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

[Luca Girardo]

At 21:13 07.07.2004, Dana V. Baldwin wrote:

> Timeliness in both cases is a major player. EQ was the first
> populous 3D MMO at a time when we were plaing iso scrolling UO as
> we had been playing UO for years.  CoH is also timely in that it
> came very polished at a time when players of SWG were dead tired
> of "virtual world woithout game" design ideas amd EQ players were
> looking to move on.

I ask myself if COH subscribers are just existing migrating MMOG
customers or if COH was able to reach other market segments then the
current MMOGs through their game play, game design and theme. Even
we will never know it (as it would be necessary to have precise
subscriber numbers for the other US MMOGs), I would say that many of
the game design features (simple teaming up, shorter missions etc.,
quick leveling) implies shorter but content richer online gaming
sessions then other MMOGs and therefore being more attractive for a
larger players audience including "casual gamers".  If that would be
true, it could indicate a paradigm shift for future MMOGs. Also the
new SWG expansion, introducing real-time game play could be a
feature attracting other market segments educing the "cannibalizing
effect" between existing MMOGs.

Luca 
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