Age of Conan at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

Glen “Famine” Swan, Senior Assistant Community Manager
Funcom (Age of Conan | The Secret World | Anarchy Online)

Glen Swan keeps his eyes on the MMO gaming industry.

Trends are very interesting because they can break down into many different categories that either best relate to your customers or best relate to your organization. For me, I work in the community management field. A lot of the top trends I’m experienced with come directly from the community itself. And most of the time, those trends are just reflections of the top MMOG trends as a whole.

For example, I can break the community trends down into 2 categories called pre-launch and post-launch. The trends I notice from pre-launch are normally hot new feature requests that players want from either the game they are currently playing or previous games they have played within the genre. One of the biggest requests from that specific category is the infamous crafting or profession system. Then when you talk about the other category you normally always see requests for new content additions like new raids or quests. These are what I consider common community trends that of course impact the overall game when we either follow or rebel against the trends within our own little bubble of Funcom.

But, what about the trends within the MMOG industry as a whole rather than those pesky community trend reflections?

A lot of the most noticeable trends that I’ve caught on to have been with player services (or paid services) and how they’ve been developing across the board in the MMOG industry. The amount of player services (or paid services) has doubled, possibly tripled, over the past 5 years. It’s not uncommon to find a MMOG that offers extra character slots or paid character transfers between servers, and it’s not uncommon to find those infamous cash shops that drop insane amounts of player services for everyone to enjoy. We’ve noticed them too, and we have, of course, followed suit in adding our own line of player services across our games on things like character transfers, extra character slots, etc.

We’ve found that players want services like these and respect them a great deal if  they're maintained correctly. We’ve also found that players want more of those services depending on the current demand or top trends within the industry. So we both looked at the top trends within the MMOG industry as well our customer needs to offer a new line of services that best fits our games.

Now, how about [discussing] the trends our company rebel against and why?

"Top new trends may be popular in the industry as a whole, but maybe not as popular within our own customer base. Not every player community is the same and their needs or demands are not always the same either."

When you talk about hot new trends in the industry you are normally referring to a wave of new features or services your competitors are adapting to their games. For us, we try to keep on top of all the hot new features and services other developers are adding to their own games. It’s important we stay on top of those things because we know our customers are not always just restricted to just one MMOG. Thus, we are always trying to find ways to enhance our players experience with the k new additions.

But, we aren’t always so lucky. Some things are not as appealing. Some things are not as easy to follow or offer to our customers because games, much like people, are not all built the same. Developers don’t all use the same tools to develop their games and not everyone has the same amount of time or resources to dedicate to adding that hot new feature or service. So, when we rebel against the popular new trend, it’s mostly because we may not have the time, resources or even tech (tool compatibility) to complete the job.

However, we also have to think about the customers. Top new trends may be popular in the industry as a whole, but maybe not as popular within our own customer base. Not every player community is the same and their needs or demands are not always the same either. It’s important that we don’t follow some big trend just because it’s well, umm...trendy. It’s also important that we try to keep our players' interests at heart with the things we know we can implement that hopefully keep our players happy with our endeavors.