Author Topic: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller  (Read 14311 times)

Starsman

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Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« on: December 18, 2012, 08:47:50 PM »
Shocked there is no thread on this... or I have a very bad eye...

Anyways:

Quote
MMORPG.com will be featuring former City of Heroes senior lead designer Matt 'Positron' Miller this Thursday, December 20 to discuss the now shutdown superhero MMO as part of a livestream Q&A.

Link (They want user questsions)
For the sake of the community: please stop the cultural "research" in your attempt to put blame on the game's cancelation.

It's sickening to see the community sink that low. It's worse to see the community does not get it.

I'm signing off and taking a break, blindly hope things change.

AlienOne

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2012, 09:03:16 PM »
Wow, thanks... I just posted.
"What COH did was to show [developers of other] MMOs what they could be like if they gave up on controlling everything in the game, and just made it something great to play."  - Johnny Joy Bringer

Globetrotter

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2012, 09:12:20 PM »
It's in the 'Thank the Media thread'

http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php?topic=4908.580
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Starsman

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2012, 02:30:22 PM »
Come on guys! They want us to submit questions, I am sure there are more questions than the ones that have been posted so far!
For the sake of the community: please stop the cultural "research" in your attempt to put blame on the game's cancelation.

It's sickening to see the community sink that low. It's worse to see the community does not get it.

I'm signing off and taking a break, blindly hope things change.

Quinch

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2012, 02:50:29 PM »
I keep trying to, but my registration email constantly refuses to arrive.

Starsman

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2012, 02:56:00 PM »
I keep trying to, but my registration email constantly refuses to arrive.

Check your junk/spam box. I found mine there.
For the sake of the community: please stop the cultural "research" in your attempt to put blame on the game's cancelation.

It's sickening to see the community sink that low. It's worse to see the community does not get it.

I'm signing off and taking a break, blindly hope things change.

Ironwolf

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2012, 03:04:28 PM »
Posted a a question asking them if they would consider moving the Paragon Studios to Michigan as the state is offering 40% tax credits and 0% loans for up to $15 million for movies and game developers to come to Michigan.

In my research I found that these loans can even be given TO ACQUIRE IP RIGHTS!

Yes, the state of Michigan could loan Paragon Studios the money to by the game.

Sugoi

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #7 on: December 19, 2012, 03:12:35 PM »
I just asked the question that's been on my mind since the announcement of the CoH Shutdown was originally made.

How long would it take to create a CoH-like MMO from scratch, given the funding and co-workers?

I figured it would be nice to get a professional estimate from those who've done the work already.

Knightslayer

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2012, 03:19:24 PM »
Posted a a question asking them if they would consider moving the Paragon Studios to Michigan as the state is offering 40% tax credits and 0% loans for up to $15 million for movies and game developers to come to Michigan.

In my research I found that these loans can even be given TO ACQUIRE IP RIGHTS!

Yes, the state of Michigan could loan Paragon Studios the money to by the game.
Matt did say he might be interested in starting another project, provided he found the right partners.
Either way, I'm looking forward to the Q&A.

HEATSTROKE

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #9 on: December 19, 2012, 04:18:59 PM »
 this is just my own conjecture but it seems to me like he might be done with MMO's. It seems to me the industry is moving away from them.

Starsman

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #10 on: December 19, 2012, 04:31:23 PM »
this is just my own conjecture but it seems to me like he might be done with MMO's. It seems to me the industry is moving away from them.

Industry is NOT moving away from MMOs. Industry IS moving away from subscription models, though.

For the sake of the community: please stop the cultural "research" in your attempt to put blame on the game's cancelation.

It's sickening to see the community sink that low. It's worse to see the community does not get it.

I'm signing off and taking a break, blindly hope things change.

Victoria Victrix

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #11 on: December 20, 2012, 01:18:41 AM »
Industry is NOT moving away from MMOs. Industry IS moving away from subscription models, though.

Given that in the latest interview with Matt and Melissa, they both said that CoH was making MORE money when they went to F2P, I can see why.
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Osborn

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #12 on: December 20, 2012, 04:21:06 AM »
Given that in the latest interview with Matt and Melissa, they both said that CoH was making MORE money when they went to F2P, I can see why.

And they didn't whole-heartedly embrace F2P as a model properly, so that can only really be good news to anybody that knows the F2P model well when considering the IP.

Frostyfrozen

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #13 on: December 20, 2012, 09:33:41 AM »
I put in my 2 cents worth of questions hope the fit and not seem to dig to much.

Starsman

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #14 on: December 20, 2012, 04:48:53 PM »
Given that in the latest interview with Matt and Melissa, they both said that CoH was making MORE money when they went to F2P, I can see why.

Well, that's not the reason, that's just the sign.

The reason is a bit compound. For one, there are so many games out there, so many MMOs. It's hard to spend any money on a game you may not like. A F2P model drastically lowers the entry friction, making it extremely easy for anyone to just download the game and try it out. This brings in a lot of more players than you would.

