WoW, EvE, Runescape and Dofus what are they doing right that everyone else does wrong

[spronk]

who the fuck calls their game dofus?

[Mist]

Doofuses?

[Kazgrim]

Heh...who would have guessed that the MMO subscriber bases would look like this?

#1 World of Warcraft
#2 Runescape
#3 Lineage I
#4 Lineage II
#5 FFXI
#6 Eve Online

[Nako Mistako]

The biggest thing would be having a team of people that actually care continually working on the game and providing for its future. Asians notwithstanding. That, and actually having something to do.

[Kobalt]

Err, you sure eve online is ahead of eq1 and 2? and lord of the rings online?

[mutantmagnet]

Originally Posted by Ellsworth

OP post not insightful at all.

Also, the thread title makes it sound like there is some common element between those games that is being done right.

Its a shame that this post made it out of the planning phase.

The only common element I drew was that they've consistently grown while others faltered or flatlined. If I played all four games indepthly maybe I could've written up a thesis half the respondants are asking for, but I didn't want to write a wall of text on something I didn't have a full perspective on.

Mostly I was curious on what other people like yourself impressions might be on a growth sustaining game.

[Itzena]

Originally Posted by Kobalt

Err, you sure eve online is ahead of eq1 and 2? and lord of the rings online?

Yes.
EVE does well because it hits a lot of niches at the same time - Elite-type mmog, sandbox universe, non-level based design, "Game of Thrones" strategy, full PvP with a (mostly) working PvP switch, deep tradeskill system, and so on.

However, it's not really competing with the various dikus - it's closest rivals are UO, SB and so on. Honestly, there needs to be multiple versions of the various charts - Diku-types in one, sandbox/PvP in another, MUSH-types in a third, free-to-plays separated from the pay-to-plays, and so on.

[Northerner]

EVE (as much as I actually like the game) is based so damned much on retention though. Even with selling, no other game since EQ has come close to having such a strict 'time-in = value" for players.

Honestly, rich is nice but fully set for skills is far, far more valued. Plus, of course, being able to play the game while only needing to log in every week or two is an oddity but an addictive one. There are lots and lots of MMO players that don't honestly give a shit about a minimal monthly fee anyhow.

[Olio]

I think these are winning because they all run on crappy computers. MMORPGs are social games that you play with your friends. If your friends can't play because they have crappy computers then there isn't as compelling a reason to play over some new shiny single player game. And it's not like Crysis or whatever where you can just shell out 2k if you really want to play. If you want to play Conan or whatever with your friends you'd have to start paying 2k each to get them all there. At least that's my experience.

[Kazgrim]

Whoops I didn't include Dofus. But fuck that noise. also fuck runescape it doesn't count either. When you exclude asia from MMO subscriber counts and look at only your traditional style MMOs (ie no second life, etc) you're left with this:

#1 World of Warcraft
#2 Eve Online
#3 FFXI
#4 EQ2
#5 EQ1
#6 LOTR
#7 CoH/V
#8 SWG
#9 Tabula Rasa
#10 Ultima Online
#11 DAOC
#12 DDO
#13 Vanguard
#14 Asherons Call

[Dildo Faggins]

HI guys, i make gay posts.

A certain affinity to gay has pulled me towards this thread.