Is the MMO dying? New SimCity (2013) will survive?

[Netuno 97]

The Yahoo Games site indicates that there was a loss of 1.1 million customers in the last three months and 2 million last year for the game World of Warcraft. While the big bet of EA, Star Wars: The Old Republic had a drop of almost 1 million signatures in the last quarter.

Therefore, the site asks: Is the MMO dying?

Does SimCity (2013) will have the same fate?

http://games.yahoo.c...-223042438.html

[Zeck180 18]

If SC2013 is as good as EA is saying and many who love playing SC4 agree I don't think it will die, SC4 is nine - going on ten years old and it's alive as ever. Plus WOW =/= SC. Sim City is ever changing it never stays the same WOW (never played it) for many finally got boring.

[~Dee~ 215]

If SC2013 is as good as EA is saying and many who love playing SC4 agree I don't think it will die, SC4 is nine - going on ten years old and it's alive as ever. Plus WOW =/= SC. Sim City is ever changing it never stays the same WOW (never played it) for many finally got boring.

The only reason Sim City 4 is still alive is because it wasn't multiplayer and because of the modding community. without the mods it would have been dead years ago.

In the new Sim City, what is stopping some nasty people building a crime ridden, polluting city for the sole purpose of annoying other players, something I wouldn't want to put up with.

IMO a city building game doesn't lend itself to be multiplayer, I doubt it will be the huge success EA is hoping for, it all depends if there will be a server charge.

You pay for the game, possibly DLC's and server charges ... could get very expensive.

I think the MMO is in decline because companies are just getting to greedy and think the gamers are gullible.

[jrm541992 17]

I think OP is referring to MMO's that think that they're the next World of Warcraft (primarily MMO's w/ subscription fees). There are plenty of Free-to-Play MMO's out there that are thriving.

[Mithrik 562]

If SC2013 is as good as EA is saying and many who love playing SC4 agree I don't think it will die, SC4 is nine - going on ten years old and it's alive as ever. Plus WOW =/= SC. Sim City is ever changing it never stays the same WOW (never played it) for many finally got boring.

The only reason Sim City 4 is still alive is because it wasn't multiplayer and because of the modding community. without the mods it would have been dead years ago.

In the new Sim City, what is stopping some nasty people building a crime ridden, polluting city for the sole purpose of annoying other players, something I wouldn't want to put up with.

IMO a city building game doesn't lend itself to be multiplayer, I doubt it will be the huge success EA is hoping for, it all depends if there will be a server charge.

You pay for the game, possibly DLC's and server charges ... could get very expensive.

I think the MMO is in decline because companies are just getting to greedy and think the gamers are gullible.

I don't think that they would be able to pay for server charges, that would be ridiculous as you forcefully have to use it save your cities, and that really pushes the line way above anything that EA has done before in those terms.

I can see the MMO's declining because they are becoming more generic and there are plenty of free to play versions out there that don't need a monthly fee. Plus there have been some negative changes in some of the popular games of the genre, like say RuneScape, even though its pay-to-play is optional I have seen a slight decline on recent controversial decisions from the developer studio, even though the number of players "increases".

(I mean "increases" because of the serious troubles that MMO has with bot accounts and gold farmers)

[Shark7 118]

MMO's are suffering from a bad economy. I'm not surprised that subs are down, when inflation hits, money gets tight, the first thing to get cut in a budget is the non-essentials...and pay to play MMOs will fall into that non-essential category.

[jacksunny 741]

The only reason Sim City 4 is still alive is because it wasn't multiplayer...

SC4 is still popular because of the modding community, however, I don't think it's also because of no multiplayer. I would love multiplayer in SC4, I know some members have tried using Dropbox, so clearly I'm not the only one.

  Edited September 1, 2012 by jacksunny  

[cirugo 1,889]

MMO's are suffering from a bad economy. I'm not surprised that subs are down, when inflation hits, money gets tight, the first thing to get cut in a budget is the non-essentials...and pay to play MMOs will fall into that non-essential category.

most people can't afford to play more than one or two MMOs that require subscriptions...not to mention the time commitment. but the free-to-play model is horrid in my opinion. pay as you go is all it is.

[~Dee~ 215]

The only reason Sim City 4 is still alive is because it wasn't multiplayer...

SC4 is still popular because of the modding community, however, I don't think it's also because of no multiplayer. I would love multiplayer in SC4, I know some members have tried using Dropbox, so clearly I'm not the only one.

Sorry, when I said multiplayer I meant online only, EA would have shut the servers down years ago.

I have nothing against multiplayer, is the always online what bothers me.

  Edited September 1, 2012 by ~Dee~  

[CWLGAMER01 39]

MMO's pricing models are changing as consumer buying habits change. this is a normal business cycle effect. Companies that are fast to adjust will remain while those that hold onto the older models may not. Depends on consumer habits. Bottom line is - what makes money and is a ROI for stock holders/steak holders.

