VirginWorlds MMORPG News Host: Brent VirginWorlds is a weekly news podcast covering Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Eve Online, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online and many many more. The VirginWorlds MMORPG Podcast is the flagship podcast of the VirginWorlds MMO Podcast Collective found at http://www.virginworlds.com
This Podcast Sponsored by: Michael Cuppycake
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VirginWorlds Podcast #14Mon, 12 Jun 2006 03:01:00 GMT [download/play]
Topics Include: 9 Dragons, Carpe Diem, City of Heroes and Villains,
Dark and Light, Dungeons and Dragons Online, EverQuest, EverQuest 2,
the Official SOE podcast, Gods and Heroes, Hero Online, Lineage II,
Seed, Stargate Worlds, Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, Posse
Entertainment, Beckett's Massive Online Gamer Magazine, and the RPG in
MMORPG. VirginWorlds is a weekly news podcast covering Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing
Games such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Guild Wars, City of Heroes,
Eve Online, Vanguard, and many many more.
The main site can be found at http://www.VirginWorlds.com
'Comments' by jdun Submitted on 2006-07-02 21:51:39 CST I have to disagree with you on some points you made. If a player spends an hour or more in order to figure out what they have to do in a quest that play won’t be coming back. People like myself don’t like to be frustrated. We have jobs and our time is limited.
Star Wars is dead. Too much hate from the player base and it has spill over to their other games.
I think Beckett’s magazine will do fine. The Internet hasn’t affected them in other magazines the published. However, there might not be enough MMOG players at this time to make it viable. This is the only reason why I see it failing.
'maybe' by Brent Submitted on 2006-07-03 01:02:51 CST Thanks for the thoughts.
You said "...if a player spends an hour or more in order to figure out what they have to do in a quest that play won’t be coming back. People like myself don’t like to be frustrated..."
I don't believe this. 500,000 EverQuest players can't all be wrong. I have a job. My time is limited. That doesn't mean I want my "quests" spoon fed to me, because that is what many MMOs are doing now.
I hope Beckett's survives, but I also hope they give serious players a reason to buy the magazine. However, if you look at the page count on magazines like PC Gamer 5 years ago and compare it to the rather thin issues they print now, you'll find that 'something' and I it might not be the internet, certainly has had an impact on magazines. In this case, I think it is indeed the internet's speed and market penetration in this market segment. If you have a computer to play online games, it is reasonable to believe that printed magazines become less attractive.
'Reply' by jdun Submitted on 2006-07-03 20:40:20 CST From what MMOGCHART.COM EQII is just above 150 sub. Don’t shoot the messenger but they are generally right. SEO has lost over half of its player base in the last year or so. Mostly to WoW I think.
To me games are not work, if they are work I should get paid for it. Games are supposed to be fun, I do not want to spend a hour or more trying to find out where my quest is located. I do not want to spend one hour or more to read every single letters in the quest dialog. Just tell me where it is so I can have my fun. Like many people if I get frustrated I’ll quit.
There are many ways to role-play without frustrating the player base. If I remember it right WoW have one or more role-play servers where people can act out and role-play in peace. Role-play is player driven content and to me that is fine. Hero Journey will fail if they force the player into a “role-playing” grind where they have to spend hours just to figure out what to do.
'Beckett' by jdun Submitted on 2006-07-03 20:46:17 CST The reason why PC Gamer is thinner now then five years ago is not because of the Internet it is because PC Game in the US has taken a back seat to consol games. Lot of games store has little or no PC Game title on their selves. If they do it is mostly MMOG games or old titles. It’s all about XBOX, PS, and Nintendo.
Anther thing to keep in mind is that Time Magazine, News Week, etc should be out of business but they are not. They are making money in the age of instant news.
'Numbers and Quests' by Brent Submitted on 2006-07-03 22:14:08 CST I should have been more specific. At its peak EQ 1 had around 500,000 subscribers. EQ never attained that number, but regardless, I hardly think that easy quests drove people out of other MMOs and into the hands of WoW.
I guess I don't equate a challenge with frustration. I also believe fun and difficult can co-exist. Take for example, the greatest game ever invented. Chess. It is challenging to learn, near impossible to master, and frustrating as all get out when you're losing time and time again. Does this make it a failure? Hardly. What it does is appeal to basic human nature. Self improvement, problem solving, survival are all key factors in chess, and any good game.
Of course it is important to balance the challenging aspects of a game with the fun aspects of the game, and in my opinion, many games have gone too far in simplifying or removing the challenging aspects of play. To use EQ as an example again: I felt pretty good after obtaining my epic weapon in EQ because it was hard to do. Getting epic gear in WoW isn't hard. If I can show up for a raid at 8PM a fwe times a week, I'll get it without trouble. Likewise, obtaining level 60 in WoW is like riding a raft downstream. You can hardly not get there. Getting max level in EQ is like swimming up a rapids for a few years. Sure it is hard, but when you get there, you feel great and you know you earned it.
