In June, at the height of the New World Aeternum announcement debacle, we thought about what Amazon is doing – and why it isn’t working. Tyler from MOP made a strong statement that resonated with me because it has broader applications than just New World:
“I know this goes against traditional corporate marketing wisdom, but I wonder if people would have responded better if they had just said outright, ‘The game isn’t making enough money and we need to make this desperate attempt to save it.'”
I want to talk about that idea this week on Massively Overthinking, the idea that there’s an ideal time for game developers to move from Bagdad Bob to brutal honesty, an ideal time where being open about the game’s prospects would have a better chance of saving it than being hypocritical. So here we go: Let’s talk about some MMOs that tried, how it turned out, and which MMOs didn’t try but might have been better off if they had.
Brianna Royce (@SubscribeBlog): I think we have several good modern examples of studios admitting they were in trouble – with varying results. Project Gorgon is probably the most heartwarming, as players came together with mass donations when the developers spoke openly about their financial problems. But then again, Gorgon has always had a good reputation for being open about its finances, so perhaps this is no surprise. Wayfinder is the other example that comes to mind, as Airship has been incredibly transparent about what’s going on there, although I don’t know if it will actually work.
Maybe that’s the problem: I can think of a few games that were honest about this and it helped them maintain a comfortable player base for a while, but I can’t think of any that went on to become a huge success. I think these kinds of honest revelations get the existing player base to open their wallets, but that’s about as far as it goes. Gorgon was probably the exception, since one of the lead developers is battling cancer, so even people who don’t play games helped her.
Amazon, as a mega-corporation, would never openly discuss the game’s finances because it’s just not that kind of company, and it pains me that the developers, who otherwise seem like decent people, are obviously blocked from communicating anything at the moment, let alone the money situation. So maybe telling PC gamers that the console is the last hope for the game wouldn’t have helped much – especially when gamers already suspected it – but not that definitely hurt. So yeah, I think Tyler was pretty right.
Chris Neal (@SubscribeBlog): The first and most immediate example of a game that admitted to being in financial trouble but turned out to be rosy is Project Gorgonand boy, that’s the happiest of all possible endings (or at least the best stay of execution there is).
Otherwise, the only examples that come to mind are the following: Zenith admitting that you are not making any money and then trying a side game to make money (which failed) or Temtem and complained that it wasn’t making enough money – while the studio simultaneously whined about how MMORPG players wanted regular updates for MMORPGs, harped on about the game’s MMO nature, tried unsuccessfully to develop a side game (then decided to try again), and eventually put the “MMO-lite” into maintenance mode.
So would other games have been better off if they had been open? I’m not really sure. Most studios seem content to play Baghdad Bob or lean on other crutches/excuses rather than be open about financial problems. Eventually, this admission could turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy, foreshadowing further player attrition and the drying up of the whale tanks.
Colin Henry (@ChaosConstant): I can certainly understand why studios don’t want to do that. It’s really hard to get rid of the “dead game” label once it’s widespread enough. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; everyone thinks this game is about to be canceled, so no one wants to invest time or money in it, which leads to it being canceled. Of course there are exceptions, but I think admitting your game has one foot in the grave would probably do more harm than good in most cases.
Justin Olivetti (@SyssterBlog): Honesty from studios is always a good strategy and will be well received if you have built a healthy relationship with your player base. This doesn’t mean you need to over-explain or dramatize everything, but 99% of the time, being open with your customers about the current situation and what everyone – studio and players alike – can do together to achieve success is the way to go.
I see players all the time willing to stand up for studios and advocate for them, even if they only get the bare minimum explanation. And when a studio goes above and beyond, it really creates a “we’re all on the same team” mentality.
World of Warcraft is a good example of a studio taking on this cause. It used to be very tight-lipped with fans and unwilling to talk about its problems, but in recent years communication has improved greatly, Blizz has shown vulnerability and famously laid out ambitious plans for the next three expansions while dialing people back after admitting it had disappointed fans with the last few expansions.
Sam Kash (@thesamkash): I tend to like developers who have honest and real conversations with their player base better. Of course, I haven’t been paying as much attention to the various developers lately because they don’t know where they communicate. The number of conversations that happen in Discord is hard for me to keep track of.
Overall, I would still say that you should really talk to your players. Developers don’t have to feel obligated to disclose everything, but it’s certainly better if they’re more honest about the state of the game.
Thomas E. (Blog): I understand the desire not to cause panic by being too honest when a game is in crisis. But it’s also not the right behavior when everyone can see that something is wrong and you’re assuming “everything is fine.”
I have the feeling we will see this again with Storm Gate. The initial Early Access launch was pretty rocky, and while some people are enjoying it, the general tone of the community is very negative. The developers did make a statement about how they will respond to criticism, but it was also laced with complacency, such as saying the servers were mostly stable (yay…?) and generally sounded like “that’s fine, these are expected Early Access issues, move on.”
As someone who isn’t happy with the current state of the game, I was hoping for more humility and a willingness to acknowledge that the game didn’t live up to the expectations the developers set before release. The reaction we got felt out of touch with reality and makes me even more pessimistic about the game’s future than I already was.
Join the Massively OP team each week for the Massively OP team’s “Massively Overthinking” column, a multi-author roundtable discussion where we discuss the hot topics affecting the MMO industry—and then invite you to join the conversation in the comments. It’s literally about overthinking. It’s your turn!