sanya-weathers posts

Massively multiplayer online... boobs?

by Seraphina Brennan Aug 24th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: At a glance, Business models, Culture, MMO industry, News items

Did you know that MMOs and breasts have a long history with one another? It's true, you know. From the time MMOs came onto the scene, so too did scantily clad women with huge hooters. Also, yes, this is indeed one of "those" articles. The article where we talk about breasts seriously, I mean.

Sanya Weathers, no stranger to the MMO industry (or breasts, for that matter) just recently took a pretty funny tour of how breasts work into advertising, whether we like it or not. From box art to marketing departments, she looks at some of the good, the bad, and the downright horrible when it comes to putting hot women on boxes to sell games.

If you're up for a laugh, go check out her article over at MMORPG.com. It's funny, it's insightful, it's historical, and it's full of what men want most -- awesome games. (Get your head out of the gutter if you thought that last line was going to be another boob joke.)

Tags: blade-and-soul, boobs, breasts, hooters, knockers, marketing, mmorpg.com, mmos, ncsoft, sanya-weathers, silly, women

GamerDNA: A brief look at free to play games

by GamerDNA Jun 10th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Academic

By Sanya Weathers for GamerDNA

When you're the market leader in MMO games, you can afford to do a little innovating – though not so much as to disturb or ruffle the customers you've already acquired. When you're making a top drawer MMO with thirty million dollars of other people's money, you can't afford to innovate. Refinements, sure. But no big risks.

So where's the innovation? These days, you see it in the free to play genre, and its close cousin, the "freemium" game. Both of these games make their money from microtransactions. In order to get a customer to fork over a microtransaction, these games require customers that are vested into the world.

But free to play means the player has invested nothing but the time spent downloading the product. And there's a perception among some industry professionals that "easy come, easy go."

Gallery: GamerDNA: A brief look at free to play games

Tags: f2p, free-to-play, gamer-dna, gamerdna, sanya-weathers

Gamer DNA: Plenty of market opportunity in MMOs

by GamerDNA May 5th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, Opinion

Today, we have another in a continuing series of articles written by the highly talented Sanya Weathers for GamerDNA. In this, her latest column, Sanya looks into the numbers and just what the breakdown for MMO players means.

When you compare groups of MMO consumers, grouped by game title, it's easy to be overwhelmed by World of Warcraft's market dominance. Indeed, many developers have learned the wrong lessons from Blizzard's success, and copied/are copying WoW features – without copying WoW's reasoning, methodology, or execution. The results are products that feel derivative and incomplete, with features that the consumers identify as being less than organically developed. Furthermore, WoW's market reach is so extensive that the most influential players in a social network sense will identify a borrowed feature as being WoW's (even if WoW itself borrowed the feature), and cost the new product credibility as innovators.

Still, when you just look at the data, it's hard to avoid the desire to copy WoW. As we saw last week, WoW players log in more often, and play for longer sessions.

Tags: charts, editorial, gamer-dna, gamerdna, guest-editorial, mmo, mmogs, sanya-weathers, statistics

Gamer DNA: Plenty of market opportunity in MMOs [part 2]

by GamerDNA May 5th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, Opinion

Tags: charts, editorial, gamer-dna, gamerdna, guest-editorial, mmo, mmog, sanya-weathers, statistics

The birth of the Middle Eastern MMO scene

by James Egan May 1st 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play

Much of our coverage of the MMO industry at Massively is clearly focused on North America and Europe, with the occasional article about what's happening in Asia, but we rarely have the opportunity to point out what's happening in MMOs in the Middle East. Truth be told, we weren't aware that MMOs are operating in this region of the world until an article we came across today.

Sanya Weathers recently got in touch with Fadi Mujahid, general manager of a Dubai-based company called Game Power 7 which has localized the free-to-play MMO Rappelz for the Middle East/North African (MENA) market. In fact, to the best of our knowledge, Game Power 7 is the first company to focus on the MMO industry in the Middle East and North Africa to date.

