Penny Arcade digs on DDO, encapsulates modern MMO industry
by Michael Zenke 
Jan 29th 2008 at 11:00PM
Filed under: World of Warcraft, At a glance, Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Business models, Culture, MMO industry, Opinion
Monday's comic strip and commentary over at the popular Penny Arcade comic site was all about Massively Multiplayer games and the genre in general. They specifically called out Dungeons and Dragons Online for being kind of terrible at launch. A year after Burning Crusade's explosively successful launch, non-players must see DDO's tiny subscriber base as comparatively irrelevant. In analyzing the preview video for the game's sixth module, Tycho describes the views of a jade visage leading to a below-ground adventuring scenario:"Your dungeon entrance says something about you as a subterranean civilization, and this one said that I could avoid it altogether, and not miss much."The problem, as he goes on, is that it doesn't actually matter how good DDO is. With World of Warcraft now having several years of game updates, a highly successful expansion, and (oh yeah) ten MILLION players, any game that will draw away a significant number of players from Blizzard will have to be substantially better than WoW.
The thought occurred to me that even then there's a danger if the game's improvements are simply subtle tweaks on the industry standard. If 'feature X' is the big draw for a game, there's absolutely no reason Blizzard couldn't work all or part of X into their game. Then you get "feature X, plus ten million players!" Warhammer Online's RvR-centered gameplay and Age of Conan's unique combat mark them as real competitors ... but will they be good enough?
That, as we've talked about again and again, is the real crux of WoW's success: it has reached critical mass. As Mr. Brahe concludes, "They have set up a system that allows me to rent my friends on a monthly basis." It's hard to argue with the convenience of pre-packaged acquaintances.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Schad said on 11:16PM 1-29-2008
Right or wrong, he bashes DDO then talks about how he can't seem to collect 10 yeti skins. Generally, DDO players play DDO so they don't have to collect 10 yeti skins.
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Alarie said on 11:59PM 1-29-2008
I'm the lemming that fell off the trail and did not follow the rest of the lemmings to play WoW. Give me DDO any day! If he likes WoW that's his opinion, but like Schad said, when I play DDO I don't have to spend two hours grinding mobs for small chance of a skin drop.
By two hours I've either completed a long good dungeon and got some great exp/loot, or done several small dungeons with good loot/exp all the while having some good fun.
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Sherp of Ahrotahntee said on 1:22AM 1-30-2008
The above analysis assumes that any competitors want to overtake WoW, which may not be the case. WoW solidly fills the "MMO for everybody" slot, but there are other niches to fill. Eve Online and Second Life are both highly successful MMOs in their own right. Even after all the delays in its production, I'm still looking forward to Star Trek Online, because it'll be fun and it'll be different and it'll let me fly a spaceship. WoW doesn't do that, nor should it try.
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Matt Warner said on 1:28AM 1-30-2008
This is another logical fallacy on Tycho's part. A MMOG doesn't need 10 million subs to be successful or entertaining. If he wants to judge the genre on subscriptions without actually playing any other MMOGs and formulating his opinions based on videos his punditry is best served in the console arena where he is less foolish and ignorant.
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TwistedBishop said on 4:09AM 1-30-2008
Well said, Sherp and Matt.
While I'm sure any MMO developer would love 10 million subscribers, to say eclipsing that number is the only measure of success is ludicrous. Indeed, the far opposite is true. It's the rare MMO (Auto Assault springs to mind) that does so poorly it must be shut down. The rest continue in operation because they make their publishers and developers a profit from loyal fanbases, even if they might be admittedly small in comparison to WoW. Is McDonald's the only fast food chain? Is Walmart the only retailer? Being the industry leader has never been the only metric of success.
Blizzard made a fine game, but it's basically an aberration in the MMO genre at the moment.
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GRT said on 10:23AM 1-30-2008
I generally enjoy Penny Arcade, but thought this post was pretty far off the mark. I've played WoW a lot, and enjoyed myself a whole heck of a lot. But right now I'm playing EQ2 and POTBS and enjoying myself a whole heck of a lot. The implication that an MMO has to unseat WoW to be successful is just flat-out incorrect.
To make a crude analogy, MMOs are like TV. Yeah, you need the major networks and the majority of people will watch them, but there's something to be said for all the cable channels with their alternative programming, too.
And I too thought it quite ironic that he turns around and complains about trying to get his yeti skins.
DDO looked interesting but I'm primarily a solo player, and when it launched it was pretty solo unfriendly (which isn't meant as a complaint, just an observation...again, variety is good). Anyone know if that has changed?
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hOld Th3 pIcKle said on 2:56PM 1-30-2008
Pretty bad article, then again everyone is entitled to have their opinions.
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Wes said on 10:24PM 2-01-2008
Schad summed things up pretty well in post #1.
If people like to play WoW because it has so many players, most of whom don't even like to group so they may as well be playing a solo game without any other players, more power to them. What's the point of playing with 10 million other people if everyone usually likes to do everything solo?
When WoW lets me backflip out of the reach of a giant's club when he swings at me, or lets me actively block someone's attack, or trip a guy, or lets me manually dodge a fireball, let me know. I'd bet Age of Conan's "active combat" will still be a pale imitation of what DDO has already had since its creation. Enjoy your yeti grinding with 10 million players. Sounds like fun.(?)
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salamanca said on 3:30PM 2-05-2008
I'm fairly sure Tycho intended for the yeti-skin complaint to be ironic. As in, he deliberately employed irony as a literary device.
And I think his point was not that "Any MMO that doesn't top WoW's subscription base is a failure" but more that he was touching on the difference between the MMO genre and gaming in general - when the latest and greatest shooter comes out, it only has to be slightly better than the previous King of the Hill to be the new reigning champ. Whereas in WoW's case, if a slightly better MMO comes out, it won't be enough to sway all those people to switch games and lose all their months/years of progress.
Someone who owns and enjoys Halo 3 is probably *more* likely to buy CoD4 than the average person, because they like good FPS's, whereas someone who plays WoW is likely to stick with WoW even when a new MMO comes out that might have spiffier graphics and a couple new features.
His point is that WoW is so entrenched, it will take a revolutionary MMO to unseat it as the "latest and greatest" (merely in terms of public opinion, not necessarily in subscription numbers) and everything else will just be seen as marginal or middling efforts.
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