[MUD-Dev] Blog about GDC implies changes to MMORPG population

[Vladimir Cole]

Mike Rozak wrote:

> I was just reading Grimwell online .... and noticed an interesting
> factoid from the GDC... "Vogel [of SOE] reported significant
> changes in gamers' habits. Previously, game retention was on
> average 10 months. This is now down to six months, Average time
> per week played was 20 hours; this is now down to 12.

Couldn't this statistical difference be a result of the generational
change? We've had a bunch of MMOGs hit geriatric stage with the
advent of the simultaneous launch of WoW and EQ2. I'd expect there
to be higher churn (and correspondingly lower stickiness metrics)
for the products that Vogel knows best (EQ, SWG, EQ2).

The time played per week number is interesting, but again, this may
be unique to the SOE universe. Lower time played per week may simply
reflect changes in gamer behavior wrought by the Sony all-access
pass, which basically encourages players to split their time between
all of the different games in SOE's stable (see
http://www.station.sony.com/stationaccess/ for details). I doubt
that number aggregates time spent in aggregate logged in to EVERY
MMO -- what's more likely is that the introduction of WoW and EQ2
brought about a new shopping period in which players were splitting
their time across multiple games in order to find the game that they
could play long-term.

My sense of things from polling guildmates and other online
acquaintances is that almost all of them spent some time in both EQ2
and WoW (many had beta accounts in both). Assuming that players
aren't increasing their time, this would necessarily result in less
time spent per game.

- Vlad
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