Edinburgh Interactive: Runescape boss Mark Gerhard offers advice to MMO creators
“There is part of the community you’ll never be able to please,” says Mark Gerhard, the CEO of one of Britain’s most successful games studios.
His company, Jagex, has become an elite force in the UK. That’s mainly due to flagship MMO Runescape – launched in 2001 – that Jagex claims is, today, the world’s most popular free-to-play MMO.
Runescape made ₤38 million in twelve months leading up to March 2009, and keeps content fresh through a constant stream of updates and patches.
“In fact now,” said Gerhard, “I think Runescape is the only MMO that’s continued to grow.”
But each time Jagex updates Runescape, it’s taking a risk, Gerhard said.
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“No one in the MMO space succeeds by standing still,” he said, “so you have to constantly refresh what you’re offering. At the same time, you have to be very careful about how you read into the feedback from your updates.”
Some people are just angry, Gerhard said. Customers will complain no matter what you do.
“We give people extra free content, some people complain that ‘oh you’re just trying to buy our loyalty’,” he said.
Speaking on stage at Edinburgh Interactive, Gerhard urged developers to listen to feedback but not make rash decisions from it. Hold out and see if your updates stick, he said.
“You’re always going to have trolls, but those who love your updates are completely silent. You have to measure all this feedback. Part of it is quantitative, part of it is qualitative, part of it is gut instinct.”
And it’s also important to get reactions out of the people who are quietly enjoying your game, he said.
“Create the forum threads, stimulate the debate, sometimes kick the hornets' nest. Don’t just address the trolls.”
Gerhard’s driving point was that new and innovative content is what will keep an MMO alive.
“The one thing I worry about in the industry is not the lack of creativity. It’s the lack of innovation,” he said.
“We released a Runescape update called Citadels, where players can create their own battlefields to fight in. Should we have done it? It’s never been done before. It’s never been tested before. People were saying should we should look at what World of Warcraft was doing instead.
“If you are going to make a game that’s just like World of Warcraft, it won’t be as successful as World of Warcraft. It’ll be second place, at best," he said.
"You have to innovate, not looking at what others are doing."
Opening up the floor for questions, Gerhard was asked whether Jagex had considered microtransactions for Runescape.
“We’ve certainly thought about it. We’ve certainly heavily debated it internally,” he said.
“There’s a lot of opportunity in the micropayments space, [but] we’ve had conversations with the community and the response has been overwhelmingly negative.”
While instinct works, Gerhard said, there are some obvious hazard signs that studios should heed.
“The average play span of a Runescape player is about 6 years, that’s long, we don’t want to hurt that. If you want to build something in the long term, you have to have a strong relationship with your fans.
“That’s why we got into the third-party publishing space, where we do have microtransactions,” he concluded.
So basically, take in the positives and ignore the constructive feedback from so-called trolls.
So, what you're saying is that any player who has any negative feedback, that isn't 100% with Jagex on all their actions, is a troll? It sounds like you are implying there are no positive threads on the forums, I can tell you that there are MANY. It also implies that you believe all forum users are "trolls."
I'm going to be blatantly blunt here: Get your head out of your asses, Jagex.
Yet again, another disheartening move by Jagex...
Jagex really need to book up their actions at the moment, calling some people unhappy and trolls for giving feedback is really shameful and a hateful thing to do to a specific group of players.
cmon guys, Runescape is and always has been the crappiest excuse for a MMORPG. To suggest that they've continued to grow is not saying much, since they started from such an awful product and still basically have an awful product. It's like pointing to a piece of dog shit in the yard and saying "That piece of dog shit is the only piece of dog shit in the yard that has continued to dry in the sun.." completely ignoring the fact that all of the other pieces of shit have been summarily consumed by insects and other natural phenomenon.. indicating that it is somehow tainted beyond normal poo-levels.
It baffles me the CEO of a company would say this about his playerbase. A troll. Does he know what a troll means?
He's trying to give advice about how to run a good MMO - but the funny thing is, he's been in the MMO industry for less than four years. If anything, he should be taking notes from the players.
I'm glad he saw the light with micropayments, though. That would have been a train wreck.
