As you know, the game Bless has had quite an interesting development history. However, one of the most important things that you can do regarding the success of this game is to listen to the community. In particular, elements that reinforce continued player base, while generating revenue for your product's continued development. I hope this gets to some important ears, because I have had over 20 years of video game/MMO experience and I feel that my input could be quite valuable to the success of your game for years to come.
Just to briefly summarize my experience with gaming I have played everything from Jumpstart 1st grade, yes back in 1995 on my dad’s windows 95 desktop, all the way through the age of the consoles, xbox, playstation, Nintendo, gamecube, various PC games including all Blizzard games, MOBA’s, RTS’, First person shooters, action RPGs and shooter RPGs, and of course MMORPGs.
PROS
• Graphics/Art style/Presentation
WOW is this game beautiful, generating an immersive world that is truly leaves the player in awe when walking or flying in the environment. Continue to exemplify this as one of your strengths.
• Story/Lore/and More
Like all games, many fan bases of successful games explore a depth of story and conflict with potential areas of character development that connect the player not only to the objectives of the game, but to the characters themselves. Bless does a really great job with interactive cinematics and storyline.
• Mount/Companion System
Mounts and companions play a crucial role in adding flare to a player’s arsenal.
i.e “Wow that guy’s mount/pet looks amazing, I want that, or how do I get that.”
CAUTIONS On Monetization here will be addressed in a further section of my review.
RECOMMENDATIONS: Be careful with your pets and mounts with the ranking system being a visual orb, may not be cosmetically pleasing or necessary causing too much screen clutter.
Also the size of both mounts and companions should be taken into account for if multiple party members have large companions, then combat will not be able to be seen, thus ruining combat and gameplay.
• Class System: I’m sure you are in the process of tuning the classes, (maybe thinking about some new ones for the future). REALLY keep in mind the holy trinity (tanks/healers/DPS) to make this MMO great.
• Questing: It appears that you have taken the standard route of grindy/unique questing, I do like that you incorporated challenging dungeons into the leveling system to reward players with great loot to make leveling/questing easier for the future. KEEP IT CHALLENGING
CONS
• Combat: You are already addressing, nothing further to be said here.
• End Game Content: Like most MMOs you will have a class of ‘hardcore’ players and then a spectrum of not-so hard core and casuals. For the continued player base end-game content (in your case 10-man raids) and end game PvP needs to be excited and have a feeling of progression and completion (Getting awesome loot).
It has been rumored that some dungeons at lower levels are solo-able and I hope this is addressed.
RECOMMENDATION: Really encourage the fact that it requires a party of people from different classes to complete a dungeon or raid.
oReally focus on making raiding unique, almost like a puzzle that the players need to solve while performing their class role at the highest level of play.
• UI for Threat/DPS/Healing
Gamers love numbers. They love their stats, the amount of damage they are able to put out in a fight, or the amount that someone can heal. One thing you may want to think about is incorporating damage/healing meters into the end game for players.
THREAT METER: One thing that many MMOs don’t do is require their players to manage how much threat they generate on a mob. The tank simply runs up to an enemy and boom, enemy attacks him forever. If certain DPS and healing generate amounts of threat they should be actively thinking about not aggro’ing that mob or boss.
• Advertising: Since you are still in the development stages I understand that not much word has gotten out about this game, but you NEED to advertise this game and release properly around other game releases. i.e. if you release Bless at the same time as the next WoW expansion, your game will die. Almost instantly. Not many people still know about this game and the community is fairly small. Find ways to get the word out to more people!
MONETIZATION
• THIS IS A GAMEBREAKING PORTION OF MY REVIEW
• If I have learned anything about a video game, it’s that you don’t get a good game unless you pay some money for it.
• Being Free to play can be a risky route for MMOs because it is not the same as many free-to-play models from MOBAs, such as Dota 2, LoL, and HoTS, where you are able to buy skins and cosmetic items to enhance your game experience via cash-shop.
MMOs achieve greatness through collecting awesome looking gear through searching out mobs, or completing high level content to “Look cool”
• My suggestions: Avoid cash shop in-game as much as possible, reserving it for cosmetic looks for maybe pets and mounts (MAYBE). IF ANY INGAME BONUSES ARE PROVIDED YOUR GAME WILL FAIL.
• How do you make the money then?
Buy to play with and in-game subscription process. (This will give you access to the FULL GAME always no matter what).
Since your game will have a low player base at the start, have your (FREE) early access/closed beta be released with Pre-Ordering the game.
Your game needs to be competitive in the market place, I am no expert on pricing, but anywhere from $20-40 is reasonable for this game with a sub of $5-10/month. In addition-pre-ordering could give players a free month of play. To see If they enjoy the game and want to sub for further content.
DO NOT put content behind money, once people pay their dues they should get access to the WHOLE GAME.
Contradicting my initial statement, don’t try and please the entire community by making content too easy or too difficult make your decisions how you see fit with helpful input from the players. This is YOUR game, and you should commit to making decisions and not try to appease everyone’s needs. I hope that my review was a comprehensive well-rounded look at what this game succeeds at and where it needs more focus. As I just said I don’t expect all these changes to occur, but just hope someone listens to them and takes it into account for success of this game.
This game has a metric♥♥♥♥♥♥ton of potential. I am talking about years of committed players striving to be the best in Bless, if your team seeks to be great they need to strive to be great. Bless is so close to being one of the greatest MMOs ever made and I think could challenge other games for their player base. Either way tell me your thoughts, I hope to make a lively discussion here!
