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[andargor]

Originally Posted by Andur

Dumb down a game enough to where the average idiot can be successful, make death a minor inconvience, and provide an early rigid framework to "guarantee" success for a beginner. Then market the heck out of it early, have good graphics quality, and then let word of mouth do its job.

IMHO it succeeds because it feeds upon the overwhelming fear of failure which exists in the world today. By not offerring failure it makes people more comfortable and thus able to enjoy themselves, which is pretty much the point of a game from a players point of view.

Of course, for those who do not wish to be constrained by dev events, are not risk adverse, and like to be in cool looking ships, there is always EVE ONLINE.

I was going to say something like that, albeit more diplomatically.

If you go to the Eve Online forums, a common insult is "go back to WoW". This is simply because Eve Online is probably as far opposed to WoW as you can get in an MMORPG. Andur said it correctly: the death penalty is harsh, very harsh. It is so open-ended and full of possibilities that you can easily be overwhelmed into inaction. It is so player-driven, that you can get scammed blind and the developers will not interfere. It's that real.

I'm not saying that Eve Online is a "better" game than WoW, but that it requires a totally different playstyle, so players that really love WoW will probably not like Eve Online. And vice-versa. (Although I'm generalizing)

I have to show my colors and say that Eve Online, IMHO, is one of the most successful MMORPGs I've ever seen. If you define "success" as number of subscribers, then you will disagree. But it's the most rabidly fanatic player base I've ever seen. They like the game so much that they complain and moan about things that need to be fixed, but they keep coming back to the game.

It's truly like a love affair. You have good times and bad, you have blissful moments, you have fights, you get bored, your adrenaline pumps so hard you feel your heart is going to jump out of your ribcage, you go through all states and emotions, you take a break and play other games, and yet you always come back.

To me it's no longer just a game, it's a long term project. To me, that's success.

(Andur: I'm Andargor theWise in-game, join the ENWORLD channel)