Do MMOs Developers listen to their Customers?

May 10, 2009

I haven’t played any games recently. I think I might be growing out of the addiction. It makes me wonder what I will do now. I think the biggest worry is that I am not moving on to better things otherwise I wouldn’t be thinking about growing out of anything. Really I would love to keep playing games, but the game I want to play does not exist.

I have played most of the popular MMOs. My two longest played MMOs were Planetside and World of Warcraft. In between those two game I have tried Horizons, Everquest 1 and 2, Warhammer Online, Eve, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Guild Wars, Lineage 2, Starwars: Galaxies, and Age of Conan. Planetside was my first MMO. I was coming from a background of FPS and RPG games such as Counter Strike and Diablo2. Planetside was fun until it became obvious that the developers didn’t know what the fans wanted and where putting anything that thought might sound cool to someone that has not played the game. For some reason they were constantly looking to attach new fans before making their current fan base happy. I learned a long time ago that alienating your best customers and only looking for new customers to fill their spot is the hardest type of sales. The goal of all business, game studios are businesses, is to make money. A company cannot make money if the fans (customers) are not happy.

The real Colonoscopy experience

I know a lot of you are getting old and are going to have to go through this. At 27 I did think I would need a colonoscopy, but to make sure the infection was not something really serious the doctor through it was best. The colonoscopy part wasn't that bad cause they put you to sleep before the big camera goes up your ass. The really shitty part is the clean out the night before.

 You have to drink this horrible liquid. Now people are going to tell you to pick the worst flavor, that’s what I did, big mistake. They say you will associate the favor with the process and hate that flavor forever afterwards. But if you already like cherry you will not stop liking it just because it reminds you of this process plus the liquid already tastes really bad so there isn’t reason to make it worse. Choose your favorite flavor or the flavor with the most bite so you can only taste it and not the liquid. After the first 2 glasses head for the bathroom and wait there for the next 6-8 hours cause there is no way you can run fast enough to beat this stuff. One min you are fine the next the shit is out your ass and you are only half way to the bathroom.

After awhile its starts to come out clear or dirty clear like you have been eating sand. At this point it’s almost over. Don’t drink anything, just stay close to the bathroom and try to get some sleep.

After it’s all over they don’t want you eating anything heavy so just stuck to water and Jell-O. My shit was coming out green and looked like ooze. After the second day everything returned to normal. It’s an experience I will not treasure, but I will not make the same mistakes next time. My recommendation is get a good book or move the TV into the bathroom because you are many hours of free time.