MMO BURNOUT

I'm burning (burnt) out on MMOs. It happens, and usually to some measure of RL benefit. But this latest burn isn't so much about RL balancing, it's about disenchantment. And it's not just one game, it's the entire genre.

Back in the day, I hopped from Everquest (http://www.guildnetwork.net/guildnetwork/?q=node/102) to Dark Age of Camelot to Anarchy Online to World of Warcraft to City of Heroes, back to World of Warcraft, to Lineage II, back to World of Warcraft, back to Dark of Age of Camelot, to Warhammer (http://www.guildnetwork.net/guildnetwork/?q=node/101), back to Everquest, back to . . .

With each jump, I realized two things. First, I’d worn thin the veneer on game mechanics and saw the games for what they were – different skins to the same rolls. This includes the increasing lack of subtlety in economics (read: micro-transactions and leveling services). Sure, there were gimmicks along the way but the equation remained: Time /Progression = Gear.

More importantly, I witnessed strong game communities deteriorate in direct relation to the volume of new titles and expansions. As an organized (or guilded) player, you’re outdated by two things – expansion content and alternative sub-genres (SWG vs. WoW vs. WAR vs. DFO vs. Etc.). If you’re in a large enough guild, this creates indelible fractures.

A rough, and somewhat unfair, comparison is the Atari 2600 and the subsequent crash of the video game market in the 80's. Too many options, many untested, all over-hyped. Console gaming now benefits from next gen licensing, and even that isn’t enough to stop terrible titles from cropping up from time to time.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to oversee genre-based video game PC software development. The only quality check is money. And more often than not, gamers are victimized by both retail box prices and monthly subscription fees.

We vote with our dollars, and today, those dollars are spent on pre-orders, early access, special edition items and other micro-transactions. But what happens to that money when a game is rushed to market, or transaction servers can’t handle volume, or the game itself isn’t nearly what it claimed? Almost every other industry has quality control in the form of returns, rebates and refunds.

The worst transgression against the gaming community is the impudence in which publishers control development. Without publishers, developers don’t develop, and without games, we don’t play. It rolls downhill. It’s no different than seat licensing in professional sports, or being forced to use a ‘discount card’ at your grocery store. Video games are big business, particularly annuity streams like MMOs, and in today’s economy, they leave no stone unturned in their quest to lighten our wallets.

Maybe that’s why I’m losing interest and faith in the MMO genre. I picked up a copy of The Witcher the other day and played through the first few acts. It wasn’t nearly as much fun as my earlier days in EQ, WoW or WAR. But it reminded me why I play RPGs – to be amused, excited and challenged. Pick up a copy of Puzzle Quest or Chrono Trigger for the DS and it’s the same.

But it’s not the same. Without my guild, and a larger community, those games are simply stop gaps.

I suppose this is my swan song for the next big thing. Or at least a game that finally has enough innovation to bring us all together, in a massive, persistent, changing world that we control. With our money and our minds.