05-30-2006, 03:58 AM
Great interview and the Garriots had some surprising answers... although it did make me kind of nervous when Richard said that he thought selling virtual items for real-world money was a good business model. If you play a subscription-based game, the company is encouraged to put enough good content out there that you feel it is worth your time and money to play this game. If they adopted a virtual-items-for-real-money business model, then all they are encouraged to do is release a new best sword every week.
I think that the real future of MMOs lies in the PvP and not in the PvE. Admittedly, I always hated PvE in MMOs (whether it was the main focus, or like in DAoC, an significant obstacle before reaching the PvP) but I feel as though people are going to get tired of beating on steadily respawning monsters to make a XP bar slowly crawl up (or down, or horizontally depending upon the game:)). A lot of the people I know who started out in EverQuest don't play MMOs anymore because they just got tired of every PvE game being the same. Obviously you can then point to WoW's success as a PvE MMO, but a huge percentage of people playing WoW are fist time MMO-ers and I have been hearing rumblings from my friends for a while now about how WoW is getting extremely dull. PvP MMOs, on the other hand, tend to be dynamic experiences - every single day you log in you are fighting different people in different way in different situations.
I played DAoC for a couple years almost every day. I ran to Emain (for the uninitiated, a relatively wide open PvP zone that was easily accessible by all three realms so 90% of the PvP took place there unless there was a big relic raid going on) every day with basically the same 7 other guys for a couple years and did not get bored until Mythic released an expansion that added a *ton* of required PvE to the game.
Maybe I'm just an anomaly though:)
I think that the real future of MMOs lies in the PvP and not in the PvE. Admittedly, I always hated PvE in MMOs (whether it was the main focus, or like in DAoC, an significant obstacle before reaching the PvP) but I feel as though people are going to get tired of beating on steadily respawning monsters to make a XP bar slowly crawl up (or down, or horizontally depending upon the game:)). A lot of the people I know who started out in EverQuest don't play MMOs anymore because they just got tired of every PvE game being the same. Obviously you can then point to WoW's success as a PvE MMO, but a huge percentage of people playing WoW are fist time MMO-ers and I have been hearing rumblings from my friends for a while now about how WoW is getting extremely dull. PvP MMOs, on the other hand, tend to be dynamic experiences - every single day you log in you are fighting different people in different way in different situations.
I played DAoC for a couple years almost every day. I ran to Emain (for the uninitiated, a relatively wide open PvP zone that was easily accessible by all three realms so 90% of the PvP took place there unless there was a big relic raid going on) every day with basically the same 7 other guys for a couple years and did not get bored until Mythic released an expansion that added a *ton* of required PvE to the game.
Maybe I'm just an anomaly though:)
--Mith
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
Jack London
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
Jack London