A second point is commitment. Once a player is in, he is normally required to keep paying his monthly fee. It's a bit of an all-or-nothing. With a F2P model, the player can decide to only pay certain months, or micro-manage what privileges he is willing to pay for. One of my best friends in game used to cancel and return all the time due to RL issues. I bet had he have a F2P model at the time, he would never have forced himself into these windows. Eventually, during one of these windows, it seems he just never came back. In short: RL forces you to quit for a bit and once you quit it's more likely you may never return. With F2P you are rarely forced to quit, you are still there the day you are able and willing to pay for something.

Another killer of MMOs can be small communities. If you have empty servers, people stop playing even if they love the game. Even the stingiest of F2P players, the ones that never spend a cent in the game, are actually contributing to the success. By filling servers with team-mates for those that are willing to pay, they make sure that those paying customers never quit out of seclusion.

And then, an issue that comes up with this: once too many engage into F2P models, it becomes even harder to convince anyone to try your MMO if you are charging money up front in any way (be it box, monthly fee or worse, both.) Right now, launching a paid MMO is crazy and you should not attempt it unless you got a HUGE level of hype and strong IP on your side. There are just way too many free options out there for you to be able to gain any traction as a paid game.
For the sake of the community: please stop the cultural "research" in your attempt to put blame on the game's cancelation.

It's sickening to see the community sink that low. It's worse to see the community does not get it.

I'm signing off and taking a break, blindly hope things change.

Starsman

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #15 on: December 20, 2012, 04:51:43 PM »
And they didn't whole-heartedly embrace F2P as a model properly, so that can only really be good news to anybody that knows the F2P model well when considering the IP.

I think they embraced it strongly enough. They went more towards "strongly encourage VIP" over nickle-diming though. They held back a LOT of features that heavily motivated (in cases, nearly forced) people to just upgrade their accounts.
For the sake of the community: please stop the cultural "research" in your attempt to put blame on the game's cancelation.

It's sickening to see the community sink that low. It's worse to see the community does not get it.

I'm signing off and taking a break, blindly hope things change.

Ziggy1890

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #16 on: December 20, 2012, 09:43:30 PM »
"UPDATE:
Due to Pokket being under the weather, we're going to be rescheduling this interview.  Hang tight for an updated time!  Thanks for bearing with us. Wish Pokket a speedy recovery! And thanks to Matt for bearing with our delays!"

Osborn

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #17 on: December 20, 2012, 09:51:24 PM »
I think they embraced it strongly enough. They went more towards "strongly encourage VIP" over nickle-diming though. They held back a LOT of features that heavily motivated (in cases, nearly forced) people to just upgrade their accounts.

That's the problem though. F2P is a model to get people who won't or can't subscribe to pay something rather than nothing, and to fill empty seats and to spread word of mouth advertisement. Not as a model to trick them into paying a subscription. If your business strategy revolves around forcing subscriptions then you're doing it wrong.

That's why SWTOR is probably gonna shut doors in a year or so. Every F2P person feel that the "Preferred" class of player is treated like crap and avoids being one. But that doesn't mean they subscribe either. So they just fart around on Tython until they get tired and quit.

CoH didn't treat its "premium" players all that well either and tried to segregate them from VIPs but at least it didn't encourage them to quit by making the base game unfun by making them underpowered for even casual play nor encourage the VIP players to hate on them over /b 24/7.

Kistulot

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #18 on: December 20, 2012, 09:54:35 PM »
I think they embraced it strongly enough. They went more towards "strongly encourage VIP" over nickle-diming though. They held back a LOT of features that heavily motivated (in cases, nearly forced) people to just upgrade their accounts.

While I do appreciate them not nickle and diming, I do think that you should have been able to with premium buy everything - just made it cost prohibitive so the things people WOULD want to buy, hey, its better to go VIP and get it in a bundle!
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Starsman

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Re: Livestream Q&A with Matt 'Positron' Miller
« Reply #19 on: December 20, 2012, 09:59:17 PM »
That's the problem though. F2P is a model to get people who won't or can't subscribe to pay something rather than nothing, and to fill empty seats and to spread word of mouth advertisement. Not as a model to trick them into paying a subscription. If your business strategy revolves around forcing subscriptions then you're doing it wrong.

You are right to a point, the point where you say it's not about "tricking them into paying a subscription". The entire model IS about incentivizing the player to give  you money. It just has to be done in a way where the player does not feel forced to do so, just heavily encouraged.

The devs still took very seriously the ideal of SO balance, in fact, I think they took it even stronger after the game went F2P than before. CoH DID a good job at encouraging you to subscribe while also not frustrating the Free4Ever players.

Quote
That's why SWTOR is probably gonna shut doors in a year or so. Every F2P person feel that the "Preferred" class of player is treated like crap and avoids being one. But that doesn't mean they subscribe either. So they just fart around on Tython until they get tired and quit.

The biggest hurdle SWTOR will have is they still charge for the box. As far as addoption goes, you may as well build the Wall of China around your server and only allow in those that can buy a plane ticket.
For the sake of the community: please stop the cultural "research" in your attempt to put blame on the game's cancelation.

It's sickening to see the community sink that low. It's worse to see the community does not get it.

I'm signing off and taking a break, blindly hope things change.