Mujahid explains to Weathers how Game Power 7 made these first inroads to the MENA market, from market research to localization efforts (adding 'Middle Eastern touches' to the characters and other changes to make the game less offensive to the market's cultures), to getting the word out about the Arabic version of Rappelz.

Tags: arabic-rappelz, fadi-mujahid, game-power-7, localization, mena, middle-east, north-africa, rappelz, sanya-weathers

How much do guilds matter?

by GamerDNA Mar 25th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Guilds, MMO industry, Opinion

Today, we have another in a continuing series of articles written by the highly talented Sanya Weathers for GamerDNA. In this, her latest column, Sanya runs down some interesting and illuminating statistics about players and guilds, and just how they fit in to the macrocosm of MMOs.

A long time ago, in a fantasy world far far away, I wrangled guilds as part of my job. At first, I wrangled them because it was terribly efficient for one person struggling with a beta. Why deal with thousands of individuals when I could deal with fifty, and put them in charge of their own groups? Guild leaders will always be more informed, more tuned in, and better suited to herding their own cats than a studio representative could ever be.

But what started as expediency turned in to more.

As a community weenie, I had my dearly beloved "frequent flyers" – people who sent in feedback, usually through email no matter how many systems I built for them to use, with a regularity previously reserved for clocks, robots, and dripping faucets. If it was 3 PM on a Thursday, it was time to get mail from him, him, her, and what I was pretty sure was a him but hadn't ever asked.

Tags: change-in-level, class-breakdown, featured, gamer-dna, gamerdna, guild, guilded-vs-unguilded, guilds, joystiqfeatures, metrics, sanya-weathers, statistics, time-played, unguilded

How to stop worrying and enjoy games like Darkfall

by James Egan Mar 19th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Darkfall, Game mechanics, MMO industry, PvP, Tips and tricks, Opinion

While they seem to draw a fair amount of controversy and commentary, massively multiplayer online games that offer kick-in-your-ribs PvP aren't really a new thing. Darkfall is the title that everyone's talking about of late, but it's really cut from the same cloth as the progenitor of all MMOs, Ultima Online. Granted, Ultima Online wasn't and isn't purely focused on player killing, but the fact remains that when you log into games that allow for the possibility of being ganked, in some respects it is what you signed up for. While the no-holds-barred style of play isn't for everyone, it certainly is what some players want. Or at least think they want.

MMO world celeb Sanya Weathers, writing for Examiner, says "Darkfall has been, since its conception, an unapologetic return to Ultima Online's original style of full metal ham kicking. The gang at Aventurine never pretended their game would appeal to a mass market, and certainly never pretended that the game would have anything but a vicious learning curve."

Tags: aventurine, aventurine-sa, challenge, controversy, darkfall, examiner, fantasy, game-mechanics, hardcore, looting, mmo-industry, opinion, pvp, sanya-weathers, tips-and-tricks, ui, ultima-online, uo, user-interface

Sanya Weathers on admitting you're an MMOG gamer

by Joe Blancato Mar 14th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Real life, Opinion, Humor

Sanya Weathers, a.k.a. Tweety, recently published a guide to breaking the news to your loved ones about your MMOG habit. She keeps her advice lighthearted throughout, but her tips are good ones.

For instance, here's how she disarms those who outright scoff at the hobby: "If the person you're talking to gets dismissive, keep your cool. Ask how much television they watch. Ask if television is active or passive. Ask how many people a television viewer is interacting with, or working with towards common goals."

Weathers has made her rounds in the MMOG industry before. She originally got her start at Mythic Entertainment after a blogging stint on ~~the famed Lum the Mad MMOG rant site~~ her rant site, as well as venerable rant site Corpnews.com. While she does freelance work, her current home is Eating Bees, where she blogs about community management issues.

Tags: eating-bees, examiner, sanya-weathers, tweety

GamerDNA provides insight into how we view our MMOs

by James Egan Dec 13th 2008 at 5:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, City of Heroes, MMO industry, Opinion

Massively multiplayer online games, and our experiences within them, don't always fit into neat categories like "Fantasy" and "Sci-fi." The depth of these games -- in terms of setting, general tone, opposition faced (players or NPCs), how we envision ourselves in these games, and how that affects our playstyles -- gives way to a wide range of differing viewpoints among players on those very same games.