Beckett and PC gamer. I'm not in the magazine industry, so I'm hardly an expert, but magazine sizes have decreased across the board in all subject matter. Everything from newsweek to vogue to Pc Gamer to Maxim have slimemd down their magazines significantly. Why do they do this? They do it because advertisers are putting their money elsewhere these days. I think we know where they are putting those dollars.
In short, I think we fundamentally differ in play style, and I repect your position. All I'm saying is that I feel a bit differently on these topics.
'Comments' by jdun
Submitted on 2006-07-02 21:51:39 CST
I have to disagree with you on some points you made. If a player spends an hour or more in order to figure out what they have to do in a quest that play won’t be coming back. People like myself don’t like to be frustrated. We have jobs and our time is limited.
Star Wars is dead. Too much hate from the player base and it has spill over to their other games.
I think Beckett’s magazine will do fine. The Internet hasn’t affected them in other magazines the published. However, there might not be enough MMOG players at this time to make it viable. This is the only reason why I see it failing.
'maybe' by Brent
Submitted on 2006-07-03 01:02:51 CST
Thanks for the thoughts.
You said "...if a player spends an hour or more in order to figure out what they have to do in a quest that play won’t be coming back. People like myself don’t like to be frustrated..."
I don't believe this. 500,000 EverQuest players can't all be wrong. I have a job. My time is limited. That doesn't mean I want my "quests" spoon fed to me, because that is what many MMOs are doing now.
I hope Beckett's survives, but I also hope they give serious players a reason to buy the magazine. However, if you look at the page count on magazines like PC Gamer 5 years ago and compare it to the rather thin issues they print now, you'll find that 'something' and I it might not be the internet, certainly has had an impact on magazines. In this case, I think it is indeed the internet's speed and market penetration in this market segment. If you have a computer to play online games, it is reasonable to believe that printed magazines become less attractive.
'Reply' by jdun
Submitted on 2006-07-03 20:40:20 CST
From what MMOGCHART.COM EQII is just above 150 sub. Don’t shoot the messenger but they are generally right. SEO has lost over half of its player base in the last year or so. Mostly to WoW I think.
To me games are not work, if they are work I should get paid for it. Games are supposed to be fun, I do not want to spend a hour or more trying to find out where my quest is located. I do not want to spend one hour or more to read every single letters in the quest dialog. Just tell me where it is so I can have my fun. Like many people if I get frustrated I’ll quit.
There are many ways to role-play without frustrating the player base. If I remember it right WoW have one or more role-play servers where people can act out and role-play in peace. Role-play is player driven content and to me that is fine. Hero Journey will fail if they force the player into a “role-playing” grind where they have to spend hours just to figure out what to do.
'Beckett' by jdun
Submitted on 2006-07-03 20:46:17 CST
The reason why PC Gamer is thinner now then five years ago is not because of the Internet it is because PC Game in the US has taken a back seat to consol games. Lot of games store has little or no PC Game title on their selves. If they do it is mostly MMOG games or old titles. It’s all about XBOX, PS, and Nintendo.
Anther thing to keep in mind is that Time Magazine, News Week, etc should be out of business but they are not. They are making money in the age of instant news.
'Numbers and Quests' by Brent
Submitted on 2006-07-03 22:14:08 CST
I should have been more specific. At its peak EQ 1 had around 500,000 subscribers. EQ never attained that number, but regardless, I hardly think that easy quests drove people out of other MMOs and into the hands of WoW.
I guess I don't equate a challenge with frustration. I also believe fun and difficult can co-exist. Take for example, the greatest game ever invented. Chess. It is challenging to learn, near impossible to master, and frustrating as all get out when you're losing time and time again. Does this make it a failure? Hardly. What it does is appeal to basic human nature. Self improvement, problem solving, survival are all key factors in chess, and any good game.
Of course it is important to balance the challenging aspects of a game with the fun aspects of the game, and in my opinion, many games have gone too far in simplifying or removing the challenging aspects of play. To use EQ as an example again: I felt pretty good after obtaining my epic weapon in EQ because it was hard to do. Getting epic gear in WoW isn't hard. If I can show up for a raid at 8PM a fwe times a week, I'll get it without trouble. Likewise, obtaining level 60 in WoW is like riding a raft downstream. You can hardly not get there. Getting max level in EQ is like swimming up a rapids for a few years. Sure it is hard, but when you get there, you feel great and you know you earned it.
Beckett and PC gamer. I'm not in the magazine industry, so I'm hardly an expert, but magazine sizes have decreased across the board in all subject matter. Everything from newsweek to vogue to Pc Gamer to Maxim have slimemd down their magazines significantly. Why do they do this? They do it because advertisers are putting their money elsewhere these days. I think we know where they are putting those dollars.
In short, I think we fundamentally differ in play style, and I repect your position. All I'm saying is that I feel a bit differently on these topics.