Delaying Content Releases

Hot off of the presses today, it was announced by NCSoft that City of Heroes’/Villains’ much-awaited Mission Architect functionality has been postponed from Issue 13 to Issue 14 (via Massively.)  Now, this obviously isn’t the first time that major content has been shifted back to a later release by a gaming company because it simply wasn’t ready.  Hell, Blizzard has gotten so bad about this that it was practically a given for months before the official announcement that the IceCrown Citadel end-game raiding zone wouldn’t be ready for the Wrath of the Lich King release.

All of this said, while I would argue that individual content delay isn’t as bad as, say, wholesale release date postponement, it’s really only a matter of degrees.  In the case of Issue 13, Mission Architect was Issue 13… so I think you’re going to have a hard time selling eager fans with day jobs and merit rewards.  That said, I would have a hard time arguing that NCSoft isn’t trying to pile together enough content and rebalance that Issue 13 has merit… but that’s a lot like saying, “I’m going to give you a car.” and arguing the difference between a Ford Escort and and Porsche Boxster.  Sure, they’re both cars, but it really is a matter of degrees and for the experienced gamer, the Escort just isn’t going to hype the same way as a Boxster.  Of course, the dutiful fanboi will remind you that a car is a car and that any subscriber should just be grateful for his Escort.

On the other hand, I caution against responding too viscerally to NCSoft over this, for fear over having them go to the other extreme.  After all, this is the sort of mature business decision that any gamer should be glad that his patron MMO company is willing to make in the name of preserving game quality.  One need only gaze over to Funcom to see what happens when quality is given the blind eye in the name of making an easy dollar.  At the reverse end of the spectrum, the Blizzard-esque approach leaves something equal to be desired by the gamer who actually wants to know what the hell is going on.  Recent interviews with NCSoft’s David Reid and EA-Mythic’s Mark Jacobs have revealed that game producers at these “Tenured Contender” development studios are more than willing to lay a lot of cards on the table and really communicate with their fans and the community at large.  This is something that the community ought to continue to encourage.

In totality, all of this goes to managing player expectations.  The obvious best plan is to start small and build up to a crescendo at such a rate that hype doesn’t outpace development schedule and that any setback can be paired with a bigger and better announcement.  Unfortunately, development studios are run by humans and thus suffer the shortcomings that are attendant thereto.  That said, I would admonish players to maintain realistic expectations and to continue to demand rational explanations from development studios when deadlines slip.  When Mark Jacobs says that World of Warcraft’s new release contributes a delay so that Mythic can polish their product, that’s a good thing.  When Funcom pushes Age of Conan to market early to handle the expectations of their investors… not so much.

Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

At various points in the life of any product or organization, there are times when, put simply, nothing is happening.  Television shows go through this during the Christmas holidays when they go on a monthlong sabbatical (longer if you’re a House fan… I hate you Seacrest… you and your lousy ratings-grabbing, garbage television show.)  Hell, life itself seems to slow down sometime around the beginning of January and really doesn’t seem to recover until mid-March… or later, if you’re a student with a late Spring break.

MMOs are no exception: that months-long period of time leading up to the release of a paid expansion is hell.  Think about it: all of the marketing and production people have been diverted to getting ready for the expansion to come out, excess programmers have been press-ganged into bug-fixing and implementing last-minute features, and all of the CMs (in addition to a good number of the more active players) are spending time testing and chatting up the beta test of the upcoming expansion.  The last content patch went in months ago because, let’s face it, nobody wants a content patch right before an expansion that invalidates it.  Did anyone actually raid Naxxramas?

And thus, those of us who don’t groove on beta testing, don’t have a job getting ready for the expansion, and who thrive on fresh content and new things to do are forced to retread the “same old thing” for months on end, go level an alt, or go play something else.  This is exactly the time of year where I start hitting my friends up for 10 day trial accounts, buddy passes and the like.

