[MUD-Dev2] Fallen Earth

[Mike Sellers]

Benjamin Tolputt wrote: 
> Let's face it - the "high probability, high profit commercial success"
> in the requires two major elements: game-play catering to the 
> lowest common denominator and a large marketing budget. WoW 
> has successfully done the former (quite successfully) and the 
> latter is required because of WoW. 

A common mistake in core gamers: thinking the WoW audience is "the broad
market" or "the lowest common denominator."  It's not.  It's a large market,
certainly, but it's *far* from being anything like mass market.

For the real lowest-common-denominator huge-commercial-success games, see
the examples of the browser-based and SNS games I mentioned earlier.  These
are continuing to explode: currently the most popular of these has nearly 50
million active players -- more than *4 times* the number of players that WoW
has.  

Is it an MMO?  No, not the way we think of it.  But who put
MMO-traditionalists in charge?  Certainly not the market, any more than it
put hex game designers in charge.

Mike Sellers