Innovation At Risk

from the they-just-want-something-better dept

A look at just how badly EA's Majestic game turned out to be. There had been a ton of hype when it first launched, and people talked about how it would revolutionize video games. The game (if you missed the hype) was more or less based on the movie The Game, where it would integrate a conspiracy theory into part of your life. The article above shows just how badly the game did. 800,000 people started to register for the free version, but only 71,200 actuall finished the registration process. Only about 10,000 actually paid to continue the game. The article blames "gamers" who kept asking for something new, and then ignored it when they got it. I disagree. If Majestic had been any good, this might be a different story. They weren't rejecting the Majestic concept - just the fact that the game itself wasn't all that interesting.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    todd, 19 Dec 2001 @ 2:45pm

    one man's opinion (again)

    I had every intention of playing when I signed up, but what turned me off was knowing how much time it would take for me to get started/continue to play AND how much fun it would be.

    The concept was cool, but I just didn't know that it would be fun -- it wasn't predictably fun, as opposed to Quake 3, Age of Empires, etc. where the genre is better known.

    So if you can't separate the genre from the method (uncertainty is the genre and the method), then you can't predict the fun, which made me less likely to really engage.

    Again, just my reasoned $0.02

    Todd

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Muldur, 19 Dec 2001 @ 3:26pm

    Majestic

    Comment 1: Sounds like something was seriously wrong/too complicated/buggy with their registration process. Better improve that first.

    Comment 2: Sounds like mass market "gotta have a hit" syndrome - the real reason for lack of innovation. The guys who started D&D (which might be the only new genre of game to come along in several hundred years, and is the grandaddy of all role playing and LAARP games including Majestic) would have killed to have 10,000 people paying for their game during the month that it came out (all $5 or so for the copied and stapled sheets, if I recall correclty). Yet they grew their company into a huge success (temporarily at least)over many years, and transformed the gaming world in the process. It sounds like these Majestic guys expected to have hundreds of thousands of people playing from day one and can't make a profit without that many. Someday soon some college kid working in his parent's basement will make something like Majestic fly. In the meantime the big companies will have to stick with tried and true video shooters because they are the lowest risk way to get the necessary big hit, which they need to pay for their hundreds of employees and media blitz advertising.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    iamlost, 19 Dec 2001 @ 6:19pm

    Re: Majestic

    majestic was pretty good. at first. i tried to absorb myself into the world. i got a bunch of freaky emails and cell phone calls (the later could be turned off). i had a good time through episode 1-2. i started to dislike the game when the content was coming out slower than i could 'level'. also, the gmaeplay got dull. once you kinda figured out how the game workered, you realized that you didn't have to read all the articles. you knew which links to click on. i had figured that the game was like this for the first episode or so. but there was no signs of change. all in all, i had a little bit of fun. but it sure as heck wasn't worth 9.xx/month!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Taty, 15 Mar 2002 @ 10:20pm

    Re: Majestic

    I disagree with the harsh comments in relation to majestic. I've played the game and I'm incredibly sad to see it go. The concept was new and well thought out. I agree that the standby took too long and left players waiting and frustrated before making a move, but the concept was to blur the line between game and reality and in that sense it was fantastic.
    I got the cd and have unlimited access, so monthly charges were not an issue. The price of the cd was the same as any other game. I believe their main problem was the fact that there are still too many people with slow connection who had to wait endlessly for files to download. The game is simply ahead of its time.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.