Hodo, on 10 December 2011 - 11:47 PM, said:
I have seen hundreds if not thousands of MMOs come out with these HUGE grand ideas only to watch them dwindle into small little after thoughts of games.
Have there been thousands of MMOs? Looking at all the games on MMORPG.com, I'm seeing around 450, though my count might be off a bit.
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I hate to see these companies, especially these small "fly-by-night" development teams that think HUGE, and end up biting off WAY more than they can chew. Trying to do the WHOLE Inner Sphere is HUGE, even if you only do a 5km x 5km sized map for every planet.
So yes I am talking to the developer. And more importantly, as much as I appreciate your input on my comment, I was not talking to you.
Have you ever stopped to think that our development team is comprised of Human beings? These Human beings have the same emotions and insecurities, and the same passions, as we do in the whole of this community. Have you ever thought that more video game teams have been brought to their knees by negative BS, such as you're purveying here, than by goals they set that could not be reached? At least THIS development team have already expressed that they are going to do what they can, and then they'll release updates and DLCs as often as possible to bring this game to actually where THEY want it to be, with OUR input. I have spoken negatively in a few threads, but it was in the hope of clarification, to push the devs in what I consider to be the right direction, and with as much as they have on their plate, I doubt they could get it all done prior to beta testing, prior even to game release, but if we push them in the right direction, if they are able to remain steadfast, and if they ignore *****, like you, who want to call this vaporware, and express that the devs don't have a chance in hell of making this game work, we might have a chance of seeing this game, rather than incompletion due to depression, lack of continued desire and passion to see it done.
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People who have never looked at the accounting side of the house of a business think that MMOs bring in a lot of money initially. They really dont.
That depends on the number of folks paying attention to the game, now, doesn't it? World of Warcraft was planning on less than 100,000 people to sign up for their game on the first day, but they had the revenue from covers on the first day of around 250,000 IN THE FIRST HOUR! That's $15,000,000, roughly, in COVERS ALONE! Now, as someone who has looked at the economics of MMOs, who has developed plans of his own based on the past experiences and numbers shared about MMOs, I know for a fact it all comes down to numbers. WoW had less than 40,000 people on its forums and signed up for beta, combined, until the day the game released; six-and-a-quarter times that number signed up to play the game the first hour the servers were open, and Blizzard had to scramble like MAD to get more servers open just so everyone else could play.
As of this morning, there are 31,191 people signed up JUST TO THIS FORUM. That's an average of 693 people per day over the 45 days this forum has been active. There are thousands more talking on Facebook about this -I can't speak about Twitter, MySpace, G+, or anywhere else because I'm only signed up to Facebook- but we already know, as well that, at one point, BattleTech/MechWarrior had around 25,000,000 people playing, reading, running, etc. the board and computer games. More than 11,000,000 copies of MechWarrior/MechCommander/MechAssault computer games have been sold, where Blizzard's games that lead to WoW sold about the same amount, I believe. If we apply the same multiplier, though I personally believe the multiplier will be closer to 8.5 to 10 times, then we get 195,000 people who are lurking, these forums and other social media spots, reading close to 40 articles and updates done by PGI, and who are Tech heads from a LONG time ago who will either eventually sign up to play this between now and release, or who will flood the game and these forums the day or week of its release. The probable market share of this game is absolutely huge among all games, and will be the king in this genre, hands down.
I'm not saying this is a WoW-killer, especially because it's a completely separate genre of gaming, but I think it has a damn fine chance of making PGI a LOT of money on opening day and beyond. The more articles and interviews are written about this game, the more it's talked up across the various social media sites, etc., between now and launch next Summer, the more people will come in, and the more our devs will be impassioned to continue, with all due haste, their development.
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They have a funky butt luvin amount of overhead that has built up during the development process. Many games operate in or near the red for the first year of the game. This is also why many indi-games dont survive the 1 year mark. And even less make it 5 years. I havent done any business accounting in 15 years, but I am still in touch with a few people who do.
Okay, well, that's great. SO, account this: what happens when you support people to complete something you really love, rather than speaking out like a jackass and offering NOTHING but negative commentary on something NONE of us are privy to, yet? And, would the numbers be stronger if all of us worked together, as I am, to promote this game OUTSIDE of this forum, across Facebook, talking to all of my friends, referencing articles written about the game, already?
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When companies think TOO big they end up falling REAL hard from their lofty dreams.
You know what, IF that's going to happen, here, then it's going to happen, and there's nothing we can do about it. Is there a way to help push these guys along the right track and make them WANT to succeed rather than give up? Would the game have a better possibility of success if guys like you weren't talking like this? Is there a better question you could be asking that COULD provoke their thoughts and make them think that you're PART of the process, rather than trying to hinder it?
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