I’ve spoken before on the future of SOE’s oldest franchise. One of the most-commented posts on this site is a call to let Everquest go, put the dame on the boat. Tobold tackled this issue in a post on his site today.

Now I can offer 3 explanations on why Everquest is dieing. The sensationalist one is that “WoW killed EQ”, which is probably not really true. The more second realistic explanation is that EQ is getting old, with neither the graphics nor the gameplay being likely to attract many new players in 2006. Of course you can combine explanations one and two and say that many ex-EQ players moved on to newer games, not necessarily WoW, but there are lots of others. The final explanation is the negative network effect. If people play a MMO because of the other players, then everybody who leaves removes some motivation for the remaining players, until the whole enterprise falls together like a house of cards.

Tobold’s MMORPG Blog: Is Everquest dead?

Curiously, while you’d expect me to be like ‘Yeah, death rattles!’, I’m actually less convinced today that it deserves a trip out onto the ice than I was when I first discussed this issue. The reason?

The main premise of this expansion was to create a coherent play space that allowed a player to move from the lowest level to the highest, all within a linked set of zones. Additionally, one of the main goals was to take the numerous game enhancements that EverQuest has seen over the years, and create a space where they could all shine together …

The content path also provides us with the ability to introduce more directed quests, and to do so in a very cohesive manner. We have gone to a great deal of trouble to plan out how play will flow between the zones as players gain levels and power, and hopefully, the ever present answer to the question “what’s next?” will be “something fun!”

RPG Vault: EverQuest: The Serpent’s Spine Interview - Part 1

With Serpent’s Spine they really seem to be focusing in on what needs to be done next. IE: Give the current players tons of new stuff, but actually give new players a reason to get back into the game. According to Mr. Ford, if you’re so inclined you can go all the way from 1-70 just in the zones they’re releasing with this expansion.

It’s a great idea, and if it actually works I think it could mean really great things for old and new EQ players. Despite my wailing and thrashing, I don’t ever really want to see a MMOG put out to pasture. If SOE can bring back a little of what made EQ great, more power to them.

Taking these games serious is the realm of others in either different stages of their life, or simply with different lives. I peaked in my need for immersion with SWG, and it took a personal toll (though nothing irreparable, because I smarted up right quick). I’m never doing that again, for the same reasons I never bother with RMTing. I can appreciate why it’s done, but neither is worth it to me. Games aren’t feeding us through feeding tubes, so there’s only so much of that real world anyone can afford to give up.

Darniaq: Verbosity Unleashed » Requiem for a has-been gamer

Darniaq, once again, says what I’ve been thinking for quite some time now. Playing these games just requires so much effort. I remember in college, when playing EQ was something that ate up a couple hours with no problem. I took to deliberately not playing when I knew I needed to get something done the next day. A 45 minute session could become three hours if I wasn’t careful. Two months ago I was sitting in a raid group for WoW, thinking to myself how I’d rather be doing almost anything else than what I was doing at that moment.

The brevity of the experience was a big factor, but when I finished Half-Life 2: Episode One I was downright shocked. I’d spent about five hours of time engaging in pure fun, and hadn’t once looked up to see how long I’d been playing.

That’s what gaming is supposed to be like: Fresh, new experiences that suck you in and make you happy to be there, in that place and at that time. Otherwise, really, what’s the point?

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, which oversees such well-known hotel brands as Sheraton, St. Regis, and Westin, will launch its newest chain, Aloft, in the online society Second Life in September. In the brick-and-mortar realm, the plan is for the first Aloft inn to open sometime in 2008, catering to active, urban 30- to 50-year-olds. But the real-world lodge will be preceded by a 3D cyberversion designed to prompt feedback from virtual guests and help guide the earthbound endeavor.

Hotel chain taps Second Life to test new brand - PC News at GameSpot

There is even a VirtualAloft blog that will give you a preview of the virtual preview. The idea is that users will make use of the hotel in many of the same ways that real patrons will. By hanging out in the clubs, public spaces, and using the rooms for many of the same ‘activities’ that real paying customers will, the company hopes to get an idea of ways to tweak hotel designs before the buildings are built.

I mention this because I think it’s kind of interesting, from a sociological perspective, and because I find the use of public spaces and such in hotels very interesting.
I also think it’s another crazy ass use of Second Life by marketers who don’t really know what the hell they’re getting into. “Oh, Second Life. Yeah, my cousin’s nephew was telling me about that, it’s that place where you can fly all the time, right? Let’s market to those people!”
That’s all well and good, right up until a cat-girl avatar played by a guy in Hoboken, NJ has sex on their hotel bar with an avatar that looks like Dick Cheney. Then we’ll see what’s what.

In an incredibly refreshing move, Farlan Entertainment has publicly admitted that they screwed up with Dark and Light.

Farlan Entertainment … today announced it is embarking on a new initiative to correct and improve various operational aspects of Dark and Light. While worldwide play in the Internet game will not be interrupted during this period, Farlan is nonetheless offering a thank you to the hundreds of thousands of Dark and Light subscribers who have signed on thus far by offering three months of play with no monthly subscription fee.

We did it wrong. Sorry about that. Here, don’t pay for it while we fix it. We’ll still charge you to get in, but while it sucks you don’t have to pay for the privelage.

