula Rasa, with several regretting that they had never took the time to actually play the thing.

MMO games seemed to be losing money left, right and centre, you would be forgiven for thinking the market was entirely failing with closures on all but the best established of games. The industry needed a new standard, a new way of pulling in the customers and making money. They chose free to play, an idea that slowly, but surely is being accepted by the majority of developers as the way to go.
Even Blizzard changed their policies.

It seems counterproductive, offering a product for free in the hope that some people will choose to upgrade their account and buy additional products: clothes, locations, etc.

In interview with Tentonhammer, the LOTR: Online devs discuss what made them go free to play.

“We learned a lot from the DDO launch. We saw the benefit to the community and the way it grew. We were impressed with how helpful and mature the community was. The Advice channel, and the interaction were great. We really wanted that for LotRO. The game was doing very well as a subscription based game, but we saw an opportunity for it to be doing even better in this new model, and that's what inspired us.”

The future of the MMO Genre is looking bright. In 20 years we’ve gone from high subscription fees and terrible graphics to near-real graphics and free to play. The genre has been popularized by shows like The Guild, encouraging teenage boys from around the world to login in the hope of finding their very own Felicia Day. Even in the last few years we’ve evolved beyond those constant attacks, the idea that playing a video game for a few hours a day can turn you into a social and physical wreck.

Like much of the video game industry, the MMO is going mainstream. Thanks to social platforms like Facebook, middle aged housewives are playing MMOs and not even realizing it. Some would probably be quite surprised to find they’re playing something not unlike World of Warcraft.

And as the genre evolves, it’s proving beyond a doubt that it is here to stay, here to evolve alongside other genres, here to continue sucking up man hours and bringing together people of all races and all ages.

© 2011 - DevilsMMO.com

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