Comments on: Can Lord British Last in a Web 2.0 World?

By: Faren

Faren — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 03:18:26 +0000

"the fact remains that old school MMOs are losing out in terms of eyeballs and attention. And by extension, potential paying customers."

They have less eyeballs, but it's not about 'who's bigger or badder'... it's about money.

Will you make more money if you create yet another tired online casual world for the masses? more competition

OldSchool MMO's have a following, an ever expanding following. They make more money per person playing than the casual ones.

Even if they make less money, we can't all go around making the same thing...that's the path to ruin.

By: Wagner James Au

Wagner James Au — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:02:05 +0000

Whether it's subscription only or free play with advertising/virtual item sale/etc., the fact remains that old school MMOs are losing out in terms of eyeballs and attention. And by extension, potential paying customers.

By: Robin

Robin — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:16:28 +0000

Yes, because they are free. It's a meaningless comparison. For your next trick, perhaps you could stand outside Nintendo's offices with a sandwich board proclaiming the end is nigh, based on the popularity of free flash games on Newgrounds.

By: Wagner James Au

Wagner James Au — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 20:58:54 +0000

Yes, WoW is the big exception, but then, no other game studio has managed to replicate its success. And as an aggregate, players of old school hardcore fantasy MMORPGs are dwarfed by active membership of worlds that fall outside that rubric, especially online worlds for kids and teens.

By: Robin

Robin — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:53:46 +0000

"the relatively small base of hardcore gamers"

How many subscribers does WoW have again?

But that's less than Habbo Hotel or some other FREE chatroom junk, so of course MMORPG games are just a niche interest...

By: Raymond Padilla

Raymond Padilla — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 22:37:14 +0000

"still struggling with the rise of teen-oriented social worlds and a growing audience for games outside the relatively small base of hardcore gamers."

Come on James, this is a joke. How is anyone supposed to take your analysis seriously with statements like this one?

By: Metaplace's Ledomay

Metaplace's Ledomay — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:00:55 +0000

"As for Raph Koster, he exited the old school MMORPG business entirely to create Metaplace, a user-created, web-based metaverse."

He's also MAKING a MMORPG, using the Metaplace framework.

Simply put, this is what Metaplace is:

A way for anyone to make a MMORPG in 5 mins. A way for people to collaborate on the same project easily, and make something as polished as Age of Conan or World of Warcraft. Metaplace is also the caring parent who hosts your MMORPG/game if you so wish, and allows you to easily make money from your player base by charging meta$ (like secondlife currency, think 'micropayments' or even regular $15 a month fees).

Metaplace...what, there's more?! YES.

Metaplace also allows you to link your 'world/mmorpg' to any other.

A network of mmorpg's as linked up as websites are to one another.

etc

This swollows Second Life , WOW Age of conan, runescape etc WHOLE. They could all fit inside it's gigantic belly.

Go to metaplace, and enter the belly of the whole pinochio... and become a -real- game developer ;)