NewMaxx wrote on Mar 26, 2014, 19:14:
ESO players DO NOT want that "MMO player" crowd you define as being the majority, being the vocal minority (since they are a minority). If they want that style of play and a new MMO, they have Wildstar.

Firstly, I never said any particular crowd was the majority. In fact, ESO's problem is that they alienate multiple crowds with various decisions, and don't seem to have much of a focus on who they ARE trying to attract. They are all over the place with their decisions.

For example, the decision to both have the commitment of a monthly fee, and then tailor your game to appeal only to the weekend gamer is a bizarre one. The last bastion of players who want monthly fees are, by and large, the same ones looking to play Wildstar. Ones who want as minimal a virtual item shop as possible, preferably none, and obviously no pay-to-win as they are competitive players. But then they make the game unappealing to those same people.

Second, your argument that "ESO players do not want X or Y" isn't particularly convincing. What "ESO players" want doesn't matter if that group of ESO players isn't enough to sustain a healthy subscription MMO. By definition, the players of a game are always going to be generally content with the game, or they wouldn't be players. If ex-players and potential future players cease to matter, then you're doomed to a constant dwindling player base.

When your MMO is new and unproven, you should be more worried about attracting potential players and carefully choosing the niche you're going after. Developing in an echo chamber of yes-men who don't actually know anything about game design is very bad.

Skyrim players want something more true to the roots of TES. TOR at least had a decent KOTOR experience. ESO doesn't nail it's single-player experience nearly as much as TOR did, which makes it potentially even worse off.

If they really wanted a success, they should have chosen a direction instead of floundering in the middle.

*edit*
For clarification on this, I just want to point out that the majority of ESO players will be new to MMOs, so trying to suggest a lack of attraction to traditional MMO players is a death-knell is a bit presumptuous.

That's not even what I was saying. A lack of attraction to ANY particular crowd is the death-knell, if there is one. It doesn't have to be traditional MMO players. As to most players being new to MMOs, I don't see it. The subscription fee alone is going to be a huge deterrent. If they haven't played an MMO even in the era of free-to-play, what makes you think they are going to start with a box cost + monthly fee + item store MMO?

This comment was edited on Mar 26, 2014, 19:43.