Let's play devil's advocate for a moment. You've
read the complaints from hardcore gamers who
are very, very upset with the changes that Sony has implemented to their massively-multiplayer RPG Star Wars
Galaxies. You've even, perhaps, agreed with some of it.
But why should Sony care what hardcore gamers think? It was Sony's mistake in the first place to design a game that appealed to the hard core demographic and turned off just about everyone else. The subscription numbers don't lie: according to Mmogchart.com, only about 250,000 people subscribed to SWG. Meanwhile, much more consumer-friendly games such as World of Warcraft have been going gangbusters, with subscription growth through the roof.
When a radio station changes formats (say from Jazz to Top 40), they'll play something completely unrelated to either format for a couple weeks, just to blow out the old listeners and start with a blank slate. Perhaps Sony should have done the same: announce to subscribers that the game as they know it is ending and that they'll be relaunching the game with entirely new rules of play.
For a MMOG to make buckets and buckets of money, it must be dumbed down. Nintendo and Microsoft have both taken steps to make gaming more accessible to the masses with simpler controls, simpler interfaces, simpler hardware, and so on. If we agree with the premise that consoles are complex enough to warrant dumbing down, then PC gaming needs a friggin' lobotomy.
World of Warcraft is successful because it hit the right balance between simplicity and complexity from launch day. There are still hard-core gamers today who call WoW "Diablo III," the implication being that it's too dumb for a true hardcore RPG fan. And yet the subscriber numbers don't lie. WoW is the most successful MMOG. In game design, dumb is the new smart.
Trying to change this balance years after launch is very, very tough. But push on, Sony. Let's see if you can give WoW a real challenge.
For the hardcore, there's always Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. That game should be about as popular as paper-based D&D ever was.
