One thing the MMO industry does badly is expectation management. It is not entirely our fault. We are building worlds and dreams. An unlaunched MMO is a world full of promise. Its fans are imagining the ultimate virtual reality where anything is possible, where its citizens will be heroes and craftsmen, wealthy and beloved, and the ruler of all they survey.
Early adopters, that is. Most of the people who show up after launch would be happy just to kill stuff, get a cool weapon, and be able to log off in time to catch the start of American Idol. We'd all be better off if we kept that in mind and didn't have any contempt for the concept. But that's a different rant.
If you ask early adopters, as I recently did, to name the things they really loved about existing MMOs, an interesting thing happens. They can't stay positive. No matter how hard they try, at least one out of every five responses slides into negativity, using the "I loved it, but" construction.
- I loved the idea of guilds having special powers, but the powers weren't as cool as I thought..
- I loved how I could personalize my armor, but then everyone made their armor look like mine and the lag was terrible.
- I loved how the golden Dreebles were so rare that anyone who had one was special, but I hated that I could never get one.
- I loved the idea of unrestricted PVP but I hated dying to all the exploiters.
- I loved the idea of realistic sieges, but the implementation was so bad nobody ever bothered to try and defend.
- I loved the idea of [unusual quest mechanism] but they didn't do it the way I imagined.
The thing these thoughts (all paraphrased to protect the innocent) all have in common is that the feature, when discussed pre-launch, ignited dreams in the minds of potential customers. They imagined a particular sort of implementation, one that made the player unique, special, and powerful - all the promise of a single player game. If the implementation varied in any way from the player's imagination, and it almost always did, the result was disappointment.
If there was any confusion during the original discussion (I remember an episode where the developer doing the podcast said the player mounts would be elegant, and at least one player thought he said elephants) the problem is compounded.
There never was a reason to discuss features until they're implemented well enough to discuss the exact way the feature will work - and until they're complete enough to allow beta testers to get their hands dirty. In the age of social media, with news traveling on Twitter and Facebook, Digg and Stumble, all faster than the speed of rumor and innuendo, is there really any need to start beating the hype drums more than a few months in advance?
Relax. Be patient. And take a page from the social media games - don't announce them until you're done. Let your players dissect what is, instead of what they hope will be.
Comments
How often will a developer use a keyword dropping on an unfinished feature to gauge response and farm for more ideas?
It is interesting though that the private companies like KingsIsle and Turbine seem to mostly follow your suggestion while those-with-publishers (and shareholders) follow the other. I could be wrong, but just personal observation.
Yeah, I do think the companies with shareholders are under a lot of pressure to keep their product out in the public mind, and that often means talking about upcoming features that are not finished or set in stone. Shareholders want returns on their investment -this- quarter, never mind that the game or feature isn't due for another year. I guess the real balancing act is finding ways to keep a viral marketing campaign going w/o actually telling people anything resembling concrete features that they could latch onto and thus be eventually frustrated with. TSW, for example, seems to so far be holding that line, while stablemate AoC hasn't been quite so restrained - will be interesting to see what they both cough up this week at GDC.
I don't think devs float trial balloons looking for more new ideas, though. I think once they come up with a design or idea, they follow it thru until it either gets implemented, or shot down.
Ravious, Turbine used to be more quiet until they are ready to announce things, but whenever LOTRO Producer Jeff Steefel opens his mouth, it seems he can't help but blab about unfinished features, making them seem more grandiose than they will ever be, expectations balloon and invariably will be disappointed.
In the LOTRO community it has been long-standing wisdom that Steefel is unreliable in this matter, but it's still a far cry from following Sanya's suggestion.
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