Overly Positive

A couple days or so ago, Syp and Syncaine both locked horns a bit over the idea of the validity of the mainstream vs. niche argument when it comes to MMOs. For Syncaine, there’s a clear-cut difference between a game that is mass-marketed and one that is niche, while Syp counters with the idea the niche is too subjective, and that we have little evidence to provide any comparison in the ever-changing MMO landscape.

The idea of mainstream vs. niche disappeared for me a long time ago when I realized that if I was after any specialized market at all, it was the market of me having fun. Syp touches on this in the first paragraph of his post, and it’s for that reason that I side with him more than I do with Syncaine.

No matter if we play a game that 1000 people play or 1 million people take part in, the all-encompassing factor is the fun factor. Even the most hardcore players who realize that they’re eschewing the silly little things like sleep, relationships, and human contact that is not virtual start out wanting to have fun with a game. In this respect, the subjectivity works in the gamer’s favor, not against it. There are gamers who like to PvP all day and gamers who like to kill AI mobs all day. There are gamers who like FPS’s and then there are gamers who like roleplaying and creating things. There are people like me who have long since left behind the idea of getting a game because it is popular, instead opting for games which almost no one may play, but are great fun (many hours of Command and Conquer: Renegade come to mind).

The only real difference is the itch that MMOs and other games tend to scratch when it comes to fun, and the more general the scratch, the more people will line up to be scratched. But I’ve never believed that numbers are a sole indicator of success, nor should they be the determinant for buying something. I shrug at the pundits who choose to speak for others with regards to what they should think or feel with MMOs and games, mostly because at the end of the day, defining mainstream MMOs that lots of people like and niche MMOs that apply to small markets doesn’t matter. What matters is how much fun you the player choose to have with the games of your choice, and no one should interfere with that, really – not Syp, not Syncaine, not even me. Play what’s fun to you, and trust me, you’ll be a lot less stressed and a bit more happy.

These days, I’ve become a bit of a nomad when it comes to how I play MMOs. The reasons for this are a few, but they include possessing a position in which the community of MMOs takes away some of my playtime, the change in priorities for enjoyment, and the simple reality of life and getting older.

I used to attach myself to high-end guilds with a purpose and goal in mind to be as excellent as possible in the MMO of their choice.  Hours-long raids, shooting for the first kills, and excelling in PvP combat were my focused goals in playing these games.  Better yet was the reputation and aura that being in these guilds afforded, making playtime easier to deal with and doors opened that would normally not be.

Nowadays, with my changing priorities and increasingly casual playstyle, I don’t have those luxuries anymore. Being the best has given way to simpler things like enjoying myself during my limited playtime, and playing with friends who I know, love and trust. I find this to be a much more relaxing and valuable use of my time. As much as I miss the cameraderie of much larger guilds that play obsessively together for 70 hours a week or so, I appreciate games that can respect the time I put in and make me feel like I can play with whoever I want without having to give in to requirements or gear gateways.

The price I pay is that I’m a bit of a nomad. I’ve wandered from guild to guild, from server to server, from game to game. At times, I’ve felt a bit lonely as others who play more are much higher level than me or who are in guilds that are more hardcore than I am. But I’m ok with that for the most part. After all, I’ve made friends from those who are like-minded as I am, or who I have attached myself to for the short term, and if I can gain some people I can talk to from this kind of playstyle, then the MMO wanderer’s life isn’t so bad at all.

Over at We Fly Spitfires, Gordon weighs the pros and cons of Cryptic’s upcoming Star Trek: Online release, which has received a tentative confirmation for the first quarter of 2010, not that far from now.

If there’s any MMO out there that has flown way under the radar, cloaked better than a Klingon Warbird, it would be this one. This is interesting in a variety of ways – for one, Cryptic has an MMO that just released that’s currently taking up its spotlight in Champions Online. Even though the hoopla for that title wasn’t as large comparatively to other MMO releases, it’s still that development team’s first major project post-City of Heroes and has garnered a lot of attention. The fact that Cryptic may soon be dividing resources between two live games is interesting, to say the least.

