Playing mmo’s since the beginning of time I have witnessed how the western market has tried to revolutionize this AAA genre. The truth? Here in the western market very few games become a long term investment.
So the solution? Let us try and bring these Eastern games into the western market. People seem to want it.
Yet, almost everytime this happens, we get these two bit companies that either host the game or just don’t give two shits about what happens to their fanbase.
Let us take a moment and use the best example, Nexon. Nexon truly delivered high quality AAA eastern games into the western market, yet their game design and micro transaction choices basically ended every single one of their games in terms of player base. They solely thrive on the small player base that has been corrupted and addicted to online gambling with monthly payments of $30 - 500+ to pay NX.
Fast forward, we get all these other titles, Tera (flop), Archeage (again ruined by micro transaction choices), and numerous other smaller eastern games. None of these titles have sailed the sea to success, they all basically hanged on pay check to pay check. The truth, the only eastern game that has seen success here in the western market in recent times is… Final Fantasy 14. And guess what folks? Its pay to play… kind of ironic wouldn’t you say?
Now, back to IMC, are they serious?
Launch week FAILURE, the last time any launch week was this bad was back in October 1 2003: Lineage 2. Sure games have done some rocky launch days, but in 2016, where we have advance servers, operating systems, hardware, networking, etc etc… IMC somehow made such a ■■■■ show of a launch week that we can only compare them to a game launched back in 2003?!
Microtransactions for BASIC features.
They say “we want to stop gold farmers”, yet day 2 and their game is FILLED with them. Now we are stuck with gold sellers and terrible micro transactions features.
Want to trade? Nope, your limited
Want to sell stuff on the market? Nope your limited and we take your profits
Want to train skills? Nope you gotta wait, we don’t want you leveling up too fast
Want to party in dungeons? Nope we limit that too
At this rate, IMC will limit how many times your allowed to take piss breaks by forcing you to buy a chair seat belt that is required to login and play.
Truth be told, ToS will not die. It is too great of a game that children and adults addicting to online gambling will keep it running. But, just like every Nexon game, this game will be a ghost town run by a small player base.
The saddest part, us common folk (who just want a great game) will come back maybe twice a year to check out the “new features”, only to quit a few days/weeks later because we realize nothing has changed in terms of design decisions and micro-transactions.
IMC this doesn’t need to be your future, you don’t need to be the company that thrives on pay check to pay check. You can be a WoW, you can be a City of Heroes, you can be a FF11/FF14. You were given an ENORMOUS mountain. Only you can decide to rise to the top or stay straying at the bottom. Whatever your decisions are, just know, no one has ever became successful playing it safe. Take risks and have courage.
