It's hard to see this as anything else, but to me, this marks the twilight of the MMO game environment.
The future of online MMO's looks like the browser games and social networking games. Easy to make, last for a year or two, and are as easily abandoned. Micro-transactions for every minor benefit, and milked for maximum profit. The proof of that is what happened to Star Wars. A major release, anticipated by the whole gaming market, forced to go free to play in less than a year, and with a total userbase so low, they're talking minimum life support, now.
Guild Wars 2 is just a bigger example of the same monster. It's all about the microtransactions. And as for their "refocus", I'm betting that means they're abandoning most of their worldwide market and concentrating exclusively on the South Korean market. I expect Aion will vanish soon as a result of this, as well.
I find myself wishing someone would cobble together a standalone server. We've got the whole game on our drives. All it would take is something to string all the pieces together. It would be a nice way to remember the game, to have a way to visit occasionally.
But if that doesn't, or can't happen, I'll keep playing until they turn off the lights. Then I'll find a way to keep playing wherever we decide to open up another door. Because like I said before, it's really not about the game client. It's about our friends.
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Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.
The future of online MMO's looks like the browser games and social networking games. Easy to make, last for a year or two, and are as easily abandoned. Micro-transactions for every minor benefit, and milked for maximum profit. The proof of that is what happened to Star Wars. A major release, anticipated by the whole gaming market, forced to go free to play in less than a year, and with a total userbase so low, they're talking minimum life support, now.
Guild Wars 2 is just a bigger example of the same monster. It's all about the microtransactions. And as for their "refocus", I'm betting that means they're abandoning most of their worldwide market and concentrating exclusively on the South Korean market. I expect Aion will vanish soon as a result of this, as well.
I find myself wishing someone would cobble together a standalone server. We've got the whole game on our drives. All it would take is something to string all the pieces together. It would be a nice way to remember the game, to have a way to visit occasionally.
But if that doesn't, or can't happen, I'll keep playing until they turn off the lights. Then I'll find a way to keep playing wherever we decide to open up another door. Because like I said before, it's really not about the game client. It's about our friends.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.