Friday, January 30, 2009

Customer Satisfaction.... Guaranteed?

Every so often I peruse the VNBoards so wee if there is any game-related info leaked there before I see it up on WHA. Perhaps it's just that I'm only noticing it now, but it seems as though there is alot more complaining about the state of the game there from people who admittedly already quit than there is an actual sharing of useful information.

I'm wondering if these people are just a vocal minority or what? I can't seem to find anyplace that might indicate what WAR's subscription numbers are like. Last I heard it was something like 800k, but that was a bit ago.

Personally, I think people have awfully high expectations for a game that's only been out for just over 4 months. My instinct is telling me that these are people who started playing WoW 2 years after it was released and didn't have to deal with the rampant crashes, bugs, pathing problems, imbalances and world geometry issues that plagued that game just after it came out and for quite some time afterwards. Not to mention that having a 4+ year old "polished" MMO (WoW) available for these hypersensitive whiners to fall back on really only increases the QQ'ing, as no MMO still in it's infancy as WAR is can possibly be completely bug free. They weren't playing WoW when there were 45 minute server login queues, frequent crashes, or when mages could two shot people and had so much CC they were nigh unkillable. They weren't there for the 30+ crashes the night of the AQ gate opening event (with less people on the screen than your average fullscale RvR battle).

Now please don't take this to mean that I believe that WAR is perfect. It definitely has it's issues, but none of them are anything uncommon in a new MMO. And just because what YOU want to be fixed NOWNOWNOW doesn't happen to be at the tippity top of Mythic's priority list doesn't mean that there won't be patches in the future to resolve the issues most important to you. Human beings can only work so fast, and there are only so many people Mythic can employ at once to make their gaming experience as positive and bug-free as possible.

I'd like to get some comments here from people sharing their REAL thoughts about the game. Are you enjoying it? Do you have faith that Mythic will fix the issues the game has, even if it takes time? Do you feel there are glaring class imbalances, pathing/world geo/bug issues that make the game unplayable, or do you adapt for now with the assumption these things will be taken care of? Do you like the look of the game? The mechanics? What do YOU think should be mythic's fix priority? Exploits and cheating or overall bugs? How do you feel the game is, overall, given that it's only been out such a short amount of time?

Civil conversation and insights are not only welcome, but encouraged. Now post!

3 comments:

  1. It irritates me when people complain about problems with WAR, expecting it to be as perfect as the current state of WoW. I, too, played WoW right around launch, and things were not pretty. It wasn't until Molten Core was being farmed and Blackwing Lair was implemented that the game was finally enjoyable. Remember pre-MC itemization? Awful! Or when there were no battlegrounds and no honor system?

    I think WAR has done a wonderful job learning from WoW's early mistakes (though itemization isn't quite there yet) and from its later successes. You hit the nail on the head, though, when you said that the people bitching are usually people who have quit playing, many of them after their 30 days of free play ran out. Those jerks will never be happy, they live to complain.

    I once read a thread where a guy complained about being banned for some sort of exploit. He contended he was innocent and proved it with screenshots, but after other forum users urged him to petition his ban, he said (paraphrased), "Screw it, if this is the kind of thing they'll ban you for, I'll see you suckers in Darkfall." Give me a break.

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  2. First off, trip down memory lane with WoW. I wasn't around when it first came out (got it a year later), but I still remember things like the server wipes that happened shortly after release. I also remember logging in and going off to take a long bubbly bath due to the huge queue lines. And when there was only one AH on both sides. And when you had to be 40 to get a mount. And so on and on...

    WAR isn't perfect, but there hasn't been anything absolutely horrid that makes me want to quit the game. If anything, I've been impressed with how Mythic has been handling things so far. I've been having way too much fun in the game to give up now. The people who are leaving now are just impatient brats. They can go back to WoW, if you ask me.

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  3. Jennifer: Yes! And they'll go on to Darkfall, play their free 30 days, and quit there because it's not perfect right out of the box. Spoiled children IMO.

    Om: I had totally forgotten about one auction house... urghhhh....

    I'm the same as you guys... an ADULT who doesn't expect everything NOW NOW NOW, throwing tantrums when I don't get what I want when I want it. I do believe Mythic is working as hard and as fast as they can... it just takes time. :)

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