Yay for you guys. Seriously. Really good idea. This is how a game survives a bad launch.

I’m making my annual pilgrimage to the mecca of nerdery on Wednesday. If you’ve never been, you can think of GenCon as sort of a pen-and paper E3, only without the cute women or the bathing.

I kid. Mostly.

The MMOG folks are ever-more interested in the con of cons, though, and at least three publishers are going to have a presence there this year.

Turbine’s announced that they’ll be unveiling the Forsaken Lands [Forum post may disappear] at their booth. DDO was a big draw at last year’s con, and I imagine it will be so again with its new info.

Pirates of the Burning Sea is planning a big show for the con, with demos and (probably) some info on the user-created content addition they’re making to the game.

You may have already heard that Guild Wars is holding a massive tournament this weekend. $5,000 in cash to the top 32 winners. Too bad I suck, or I’d be right there.

I can’t see any confirmation, but with Jack Emmert’s past in the tablet-top industry City of Heroes/Villains has usually had a presence at the event. They usually say they’re going, though, so mayhap with Mr. Emmert’s fading into the background they’ll be keeping a lower profile as well. Shame.

I expect to be a little post-light this week, as a result of my busy schedule, but I’m sure I’ll have lots of post fodder ready to put up when I return.

New Vanguard Video
Date: Aug 05, 2006
Author: Craig McGregor
We recently received this video from Sigil/SOE highlighting some of the hot features in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. In it you will see flying mounts, a flying city, never-before-seen zones, combat and player-owned boats!

MMORPG.COM - Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

I’ve been largely unimpressed with images/videos of Vanguard so far, but this relatively short Flash video would seem to get across what they’re ‘going for’ a lot better than previous attempts. The ‘free yourself’ tag-line, combined with the mounts and boats does a good job of intriguing the viewer about the inherent possibilities of the gameworld. Good show, Sigil/SOE folk.

Officials from South Korean-headquartered MMO publisher NCsoft have released details of the company’s second quarter financial results, in which NCSoft saw a small loss, despite an increase in sales, partly due to Auto Assault’s disappointing market performance … The downturn in income was explained by a write-off of 12.6 billion won ($13.1m) in costs related to the failing MMO Auto Assault. Without this significant failure, then operating and pre-tax income would have grown by 64 percent on the previous quarter and fallen by a less marked 17 and 11 percent, respectively, from the same period a year ago.

Gamasutra - NCsoft Slips To Loss As Auto Assault Disappoints

At only slightly more that 10,000 subscribers, I wouldn’t call Auto Assault a failure so much as a debacle. Every other title NCSoft has released to date has had some measure of success. Lineage 2 has never been the bee’s knees here in the states, but abroad it seems like it has quite nicely taken up the reins from the original title. City of Heroes/Villains is a cult favorite, with its 150,000 some players enjoying the game for what it is. A new expansion, or bright-n-shiny new content, will undoubtedly bring those numbers up again for a while too. Guild Wars is very much its own thing (no numbers on MMOGChart, of course), and Dungeon Runners looks like it’s at least going to be pretty.

The spectacular failure of Auto Assault, then, is very disheartening. This isn’t a company with a dodgy track record or some new kid on the scene. NCSoft is one of the real powers in this industry, and their failure to get this thing off the ground really says something. Massive Online Gamer might suck, but they did provide a few pieces of information:

• 44 People on the Auto Assault development team.
• 15,000 objects in the game
• 15,000 special effects (wtf?)
• 240,000 work hours were spent making the game
• 600 square miles of space inside the gameworld

The only one that really matters to me are those 44 people and their 240,000 work hours. What a waste. 240,000 hours of time spent on a game that some 10,000 people are playing. All that time spent on assets and content that will never really see the light of day.

So what happened? Why the splat when it hit? Is ‘Car Wars Online’ too niche for most gamers? The overwhelming attraction to fantasy titles should have prepared the company. The knowledge that they wouldn’t do amazing well should have been self-evident given the current state of the industry. I’m all for non-fantasy MMOGs, though. EVE’s done a tremendous job, and with titles like Tabula Rasa coming up to the plate the non-fantasy MMOG may soon have its day in the sunshine.

I don’t have answers. I’d really love to know. I do know that, personally, I was never interested in the title. A friend of mine played the trial period, and other than some vague amusement with the amount of destroyable scenery, he said it was pretty much a waste of time. The failure of Auto Assault, I think, point to something larger. WoW’s 50% of the MMOG market isn’t just a number.

It may actually be getting harder to garner interest from a market that has-the-game-it-wants-to-play-thank-you-very-much.

In the August issue of Edge, they take a quick look at LOTRO. Their opinion isn’t that it’s boring and a waste of a license.

“… in a market that has been slow to capitalize on WoW’s success - following it with a slew of strange imports and niche experiments - LOTRO’s matured, formulaic approach is almost as strong an asset as the license.” - Edge Issue 165, pg. 34

Niche is apparently bad. Imports are bad too, apparently. I disagree, but I’m one man. I respect Edge’s opinion, and in this case actually fear it. Is this really what the lesson of Auto Assault will be? That if your game doesn’t have elfy-welfies, it’s doomed from the get go?

That’s not a MMOG industry I want to be ragging on. That’s a MMOG industry I’ll just watch from the stands.