Fires of Heaven Guild Message Board - View Single Post

Nakilos · 03-25-2004, 11:34 AM

Hate to say it but Mkopec is right. Hardcore gamers don't mean as much as the bottom line. Sure, hardcore gamers can be an asset to a game. When certain people get somewhere first and experience the bugs/issues, its better that its only a problem for a handful of people than half the player base because 1) gives them more time to fix it 2) the hardcores aren't going to quit anyway. Players do help shape how finished the games are, or can, just depends how much the company wants to pay attention to player concerns.

In any game leveling isn't something thats ever "hard". Its killing piles of monsters until your level is 1 level more, and doing it over and over til you reach the maximum. It is a means to an end. Its fast in every game. Basically if you can get 1 level in under 12 hours total time spent exping, that is fast considering how much there *should* be to do in a MMORPG. I cannot figure out why people want it to be lower.

The fact is most casual gamers are simply have nots who scream the loudest. They want the most toys, but don't want to invest the time or effort. Casual gamers also out number hardcore gamers 100:1.

It wouldn't be profitable to make a game just for hardcore players. Besides the fact that there really isn't that many people who spend large quantities of their lives playing a game almost exclusively, hardcore players do get bored faster simply because content is consumed faster. A "power gamer" is less likely to keep their accounts active to login once a week to chat, more likely to quit outright, where as a casual gamer might log in 2-3 times a month for a few hours and still be paying for the account. I saw this a lot when I played EQ. Older members of my guild who had quit a long time ago still had their accounts active, would log in to say hi once in a blue moon, all the while still paying for the account until usually 2 years later it occured to them every month they are being billed and cancelled. Personally when I quit, I canceled the account and assume the character is long gone now (or not, that 3 month character deletion thing is pretty hit or miss).

Can rant about the fact you are insignificant to these companies, but it doesn't change the fact you are insignificant.

03-25-2004, 11:34 AM	#14 (permalink)
Nakilos Registered User Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 1,591 +0 Internets	Hate to say it but Mkopec is right. Hardcore gamers don't mean as much as the bottom line. Sure, hardcore gamers can be an asset to a game. When certain people get somewhere first and experience the bugs/issues, its better that its only a problem for a handful of people than half the player base because 1) gives them more time to fix it 2) the hardcores aren't going to quit anyway. Players do help shape how finished the games are, or can, just depends how much the company wants to pay attention to player concerns. In any game leveling isn't something thats ever "hard". Its killing piles of monsters until your level is 1 level more, and doing it over and over til you reach the maximum. It is a means to an end. Its fast in every game. Basically if you can get 1 level in under 12 hours total time spent exping, that is fast considering how much there should be to do in a MMORPG. I cannot figure out why people want it to be lower. The fact is most casual gamers are simply have nots who scream the loudest. They want the most toys, but don't want to invest the time or effort. Casual gamers also out number hardcore gamers 100:1. It wouldn't be profitable to make a game just for hardcore players. Besides the fact that there really isn't that many people who spend large quantities of their lives playing a game almost exclusively, hardcore players do get bored faster simply because content is consumed faster. A "power gamer" is less likely to keep their accounts active to login once a week to chat, more likely to quit outright, where as a casual gamer might log in 2-3 times a month for a few hours and still be paying for the account. I saw this a lot when I played EQ. Older members of my guild who had quit a long time ago still had their accounts active, would log in to say hi once in a blue moon, all the while still paying for the account until usually 2 years later it occured to them every month they are being billed and cancelled. Personally when I quit, I canceled the account and assume the character is long gone now (or not, that 3 month character deletion thing is pretty hit or miss). Can rant about the fact you are insignificant to these companies, but it doesn't change the fact you are insignificant.