Spectator Sport: Warhammer Online

Due to the nature of watching the rankings on MMO's, I have what I like to call "speed dial" for the various forums and blogs of the MMO's I track. It is interesting to see the views of different players as I rank their games on the tracking services. Whether they be a standard supporter, forum troll, or fanboi blog, the discussion is ripe for commentary.

Today I will be starting a small series called "Spectator Sports" and present a rundown on what is happening in the forum/bloggo land of various MMO's.

My first victim is: Warhammer Online.

Personally, I think this is the most needed game discussion we should start with.

Something happened in 2010 for WAR and the Mythic/Bioware based team. It was simple at first. Talk of hacked accounts, which happens in most MMO's, started the wheels turning. Then a massive billing issue which lead to a large fiasco for almost 3 months. Players were hurt by large charges applied to their credit cards...even players who were not subbed were struck by large charges and overdraft issues.

Time went on and then news struck of people being let go, including Josh Drescher (who seemed thorougly surprised by this, stating on Twitter "Not EXACTLY how I expected the day to start: As of 11:00 AM today, I am no longer an employee of EA Mythic."
This continued as news that Games Workshop was suing a fan site, Warhammer Alliance for misuse of their logos and product...(which is fine, as the site was using the IP to make money, but does not look good to a standard player).

Then came EALouse. Truth? Fiction? Hard to say. What we do know is in the consumers eye, it creates a disturbance. I will let you read the blog, on the off chance you actually missed this and make up your own mind.

Around two months ago, Mythic released patch 1.4. A much discussed, but controversial patch for WAR. Due to the fact that at the same time as this patch hit, RvR packs were introduced. RvR packs were "Micro-transaction" items like extra levels and more.
Riots ensued. Talk of "buying level ups" and using an items style store while still charging full price caused a clamor in the community. Based on the various tracking services, player retention fell. Discussion of empty servers was bandied about on the forums.

The domino effect was felt throughout the community. The standard monthly producers letter disappeared. The chatter and excitement felt by the Game Director, Carrie Gouskos, and Community Manager Andy Belford disappeared from their Twitter, to the point that WAR is not even mentioned anymore by them.
Fan blogs, a huge staple for the Mythic community, started to close up shop. The rhetoric by various blog posters seem to ask;  "Where is Mythic?" 

This leads us to today. How is WAR holding up?

If we look at the forums, we see many a disgruntled player and troll. When your largest thread is about another game (Rift vs Warhammer) or posts ask "What is Mythic doing" or Why doesn't your Game Director ever post on the forum (Why Doesn't Carrie ever post here), something must be amiss.

Don't even think to head to an offsite forum (like MMORPG.com)...scary.

Lets see how bloggers are talking...

VAN HEMLOCK writes "All in all, I get a feel that the Warhammer Online forums are a somewhat darker place than the other forums I’ve visited so far, and complaints of being ignored and poor communication seem commonplace."

Bootae notes "You just have to look at all the WAR bloggers that are just treading water (if they’re posting about WAR at all) because there is quite simply nothing to write about other than concerns or total flights of fancy. Those flights of fancy these days are just asking to be laughed at and it gets boring writing negative stuff; we want to have exciting things to ponder on, clues and gossip to debate. Unfortunately at the moment it’s a bit flat and the only people that can change that are Mythic."

backseatdev says "The game no longer appears to be growing in content and hasn’t really in a long time. Very small updates released many months apart are mainly just fixes and everything seems to point towards nothing even remotely subtantial in the works.... don’t know what Mythic’s answer will be, but as a player, I feel like I need to help manage their expectations that people will keep paying subscription fees for a game that isn’t living up to a subscription fee model. Hands up, how many people feel like they got a full $45 boxed games worth of features every 3 months from Warhammer Online? It is time for a change."

So, as we "Spectate" here, how is Mythic managing their expectations of their audience? Where is WAR headed?

Comment away!!!

Age of Conan - Defensive, On Message or Right?

Craig Morrison has dropped into a forum post based on a recent blog post he did a little over a week ago...(Source).

Craig called the blog post "Community Communication...Between a rock and a hard place".

In it he discusses how difficult it can be to communicate with the "forum" crowd when stating his message.

He points out how someone "argued" with him over PM about Age of Conan.

The conversation went

"'[PM'er]You can't possibly tell me what I like or dislike most' and I [Craig] replied explaining that I wasn't trying to do that at all, that I was just pointing out that there were different playstyles out there and that we, as an MMO developer, had to try and balance the needs of many different playstyles. (much in the way I have discussed it here before) to which he then replied - 'That's exactly the same thing no matter how you word it. You are still telling me I am wrong in my opinion."

This is understandable on Craig's part. The person was still seeing it his way. But, then the blog post does go on to state that he maybe felt this person was wrong in his approach...so basically, wrong?

A fine line there.

Anyways, someone posted his conversation (blog post) on the AoC forums. And well...it seems Craig gets a bit defensive. (Source) At least from my viewpoint.

I am trying my best to understand if Craig is trying to just make sure he stays on his message, is being defensive or is he right? Or should the old adage apply..."The customer is always right".

