Back in June, at the height of the New World Aeternum announcement debacle, we did an Overthinking about what Amazon was doing – and why it wasn’t working. MOP’s Tyler delivered a potent line 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 just straight up said, ‘The game isn’t making enough money and we need to do this hail Mary to try to save it.'”
I want to talk about this idea for this week’s Massively Overthinking, the idea that there’s an ideal time for game devs to flip from Baghdad Bob to brutal honesty, a sweet spot when being frank about the game’s prospects would have a better chance of saving it than dissembling. So let’s do it: Let’s talk about some MMOs that tried it, how it turned out, and which MMOs didn’t but might have been better off if they had.
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): I think we have several good modern examples of studios that admitted they were in trouble – with differing results. Project Gorgon is probably the most heartwarming, as players rallied with mass-donations when the devs were open about their financial struggles. But then again, Gorgon had a really good reputation for being open about its finances all along, so maybe that’s no surprise. Wayfinder is the other example that leaps to mind, as Airship has been insanely transparent about what’s going on there, though I don’t know whether it will actually work.
Maybe that’s the concern: I can think of a few games that were honest about this, and it helped them sustain with a comfortable playerbase for a while, but I can’t think of any that became huge successes afterward. I think these kinds of honest revelations get the existing playerbase to pop open their wallets, but it doesn’t go too far beyond that. Gorgon was probably the exception, then, owing to the fact that one of the lead devs is fighting cancer, so even people who don’t play chipped in to help her.
Amazon as a megacorporate entity was never going to be open about 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 humans, are clearly blocked from communicating anything right now, never mind the money situation. So maybe telling PC players that console was the last hope for the game wouldn’t have helped much – especially when players intuited it anyway – but not doing so definitely hurt. So yep, I think Tyler was pretty much spot on.
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes, blog):Â The first and most immediate example of a game admitting it was in financial dire straits that turned out sunny is Project Gorgon, and boy does that stand out as the happiest of endings possible (or at least the best stay of execution possible).
Otherwise the only other examples that come to mind is Zenith admitting it’s not making money and then trying a cash grab side game (which failed) or Temtem complaining that it’s not making enough money – all while its studio also whined about MMORPG players wanting regular updates in MMORPGs, waffling on the game’s MMO-ness, trying and failing to make a side game happen (then deciding to do it again), and ultimately putting the “MMO-lite” into maintenance mode.
So would other games have been better off if they were forthright? I’m not really sure. Most studios seem content to play Baghdad Bob or lean on other crutches/excuses instead of being open about financial issues. After all, that admittance could transform into a self-fulfilling prophecy of continued player decline and the whale pools drying up.
Colin Henry (@ChaosConstant): I can definitely understand why studios don’t want to do this. It is really hard to shake that “dead game” label once it becomes prevalent enough. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; everyone believes this game is destined to shut down soon, so nobody wants to invest time or money into it, which causes it to shut down. There are exceptions, of course, but I think admitting that your game has one foot in the grave would probably do more harm than good in most cases.
Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog):Â Honesty from studios is always a good policy, and it’s well-received when you’ve fostered a healthy relationship with your playerbase. This doesn’t mean you have to over-explained or dramatize everything, but being frank with your customers about current situations and what everyone — studio and players alike — can do together to bring about success is the way to go in 99% of situations.
I see all the time players willing to white knight and agitate for studios even when they’re given the bare minimum of explanations, and when a studio goes beyond that, it does create this “we’re all on the same team” mentality.
World of Warcraft is a good example of a studio coming around on this. It used to be very close-lipped with fans and unwilling to talk about its problems, but in the past couple years, the comms have improved greatly, Blizz has shown vulnerability, and it famously laid out ambitious plans for the next three expansions while calling people back after acknowledging that it disappointed fans with the past couple expansions.
Sam Kash (@thesamkash): Developers who have honest and real conversations with their playerbase tend to sit better with me. Of course, I haven’t really paid as much attention to the various developers as of late because of where they communicate; the number of conversations that go around in Discord is tough for me to follow.
Overall, though, I’d still say to lean into real talk with your players. Developers don’t need to feel obligated to put everything on the table, but certainly being more honest about the state of the game is better.
Tyler Edwards (blog):Â I understand the desire to not cause a panic by being too honest if a game is in dire straits, but going full “this is fine” dog when everyone can see things are not fine is not it, either.
I feel like we’re seeing this again with Stormgate. Its initial early access launch has been pretty rough, and while some people are enjoying themselves, the overall tone of the community is very negative. The developers did come out with a statement about how they’ll be responding to some criticism, but it was also paired with some self-congratulation about things like the servers being mostly stable (yay…?) and generally carried a tone of “this is fine, this is expected early access issues, move along.”
As someone who is not happy with the current state of the game, I was hoping to see more humility and a willingness to acknowledge that the game has not met the expectations set by the developers before launch. The response we did get felt out of touch, and it makes me feel even more pessimistic about the game’s future than I already did.
Every week, join the Massively OP staff for Massively Overthinking column, a multi-writer roundtable in which we discuss the MMO industry topics du jour – and then invite you to join the fray in the comments. Overthinking it is literally the whole point. Your turn!
