Online gaming, is it ruining the gaming industry?

[AUTO_]

Editorial taken from EGM July 2004/Number 180:




Multiplayer gaming may one day destroy the videogames business. That's my theory, anyway.
In all my spare time, I've been playing Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow online over XBOX Live. I don't want to play anything else, and I know I'm not the only one. Some people already have over 180 hours logged on...and the game has only been out for a month and a half as of this writing! (Let's see...180 hours divided by 45 days=we need an intervention.) That's 180 hours they're not playing some other videogame. I don't even want to think about all the combined online playing hours SOCOM 1 and 2 players have logged on to their Playstation 2s.
The days of their lives are spent in SOCOM's world-and probably nowhere else. Do you see where I'm going with this?
I love multiplayer gaming, and I love online gaming. But what's going to happen to this industry if we're not buying new games because our current ones are occupying all of our time? Those less-hyped games will sell even less, publishers will take even fewer risks and stick to their Need for Speed 9s and Grand Theft Auto: Small Town USAs, and perhaps game makers will want to charge us (or in Microsoft's case with XBOX Live, charge us more) to play with our friends online.
This holiday season, we're gonna get slammed with online-enabled games, from Star Wars Battlefront to Battlefield: Modern Combat to Gran Turismo 4. When you're on your 100th hour of Halo 2 deathmatch, just make sure to take a breather and check out some of the other great games this industry has to offer, OK?

-Dan "Shoe" Hsu, Editor-in-Chief



I know this is true for me, I played the PSO series basically exclusively for 3 years of my life, and I've finally kicked the habit--only to be dropped into another online game (SOCOM 2) and doing the same thing.

I'm sure others do this as well, and I'm sure it's having (or will have in the future) a great impact on how games are being made.

Any thoughts?

[_Ted_]

Meh, I've only bought 1 game since I bought PSO a year ago and I've hardly rented anything...I'm contributing to the destruction of the gaming industry! http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

[Arislan]

People with addictive personalities. Nothing new, take a look at the number of speed runs and things like that in games. I really dont think that the number of people that stick to one game has gone up out of proportion with the growth in gaming, and only slightly spiked with the growth of an online community.

Games like MMORPGs cant really be figured into this, since they really cover a different demographic than any genre we saw in the past 20 years (besides MUDs, of course). So we can count those out. MMORPGs filled a niche for players that hadn't had a niche outside of RPGs, if that, at all, so it really added a new demographic. And while there are people that stick with EQ or DAoC forever and ever, player turnover with new games is astounding.

FPSs are where the real addicts lie. There are people that still play Doom 2 out there against each other religiously. Doom 2 people! These, I think would be what Mr Hsu is speaking of. But then again, these people are the same ones that also played the offline only FPSs and such like Doom and Rise of the Triad for hours on end, just that there are more of them with the explosion of casual gamers heralding the arrival of the PS1.

I dont think Multiplayer gaming is making gaming go to hell in a handbasket. Just providing new genres and niches for people to get their little minds wrapped around till they stop that and clutch to a new game for a while.

[ABDUR101]

I have to agree with Arislan. I've played UO for nearly two years I think, as well as some other MMORPG's that I wanted to give a try. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy a good session of Halo or UT2004, or any other quick action game. I play more or less based on my mood anyway. If I want a laid back game experience, go for UO or Sacred, want something to test my reflexes, load up UT2004 or any of the numerous other twitch and run games I have.

I've bought quite afew games over the last year, for multiple systems. I don't play each one daily, hell I could go for weeks without playing many of them, but in the end, they all get ran through at some point or another.

And it has to be remembered, that some multiplayer games just don't appeal to some gamers. Some don't have the connection for it, or the hardware, or can't afford to pay for it in some cases, so they have to fill the void with other games and ignore the whole multiplayer aspect altogether.

[HUnewearl_Meira]

Personally... All of these recently released Phantasy Star games are really the only reason I've remained a contributor to the gaming industry. I probably wouldn't even own a GameCube (or a Dreamcast, for that matter) if I weren't for PSO. Just the same, I wouldn't have purchased a GBA if Phantasy Star Collection hadn't been released on it. That's the honest truth. Furthermore, I likely won't purchase a PS2 until the availability of the Phantasy Star remakes has become imminent.

*sigh* This is what it means to be a Phanatic.

