Curse

Chocobo1 · Jul 30, 2009, 02:07 PM // 14:07

I've been wondering this for a bit. Warcraft 3 and Guild Wars are my main games, and they both share something in common. They both recieve practically no love, and have become a shell of what they used to be. And I sit here and wonder why? Both companies did spectacularly in their games, and yet they cant afford to keep people on staff to maintain it? I don't expect amazing patchs every 3 days to keep it fresh but Wc3 has had year long waits for patches with terrible results, and Guild Wars is getting less and less attention.

Why do this? I always think that if I was a developer, I would want to maintain my games and address issues in them. Sure, there may be a lot of opinions on what need to be done but there are so many ways to get help and get people who know what needs to be done. I'd hate to see my player fanbase just slowly leave my game due to no updates. I know this sounds like a QQ fest but I'm actually just curious as to why developers don't maintain there games, even if they are great games.

Ghost Omel · Jul 30, 2009, 02:15 PM // 14:15

For the same reason why people dont play Halo 1 -_-.. Its outdated and old. GW gets its updates -_- they stated the time frame and their reasons. I wouldnt waste resaourses of my company to update W3 or SC1 just not profitable.

New things are coming and id put all money and resources into it.

You must rememebr Companies are there to make money and only then to lsiten to their consumers. They in no way abliged to update their games or babysit carebears.

Chocobo1 · Jul 30, 2009, 02:29 PM // 14:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghost Omel

For the same reason why people dont play Halo 1 -_-.. Its outdated and old. GW gets its updates -_- they stated the time frame and their reasons. I wouldnt waste resaourses of my company to update W3 or SC1 just not profitable.

New things are coming and id put all money and resources into it.

You must rememebr Companies are there to make money and only then to lsiten to their consumers. They in no way abliged to update their games or babysit carebears.

You lose profits by not supporting your game. Why would people trust a company if they stop caring for the orginal games? Putting a decent amout of resources into new things is good, I can totally understand that companies want to move foward but they don't necessairly need to leave the old games behind. Also, I never said they were abliged to do it, and no one wanting updates is a carebear, just someone who would rather play the game than lurk on the forums.

Ghost Omel · Jul 30, 2009, 02:34 PM // 14:34

.... In the case of Guild wars and all the console games, THEY ALREADY HAVE YOUR MONEY. -_-

Companies will be making money regardless of what you may think. Oblivion got only 3 small expansions and no updates to their game, no updates to bioshock or Mass Effec..

You look at games as if MMos are only way they make money.

No they took your money they provided you wiht their product on the CD, they are done wiht you, they have the money and you have the product, they dont expect further money from you.

Once again outdated games should be left in statis. that is why . I laready answered your question its unprofitable to sustain old worn out games.

The gamer comunity changes ALL THE TIME its not same people over and over buyng games, The generation are born and by the age of 8 already play video games if not earlier.,

The delopment of games take 4 years, 1 game is dont for , new game is up for the new generation.

I know were you coming from but you think as a CONSUMER not a DEVELOPER that is your problem.

And i never called you a care bear -_- i just stated a majority of people who are asking for constant updates and care to much ---

Chocobo1 · Jul 30, 2009, 02:42 PM // 14:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghost Omel

.... In the case of Guild wars and all the console games, THEY ALREADY HAVE YOUR MONEY. -_-

Companies will be making money regardless of what you may think. Oblivion got only 3 small expansions and no updates to their game, no updates to bioshock or Mass Effec..

You look at games as if MMos are only way they make money.

No they took your money they provided you wiht their product on the CD, they are done wiht you, they have the money and you have the product, they dont expect further money from you.

Once again outdated games should be left in statis. that is why . I laready answered your question its unprofitable to sustain old worn out games.

The gamer comunity changes ALL THE TIME its not same people over and over buyng games, The generation are born and by the age of 8 already play video games if not earlier.,

The delopment of games take 4 years, 1 game is dont for , new game is up for the new generation.

I know were you coming from but you think as a CONSUMER not a DEVELOPER that is your problem.

And i never called you a care bear -_- i just stated a majority of people who are asking for constant updates and care to much ---

Clearly you speak from a view that a company doesn't want to keep it's orginal customers? For example, why would NCSoft make Guild Wars 2 if not to hook the majority of the Guild Wars 1 fanbase into a new game? I'm not saying they can't attract a market of new gamers to the game, but retaining old customers is key if you want to survive in the long term. If people find a product to not be up to standard, more likely than not they will look for alternative products. The same happens in the video game industry. Heck, that's the reason I bought Guild Wars.

I never said that you called me a carebear :)

Diddy bow · Jul 30, 2009, 02:51 PM // 14:51

Well games have a life span, not much point realesing updates for them when they have newer games with more players and future games in development that will be much more benifical financially to work on.