But in general many people do complain for the sake of complaining, the article never said everyone who complains is a troll, it even mentions that microtransactions have been overlooked because of the negative reaction.
Your comments almost suggest that there are NO trolls when the article is spot on with the generalising.
Yes there are exceptions as there always are but a lot of players that enjoy a game wont even look at the forums, whereas someone with a complaint will almost definitely do so (unless the complaint causes them to outright quit). Subsequently you'll find many people with minor complaints which conflict with other players views (many of whom wont necessarily be on the forums).
The entire point of the article is to highlight that not all complaints are worth responding to, yes it may suggest complaining = trolls but it's clearly not the intent.
this guy is not for real, the game has mega problems with botting real world trading and scamming due to their gut instincts, in six months it has become unplayable. Their latest update is so cheap and nasty that there are lists thousands long of 'trolls' on forums demanding that they get rid of it.
You neglect to mention that the players are very upset for very legit reasons.
-The Bots, and the RWTing. More bots then players. FTP is mostly bots.
-Accounts being hacked/hijacked.-loosing the account that they have worked on with great pride, and dedication, some for years.
-The servers down, Java issues, black/white screening, disconnects, DDosing, the list goes on and on. And very little if any customer support.
-These issues are what the customer is complaining about, as well as many others.
You sir have destroyed a wonderful game, and a GREAT community. Nothing to be proud of.
I will not be playing any more of your games.
Jagex reputation has been dropping, each update should satisfy the majority of players. however now the updates DO NOT satisfy as many players as B4, the recent update refer a friend has 95%+ of negative feed back on forums, and 80%+ negative in game. and yet they do nothing but ignore.
"-The Bots, and the RWTing. More bots then players. FTP is mostly bots.
-Accounts being hacked/hijacked.-loosing the account that they have worked on with great pride, and dedication, some for years."
NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT WHAT SO EVER.
He mentions about looking at other games and being 2nd best to them, WoW has the refer a friend thing, now runescape has it, there Runescape is 2nd best to WoW now? RaF should just be removed how RS is made through levelling doesn't support the need for the xp boosts, a lot of skills are fast enough as it is without the boost, and the 2x exp for 7 days for any skill under level 30... It's hardly an achievement anyway even less a struggle to attain, Jagex you need to look at how an update will fit into a game before you implement it, also you say the average life-span of a persons play time is 6 years, I agree I've been playing 6 years now and have quit, I eventually realised that there's nothing fun to the game, it's grind for money, grind the buyables, grind the non-buyables I see no fun in grinding.
I call for the immediate sacking or demotion of MMG the man is clearly incompetent.
I've been a player with Runescape for over 6 years and still continue to enjoy the game. I can probably say I'm part of the silent crowd, I usually do keep quiet when I enjoy how things are going. It is true that most people who do not have issues will be silent, however that can't be said for all that are as bots ofc won't post.
Honestly, Runescape is still a great game with its flaws and all. I'll continue to play until there's nothing left for me to do. I dislike how people are trying to bring Runescape down and are destroying the community just because they have some concerns. The way players have been reacting is disgusting. I used to complain a little about some things but I realized, updates will happen and there will be things I dislike. Even in life things won't always be what I wish it to be. The only choice to make is to learn to enjoy what you do have and look at the good aspects.
Keep up the good work Jagex, there are still many who appreciates the game and will stick with you many more years.
-Anonymous
(Hid name to avoid players flaming me)
While on the Runescape offical forum I found this reply interesting:
[Quote]
Personally
When I like something I say so
When I don't like something I also say so
When I say nothing is when I either don't care or I have not tried it yet.
I don't believe for a second that those who love an update are completely silent. The silent players ingame may just be playing another facet of the game.
You can't possibly be judging anything from the silent ingame as you just don't know what there upto or if they care enough to even say yes or no to liking something. You really shouldn't read to much into people being silent.
If you went out of your way to garner feedback from the silent using a poll/ questionnaire or similar then maybe.
-
What I think MMG is missing though is when a customer is happy they don't really need to be addressed. On the other hand the customers that are complaining need to be addressed there not trolls there unhappy customers and they deserve more respect then to be called trolls so easily.
