Massively OP reader Gail made an interesting observation in one of the City of Heroes Master x Master drama threads about what she called “corn flake games.” A family she knew that ran a grocery store quibbled over how to stock it: One sister “always wanted to cram the cereal aisle with the latest cartoon character high sugar high profit fads.” The other sister’s refrain?
“‘Corn flakes. People in this town buy corn flakes.’ Corn flakes, while not hugely profitable, were steady dependable sellers. In the MMO market, CoH was a corn flake game. It wasn’t going to magically turn into WoW overnight. It wasn’t going to suddenly break out and take the gaming world by storm, though with the huge surge in superhero movies I wonder what some good advertising would have done. But it had a sizable group of steady customers who provided a stable profit. That’s nothing to sneeze at.”
That’s precisely why the sunset was so baffling when most games would kill for a subscription playerbase of 100K: It was a steady earner. And it was and is surely not alone. What else do you think is a “corn flake” MMO? Or to put it another way:Â What’s the most stable and dependable MMORPG (besides WoW) right now?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