[ferryv 94]

The only reason Sim City 4 is still alive is because it wasn't multiplayer...

SC4 is still popular because of the modding community, however, I don't think it's also because of no multiplayer. I would love multiplayer in SC4, I know some members have tried using Dropbox, so clearly I'm not the only one.

Sorry, when I said multiplayer I meant online only, EA would have shut the servers down years ago.

I have nothing against multiplayer, is the always online what bothers me.

I would probably like the multiplayer option in it. And always online is no problem because im always online But they should must a law/promise that the servers will stay online for an x years.. or when a company takes down a server they should give community servers an option.

About MMO's. I think there still populair. Yes WoW is declining from 10.2milion to 9.1milion users. But Diablo III sold more that 10milion copies (alot of WoW players) and just read the news that guild wars 2 stops selling new copies because there servers cant handle the growning numbers of new players. So imo MMO is still populair and the way future games will be more and more (because of the income / anti piracy)

[Urban Cartographer 601]

Yes and no.

I once played an MMO called Allods Online. It is a free-to-play Russian MMO that has a North American localization. The gameplay is fun, the graphics look aesthetically pleasing, and there is deep endgame. However, the domination of a few guilds, the pay-to-win nature of the game (one can buy items that enhances one's offensive and defensive abilities with real money (though there is also the option to use in-game gold to buy these enhancements, though it would cost so much gold to do so, since the ratio is very bad (approximately 10g = $0.01))), and the release of Guild Wars 2 all led to the death of Allods Online. Read here: http://allods-forum.gpotato.com (though the mods are censoring any negative comments about the game itself, the pay-to-win nature, complete guild hegemony, and even any mentions of Guild Wars 2).

Meanwhile, I agree with what others have said about the extreme popularity of Guild Wars 2.

  Edited September 2, 2012 by Urban Cartographer  

[Jokurr 175]

MMOs are not dying, they are simply evolving and soon subscription based MMOs will be a thing of the past. I'm also not sure what this has to do with SC2013 considering it's not an MMO (online only != MMO)

[Urban Cartographer 601]

SC2013 will have MMO elements however, such as cloud saves, single player affected by global resource availability, and such.

[daneoid 78]

I don't think that MMO's are dying, WoW clones and that style of taskbar game is dying. People are just crying out for something different and complex or difficult, it's hard to call it an MMO, but have a look how many people started playing DayZ in it's first few months.....of Alpha!

I play Eve Online, have done so for 4 years now, and probably will for as long as it's active. It's the only MMO to gain more users at each year, it's in it's 9th year now, released a year before WoW. I currently have 2 subscriptions and I've honestly forgotten how much I pay for a year on each one as I don't care, they could double it and i'd still play. Because they listen to the fanbase. They don't dumb it down This is a ridiculously complex, deep, intimate and intricate game, I honestly can't think of anything that's even in the same ballpark region.

This is a game like Simcity, it's a game which draws you in with it's boundless freedom and complexity. It's incredibly difficult, It doesn't hold your hand and give you a predetermined selection of goals and careers/classes to choose from. What you want to do Is entirely up to you. They've basically created a galaxy, added planets, moons, stars, space stations, dumped it on a server in Iceland, put some basic ships and items on the marketplace with a few blueprints, put in some rules for spaceship combat, created a backstory and gave it to the players.

This is what players want, they want to be treated like adults, there's a market out there for complexity and difficulty, Eve online and DayZ prove this.

Eve also shows what happens when you treat a community with an average player age of about 28, like children:

http://www.evenews24.com/2011/06/24/ccp-offers-an-apologise-disgruntled-eve-online-players-lock-down-jita-surrounding-systems-very-crowded-too/

this is what 2000 players protesting in game looks like:

The thing they are shooting is indestructable, they were shooting it en masse to cause strain on the servers.

The point of this is, it bought about a very humbling apology from the C.E.O of CCP (the games Developer), I personally think the guys at maxis should have a good read through this and replace every reference of 'Eve' with that of 'simcity'.

http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=2672

[Patricius Maximus 236]

To the original question, I don't think MMOs are dying or are in any danger of dying in the foressable future. They're certainly less popular than they were at their peak, but they still have a big presence, and the presence of smaller-scale games (MMOs smaller than Star Wars or WoW) that are alive and growing ensures that MMOs will not die. As far as I know (which isn't much) MMOs remain a popular platform. As long as that is the case then MMOs will remain alive.

About SC 2013, I don't think multiplayer really jives with the city-building genre. More city-builders prefer to be single-player in the first place, and a sandbox city-building game just goes with a single-player experience, like bread goes with butter. I would prefer EA to make like Stardock and concentrate on providing the ultimate "single-player experience", but I wouldn't be upset at all with a multiplayer or MMO option. What I'm upset about is a requirement for a constant internet connection to EA's servers, which will force players to be unnecessarily dependent on EA's servers, EA's good graces, and the reliability of their internet connections and electricity.