The other is that this is the Star Trek IP. Comparing this to, say, Star Wars: The Old Republic from Bioware, the amount of exposure the two games are getting is like night and day. Despite being cautious with their detailed info, Bioware’s PR storm has been far more prevalent than anything cooked up for Star Trek: Online. It’s a bit intriguing considering that Star Trek could be compared to Star Wars in terms of being well-known and famous in the sci-fi and geek world – yet the hype for this upcoming title has been next to nothing.

I can’t say that the strategy is one that is detrimental by any means, even if you take into account that this blog is always sunshine. The reason I say that is that many MMOs have been burned by the searing light of hype, expectations, and buzz without real detail. They’ve gotten a lot of attention only to be hurt by people quick to judge it as not meeting the needs of the MMO community. Where Star Trek is going appears to be a different approach – build the playerbase from the ground up as opposed to from the skies downward, offering a title that may have some initial problems but which could get a dedicated playerbase enough to spread the word. Star Trek’s famous aura in terms of sci-fi supports this kind of careful approach. Aside from Star Wars fans, Star Trek fans are among some of the most analytical and rabid I’ve ever seen in the years I’ve been moderating forums, and a game based upon that is going to need to be careful where they tread lest the community burn them at the stake.

It’s possible that being so cloaked from the community might end up being more hurtful to Star Trek: Online than helpful, but I can’t help but wonder if the title is planning on being a sleeper, moving in quietly to secure those disillusioned by the current crop of MMOs to offer a more realistic experience that isn’t “this game was hyped to x but didn’t meet the expectations because of y”. It appears that Cryptic has less to lose in this regard – and the fact that I’m writing about a title that only a couple months ago we heard almost nothing about shows that the strategy is somewhat working.

Over at Hardcore Casual, Syncaine has a bit of a missive about what purchasing Aion says about you as an MMO player. He states that if you purchase a game like Aion, which from some general impressions is nothing innovative but highly polished, that you have basically said that you prefer its style of play and have thus surrendered your right to complain about it.

I enjoy and respect what Syncaine writes, much like anything else I read that’s sitting on my rss feed, but if I had a bizarro version of myself, or a villain nemesis, perhaps he would be it. Bizarro Me seems to imply a sense of cynicism, negativity, and a mildly felt sense of discontent with the MMO genre as a whole.  One interpretation of what Syncaine writes here is that niche MMOs or those that do different things are lost in the inexorable sea of voices that are apparently shouting that they like more of the same Oliver Twist-flavored gruel.

Tut, tut! If I am so bold to see a villainous version of myself in a fellow blogger (which, by the way, either makes me hilariously silly, pretentious, or just plain crazy, take your pick), I do have to say it’s a rather bleak way of looking at things. The voice that people speak with when they choose an MMO is not a subscription to what they will experience in the next few months but rather what they may have experienced in beta and what they think they will experience as they play. Sometimes that impression is mistaken, as shown by the many folks who have already left Aion behind as another title that didn’t live up to the expectations they had by it. But by no means is someone saying, when they subscribe to an MMO, that they have the foresight to see completely what the experience will be like.

When someone subscribes to an MMO, I think that what they are buying into is a package that is comprised in part from the advertisement the game offers (in varying degrees, hence “buying into the hype” or not), someone’s ideal expectations of their regular MMO experience, and most of all, sharing that experience with others. They aren’t subscribing to a certain ideal or way of design – for any one person to understand fully the idea of a particular MMO’s design is a bit impossible – that’s why MMO developers are teams and not single people, after all. Better yet, they’re subbing to some degree to a leap of faith, a notion that for whatever reason, they’re going to have a decently good time playing. There’s nothing wrong with that kind of optimism, and someone shouldn’t lose the right to be able to criticize or complain about it when that optimism doesn’t pan out, simply because they didn’t forsee a company’s difficulties or core design elements.

Really, I think the voice with which we speak when we purchase an MMO is a very personal and subjective one – and bloggers like myself, Syncaine, or anyone else don’t really have a place in putting people’s words in their mouths for them when they speak with their credit cards for their favorite games. My voice for my subscriptions might fall in line with other, similar-sounding ones, but in the end, my reasons are my own, not of a genre as a whole. And as long as I’m enjoying myself, it really doesn’t matter, yes?