Star Wars Galaxies

We've all seen MMO's advertised with various features, items, quests etc..  What has become clear is that some, definitely not all, MMO service providers think that it's acceptable to hook people with an ad. for something that they are planning to delete in two weeks time.  We've then seen people try to justify this by quoting a EULA, which may say something like "the company reserves the right to enhance the game at anytime."

No one in their right mind would think that deleting brand new features you just advertised is an enhancement, unless you're SOE or LA I guess. 

What would you think of having along with any such advertisements, a mandatory disclosure of how long the advertised features etc. will be valid in-game for, with the same functionality?

What if there was also a mandatory 2 month warning period for changes to advertised features, enabling you to make informed decisions about resubscribing?

Game companies want to continue to make their services more entertaining and marketable.  I think this is a good thing.

Customers simply want to know what they are getting when they subscribe, and how long they can expect it to be available.

So, if you're a game company, go ahead and advertise new features and loot etc., but let people know how long these things are going to be available to them, and give them fair warning with options regarding their subscriptions when you are planning to make changes.

Thinking out loud here, any feedback would be welcome.

"Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided"

Best use by: 4/26/2005

Discard after: 11/14/2005

Whats that for  a game design to have features/items being good only for a limited time....

running into this..well ..

But have it in your game design...boooo

(behind the scenes i guess some marketing mouths watering about that)

A step in the right direction, but it could be used in a negative way as well - particularily with RMT's.

Earth & Beyond

Discard after: September 22, 2004! 

RIP!

Originally posted by Suvroc

A step in the right direction, but it could be used in a negative way as well - particularily with RMT's.

Kind of on topic...  How many think that EA's eventual goal if they stay in the MMO business (and they might not if WAR tanks which I think it might) will be to follow the "Madden" model and release a new version of the client every year (basically an expansion) that the players are REQUIRED to buy or have their online service "sunsetted"  after a time.

They do something very similar with online play on their sports games.  Even if Madden 2008 has only tiny changes over `07 you lose the ability to play online after the new one comes out.

Thus, Madden MMO 2008 players have to purchase Madden MMO 2009 (whether it has anything new you want or not) to continue playing...  This would be forcing 100% of the player base to buy all expansions. 

You know, maybe it would be better if they just highlight in the EULA the process by which real enhancements will be made to the game.  SOE had a process of announcements, testing, feedback and implementation, but especially in the case of the NGE they didn't follow it.

What if that process was clarified in the EULA? 

What I'm looking for is a way of eliminating the likelihood of unpleasant surprises for subscribers.

Originally posted by ArcAngel3

You know, maybe it would be better if they just highlight in the EULA the process by which real enhancements will be made to the game.  SOE had a process of announcements, testing, feedback and implementation, but especially in the case of the NGE they didn't follow it.

What if that process was clarified in the EULA? 

What I'm looking for is a way of eliminating the likelihood of unpleasant surprises for subscribers.

SOE always had that with SWG, the "in concept", "in development", "in testing" forums.  But NEVER once followed that process.  During the times they got into trouble and made promise #6,326 to "communicate better" inevitably part of that was that they would follow that process.

They never did.  Those forums vanished with the NGE reorg too.  The only times they ever went through the motions of using that process were for trivialities, NOT real decisions like the CU or NGE.  This still continues today even with this "we really listen now" dev team, the only things the players get input on are meaningless things.  The Jedi nerf wasn't ever up for discussion.

The problem with a EULA is that it's one sided.  They only take rights from customers, they grant nothing in terms of obligations by the publisher  in return.   Which is why they are pretty much worthless as enforceable contracts, since contracts are not drawn up in this way.

The only way this is going to change is if we, the players, make them change.  WE hold all the power.  This is the dirty secret that the industry doesn't want us to realize, and it suppresses it.  MMO games and publishers are as volatile as vapor.  Their survival depends on their players to decide every month to spend that $14.95.  No $14.95*x...  No game.

It's time for the one sidedness, condescension, and contempt (basically the whole Chris Cao attitude) to end.  WE are the owners of the MMO.  WE are the boss.

Originally posted by ArcAngel3

We've all seen MMO's advertised with various features, items, quests etc..  What has become clear is that some, definitely not all, MMO service providers think that it's acceptable to hook people with an ad. for something that they are planning to delete in two weeks time.  We've then seen people try to justify this by quoting a EULA, which may say something like "the company reserves the right to enhance the game at anytime."

No one in their right mind would think that deleting brand new features you just advertised is an enhancement, unless you're SOE or LA I guess. 

What would you think of having along with any such advertisements, a mandatory disclosure of how long the advertised features etc. will be valid in-game for, with the same functionality?

What if there was also a mandatory 2 month warning period for changes to advertised features, enabling you to make informed decisions about resubscribing?

Game companies want to continue to make their services more entertaining and marketable.  I think this is a good thing.

Customers simply want to know what they are getting when they subscribe, and how long they can expect it to be available.

So, if you're a game company, go ahead and advertise new features and loot etc., but let people know how long these things are going to be available to them, and give them fair warning with options regarding their subscriptions when you are planning to make changes.

Thinking out loud here, any feedback would be welcome.

While I applaud you for your creative thinking and the funny reply after your post... i think that we have a bigger issue that needs to be dealt with. Its called the terms of agreement. Every gamer should know what evil phrase im talking about. Im talking about the "Game change may vary" crutch that many mmos are leaning on nowadays.

While its a fact that we can't totally obliterate the terms in court (due to the fact that it would make many devs leave the industry due to having their creativity confined too much.. thus killing our genre ) nor can we keep letting it be abused as is... (otherwise we will get many repeats of what SoE did to SWG from other devs as well...)

So what can we do really? Those are two extremes but at some point there has to be a line drawn that if a game company tries to cross that line and make excessive changes... the customers should (by law) have an option to get a certian amount of money back or something along those lines.

So what can you do? Its a fine dance really...