GC: Film and MMOs don't mix - ArenaNet

By Ellie Gibson Published 21 August, 2007

Warns against copying WOW.

Jeff Strain, co-founder of Guild Wars developer ArenaNet, has said that MMO studios should focus on creating new worlds instead of basing games on books, TV and films.

Speaking at the Leipzig GCDC Strain said, "Even the big two [franchises] haven't lived up to their expectations."

He went on to point out that the top two MMOs are based on original worlds - and that this means their creators aren't restricted when developing titles.

Strain also argued that most MMOs fail because of the social nature of the genre, and because gamers rarely commit to more than one at a time.

"The primary factor that determines whether an MMO lives or dies is the active player base," he observed.

"There's a sweet spot, and those that don't reach that threshold tend to die within a short time."

Of course, Strain continued, there are plenty of reasons why players stop playing an MMO. But he reckons you can spot potential problems before a game is even on the shelves: "Releasing an MMO before everybody on the development team is absolutely proud of it is walking away from every dime you've invested in it."

Strain agreed that World of Warcraft has had a huge impact on the industry, but warned against trying to copy Blizzard's work too closely.

"The best-placed people to create World of Warcraft's successor, it's the World of Warcraft team," he told the audience. "Let's all do our own thing, and be good at it.

"[WOW isn't] the most innovative product on the market, but it has a tremendous amount of content in it and it's exceptionally polished. It was in development for five years and probably cost well in excess of USD 40 million to bring to market."

To finish up, Strain took a swipe at the notion that monthly fees are the only payment solution for MMOs. "Don't count on subscriptions. The subscription model is not the future of the games industry," he stated.

"Gamers don't buy the argument that an MMO has to charge a subscription fee to cover the ongoing cost of servers and development. We know it, and they know it."

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (14) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • hjarg #1 5 years ago

    LOTR Online anyone?
    Seems to be doing quite well.

  • ZuluHero #2 5 years ago

    not as well as they'd like...

  • HMAN #3 5 years ago

    Yeah the EG kinship on Snowbourne is dead despite starting with 30+ players.

  • kangarootoo #4 5 years ago

    "Gamers don't buy the argument that an MMO has to charge a subscription fee to cover the ongoing cost of servers and development. We know it, and they know it."

    Well they may not buy it, but that doesn't make it not true. Games players don't accept all sorts of things (advertising on a free website being another common one close to home), but half the time thats because they don't like dealing with reality or simply don't know what they are on about.

    The case in point is Guild Wars. The way the game works is fundamentally affected by their pricing model. You couldn't do WoW if it was funded the way GW is.

    The rest of the article just sounded like someone bigging up their own wares by the back door tbh.

  • ZuluHero #5 5 years ago

    guild wars 2

  • Hamflank #6 5 years ago

    "Gamers don't buy the argument that an MMO has to charge a subscription fee to cover the ongoing cost of servers and development. We know it, and they know it."

    Actually, I think WoW has changed that. Before WoW I didn't feel like paying monthly fees to play a game. Now I see that the money is (partially) being invested in creating a bigger and better game.
    Edited by 2 at 21/08/07 @ 16:13

  • Nilonym #7 5 years ago

    What he actually said was that you could not justify a subscription fee just to cover server and bandwidth costs. He went on to say that you could justify a subscription fee for other things, like large GM teams or frequent content updates.

    His point was not "subscriptions are evil and doomed to failure," but instead "not every game should charge a subscription fee, so be sure you can justify it if you choose to do so."
    Edited by 2 at 21/08/07 @ 16:39

  • skillian #8 5 years ago

    Heh kanga, even before I read the comments I knew you'd never let that "Gamers don't buy the argument that an MMO has to charge a subscription fee" line slide. :p

  • Drakron #9 5 years ago

    A lot of MMORPGs do not charge a subscription fee for playing, they use other methods to generate revenue (as micro transitions for exclusive content).

    Also there are alternatives to a flat monthly fee, such as time cards.

    None of what I said should come as a surprise to anyone with some knowledge of MMORPGs, the diference is that what I said is common in asia but unheard of in the rest of the world.

  • ZeroAX #10 5 years ago

    um what's the second most succesfull mmo? lineage? i wonder when the box says 14 mil people wordwide they count the illigal servers.

  • ZuluHero #11 5 years ago

    i think he's talking about Guild Wars and its recent passing 4 million sales since release.

    Don't worry EG will probably report that tomorrow :p

    EDIT: Linky: http://ww w.guildwars.com/events/press/re...
    Edited by 1 at 21/08/07 @ 19:55

  • kangarootoo #12 5 years ago

    @skillian

    Lol, is that good because I'm consistent, or bad because I'm obvious? :D

  • skillian #13 5 years ago

    I think it just means I spend too much time on Eurogamer.

  • Vandrius #14 5 years ago

    I think he's pretty close on the money.

    Pre-existing non-pc-game IP:
    LOTRO isn't doing badly, but it isn't storming ahead either.
    DDO never really took off.
    Matrix online? lol.
    Star Wars? Shot in the foot.

    Original IP:
    Lineage
    WoW
    EQ
    UO

    Now, you tell me which list you think had the most 'hit' titles.

    Theres always the "developer was good/bad" argument, but at a glance, it could very well be to do with using non-computer-game IP as the base contraining ideas/functionality/inventiveness.