[MUD-Dev] When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original withthe gameplay?

[Sasha Hart]

[Daniel James]

>> The players certainly do not dump EQ and buy up Puzzle Pirates
>> and BeatDance, which is a poor practical showing for originality.

> Uh, I don't know about BeatDance, but we're not available to buy,
> yet, so this conclusion is pre-emptive.

David Kennerly put your game first on his list of original games
that were 'on the ballot' to be 'voted on' (e.g., bought, in case
thread context doesn't supply this.) Not knowing whether PP was out,
nor having any reason to think it wasn't, I accepted this for
purposes of discussion. But in fact I don't think it matters -
neither post was about your game more than incidentally, and
certainly neither were marked or intended as accurate information
about its status.

Multiple people have posted in this thread (among them David
Kennerly and JC Lawrence) expressing the following attitude,
paraphrased: 'You can demand original games all you like, but why
should developers make games which they have no reason to believe
will not fail?'

If you look at David's list of games, they have indeed not provided
such a reason. (Maybe yours will, I'm sure it's very special and
beautiful in its own way, but I don't care and never did.) I said
"originality has failed to triumph over any other factors standing
in the way of runaway success" (suggesting that other factors might
be responsible, and later suggesting that a difference might be
difficult to detect for other reasons) and "originality is not a no-
brainer," which I will stick by. But in the context of my argument,
in the context of the above attitude, this kind of clear positive
evidence is just what is demanded for the same not to apply to the
demand for original games - for the evidence to constitute a good
'practical showing.' To someone who is deciding whether or not to
risk their financial livelihood, do you think it is 'practical' to
put all of your eggs into a basket which is only not decisively
demonstrated inferior?

The entire remainder of my post argues that there are vast
complications in drawing a conclusion about originality and non-
originality in general, including confounds with other variables. I
do argue that originality doesn't seem to do as well as doing a game
on an EQ template, but maybe it does better for all we know. But I
do not argue that this is enough to convince a David Kennerly, or a
producer.

Anyway, if you have a real challenge for the assertion that this is
the state of the case for original gameplay, don't direct it at me.
It's not my argument!

> That said, EQ players are not really our market, we are explicitly
> trying to reach a new audience for MMPs

Great.

> Again, this is a completely unfounded statement at the present
> time.  In two years you might be able to say, 'Look at
> originalGame, it's only got XXk subs and EQ has XXXk' but that
> still wouldn't tell you how promising originality is; you can't
> draw conclusions about innovation from a few products,

I said this in the post.

> I am reminded of the useless mmp phanboi reviews of SWG that
> complain about how it's not EQ. This is not necessarily relevant
> to SWG's chances.
...
> Arrr!

You are not aware that I never claimed to know anything about your
game, detest EQ, and have no emotional or financial investment in
the genre.

Are you aware that calling me an 'mmp phanboi' is at least mildly
insulting? Are you aware that you are delurking out of the blue, to
flame me, in defense of your company's game on the basis of
knee-jerk misinterpretations of one of my posts? Are you aware that
you appear to have either not read my post or fallen asleep in the
middle (I don't blame you if the latter?) Calm down, or you'll have
a stroke when someone actually pans your game.
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