Sanya Weathers of gamerDNA explores how we view our games in her column "MMO Focus: Traits of Popular Subscription Games". For those unfamiliar with gamerDNA, it's a social network for gamers which touts a new feature called the Discovery Engine. It allows its users to assign various traits to the games they play -- or create their own -- which in turn provides metrics for gamerDNA, and a collective glimpse into how we relate to our games. The results Weathers gathered from gamerDNA's trait system were a bit unexpected, leading her to say, "Either we have a massive identity crisis here in the gaming world, or what you think you are has nothing to do with the games you play. Rampant individualists for the win!"

Tags: blizzard, city-of-heroes, coh, cox, discovery-engine, gamerdna, mmo-industry, ncsoft, opinion, sanya-weathers, social-networking, statistics, stats, traits, world-of-warcraft

Failed MMOnogamy: An analysis of multi-gamers

by Shawn Schuster Nov 6th 2008 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, Academic, Education

GamerDNA is at it once again with what they do best: crunching numbers and making pretty graphs! Ok, so it's much more than that, but we've become accustomed to some interesting analysis of our favorite MMOs and why we play them. In their most recent article, Sanya Weathers takes a look at people who play multiple MMOs, and which ones they're playing.

The article explains the details of the research, as the sample set was taken from gamerDNA users who have Xfire turned on. Within this research, we learn that 76% of users only play one title. Not surprising, that one title is mostly either World of Warcraft or Warhammer Online. To be relatively fair to WAR's newness, this research was done later than one month after the game's launch.

Tags: analysis, gamerdna, mmonogamy, sanya-weathers, war, warhammer-online, world-of-warcraft, wow

How your Bartle Type influences your class choice: WoW style

by Shawn Schuster Oct 20th 2008 at 4:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Classes, Culture, Game mechanics, Races, Academic, Education

Last week we showed the Massively readers a research report done at gamerDNA regarding MMO players' Bartle Type and how it influences their Warhammer Online class choices. In the comments at their site, and at ours, many asked if this could be done for other games as well, namely World of Warcraft. Well this week they treat us to just that, and the results might surprise you.

While not as clearly-defined as the WAR/Bartle results, this report shows some interesting statistics relating to WoW players and their gender, personality, class type and more. Keep in mind though that these results are based on around 45k+ members at gamerDNA who play WoW, not every single player out there. Even so, it's always enlightening to see these things in solid numbers. I mean, who knew there were more Hunters than any other class? /cough

One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!

Tags: bartle-types, blizzard, gamerdna, gender, personality, sanya-weathers, world-of-warcraft, wow

How your Bartle Type influences your WAR class choice

by Shawn Schuster Oct 12th 2008 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Culture, Warhammer Online, Academic

A few weeks ago, gamerDNA made a push to get 500k gamers to take the Bartle test located on their site. Not only did they crush that number, but they've put the statistics to good use. In an interesting research article by Sanya Weathers (who was just recently on the Massively speaking podcast), you'll notice some fascinating results combining the Bartle Type of gamers as it pertains to their Warhammer Online class choice.

First off, this article shows the interesting distribution of class choices in WAR (from the people with that information in their gamerDNA profiles). Then that information is broken down to show gender preference per class and ultimately the Bartle Type in relation to each class. The entire article is certainly a worthwhile read, and says a lot about the balance of the game's classes and how the game can appeal to as many people as it has. Hopefully, as hinted in the article, gamerDNA will do research like this for other popular MMOs in the future.

Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Warhammer guides: Massively's Character Creation Guide and our WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!

