[MUD-Dev] MMORPG Cancellations: The sky is falling?

[Threshold RPG]

The discussion on TerraNova about UOX's cancellation prompted this,
but I'm interested to hear the opinions of the folks here on whether
or not the recent series of MMORPG cancellations is really anything
to worry about.

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Electronic Arts is teaching the rest of us in the MMORPG marketplace
a lot of good lessons. It is so nice of them to spend tens of
millions of their dollars to fund this research.

They have shown us all how incredibly important PATIENCE and FOCUS
are in the development of an MMORPG.

Their lack of patience is what is causing them to flounder about
making tons of different games, not giving them the time they need
to develop (both pre and post release), and expecting them to crush
Everquest in their first year. The games they have released clearly
show a lack of development time and a lack of depth in game
design. Earth & Beyond was the shell of an excellent game with no
substance. The Sims Online did not supply the one thing it was
supposed to be best at: community. Motor City
Online... well... *chuckle*. Every time they have come close to
producing a legitimate sequel to Ultima Online, they have grown
impatient and decided to just return their efforts to the existing
successful game (UO).

Their lack of focus is the reason why they have such a huge number
of games in development and yet they seem unable get even one fully
developed, fully realized game to market. Furthermore, the lack of
focus is the reason why the games they have under development seem
to drift about aimlessly without making serious, significant
progress towards a quality release product.

I believe that EA's enormous success in the console market has
resulted in them being addicted to that style of game
development. Console games can be extremely successful even if they
have nothing more than cursory, surface appeal. Earth & Beyond
provides an excellent example of this console design mentality run
amok. A game with Earth & Beyond's degree of depth would actually
make for an absolutely marvelous non-MMORPG game for the PC or
console (assuming you ramped up the advancement rate
accordingly). It had beautiful graphics, an interesting variety of
"character classes", and enough fun for 50-100 hours of gameplay. As
an MMORPG, however, it was shallow and insubstantial.

I know a lot of people are at a near panic with all of these MMORPGs
being canceled. Take heart in the fact that a large percentage of
them were being produced by EA and suffered from the same flawed
philosophy that EA has towards MMORPGs.

What this is showing is that the huge, mega-corporations may not be
in as dominant a position in the MMORPG market as they are in other
areas of gaming (I'm not saying they are in a bad position, just
that their position may not be as absolutely advantageous as some
would believe). This should give smaller developers a lot to be
happy about.

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Michael Hartman, J.D. (http://www.threshold-rpg.com)
President & CEO, Threshold Virtual Environments, Inc.
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