The good news is that WWII themed games CAN succeed, look at MOH and COD. FPS mechanics are fairly intuitive since most people know how to navigate by walking and shoot by pointing at things.
CoD series have shown they can but there has also been an over saturation of WW2 games on the market and that has had an impact on WW2 games across the different genres.
In our case, we have some particular paired weaknesses and strengths.
Weakness
Difficult and long learning curve
Strength
Satisfying and engaging for far longer than the usual 20-40 hours of most games
The difficult learning curve is probably the #1 eliminator for most, especially with today's gamers. Remember, 'casual' gamers now make up the majority of gamers and they don't like spending XXX amount of hours learning to play a game. They'd rather be able to start it up and start playing immediately.
Weakness
Lack of support from community
Strength
Once engaged with the community, people will stay for years. Word of mouth, "viral" advertising is something that every game maker seeks and seldom can find. Reduces cost of acquisition that HT mentioned.
I have to disagree with the weakness or maybe it would help if you clarify what you mean by 'lack of support from the community." It's been my experience that niche games like Aces High tend to have a more cohesive community that rivals the bigger MMO's and in some cases are far better because the niche games tend to be more intimate due to the smaller size.
Weakness
High cost of game peripherals
Strength
Once purchased, gaming rigs last until invalidated by OS updates or break from extensive use.
You know, I really don't consider the cost of high end peripherals to be a weakness since they aren't required or even necessary to play. Sure, they make the game play easier and in some cases more immersive to the player thus increasing the fun factor but we have guys using mouses and $20 Wal-Mart joysticks with just as good affect as those with the higher end controllers.
Weakness
Multiple and complicated configurations of computers which make development and testing and upgrade paths unneccesarily complicated.
Strength
Configurability makes it possible to extend lifetime of computer.
That's a weakness inherent to any PC game. You'll see this issue with any game developed for the PC as opposed to those developed for a console.
This community is made up of a LOT of really smart folks. If we got our act together, it would be a fairly simple proposition to amplify these strengths. Folks, we are the glue that holds this together. If we actively look for the places where we can be the SOLUTION in this, we can change the face of gaming online. The Internet is rife with examples of communities pulling together to do some amazing things.
I agree to a point. I agree that the community is a major key to the success of any online game, whether it be a MMO or multiplayer like MW2, however, there is a limit on what a community can do. In my opinion, in terms of attracting new players, the best way to use the community to help attract new players is to use the community like a new housing development uses model homes and neighborhood to attract house buyers. That's how the community could best be served as a marketing tool to attract and retain new players.
As HT said, the natural linkages to WWII are fading and what made these flight games the natural choice for MMOs in the 90s are fading as well. What it takes is to make an imaginative connection to new users. The strength of RPGs is that every bozo can be a hero, at least in their own minds. What it takes here, is for folks to see that they can be a hero of SKILL, not a hero made by treadmilling on levels and getting stuff that makes you more powerful.
While I do agree that over time WW2 has started to fade from our memories which has resulted in less interest but I don't consider it to be the primary reason for the declining interest in WW2 games. Industry market studies have shown the primary reason for the decline of WW2 games isn't due to flagging interest in the period but an over saturation of the market place. There was a time just a year or two ago in which the majority of the first person shooters were WW2 themed games, same with the RTS titles. One of the major points of criticism with Call of Duty: World at War wasn't that it was a bad shooter, but rather was
another WW2 shooter.
In an RPG, time in game translates to more power. In this game, time in game translates to more SKILL and learning and true growth. This is the connection that the newbie often misses and could use our help to find.
Just a thought . . .
You've actually touched on one thing the MMORPG players and us have in common...the time and patience to put into the game and improve, whether in the case of the MMORPG player, to improve their character or in our case, our skills. We need to figure out a way to keep the 'casual' player interested long enough that he stops being a casual player and becomes an addicted player like ourselves.
ack-ack
