18.1.17 What are your thoughts on the successes and failures of today's newer MMOGS?

I am and have been very supportive of the industry in general and all of the MMOGs specifically -- it's not my job to critique my competition; rather, that's your job, the player. As I've said in the past, I encourage all of you, finances permitting, to try them all and decide what you like and don't like, and then vote with your monthly subscription.

That said, my view on aspects of this have altered slightly in the last year or so.
When an MMOG tries to do all sorts of experimental stuff, gets a huge budget, and then tanks, it doesn't just hurt the company that paid for it. It hurts the MMOG industry as a whole, which is in its infancy.

Most posters on this board can look at the various MMOGs, how they've done, and fairly intelligently point to the whys and how's of what went wrong. Sure, we may disagree on some of the finer points, but here's what we don't do: we don't conclude that successful MMOGs were flukes and that perhaps the future of interactive entertainment isn't as bright as people have asserted.

But, what about the random non-gamer executive who doesn't understand MMOG game mechanics, what makes them successful, what makes them tick... how does he interpret $30 million black holes?

In some circles EverQuest was and is criticized for 'just being a graphical DIKU MUD', etc... that it didn't break enough new ground, despite its virtually unparalleled success in both sales and retention. There's the desire to break the mold, to abandon what a decade+ of MUD mechanics and experiences have taught us, and to create something truly revolutionary and 'new'.

And, normally, I'd say that's great. Innovation, thinking outside the box... all good things. But now, at this point, when this genre is still in its infancy, I have a problem with expensive experiments that might have adverse affects on everybody trying to make these games short term, and bring them into the mainstream, where interactive entertainment challenges passive entertainment in the long term.

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