MMO drinking game: Do a shot every time an MMO dies

Why do companies bother making MMOs, I will never understand this. It's like repeatedly banging your head into a wall after having watched other people do it, and seeing how painful it is.  I'm not even remotely a business person but doesn't it seem like common fucking sense?
 
The market has been cornered. Mostly by WoW, partly by EVE Online and other small but stable userbase-MMOs. Anything that even resembles a typical Everquest/WoW game will NOT be able to survive. Can someone explain to me why someone like Cryptic would even bother?

Cryptic opted to go the casual MMO route with both Champions and Star Trek Online. The sad fact is that the casual MMO has a short lifespan as arguably the reason anyone plays an MMO is for long term enjoyment and consistent content patches and updates being released presenting an almost never ending stream of fun and entertainment.
 
With Cryptic however they figured they could charge people the same amount each month as Blizzard does for WoW but provide 1/10 of the content and expect people to continue subscribing month after month. 
 
Frankly I'm hoping DC Universe Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic will be good MMOs because after Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Champions & Star Trek Online being grave disappointments I'm losing faith.

Cryptic's "City of Heroes/Villains" series is moderately successful. The game has a devoted fan base and active community. Though their latest ventures, Champions Online and Star Trek Online, have not been as successful. A studio like Cryptic has talent that specializes in MMO's, understandably they keep producing more of them.

I recently cancelled my own subscription to Star Trek Online and I doubt I'll be dipping my toes in any more of these games unless they get REALLY good word of mouth

" Cryptic opted to go the casual MMO route with both Champions and Star Trek Online. The sad fact is that the casual MMO has a short lifespan as arguably the reason anyone plays an MMO is for long term enjoyment and consistent content patches and updates being released presenting an almost never ending stream of fun and entertainment.  With Cryptic however they figured they could charge people the same amount each month as Blizzard does for WoW but provide 1/10 of the content and expect people to continue subscribing month after month.   Frankly I'm hoping DC Universe Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic will be good MMOs because after Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Champions & Star Trek Online being grave disappointments I'm losing faith. "

The title of this thread is legitimately funny.

At this rate everyone in this thread will end up drunk with every MMO theoretically dying or declining.

The odds of sucsses might be slim but if an mmo gets even half the numbers wow dose they will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Is Star Wars Galaxies still online, because I would love to see the Giant Bomb guys go through that game next. ^.^

That's like one, maybe two shots a year, dude. I need more alcohol in me before this gets at all interesting.

" The title of this thread is legitimately funny. "

" @Bucketdeth: You are spot on there. I almost resubscribed to AoC a week or two back when I heard they had some expansions on the way and had added a tonne of extra content to the game while rebalancing a lot of existing errors. But I didn't because while I do love the setting, dark and mature like it is, I'm done with fantasy MMOs. I mean the genre is saturated in them, lets move on to comic and sci-fi MMOs please!  Also other than the fact WAR now costs thousands to play each month the biggest issue I had with that game is how much it relied on you to grind PvP to advance in PvE and how frankly the lag was unplayable. Not to mention server crashes each time the Tier 4 players decided to invade the opposing Tier 4 city. Something that ruined my time playing it all too often :(  I also forgot to mention Guild Wars 2 is another upcoming MMO-ish game I look forward too. I want to be an Asuran Warrior so badly! "

I think many developers want to gun for a MMO because if (big if) they can capture a moderately sized audience (depending upon production costs, as few as 50k), they can turn a long term profit. Like Champions Online or Age of Conan, for example.  There's not many players for either, relatively speaking, but the development of each game employed plenty of people for years, and many of them for years after release (potentially).
 
Generally speaking, I've given up on MMOs unless they promise to offer things that other non-MMOs do. Like voice acting, branching story lines, that kind of thing. Because for as big as any existing MMO world is, I've found that the games themselves actually offer little depth or replayability compared to AAA RPGs aimed at different markets (Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, etc). And I am tired as shit of endless quest-driven, non-interactive/non context sensitive quests that are all extremely similar.
 
So pretty much I'm waiting on Star Wars: The Old Republic. I hope Bioware can deliver.

" Cryptic opted to go the casual MMO route with both Champions and Star Trek Online. The sad fact is that the casual MMO has a short lifespan as arguably the reason anyone plays an MMO is for long term enjoyment and consistent content patches and updates being released presenting an almost never ending stream of fun and entertainment.  With Cryptic however they figured they could charge people the same amount each month as Blizzard does for WoW but provide 1/10 of the content and expect people to continue subscribing month after month.   Frankly I'm hoping DC Universe Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic will be good MMOs because after Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Champions & Star Trek Online being grave disappointments I'm losing faith. "

No thanks, I want to live.

MMO's are dead to me

" @Hamz said:

" Cryptic opted to go the casual MMO route with both Champions and Star Trek Online. The sad fact is that the casual MMO has a short lifespan as arguably the reason anyone plays an MMO is for long term enjoyment and consistent content patches and updates being released presenting an almost never ending stream of fun and entertainment.  With Cryptic however they figured they could charge people the same amount each month as Blizzard does for WoW but provide 1/10 of the content and expect people to continue subscribing month after month.   Frankly I'm hoping DC Universe Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic will be good MMOs because after Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Champions & Star Trek Online being grave disappointments I'm losing faith. "

So does that mean you think that STO will fail? Or do you think Cryptic can pull out of the ditch? Maybe cut the price of the game. "

" @The_Laughing_Man said:

" @Hamz said:

" Cryptic opted to go the casual MMO route with both Champions and Star Trek Online. The sad fact is that the casual MMO has a short lifespan as arguably the reason anyone plays an MMO is for long term enjoyment and consistent content patches and updates being released presenting an almost never ending stream of fun and entertainment.  With Cryptic however they figured they could charge people the same amount each month as Blizzard does for WoW but provide 1/10 of the content and expect people to continue subscribing month after month.   Frankly I'm hoping DC Universe Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic will be good MMOs because after Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Champions & Star Trek Online being grave disappointments I'm losing faith. "

So does that mean you think that STO will fail? Or do you think Cryptic can pull out of the ditch? Maybe cut the price of the game. "

Once the novelty of WHOA I'M IN STAR TREK wore off the game quickly revealed how shallow it is and I'm pretty sure it won't last long "

On the topic of Cryptic, they have struck upon a business model that works well in the short term - and within the current MMO lull. I'm sure their top echelon have earned enough to be comfortable for years, so regardless of what happens we will see them again. Unfortunately for gamers, their products are vapid and shallow and won't sustain themselves once real competition once again enters the market (not just WoW, because that monster is in a class of its own).
 
STO is the epitome of fast food MMO subscription-based development. I hope that's not a trend. Because that shit should have been free to play.

Guild Wars 2 and The Old Republic will be the only succesful new MMO's in the near future. From the looks of it, Cryptic is focusing on rapidly developing MMO's that are even more shallow, boring and heavy on grinding than those crappy free to play Korean games.