Pariah

I just pre-ordered City of Heroes. It's a MMRPG (are those the right initials?). I'm psyched about it, although I haven't become addicted to a video game since before my kid was born, and I don't know when I'll find the time to play it...

www.coh.com

Chaplin

MMORPG

I've never actually played an online game before (except for Tiger Woods modem-to-modem). But I may have to soon since I'm so closely involved with the Matrix Online game coming later this year. (Which looks pretty sweet, FYI)

Pariah

I don't know if I want to be plugged into anything called "The Matrix."

CardinalMike

Last screenshots I saw had women with bulges for crotches. I guess everyone in that matrix is a pre-op tranny that or the artists are to lazy to model pants for both female and male avatars.

Oh and the sexy term the cool kids use is MMOG(massively multiplayer online game) since there is no role-playing in these games.

As for City of Heroes after what I saw at E3 last year I don't think running around in pastel colored leotards without any PvP is worth my $15/month.

Cardinal Mike!!

Cardinals.Ken

It's tough for me to pay $15 a month for any game. Most of the guys in my gaming-clan keep trying to get me in to playing Star Wars Galaxies, but I can't see spending $44 for a game that will cost me another $15 a month to continue to play.

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CardinalMike

Not only that but it requires around 4 hour solid chunks of time to be able to get anywhere in these games.

I think I am pretty much done with the entire genre at least as a paying customer. I still do the beta tests as they are free and it's fun to poke fun of the fanboys on the beta forums.

Cardinal Mike!!

Chaplin

Dude, the game doesn't even come out until the fall.

CardinalMike

And that is the problem. Right now they are probably starting to get under way in beta testing. I've been around these games enough to know that what you see now is 90% of what you are going to get at release.

Cardinal Mike!!

Chaplin

Whatever.

Perhaps you didn't know that I actually work with the people that are making the game. I am actually directly involved with it.

CardinalMike

That must be very nice for you. I'll see it again this E3 and perhaps I will take the time to schedule a private demo.

Cardinal Mike!!

Ryanwb

If the Matrix game was anything like the game that was released by the Brothers last year, I will pass....that game sucked.

The MMOG games aren't even that successful as games that offer both single and muliplayer with TCP/IP server support. The game developers are forcing these things down to us and we aren't buying.

Star Wars Galaxies still doesn't have half the number of players they expected the first 6 months of release. People can't afford the 15 bucks a month.....sorry, not a field I would want to be in right now

CardinalMike

Well there are 3 big MMOGs right now with a few smaller profitable ones. The biggest being Everquest which has around 500,000 active subscribers and they have had this number for years.

Which means they have been grossing just under 90million a year in just subscriptions alone. They also have released 6 expansions that sold anywhere from 20 to 40 dollars each.

The next biggest game is Dark Ages of Camelot which just recently broke 250,000 subs.

At any rate, the big 3 EQ, DAoC and Ultima Online(which will be replaced by SWG in the near future) are pretty profitable and that is what the draw for publishers to continue to fund MMOG projects.

The only problem is that outside of 3 or 4 games the rest are not very successful and some are just downright flops(Horizons, Anarchy Online, Asheron's Call 2 just to name a few). Sadly this is going to be the case for any game that doesn't do something completely revolutionary. I think the best bet for the newer MMOGs in development is to go small and focus on a specific niche of the MMOG community(A Tale in the Desert, did this and they are successful on a very small scale).

Anyways I'll wrap it up as I could go on for pages about MMOG's.

Cardinal Mike!!

Pariah

Let me preface this by saying I've never played a MMOG game before.

But, form everything I've read, the COH game should have a huge launch. I don't know if it'll reach the number of players that Everquest has, but it's roping people like me in--who don't really have the time to do it, and have never played anything like it before.

I'll let you know when I get into it how it is. I think it's supposed to ship at the end of April.