Good Luck. Have Fun.
Mavzerick
Just to briefly summarize my experience with gaming I have played everything from Jumpstart 1st grade, yes back in 1995 on my dad’s windows 95 desktop, all the way through the age of the consoles, xbox, playstation, Nintendo, gamecube, various PC games including all Blizzard games, MOBA’s, RTS’, First person shooters, action RPGs and shooter RPGs, and of course MMORPGs.
PROS
• Graphics/Art style/Presentation
WOW is this game beautiful, generating an immersive world that is truly leaves the player in awe when walking or flying in the environment. Continue to exemplify this as one of your strengths.
• Story/Lore/and More
Like all games, many fan bases of successful games explore a depth of story and conflict with potential areas of character development that connect the player not only to the objectives of the game, but to the characters themselves. Bless does a really great job with interactive cinematics and storyline.
• Mount/Companion System
Mounts and companions play a crucial role in adding flare to a player’s arsenal.
i.e “Wow that guy’s mount/pet looks amazing, I want that, or how do I get that.”
CAUTIONS On Monetization here will be addressed in a further section of my review.
RECOMMENDATIONS: Be careful with your pets and mounts with the ranking system being a visual orb, may not be cosmetically pleasing or necessary causing too much screen clutter.
Also the size of both mounts and companions should be taken into account for if multiple party members have large companions, then combat will not be able to be seen, thus ruining combat and gameplay.
• Class System: I’m sure you are in the process of tuning the classes, (maybe thinking about some new ones for the future). REALLY keep in mind the holy trinity (tanks/healers/DPS) to make this MMO great.
• Questing: It appears that you have taken the standard route of grindy/unique questing, I do like that you incorporated challenging dungeons into the leveling system to reward players with great loot to make leveling/questing easier for the future. KEEP IT CHALLENGING
CONS
• Combat: You are already addressing, nothing further to be said here.
• End Game Content: Like most MMOs you will have a class of ‘hardcore’ players and then a spectrum of not-so hard core and casuals. For the continued player base end-game content (in your case 10-man raids) and end game PvP needs to be excited and have a feeling of progression and completion (Getting awesome loot).
It has been rumored that some dungeons at lower levels are solo-able and I hope this is addressed.
RECOMMENDATION: Really encourage the fact that it requires a party of people from different classes to complete a dungeon or raid.
oReally focus on making raiding unique, almost like a puzzle that the players need to solve while performing their class role at the highest level of play.
• UI for Threat/DPS/Healing
Gamers love numbers. They love their stats, the amount of damage they are able to put out in a fight, or the amount that someone can heal. One thing you may want to think about is incorporating damage/healing meters into the end game for players.
THREAT METER: One thing that many MMOs don’t do is require their players to manage how much threat they generate on a mob. The tank simply runs up to an enemy and boom, enemy attacks him forever. If certain DPS and healing generate amounts of threat they should be actively thinking about not aggro’ing that mob or boss.
• Advertising: Since you are still in the development stages I understand that not much word has gotten out about this game, but you NEED to advertise this game and release properly around other game releases. i.e. if you release Bless at the same time as the next WoW expansion, your game will die. Almost instantly. Not many people still know about this game and the community is fairly small. Find ways to get the word out to more people!
MONETIZATION
• THIS IS A GAMEBREAKING PORTION OF MY REVIEW
• If I have learned anything about a video game, it’s that you don’t get a good game unless you pay some money for it.
• Being Free to play can be a risky route for MMOs because it is not the same as many free-to-play models from MOBAs, such as Dota 2, LoL, and HoTS, where you are able to buy skins and cosmetic items to enhance your game experience via cash-shop.
MMOs achieve greatness through collecting awesome looking gear through searching out mobs, or completing high level content to “Look cool”
• My suggestions: Avoid cash shop in-game as much as possible, reserving it for cosmetic looks for maybe pets and mounts (MAYBE). IF ANY INGAME BONUSES ARE PROVIDED YOUR GAME WILL FAIL.
• How do you make the money then?
Buy to play with and in-game subscription process. (This will give you access to the FULL GAME always no matter what).
Since your game will have a low player base at the start, have your (FREE) early access/closed beta be released with Pre-Ordering the game.
Your game needs to be competitive in the market place, I am no expert on pricing, but anywhere from $20-40 is reasonable for this game with a sub of $5-10/month. In addition-pre-ordering could give players a free month of play. To see If they enjoy the game and want to sub for further content.
DO NOT put content behind money, once people pay their dues they should get access to the WHOLE GAME.
Contradicting my initial statement, don’t try and please the entire community by making content too easy or too difficult make your decisions how you see fit with helpful input from the players. This is YOUR game, and you should commit to making decisions and not try to appease everyone’s needs. I hope that my review was a comprehensive well-rounded look at what this game succeeds at and where it needs more focus. As I just said I don’t expect all these changes to occur, but just hope someone listens to them and takes it into account for success of this game.
This game has a metric♥♥♥♥♥♥ton of potential. I am talking about years of committed players striving to be the best in Bless, if your team seeks to be great they need to strive to be great. Bless is so close to being one of the greatest MMOs ever made and I think could challenge other games for their player base. Either way tell me your thoughts, I hope to make a lively discussion here!
Good Luck. Have Fun.
Mavzerick