EVE Search - RIOT! Gamedevelopment follows exclusively the interests of investors

Serene Repose wrote:

Things change. A lot of us are veterans of the early online gaming experience; MMOs were in their early stages. Things weren't like they are today. Servers were cheaper. Labor was cheaper. Hell, even food was cheaper. Running a business has a rule: Adapt or die. As things grew more expensive, and profit margins fell, making a profit at all came into jeopardy. Ultimately, whether you children out there realize it, or not, you have to pay the light bill.

About five years ago, now, a Japanese business math weenie did a report on the profitability of gaming business models. He ably demonstrated with facts, figures, graphs and all that boring stuff to the uneducated among us, that the Free To Play With Micro-Transactions business model turned a profit. It doesn't turn an enormous profit, however it does keep a company from going in the red. Since then most major MMOs have converted to this model. We've watched it happen...most of us.

Other changes were needed, however, for this to work which included: not owning and paying for the operations of your own servers, not paying high-end programming engineers with vast gaming experience (salary considerations) as well as not renting, or trying to own enviable palaces for office space. The games that made this adjustment in one fashion or another have survived. The ones that haven't ... haven't.

CCP has the right, and the fiduciary responsibility to adapt. It also has the responsibility to its creditors and employees to not die. They must suffer the slings and arrows of outraged customers if such is the case, as long as their revised business model demonstrates continued profitability. It's sad for those who're married to the past. The customers of the future won't know any different. You can moan about it. You can claim it's immoral. You can spout contrary philosophy, but in the game of business the only valid reaction is to start a competitive business and run it the way YOU think it should be, then win the customers. Failing that, you're not even in a valid discussion save for your own imagination.

Why you don't see new games coming forward championing the business model of old is: 1.) It is no longer profitable. And, 2.) The start-up, and development costs have gone up just like the prices in the rest of the economy. To develop a game today, using the most recent additions of say FFXIV, SWTOR and GW2 as examples would take a budget equivalent to the annual budget of a mid-sized nation. And, as I said, the stated business model is demonstrably unprofitable, therefore no one will invest in it.

People ballyhoo Star Citizen, and have done for going on six years now, as the miracle savior of the Golden Age of MMOs model. However, it must be faced that though the developer used crowd-funding for the project that is as yet far from completed, there is some question as to how these funds were used, and legal proceedings have been threatened.

Were it not for the possibility of mis-dealings in management it still remains other crowd-funded projects have never met the quality standards demonstrated by the more successful gaming companies, and these games are developed piece-meal with each update dependent upon another round of funding. CCP has taken steps as a corporation to ensure it meets its duties and responsibilities as a corporation. If you disapprove, then you disapprove. If you agree, then you agree.

That's the name of that tune.

SO...if you need a tl;dr, this is as compact as the subject will allow, and your attention span is too short to involve yourself in any discussion of this subject. That's the fact, Jack.