It’s a question that has been on my mind for a while. How long should an MMO last? How long should the game hold your attention? Should a MMORPG be developed to last an infinite amount of time or should time and resources be focused into creating the best possible experience for the player in a set time frame? Right now it’s obvious that MMOs are designed and continually developed around the concept that obtaining and maintaining subscriptions is the ultimate goal. Giving the player only enough to stay the hunger for more content while they work on developing more ‘to do’ seems to be the basis for an on-going-ever-evolving world.
For me it seems that even with the greatest MMOs I start getting bored after around 2 years. I’ve decided there is no real answer to this question. We’ll never see a time frame stamped on the box “This game lasts 2 years before becoming boring”. Something worth thinking about nonetheless.
And that is my random thought for the day. Thoughts?
January 4th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Interesting…
It would be a fun experiment to see an MMORPG take after the television “season” model. It’s sustainable for TV, why not gaming?
Most people know their favorite show won’t last forever, but they stay tuned and remain on the edge of their seat for a season finale cliffhanger.
I’m a big fan of Lost and I found it pretty cool that they put a finite stamp on their show for season 6. You know there’s an ending now and everything building up to it is given that much more substance. Some of it will be filler, but most of it will move the story along to it’s ultimate climax.
I think that’s cool!
January 4th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
I should also add that there’s nothing I hate more than a TV show that is on a good roll but doesn’t get renewed for another season and they scramble within the last few episodes to bring finality to the series.
It feels cheap and unfulfilling and it’s never they way they wanted to go out.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Excellent question! I think the answer really depends on expansions. If an expansion were to come out that fundamentally changed the way the game is played it could certainly breath new life into an aging title.
I doubt the WoW’s of the world would ever do this, but what about MMOs that aren’t doing as well like Final Fantasy XI, D&D:O, or even Hellgate: London?
To avoid alienating fans they could open “legacy” servers for the old flavor of the game, and allow people to migrate between them for a brief period.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
I think after a point what should/does hold you into an MMO goes beyond existing, past and current content into the realm of people.
AFAIK most MMO’s are built with an expected lifetime of around 7 years total of “success” before they get shut down or become a shadow of what they were.
A good example is how I’ve played Lineage 2 for about 4 years now, I have many many gripes with the game but what always pulls me back and always gives me the memories I cherish is that of the community. Obviously this varies from MMO to MMO, for example I managed to play Ragnarok Online for almost 6 years purely because the game as so community focused, but WoW can’t hold my interest for more than a month or two at a time because on most Realms that aspect is almost none-existant.
For me it’s what makes MMO’s beautiful, you transcend how much fun the actual system of the game gives you, into making good friends and for some people, even loving relationships.
So in answer to your question, they should last as long as your network of friends within the game lasts, although I quit L2 until all of my friends are gone from that game (and it’s going that way) I know I’ll always be dragged back.
January 5th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
@Bill – DAOC opened “classic” servers after people got so fed up with the PvE grind and overpoweredness introduced by several expansions.
You know what?
They were the highest population servers in the entire game!
Unfortunately, they kind of killed the other servers and quickened the need for server clusters/merges.