There not just compalining for the sake of it there doing it because they generally don't like something.
You think any other company would call there complaining customers trolls & basically openly admit to ignoring them?
On top of this some people choose to complain away from the game where you don't even know what's going on rather then express it on the forum as it's common to feel like your not being listened to which it certainly looks like at least sometimes here.
[/Quote]
Bring back Geoff Iddison! as CEO!
@13 your going to be walked all over in life with that sort of view. Fight for the best possible. If you don't like something do something about it.
Don't just accept the garbage that life feeds you. Continually improve the situation for both yourself as well as everyone else around you.
Good luck & god bless :)
There is a difference between being walked over or accepting that things aren't always your way.
Right now, players are walking all over Jagex destroying the community all for what? Their behavior has done nothing to benefit them but only destroyed the game for others. You cannot always have things your way nor should it be your way.
You may have heard this, Learn to fight the right battles. My fight is not with Runescape and I will love the game til the end. You need to accept the good with the bad, otherwise you get nothing at all and that's a sad life.
That's looser talk your someone who folds your cards far to easily I can tell just from how you talk you've been manipulated into believing that by someone.
A sad life is the one where you don't get what you need because you didn't fight hard enough for long enough. We've hardly even been at this & your telling us to just accept it after only a few days.
There should be no bad in life everything is doable, winable & everything can be changed. Never give up, never give in. Never give someone the satisfaction of getting the better of you. Theres no such thing as picking battles for me as I know I can always & will always win. I won't stop until I do.
-
If anything this is pulling the community together not ruining it where all fighting this time like the last time. So shall we the next time.
Bots = money
Closing of the language forums= money
Diceing = money
kantana sword = money
End of summer offer = money
Bonus exp weekends = money
Refer a Friend to Receive an XP Boost = money
Help us get x number fans on facebook = money
The list goes on and on, we got it Mark Gerhard you like money, and don't really care about you players aka customers aka the ones paying your salery. You definitely proved that you have zero respect for us.
I for one wont pay to a company that have that little respect for me (one of the 6 year+ customers)
If I buy a product wheter its a car a bottle of milk or a new shirt and there is something wrong with the product I complain and I expect to be respected and listen to and if I am right and the product the company sold me aint working properly, that they either repear it, exchange it or refund me and sure as hell don't call me names. At least not if they want repeat business.
Ever heard of the customer is always right? Might not work always but at least listen to them and talk to them in a courteous tone.
But by all means please everyone go to Runescape and log in to any free server and look for your self and see if Mark Gerhard is right and Runescape is such a great game he claim it to be, where customers never need to complain.
Just in case any government official should pass by and read this: Atm it looks like Jagex voluntary or involuntary depending on who looks at it, is hosting under age illegal gambling where they have minors playing dice games for ingame currency, but if they loose they go buy ingame currency for irl money at one of the many gold selling sites from the internet. If they win, some will sell it for irl money. They know about it, but are doing nothing about it, they even told there player moderators to stay away from it
Just thought I would get it out while we all are being honest Mark ;)
Don't hurt yourself with that sword, Mark. Things will get better, I promise. Some day someone will clean up the mess you've made. No need to do anything drastic now!
They can't do a darn thing about Party Hats, Christmas Crackers, or any other of the collectible rares, though they've been trying like fun since Summer's End came out. Stupidity has no shelf life, only intelligence.
Reading this article so long after it has been posted, it's sad that even with so much 'overwhelmingly negative' response from the community, they went and did it anyway.
Now, a large part of the community sees Jagex as nothing but money hungry, and RuneScape as a game that is destined to lay down and die.
I wish they would really open up communication instead of saying they do and then go quiet again. I wish they would take their heads out of their asses and really listen to what the players want.
Wishful thinking...
“There’s a lot of opportunity in the micropayments space, [but] we’ve had conversations with the community and the response has been overwhelmingly negative.”
So basically... you don't have microtransactions within runescape but you have sof... if that load of total bull's dust isn't a microtransaction, i'm the queen's ling lost daughter next in line for the throne.....
