Hi LAGWAR Fans, and welcome to our new Friday column, Some Assembly Required. Each week, we’ll be looking at the little parts that make up the larger MMO-o-sphere (MOOsphere?) and breaking them down, bit by bit. In light of the recent Turbine buyout, I thought we’d kick things off with a look behind the veil of the business of MMOs.
I titled the article “When Corporations Go Evil” but, let’s be honest here, by most standards they’re all evil. They don’t operate on the basis of altruism. Actually, the question most MMO companies really try to answer is how can we work less and earn more? It’s a for-profit world, baby, and that means no one’s out to do us any favors. Except for me and you. Nothin’ but love for ya; nothin’ but love.
That being said though, some companies are a little less evil than others. Take, for example, the Turbine story. If you happened to miss it, the company behind LotRO and DDO, formally the largest indie developer in the Western World, caved and succumbed to the sultry temptress that is Warner Brothers Entertainment. And so ends another era of free, done when it’s done, we answer to ourselves, development. Bring in the share holders and Board of Directees.
As you can imagine, people were a little freaked out. A lot of them didn’t know quite how to react. Fear? Optimism? Nerd rage? The concern the community has shown is indicative of one thing, if nothing else: faceless corporations scare people.
Allod's Online Cash Shop: taken before they started offering $1,000+ runes. Click to enlarge.
- Not really, but kinda, Evil: These are your small indie developers, like Icarus studios. They don’t have any hope of getting the income of the big boys, like World of Warcraft, so they tend to value their player base more. These are the guys that can trick you into forgetting that they want your wallet. The veil is lowered.
- Aspires to Greater Evil: These are your SOEs and CCPs. They have a decent player base, enough where they can lose a few and not care, but not enough to be careless. They’ll communicate, but in highly controlled bursts usually through PR reps, and “we’ll never come back again if you ask a hard question” interview filters.
- Flatout, balls to the wall, Evil: These are your mega corporations and smaller, “We Don’t Care Because We’re Not From America’s”. There’s no guise of caring here. Go ahead, leave Azeroth, because ten newbs will take your place and they know it. While you’re at it, why don’t you buy a couple thousand dollar runes from the cash shop, as a parting gift? These are your Acti-Blizzards and Allod’s Online free-to-plays. These are the guys who nerf your class and make you pay for a respec – even if the game is a knee deep super-hero brawler that’s not City of Heroes.
I kid. But seriously, there are varying degrees of evil, and it pays to know what they are.
Yeah right, this thing took a week to make. Did I mention I was Doris Day on the weekends?
How many times have you hopped onto the official forums of a game and seen an “I quit” post, followed by an official response? Probably never. I haven’t, unless it’s a response to that racial epithet when the player denies the inevitable “can I have ur stuff?” follow up.
How about a response to an issue with class balance, without a couple hundred follow-ups in agreement?
What I’m getting at here, is that all MMOs are driven by profit, for better or worse. Some games handle hiding that better than others and reap the rewards of a happy community. Others, well, others sell you $25 mounts.
At the end of the day though, it’s all a matter of how comfortable we are with change. We become invested in our games, so it’s no surprise that when we see something that might be a threat come over the horizon, we get a little nervous.
As a long time LotRO player, I’ll admit, the buyout makes me a little nervous. But, things will play out however they will and Turbine will come out more or less corrupt because of it.
It’s important for us all to recognize that, no matter what happens there are a lot of other games out there. They may not be our first, or our last, but there are options. And when skepticism and negativity start to overtake the fun of playing, we have to ask why we’re even logging in.
I’m happy to call myself an MMO nomad. I play games by the month. If things go well then I’ll be back. If something else catches my eye, no fuss, no muss; I cut and run, sure to return later down the line.
And the truth is, it’s amazing how freeing it is when you don’t marry yourself to one brand of evil for too long.
Seize the day, friends.
