It has come to my intention from the resent years that there seem to be a lot of MMOs flying about lately be it that they are Free to Play, Pay to Play or Micro-transactions etc.
When I started playing my first MMO there was roughly only one main game in the South East Asian Market, this was of course 'Ragnarok'. Game Centers (places where you go to play games via Lan/Internet on PC) were already popular with the boom which was the FPS game Counter-strike but with the ability to put MMOs into these Game Centers the amount of people getting into MMOs were massive. The rest is pretty much history with Game Centers now dedicated to accommodate for all the public MMO needs (and of course DotA).
Just to put it in perspective around 2000 there were probably 6 titles in circulation in my country and at 2005 must have been at round 10. Now in the year 2010 when I first went back to visit a Game Center for the first time in 5 years you can now count over 25 different MMOs on a single computer at any time. Four different MMOFPS, three sports MMOs (golf, racing, basketball), musical rhythm MMOs which range from Dancing/DJ, two MMORTS and thirteen MMORPGS. (This was counted at a local Game Center)
The Market just seems way too competitive for companies to even try to get more and more MMOs into circulation. People are already playing different MMOs, and trust me as an avid MMO player changing games is not that easy when you've been playing it for a period of over a year or so. They may be different genres of MMOs but to play one does required a lot of time and you could try to spread yourself over a few if you wanted but not MMORPGs.
So here comes G*star which boast massive MMORPG titles in Korea, 5 that I can think off the top of my head that all seem expensive with flashy graphics and innovations or just adding II to the end. 5 new massive titles competing for what it seems to be in a market that is already over its head in choice. I know choice is good for a market to grow, but MMOs work on a strong base of players and preferable a steady increase of players to keep them afloat with updates etc. Doesn't this just spread the player base too thin?
How do all these MMOs manage to obtain enough people to keep the business afloat? or even pay for the initial development cost? Or am I really underestimating the appeal of MMOs?
When I started playing my first MMO there was roughly only one main game in the South East Asian Market, this was of course 'Ragnarok'. Game Centers (places where you go to play games via Lan/Internet on PC) were already popular with the boom which was the FPS game Counter-strike but with the ability to put MMOs into these Game Centers the amount of people getting into MMOs were massive. The rest is pretty much history with Game Centers now dedicated to accommodate for all the public MMO needs (and of course DotA).
Just to put it in perspective around 2000 there were probably 6 titles in circulation in my country and at 2005 must have been at round 10. Now in the year 2010 when I first went back to visit a Game Center for the first time in 5 years you can now count over 25 different MMOs on a single computer at any time. Four different MMOFPS, three sports MMOs (golf, racing, basketball), musical rhythm MMOs which range from Dancing/DJ, two MMORTS and thirteen MMORPGS. (This was counted at a local Game Center)
The Market just seems way too competitive for companies to even try to get more and more MMOs into circulation. People are already playing different MMOs, and trust me as an avid MMO player changing games is not that easy when you've been playing it for a period of over a year or so. They may be different genres of MMOs but to play one does required a lot of time and you could try to spread yourself over a few if you wanted but not MMORPGs.
So here comes G*star which boast massive MMORPG titles in Korea, 5 that I can think off the top of my head that all seem expensive with flashy graphics and innovations or just adding II to the end. 5 new massive titles competing for what it seems to be in a market that is already over its head in choice. I know choice is good for a market to grow, but MMOs work on a strong base of players and preferable a steady increase of players to keep them afloat with updates etc. Doesn't this just spread the player base too thin?
How do all these MMOs manage to obtain enough people to keep the business afloat? or even pay for the initial development cost? Or am I really underestimating the appeal of MMOs?
