12-28-2011, 01:29 PM
All of the idea's in the entire section of this board has enough meat to make a good MMO. One that can make money and have a large audience (what ever that means).
In the end no one will make it because it cost to much money. No one is ever going to invest 20 million in an unproven product. I have seen this happen before not only in regular business but in gaming. That is why Doph and I are no longer in the business.
Board Games:
In the 70's printing cost allowed almost anyone that can design a good game print it and sell it. That is the hey day of board games. In the 80's paper/printing cost started to weed out the smaller companies. Companies like Avalon Hill survived because the company was owned by a printing company. By the 90's their was only 5 companies that had more then 4 titles out. TimJim being one of them. However even by the mid 90's even ourselves had to start making sacrifices in game quality to meet printing cost issues. The best game we ever made we never produced because it just cost to much money.
This in turn meant that the retail cost of games had gone beyond the point that gamers would pay. What would have retailed in 1980 at $30 would now cost the customer $100. Sales plummets at those cost and you can no longer make your money back. For a decade board gaming died because no one would put out anything new. You just couldn't afford to.
Recently some euro companies have been able to make some quality products. Their designs are crap but the quality of the products are much better. Now that games are being created in places that cost are in control board gaming has made a come back. Also salaries and what a consumer is willing to pay has gone up as well. You still can't put out a $100 game but you can put out a $50 game and have it sell.
Eventually the same thing will happen to PC games. I already see it. Paragon for example. Eventually the cost to create MMO's will come down and some new idea's will come into the market. In the mean time we just have to wait.
In the end no one will make it because it cost to much money. No one is ever going to invest 20 million in an unproven product. I have seen this happen before not only in regular business but in gaming. That is why Doph and I are no longer in the business.
Board Games:
In the 70's printing cost allowed almost anyone that can design a good game print it and sell it. That is the hey day of board games. In the 80's paper/printing cost started to weed out the smaller companies. Companies like Avalon Hill survived because the company was owned by a printing company. By the 90's their was only 5 companies that had more then 4 titles out. TimJim being one of them. However even by the mid 90's even ourselves had to start making sacrifices in game quality to meet printing cost issues. The best game we ever made we never produced because it just cost to much money.
This in turn meant that the retail cost of games had gone beyond the point that gamers would pay. What would have retailed in 1980 at $30 would now cost the customer $100. Sales plummets at those cost and you can no longer make your money back. For a decade board gaming died because no one would put out anything new. You just couldn't afford to.
Recently some euro companies have been able to make some quality products. Their designs are crap but the quality of the products are much better. Now that games are being created in places that cost are in control board gaming has made a come back. Also salaries and what a consumer is willing to pay has gone up as well. You still can't put out a $100 game but you can put out a $50 game and have it sell.
Eventually the same thing will happen to PC games. I already see it. Paragon for example. Eventually the cost to create MMO's will come down and some new idea's will come into the market. In the mean time we just have to wait.