The post takes a turn into some "opinion" territory, with players stopping in to point out their concerns, with Craig stating the reasons they have done what they did in the game...yet, so many seem to think it is NOT the right "direction".

What basically started as a "state your point in a concise manner" looks to me to turn into a "now dear forum poster, here is why your point is NOT right"

For example...

POSTER: I really think you should make some new armor/weapons, so everyone isn't pigeon holed into a single set of options in order to be viable in pvp.

CRAIG: ON an aside first, I think 'viable' is subjective to your personal approach to gaming. If you are a true min/maxer there will only ever be one 'viable' choice....aside from that though we are working on adding more items and armor into the game, and the expansion will see a huge addition there.

So Craig DOES answer his post, but seems to take an attitude that this specific posters opinion of viable is...not viable?

That poster returns and states...

POSTER: Great! Love the idea of an expansion other than that I shouldn't have to pay for content that should have already been here. Hate to hear that I'm stuck with mostly the same gear as what I've been wearing for the last 18 months for at least another 6-10. That seems like an awful lot to ask of your subscribers.

I also don't agree with your assessment about being "viable". I'm approaching 'viable' from the standpoint of 'I want to kill people, rather than be killed by people'. There is no reason to level up in pvp or use pvp gear in this game other than if you don't have the raid equivalent. DPS > mitigation in this game, so if you're using Pvp gear over raid gear, you're fooling yourself.

The way your gear progression should be going based on how hard it is to acquire in this game is :

(He goes on to explain what he sees as viable)

This gets no response from Craig. But he does have this to say when someone points out that he looks like he is defending and not saying --Well, we may be wrong, or we need to look into that--......

POSTER: I think the real issue is that Craig is "defending" his stance, and these points will go on deaf ears. But, that was a really good (but tough) read. Everyone at the Funcom offices should also read it thoroughly, and not reply or defend anything.

CRAIG: They don't fall on deaf ears, all the feedback is read and assimilated and while we won't always agree hearing other opinions is always valid, and being able to discuss them without feeling like it is 'defending' is an important part of taking part in an actual discussion. Think of it more as explaining rather than defending.

I guess I do not understand that if opinions are "valid", why must you always explain away the opinion to make it feel like the person is "wrong".

Or is it wrong to believe the dev is trying to do this, and just needs to give you the "reason" they did something?

This is a really tough situation right now for Craig, with updates being few and far between for Age of Conan, layoffs, subs seeming to disappear (based on visual acuity as well as sources like Xfire).

Should Craig even be in this discussion?

Ok...off for now...Cheers.

MMORPG.com gets ban happy.

Seems some new mods have been trolling the MMORPG.com forums, and I got banned for really no reason that I can see.

But, maybe I am not objective enough, so see if you can understand this reasoning.

I have already asked them to review the answer again, and really find a better reason than given to ban me.

I was noted as flaming..

Their rules are...

MMORPG.com does not tolerate personal attacks on other posters. Please keep your arguments and posts on topic, and argue the ideas and topics of the thread instead of insulting other users.

Here was the result of the actual post.

Thread: Why the need to defend AoC so passionately?
Below is the content of the post:

------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by GiveMePvP
I have never understood this kind of behavior. Right now I don't play any MMO's but when I did play I didn't spend all my free time lurking these forums. I PLAYED the game. Also if I saw someone badmouth my game, I didn't feel the need to write 10 pages of text explaining how that person knows nothing and how the game is awesome. During my most active time of playing, you know how many posts I wrote? None.

Why the need to defend AoC so passionately?

[Mod Edit]

Openedge1

Why the need to hate on AoC so passionately?

I guess we could ask...why does one person like McDonalds, yet another likes Burger King..You like Coke? I like Pepsi? I like the Lakers you like the Bulls....

See how this goes?

You hated the game, and do not want to play. Others do. I for example prefer Age of Conan over the multitude of other crap currently out.

This then brings out the fervent need for others to be the defenders, the ones who state their opinion about what you have gotten wrong..

Thus, we always return to it is "opinion".

You have the right to give yours, but don't expect those who ARE happy with a product to take it laying down. They are allowed to give theirs as well.

Good luck in your future endeavors. But, do not expect sympathy from players of a game they like, that you do not.

Later

[Mod Edit]

(Note the multiple mod edits)

So, not only were the posts heavily modified (I am not even sure what was changed in mine to begin with, but there was not any attack AT the user), and the thread really was a troll thread to begin with. So, if they allow this type of post, then why ban someone who was stating their point in the thread.

But, hey, I leave it up to you. If you can see where the personal attack / flame is at, please let me know.

MMORPG.com really has a lower common denominator in their forums, with a few exceptions, but compared to an actual games forums, it is pretty rank and even vile at points.

Anyways, I really hate a ban for no reason. If I WAS banned for a reason (during my LOTRO playing days...hehe) I would not argue...but, this one is really not a bannable offense.

Did the mods go to far? Or are the mods showing favoritism even? (Maybe they are an AoC hater?)..

Thoughts?