@ZorokiHanuke said in En Masse Entertainment closing down:
Sega devs should study these happenings and take them as cautionary tales on how not to deal with NA audiences.
+1
Not just NA tho, but western audiences in general when it comes to MMOs. TERA NA for a while housed most of the EU players because GameForge was downright horrible. Then it switched around and a lot of NA players left for EU (about 1-3 years ago?)
One thing that kept TERA NA going was the General Managers, Tonka specially, who listened to the community, kept livestreams interesting and actually interacted in game with the community. Once the holy trinity of Tonka, Minea and Harmonia GMs left, the game started declining slowly until it just went downhill like a roller coaster.
Here's a few pointers actually in case someone from SEGA drops by. EME failed all of these:
- Reskins are NOT new content;
- Recycled enemies are NOT new content;
- New content is important, but don't overwhelm your community. Don't set a pace you can't keep either. Don't set a crazy gearing pace that only a shut-in could keep up with (this coming FROM a shut-in);
- Contact between the West and East is important! Content, translations, adaptations to the market. Also be very, very careful about replacing VAs too often. People notice. People don't like it;
- Events help keep a community together. Keep up the UQs, concerts, collabs, etc. Bring people together. Notice that people will go to the concerts just for the wholesome atmosphere of it and feeling of unity and belonging somewhere. Also everyone loves Taiko;
- Keep the game F2P friendly. Supply and demand. While you have F2P players willing to pay Meseta for cash items, you will have people buying cash and cash items to sell for Meseta;
- Community managers must be able to differentiate work from personal. Be unbiased, calm and able to communicate easily and firmly, but not rudely. Clout hunting CMs are a death sentence;
- Don't lie. If an item is a 1 time thing then it's a 1 time thing. Don't put it back in circulation out of greed;
- Get rid of Meseta sellers as fast as you can. People WILL be tempted, not to buy from them, to SELL to them. This absolutely breaks game economy and cuts into your profits. Supply and demand applies here too. The more people selling to these websites, the less money they pay, the more Meseta people farm to sell, the more these websites profit being able to lower their prices and still keep profits above 70%. Yeet those bots. Now;
- Absolutely DO NOT gender or race lock ANY classes! You will regret it. Trust me;
- Repetitive seasonal events will tire your community out and make them less special. Do not have only 1 (one) type of event that you implement every year with 0 changes. Even if you have a fixed event, change SOME things every year or people will stop caring about them.