Tags: bartle-test, bartle-types, classes, gamerdna, gender, mythic, preferences, sanya-weathers, war, warhammer-online

Idiom abuse is a slap in the face of grammar

by Chris Chester Jun 17th 2008 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Culture, Forums, MMO industry, Opinion, Humor

In a rather amusing blog post, Sanya "Tweety" Weathers, MMO community guru and Director of Community at GamerDNA, reflects on the etymology of the phrase "a slap in the face" (as in, "The devs are nerfing Warlocks? This is such a slap in the face!"). Sanya seems to be of the belief that a slap to the face is more of a wake up call, with a potential curative element from temporary psychosis, which would seem to indicate that the phrase is being used improperly in this context.

For our part, we always wondered if people really felt like class nerfs or design changes were so insulting as to be compared with a physical blow to the face or if the phrase has merely slipped into the realm of meaningless idiom, joining "melting faces" and "massive damage" at the nexus of gamer parlance. Our suspicion is that people are just overly dramatic when confronted by change in an online environment, but you never know, some people take their games very seriously.

Tags: eating-bees, forums, idiom, massive-damage, melt-faces, nerfs, sanya-weathers, slap-in-the-face, tweety

Signs you are not smart enough...

by Eli Shayotovich Feb 11th 2008 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Forums, MMO industry, Opinion, Humor

I love eating bees. Well, I love to read Eating Bees, the industry insiders POV from the legendary Sanya Weathers. I love it because she says it like it is, an all too rare commodity in this overly politically correct world. In her latest diatribe Sanya takes on people who are not smart enough to moderated boards. This list can apply to virtually any board whether it be about shooters, MMOs or even movies. But since Sanya came from Mythic Entertainment they are likely based on personal experience. And they're a riot.

Take for instance this doozy: You delete anything that isn't porn, advertising, or one member calling another member a "faggot retard." If you are deleting things because someone posts that such and such a decision is "poorly thought out," you are too sensitive and need to not be online. Ever. Or this classic: You avoid posting something that might cause drama, even though the something in question is most certainly going to be part of the game. Man UP, you chicken$@!* wimp. As the Guinness guys would say: Brilliant!

See, I have some experience in this arena. Back in the day, long before Al Gore invented the "Internet," I created and moderated some of the very first online Star Wars forums. Based on that experience, what Sanya says is dead on. If you don't follow what amounts to her "guidelines" you end up with the inmates running the asylum. Or in this case those damnable forum trolls. By the way, the numerous comments adding more to the list (which she asked for) are almost as funny. It's worth a read.

Tags: EA-Mythic, Eating-Bees, forums, moderator, Mythic-Entertainment, opinion, Sanya-Thomas, Sanya-Weathers, Tweety

Don't hate the class, hate the playas

by Eli Shayotovich Jan 11th 2008 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Education, Humor

Yesterday we told you about Sanya Weathers (aka "Tweety"), who is the absolute bombdiggity when it comes to dishing out insightful, acerbic, honest and intelligent commentary on the MMO industry via her blog, Eating Bees. Her rant on why players quit playing games was aimed directly at the companies who make the games. Today, she takes aim at the players of those games.

In her new post Q&A (surely created from an amalgamation of actual questions) she gets the players in her sights and mows them down with a Gatling gun. Or staff of magical awesomeness. Or alien death ray. Depending on your particular gaming penchant. And oh what a laugh fest it is!

See, I've been gaming since the dawn of time (let's just say I'm above the target age range) , but I've never considered myself a prototypical gamer. I played college football. I was a private investigator for 10 years. I've been a gym rat for over 20 years. I love sports, craft beer, fast cars, and action flicks. Thus, I don't think or act like a typical (or at least what used to be considered "typical" back in the day) gamer. However, I've personally known several folks during that time who wore the abysmal badge of basement dwelling "know it all" geek, and done so with some warped sense of pride. Apparently so has Sanya. Here is but one example of why she is my hero:

Q: Why do you hate answering real questions instead of this fluff about crafters and aggro management?
A: Are you high? Do you look around the basement and think that because no one else is there with you, only your questions are real? Is this some kind of existential crisis? Because I don't want to be involved if it is.

For the entire hilarious Q&A, check out the full linguistic lashing. She is the Lawgiver!

Tags: EA-Mythic, Eating-Bees, GuildCafe, Lawgiver, Sanya-Weathers, Tweety