I see what you mean about customer loyalty but after a year or so of good updates customer loyalty isn't really a concern after that. People will go and tryout new games no matter how many updates it gets, because unless it gets so well updated that it seems like a new game every week people will go elsewhere and if they were going to update that often they may as well put that time into a new game.

And NC isn't really making any more money from guild wars any more so there isnt much financial sense updating it.

Ghost Omel · Jul 30, 2009, 03:00 PM // 15:00

They are Making Guild wars to not to Keep the Old costumer only, They are making it because they need to make a new game to fill their money basket. not to PLEASE US. You still look at it as a consumer not a developer, Their Job their passion is to make video games and make money from it. They were nice enaugh to make so that their previous costumers can get some benefit if they purchased their previous product ONCE again another bussiness scheme to make money.

They make updates not to please you but to bring attention of those who did not purchase the product yet.

They do not and i rpeat DO NOT RELLY ON OLD costumers to bring in the new ones yet another mistake on your part.

Once again if the old costumers already payed for it it doesnt matter to them they make updates at the beggning to fix bugs and such and maybe some additional conten but as it gets older there is very littlke to do . Thus Guild Wars 2. You still look at it as if it is MMO only world out there. Console games get few to no new content and YET they are succesful.

Halo series, CoD series, Mortal Combat series all games with little updates to game play per say. Halo 3 is an exception.

Consumer views are fine and your view is perfectly fine its just rellys to mjuch on well consumer ideals and not Developer ideals.

once again As long as they make more money than they wasted on the product and have enaugh to make a new product they dont care and i am Definetly stand by them all the way, otherwise we would see no new games and alot of programmers, artists, PR and so on without a JOB.

Evasion Twenty · Jul 30, 2009, 04:09 PM // 16:09

Chocobo, I play Warcraft 3, and Gw. I dont play WC3 much because it gets old. Sure, playing Battleships v.03 in B.net is fun, but it gets old after....10 minutes. Its hard to find clans online, and nobody is on anymore.

Games have lifespans, just like computers.

Winterclaw · Jul 30, 2009, 05:43 PM // 17:43

Most of the people who were going to buy WC3 and GW have already done so. Little updates aren't going to help bring in more people. It can cost a company 70-80k a year or more per developer they leave to maintain the product and with the products already reaching maturity, they aren't getting the sales to support it.

With GW in specific, I don't think there were every that many plans to keep going back and supporting the game aside from the occasional bug fix and skill update.

Black Metal · Jul 30, 2009, 06:07 PM // 18:07

Games are like cars. You keep fixing and maintaining that '67 Corvette. Your 1985 Honda Civic isn't worth it when the engine block is cracked.

subarucar · Jul 31, 2009, 04:33 AM // 04:33

If you have a PS3 or Xbox360 you will know that game devs release pleanty of updates for games. Most of these updates will cost you money, which clearly shows the company is simply after you money. Guild Wars has had enough updates to keep me satisfied and interested in GW2. Games grow old, and updating the games will probably lose them money rather than earn them money when they reach this point, and this is the point I belive GW reached recently.

Racthoh · Jul 31, 2009, 06:19 AM // 06:19

Warcraft III has a team working on it still, the same team that does work for all of Blizzard's older games. The Legacy Team. They're currently working on fixing a major exploit that allows malicious bugs to be put into the custom maps.

Granted the only reason I know that is because I'm waiting anxiously for a Diablo II patch, which was put on hold to fix the Warcraft III problem.

awesome sauce · Jul 31, 2009, 07:12 AM // 07:12

So when is the new Pong update gonna come out?

Evasion Twenty · Jul 31, 2009, 04:31 PM // 16:31

Thats not from blizzard O.o

JR · Jul 31, 2009, 06:33 PM // 18:33

The brand value you get from releasing a sequel isn't massively important to games, aside from the real big hitters like Starcraft, Final Fantasy and Diablo. It definitely helps give you an initial bump, but that's very short-lived.

When a well marketed game releases you get millions of players reading reviews and checking it out, playing beta etc. The ones that like what they see and enjoy it will stick, and those that don't wont. Getting people to check your game out is not the issue, the issue is attracting them and keeping them.

Keeping your old players happy with updates and content is fine in the first few years while you are still getting decent revenue from box sales, but once that starts to drift off so does the urgency. Your priority should shift towards a sequel.

There are always going to be new and more interesting games coming out, and unless you want to be left behind with a dwindling (though happy) fan-base you have to be working on something.

Let me put it this way: If ArenaNet committed serious resources to maintaining Guild Wars, they would not be work to a reasonable schedule or budget on Guild Wars 2. So either Guild Wars 2 is gimped and releases late, or they don't make a sequel. If they don't make a sequel and rely on revenue from Guild Wars then in 3 or 4 or 6 years time ArenaNet goes bust as the last few hundred players leave for greener pastures.