MMO maintenance cost

[Erased]

I think the MMO maintenance costs shouldnt go up so fast. It makes it impossible to release more than 1 expansion for your AAA MMO game. My mmo had 9.75 in score and was the best seller. Its 2nd expansion had around 9 in score but im barerly making any profit since the maintenance costs are incredebly high.

Its easier to get expansion out for large games as they are done faster, but its really boring to only be able to make 1-2 expansions for aaa games.

[Charlie @ Greenheart Games]

Thanks for the feedback!

[Erased]

Thanks for reading :)

[Demonic Cipher]

another cool thing to do would be to add an mmo model like the valve model for Dota 2 or TF2, cosmetic items and random drops. would make for a game that would sell well for a long time maybe

[Glitch Babe]

I've gotta agree, it bugs me that even if my mmo gets 10/10 all down the line, it tanks faster than APB pre-f2p.

MMOs tend to be pretty low maintenance, which is why unless it's made by NCSoft or a licensed game, they tend to stay alive for long periods of time with a playerbase smaller than Lichtenstein (see: Pirates of the Burning Sea or the original Planetside.)

[Grazz]

Originally posted by Charlie @ Greenheart Games:

Thanks for the feedback!

i am on year 36 and i still cant create a console or a mmo game what do i do?

[STiAT]

You were able to do MMO AAA in the 30 years cycle? Respect...

[Erased]

Originally posted by Omg_Its_Athan:

Originally posted by Charlie @ Greenheart Games:

Thanks for the feedback!

i am on year 36 and i still cant create a console or a mmo game what do i do?

You need a heardwear specialist to make consoles and design specialist to open a RD lab and research MMO.

[TheHipDuke]

Originally posted by Pomegranate:

Originally posted by Omg_Its_Athan:

i am on year 36 and i still cant create a console or a mmo game what do i do?

You need a heardwear specialist to make consoles and design specialist to open a RD lab and research MMO.

I thought it was a Tech specialist so i wasted a lot of time and never got to use all my money doing bigger and better thing :( and yea MMO's become wayyyy to expensive later on i reackon the costs should be equal to a % of copys sold, How many people are playing and maybe reduce cost by the higher tech skill of your team (and maybe devote a person to keeping down costs) Arrrgh i wish i could have a bigger team! (or maybe make my own contracts to get people to help me!)

[Erased]

I forgott to mention that you need an RD specialist first before u can open a hardware lab.

[SmilesLikeJoker]

I agree on the MMO's. I don't even make them anymore.

Rating scoring system? I have to disagree with you there. It's rather easy to get good ratings once you learn the system. Keep in mind that you only play against yourself. If you get a 10 and then suddenly start getting 6's, then you're not coming close to the game score you had when you got the 10. There's a better way to judge things. If you meet your high score, you'll get 8.75. In reality, it's all about just being constant and improving little by little each time you make a game.

Genres require different ratios of Tech/Design. You get penalized if you stray too far from the required ratio. If you are generating 100 Tech and 100 Design with an Action game, you're going to be penalized pretty heavy. If you hit 180 Tech and 100 Design, you'd be on the money. For an Adventure, the perfect ration would be 100 Tech and 250 Design. How can you change your final T/D ratio? There is usually at least one slider in each phase that is 'flexible'. You can also accomplish better ratios through training or adding certain features. Keep in mind that going the training route kinda makes you specialize in certain genres over others in the long run. I hope this helps :)

[Erased]

No I was not saying its hard to get good scores. I was saying that even with very high scores MMOs dont run for very long. I would like to make a bunch of expansions for them before they die out,but currently you can make max 2 expansions for an AAA/MMO game.

EDIT: Thanks for that post tho, Im sure it will help alot of people. Speaking of specilizations, is strategy a tech based or desing based genre after the steam update? Before it was like sim but now it has changed.

[SmilesLikeJoker]

From what I read, MMO's used to be too easy to make cash. However, they changed to be harder after the last patch. Unfortunately, they nerfed them a little too much. Hopefully, they tweak them with the next patch or add a way to lower the overall maintenance.

Strategy is tech based at 1.4 T/D which isn't too bad. Simulation is 1.6 T/D. Action is the worst at 1.8 T/D. In general, it's easier to make design-based games than tech. It's in the way the sliders all add up. That's why most guides out there have you do RPG's and Adventure games.

[Erased]

Originally posted by joker1231978:

From what I read, MMO's used to be too easy to make cash. However, they changed to be harder after the last patch. Unfortunately, they nerfed them a little too much. Hopefully, they tweak them with the next patch or add a way to lower the overall maintenance.

Strategy is tech based at 1.4 T/D which isn't too bad. Simulation is 1.6 T/D. Action is the worst at 1.8 T/D. In general, it's easier to make design-based games than tech. It's in the way the sliders all add up. That's why most guides out there have you do RPG's and Adventure games.

Thanks for the t/d explanation.

Yeah, I remember that an MMO could give you hundreds of millions in profit. Right now they are pretty ok, but I just feel that if you give our good expansions for them,they shouldnt die out so fast.

[TheHipDuke]

Originally posted by joker1231978:

From what I read, MMO's used to be too easy to make cash. However, they changed to be harder after the last patch. Unfortunately, they nerfed them a little too much. Hopefully, they tweak them with the next patch or add a way to lower the overall maintenance.

Strategy is tech based at 1.4 T/D which isn't too bad. Simulation is 1.6 T/D. Action is the worst at 1.8 T/D. In general, it's easier to make design-based games than tech. It's in the way the sliders all add up. That's why most guides out there have you do RPG's and Adventure games.

Wow i thought action was more towards design O.o how have i been getting all these high numbers then....

[SmilesLikeJoker]

Originally posted by 2DOXTheHipDukeOfChimeBreeze:

Wow i thought action was more towards design O.o how have i been getting all these high numbers then....

three areas with Action games to concentrate on: Engine, Graphics, and AI which are all tech-related.

The biggest thing to remember is you're only playing against yourself. You could have the worst ratios ever and still get 9's and 10's. It's all about just being consistent and SLOWLY improving your final score. Take for instance, you do nothing but make Action games with a 1/1 ratio. The ratio is awful, but it doesn't matter. You'll gain a few points each time something levels up. Thus you're slowly increasing your final score (which you don't see after all the formulas). You start off with a final score of 25 and that becomes the score to match or beat. Your next game has a final score of 28. You still had crappy ratios, but guess what? 10!