[MUD-Dev] expansion packs

[Eric Hu]

On Tue, 10 Dec 2002 10:25:04 -0600
Wes Connell <wconnell at kanga.nu> wrote:
> Eric Hu wrote:

>> It will occur, and had occured.

> So it has occurred in your case (power gamer). But is yours an
> extreme case? Dave Rickey mentioned in a parallel thread under the
> same subject:

> Dave Rickey wrote:

>> When do you walk away from the money?  EQ has 400,000
>> subscribers, a revenue stream approaching $5,000,000 monthly.
>> How far would that have to drop before continued development and
>> expansion packs weren't worth the investment?

Frankly speaking, I was surprisingly found that EQ has 400,000
subscribers only, now. Around 14 monthes ago, when I was writing my
first book about the culture shock of online game in Taiwan, the EQ
subscribers were 365,000 by Sony's website. Since I had kept an eye
on its history subscriber number, I was shocked and sad to know they
lost some many players this year.

One year, add 35,000 players only. It is sad.

Let's check the news record from Google: EQ had 225,000 subsribers
before the first expansion pack, the Ruin of Kunark.  EQ had 300,000
subscribers when the 2nd expansion pack, The Scars of Velious
released, 2000/12/06.  They had announced 410,000 subscribers before
the 3rd expansion pack, the Shadow of Luclin released (by Mrad
McQuaid, VP of premium games at Sony Online then).

  http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/zones/previews/sep01/luclin.html

Now, there is the new expansion pack, Planes of Power. Number cannot
lie, what it told us?

>> Even a power gamer, they will consider "is it an endless path?"
>> My friends and I, we 11 ppls had more than 20 sets of EQ
>> accounts. How many ppls left inside EQ after PoP released? only
>> 3. and 2 of the 3 ppls are jobless. How many time Verant raised
>> the level cap? 2 times, from 50 to 60, then 60 to 65. Who could
>> say Sony wont release another expansion pack when he need more
>> cash? Exp grinding is ok, but endless exp grinding is not
>> fun. Killing the first dragon in your life is exciting, killing
>> the 1001 huge red dragon lord isn't.

> Playing devil's advocate: Obviously just adding new levels,
> different colored super armor and yet another big monster won't cut
> it for the veteran power gamers who want something different to
> kill.

Ah, yes yes yes. :)

In my case, almost all of the comrades of mine are retired (and
experienced) MUD administrators, some are Immortals from Diku, some are
Wizards from LP. For these who was creating content and damage formula
for others, It was piece of cake to become the dang good power gamer in
game.

The true porblems is, people got tired of routine.  Raid with
comrades is fun, but we were not the Viking, we could not live for
raid.  Grow up in game, earn the meat and mead of life in game was
fun, but that was another story. Being the elite members of the 2nd
powerful guild in EM server and 1st powerful guild in asia time, we
had a great time around 1.5 year. Life is a Tough Bitch, as I always
said, we have more and more business and matter need to take care in
RL, we could not spend as much time as we were younger. In the other
hand, the expansion pack is the new bottle with old wine, more
higher level zones, more higher level mobs, more ppls for raids,
more HP/mana/AC/skill/damage...

It is routine, it is not fun. My 2 years-old son was exciting
sipping soda in his first time, I drain the full tankard of soda
before I knew what I drinked.

There is an old saying in Chinese: Everything shall not be too much.
Anything shall not be over-state.

As the Product Life Cycle, everything start to downfall after it
reach the peak. One or two expansion pack is ok, but 4 or 5? it is
too many.

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