[MUD-Dev] [NEWS] Warhammer Online Cancelled -- Why?

[Mike Rozak]

>>From Jon A. Lambert:

> What's an USP?  I couldn't find any references for this term.  I
> was honestly trying to figure it out in context, but came up a few
> bricks short.

USP = Unique selling point. Sorry forgot to describe the TLA (three
letter acronym)

>>From Luca Girardo:

> Hmm, what is a good USP? And good for whom? For the future
> customers or for the investors/producers of the MMOG? And is the
> absence of a clear USP a signal that we are having more
> evolutionary projects then revolutionary ones? Looking at the list
> I see three MMOGs that even if they have/had cleared USP, failed
> to reach a critical customer basis (AC2 for example with an
> estimated pop of max 10-15K, A tale in the desert with 7,063
> subscribers (June 2004), Uru Live (already cancelled)).  Now from
> my point of view USP could play a role for a customer in the
> acquisition moment, but it has less impact on the retention
> rate. And with the new trend of offering 14 days free trial before
> acquiring the game, I see USP losing more influence on the
> customer retention/acquisition rate as more products can be
> categorized as evolutionary products.

I mostly agree with your statement.

USPs are in the eye of the beholder... namely the customer. In the
case of AC2 the ongoing story doesn't count for much - at least not
for me, and probably not for most people. However, I suspect that of
the 10K-15K (is it that low already?) people playing AC2, many of
them would find the ongoing story compelling. Personally, I think
I'd find what Uru Live was offering (adventure game and unique
scenery) compelling, but they cancelled...  probably not a large
enough market of people who liked their USP. If Uru Live were still
alive then they would have monopoly in terms of the USP that I'm
looking for.

In the case of DAOC, RvR is obviously a compelling USP for a large
number of users. However, it won't be a USP for long with most
upcoming MMORPGs implimenting RvR. While DAOC has the existing user
base, some of their RvR users will drift towards the newer
competitors (Dragon Empires, World of Warcraft, etc.).

Which gets to evolutionary products... the term implies (but doesn't
necessarily require) that there are no major USPs left. At this
point it's a game of featuritis... lots of little features. Just
look at all the features that Word and competing word processors
have stuck in while attempting to out check-list one another. I
attended a Word strategy meeting where they were discussing an API
for controlling where long words were broken at line edges, instead
of the default break-at-syllable-boundary rules. (0.001% of their
users actually care about this API)

Personally, I don't think MMORPGs are into the featuritis stage yet.

  NOTE: Looking at an application solely in terms of features is a
  mistake.  (Potential purchasers still make this mistake though,
  which is why check-lists are important marketing tools.) How the
  features are implimented and work together is VERY important.


Mike Rozak
http://www.mxac.com.au
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