Nordic Game: 'New angles' needed to beat WoW, says NCSoft

NCSoft Europe deirector of development Thomas Bidaux likened Blizzard's all-conquering MMORPG World of Warcraft (WoW) to a tyrannosaurus rex at Swedish expo Nordic Game today, telling developers of online games to pick fights in other "ecosystems" and pointing to the continuing success of space-based MMO EVE Online as a perfect example of how to win in the genre.

He described WoW as the "ultimate MMORPG and the ultimate dinosaur. It's very big, very expensive and everything you can imagine in terms of big and bulky... If you want to beat the biggest predator around there aren't many solutions. You have to be bigger. I believe this to be extremely difficult. Going after that monster... I don't think that can be done. When you're looking at online games you have to find another angle to be successful.

"There's a hubris issue with MMORPGs: most of them want to be the bigger game and most of them fail... If you want to be successful you have to survive. And if you're a dinosaur then you have to fine the right ecosystem. You have to find your own market, your own niche: you have to find your consumers."

Bidaux used Icelandic developer and publisher CCP's ever-growing space-based MMORPG EVE Online as a perfect example of a company that's picked an ecosystem away from the traditional swords and sorcery MMO and flourished.

"Is there anyone from CCP in the audience?" he asked, with several hands being raised from the packed room. "I have only good stuff to say about you... I have a lot, a lot of respect for CCP and the success it's achieved.

"The growth rate of EVE Online in terms of subscriber numbers is not comparable to any other MMORPG. It keeps growing. It's ever-growing. It's a very good business... They have their own ecosystem: they know who they're talking to."

Bidaux advised those developing MMORPGs to look to the Far East for lessons about what is successful in the genre and for clues as to how to break out from the WoW subscription model.

"The markets [in Asia] are extremely different and nothing like you can expect in the West," he said. "Chinese and Korean markets are already at a different step in their evolution. There are lessons to learn from them."

Mistakes in terms of extensive beta periods followed by switching to charging models, failed micro-payment systems — which have now been honed to a 90 per cent profitability rate among MMOs in Korea - and "hordes" of doomed Lineage clones were worth noting, said Bidaux.

He also advised thinking of non-traditional genres for MMO games, such as sports, fighting and cheap-to-make titles such as the side-scrolling Mapple Story and Korean smash Kart Rider as ways around the great successes of the field, such as WoW and Guild Wars.