[Skett]

I really think that online gaming is a faze. Not like it will go away but developers will stop putting so much time on it and will be as normal as regular multiplayer. So I really don't think it will ruin the industry.

See I have my own theory on how the industry will die: lack of innovation. Maybe someday I will explain my theory but how things are now, it could very well occure.

[Mixfortune]

I think Arislan's mention of speed runs helps in this case. There have always been those who play a certain game or two more than others, and don't buy others games because of it. It's just that with online games, you can see more of the people doing so. It's not a bad thing to only play one or two games a lot more often than others, although it may seem that way. You can bet that many of these "neglected" games have some people that play it religiously, as well.

[astuarlen]

Mmmm... for me, it's not so much an addiction to PSO--actually, I took a three-month break--that prevents me from buying new games right now. It's more like either the games I was looking forward to end up mediocre, or I know my computer and meager finances will never handle the games. Lionheart and Temple of Elemental Evil come to mind as anticipated but disappointing games. >_< God I wanted a nice singleplayer RPG, but horrible demos and cool reviews kept me from buying. There have been a few MMORPGs that I found interesting, but paying an online fee for more than one game is not very appealing, especially since my computer will probably choke on them without fancy hardware. I've spent more than a year and a half with PSO, but that's not particularly unusual for me; I tend to stick with one good game for a loooooong time, even if it's not online. So, yeah, I don't really think online gaming is a killer for sales and such. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_confused.gif



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: astuarlen on 2004-06-14 13:30 ]</font>

[Gnarled_rose]

It's articles like this that make me wish my Starcraft CD worked and that I had internet for my gamecube...
But I do agree. Some of these games are getting so encompassing that you either can't get off it or can't play any other game that doesn't seem similar.

[Outrider]

I think Skett's got it right, for the most part.

Personally, I just think that a lot of people that play online games wouldn't really be playing games AT ALL if not for the online aspect. If anything, I'd say it's getting new people more than it is alienating current gamers from new games. I mean, I'm sure that does happen, but I don't think it's quite the epidemic some people might consider it.

But heck... between my two brothers and I, we've gotten more than a dozen games in the past year, so I'm not worried.

[AUTO_]

It's certainly been the case with me--but I think I'm finding out that online gaming is where my "gameheart" really lies.

[HUnewearl_Meira]

Personally, I'm thinking that the MMORPG genre is really more of a threat to itself, than anything else. The more of these games that come out, the thinner the market is spread.

With most games, this wouldn't be much of a problem, BUT...

The thing about MMORPGs is that they are rather time-consuming. It's rather unreasonable to figure that someone could keep up with more than 2 at once, let alone the large numbers of them on the market. One at a time is enough for most. This really only leaves room for 3 or 4 MMORPGs to be successful during any particular generation of such games, yet they're quite popular, so dozens are being made at any given time. The problem here, is rather inherent, I think.

[Outrider]

And I think that's the most important part about it.

Meira's right... the market can only support a small number of successful MMORPG games at once.

One problem that is slowly becoming fairly big is that people keep playing these MMORPGs into other generations. For instance, Everquest is definitely a game from a previous generation, yet it's still played almost religiously. Who wants to bet Everquest 2 won't be as popular as the first one? Who wants to bet that even when Everquest 2 is in it's prime, there'll still be a significant number of people who only play the first one?

[DarthFomar]

I play online games........but I still have to play others as well.

Online games just don't completely satisfy my need for gaming. I play them for a few hours......I quit and do something else.....then I go continue my online gaming or *more often than not...I will switch to something else for a few hours*.

I'm sure there are a lot of people out there still playing Everquest. My friend still plays the hell out of it; and also doesn't even have any consoles, hardly ever buys PC games {since his pc is a little out-dated}.....but, understandingly enough, he doesn't make enough money to go to college and support his gaming habit.

And things like that are probably ruining the gaming industry......but some people just don't have the ability to fully support this industry.

It will be interesting to see how things *actually* turn out in the Gaming Industry, though. I hope it's all for the best. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif

[Para]

Heh I too understand what everyone is feeling.

However, all those hours logged on these games, I'll never forget. I had my moments of joy, happiness and my fair share of anger and disappointment. To me it is the experiences that make it all up and remembering them.

Sure there's so many other games to try but so little time...

As I speak, I am between PSO and UT2k4 http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif