Comments on: Daily Blogroll 5/29 — Reasons to be Cheerful, Pt III

By: Lars

Lars — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:14:56 +0000

I think as games get larger streaming will be more and more necessary. Downloading is quickly replacing retail as the preferred way to obtain a game, and who would sit around and download 20GB and then wait sixteen hours for it to patch? Especially if they are just getting a trial? I mean, besides MMO addicts like you or me. :) Downloading a 250KB EXE and lauching the game almost instantly like in Guild Wars is the ideal. And while GW is no Age of Conan, its still a pretty hefty game. There are several GB of content that has not loaded to my current machine simply because I haven’t needed them.

By: Quantize

Quantize — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:41:03 +0000

That’s an interesting point you made about EVE. I feel like the same could be said about Wizard101 and Free Realms. Both launches were pretty quiet and unexpected, and they both seem to be steadily growing their player bases. As opposed to AOC and WH, who signed up HUGH numbers the first day, and seem to be on a downward trend as you mentioned.

By: Saylah

Saylah — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:50:21 +0000

Regarding EVE – I think CCP has stayed true to their intended audience. They’re not expecting it to be everyone’s game and okay with that fact. But never did in the Darkfall, “You’re not worthy” manner which for me, was a put off right from jump street. I’d never try Darkfall. PERIOD. I’m not looking to be worthy for the privilege of PAYING to play a game. Get real plz.

EVE/CCP scandals and all keep my respect because most of the activity and drama is all player driven and not scripted by the game itself. I applaud their continued efforts to make the game more approachable BUT they do not attempt to dumb it down. You either like EVE or you don’t, and they seem okay with that reality.

I was heartily disagreeing with Sister Julie in a thread on No Prisoners No Mercy that CCP needs to quake in their boots over Jump Gate. We have EQ2, WOW and LOTRO, all different flavors and level of difficulty for fantasy MMOs. There is no reason that CCP has to match JumpGate is general appeal or be less complex. We can have multiples for the sci-fi space genre too and players will choose their preferred level of accessibility.

I never stick in EVE more than 6 mos at a stretch. Yet I’m subscribed for some period of time every year. I keep going back because the level of complexity means there’s always something new for me to mess around with – new expansion or no, because it’s such a horizontally wide game.

By: Anjin

Anjin — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:38:19 +0000

As I commented on Ogrebear’s post, I think streaming games should allow a forced patch like Guild Wars. Slap a “-image” in the command line and you get the entire patch up front. I think ArenaNet put the option in so that computers could be set up fully patched for tournaments.

By: wilhelm2451

wilhelm2451 — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:36:17 +0000

I always wonder how many actual people play EVE Online versus the number of accounts. A second account helps out so much, and if you’re already at the trough, how about a third? And then there is Gaff.

By: Tesh

Tesh — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:42:27 +0000

Mike Darga has mused about EVE before as well, writing about player retention and acquisition. Here’s a good place to start:
http://mikedarga.blogspot.com/2009/02/player-acquisition-vs-player-retention.html

By: openedge1

openedge1 — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:51:44 +0000

“does a similar streaming thing”

So does Guild Wars. Especially the first time you play. They have a small download client for those who buy accounts online, and then it downloads data for zones in the background…but does this once (unless there is an update)
i.e: never get those huge downloads on patch day thanks to the stream technology.

I think it could work, especially if it is FREE like FR and Guild Wars after initial purchase.

I would play it.