But it’s never the same… especially if you’re planning on going back once the expansion comes out.  And is it really fair to the game that you’re trying… knowing that it wants your commitment, but all you’re up for is a one-night stand?  I’m not one to judge you… but for me, I think it’s time to catch up on my Wii Sports and Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People.

Paid Content

As an avid Dungeons & Dragons nerd, I’ve been following the emergence of D&D Insider with rapt attention.  Sadly, I think this analysis that I stumbled across a couple of weeks back on Trembling Hand goes a long way to sum up my stance on Wizards of the Coast and their ability to develop their way out of a wet paper sack.  And the worst part?  For all of their broken piecemeal content, unreliable release schedule and questionable value, Wizards somehow feels that the time has come for them to monetize what content they do have in the form of a monthly subscription.  And when all of the tools in DDi are released, they’re proposing jacking the prices up to MMO-land.  Let’s not forget that additional online content will be extra, above and beyond the proposed $10-$15 per month.

Lest I rip Wizards of the Coast all by their lonesome, let’s have a look at some of the other more aggregious examples of members of the industry running what amounts to well-marketed digital Ponzi Schemes.  As is mentioned in MMO Crunch’s interview with the infamous Erling Ellingson, Funcom has already announced a paid expansion to Age of Conan.  To be perfectly frank, after wasting some of my own time on a friend’s “free” month, I think my subscription money may be better spent on DDi.  At least Wizards is committed to publishing quality e-zine content for that $10-$15/month.  Funcom?  I’m really not sure what the hell they’re selling, but it sure as hell isn’t value.

While we’re at it, I guess the real question is, “What is an MMO worth anyways?” and probably secondarily, “What sort of value should I be able to expect for my $50 on a new title and my $13/month (or whatever)?”

Let’s go ahead and use World of Warcraft as an example, because I’m familiar with it, and perhaps more validly, because it is currently the industry standard.  For $30-$40, you get the original game plus the first expansion bundled in and your standard free month (maybe two, I don’t know).  Obviously, this is immediately before the second expansion is due out, so prices on the other content have been higher, but right now, this is what’s out there.  Anyways, with that, you get 10 classes, 2 factions with 5 races each, 2 old-world continents with 15-20 zones each and 1 expansion continent with 10 zones and approximately 50 quests per old-world zone and 100 per new world zone.  In addition you have roughly 20 old-world dungeons, 5 old-world raid dungeons, 15 expansion dungeons (depending on how you count them) and 8 expansion raid dungeons.  Now these are all just numbers and the experience of any given game has to be seen to be believed, but you can see where this sort of standard means that relatively few games can compete in the marketplace and make their subscription cost feel “value added.”

About the Author

My pedigree as a player of MMORPGs is a matter of definition.  I played a smattering of cut-rate MUDs on various BBSes as early as 1992 or 1993.  Since then, I have played as a paying customer (in chronological order), Ultima Online, EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, and World of Warcraft.  While I have played as a test account a larger smattering of games (EVE Online, Anarchy Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online, EverQuest 2, Lineage, City of Heroes/Villians, Asheron’s Call), I wouldn’t really call myself well-versed enough in any of them to be able to speak credibly on anything other than the new player experience.

Currently, I only play World of Warcraft, raiding casually and 5-manning with (gasp) my mage.

Vocationally, I am a programmer at an undisclosed Fortune 500 Company, whose job is software development for products which have little to no bearing on the gaming industry.  In short, I know a lot about programming, I know a lot about MMORPGs, but I know next to nothing about programming MMORPGs.

My education is largely liberal-arts based, but my vocation is technical… this leaves me a lot of time to wax eloquent and fancy myself a critic while working in an industry and celebrating a hobby that tends to discount (or disdain) formal criticism.  Perhaps I’m self-loathing, or maybe just insane… but my goal insofar as this blog is concerned is to attempt to satisfy my own curiousities about the world of MMORPGs as a whole and perhaps shine some light into the hidden corners of the games that I enjoy and enjoy deconstructing.