I know most MMO’s have a universal problem, and that problem is “how much can and should we allow a trial account to do?” Unfortunately the answer is never as cut and dried as it seems.
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Lag vs. Frame Rate
Ok, pet peeve time. I promise I won’t do this too often. This will be short and sweet.
It drives me nuts when people use the word “lag” to describe poor frame rate.
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RPGs and MMOs
One of the things I mentioned that we look for when hiring a designer at Paragon Studios is someone who has run paper and pencil RPGs in their past. We look at this as a valuable skill set to have, because designing an MMO takes several cues from designing encounters for an RPG.
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Investment
Back in the day, we played a lot of games for long stretches of time. For most people this was a game like Civilization III (or 2, or 4), or Master of Orion (I or II). Games that begged you to take “just one more turn” because every turn got you closer to victory, or a new discovery, or seeing if you brilliant tactic was going to pay off. One thing I remember was that if I ever “saved a game” of Civ or MOO there was a greater than 90% chance I would never return to it. The magic of the moment was lost.
This was an era before MMO’s. Sure there might have been one or two out there, but for most people, they were not playing them, but they did play some “long stretch” games to fill their time. The question I posit is: can such a game be as successful today?
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