Quote Originally Posted by Mercen-X View Post
As I've read yet another article which doubts VII's ability to maintain interest over the years it will take to develop its sequels, I feel the need to reiterate a statement I made earlier. I fail to see how a player-base can continually spend money on an online game monthly for content that does not change but every couple of years and yet would not be willing to shell out between $40-80 every few years for a product they know will add new content. I'm being serious. It is a failure of my imagination to be able to reconcile a world of people to be so gullible and detached from the value of their currency. Socializing online should be a free market and you should only have to pay for new content. That's essentially my world-view. But I guess I'm just naive.
Well it's because the social aspect of MMOs keeps people invested, even when there's no new content. It's kinda self-generated content between groups of online people. It becomes part of their routine. So when a new bigger piece of content comes along, they don't really need to 'get back into it' in any way.

The difference with standalone single player stuff is that people have to 'get back into it', and so you're bound to lose some people, who either didn't like the previous game that much, or just happen to not be in the mood for that type of game. Or maybe they're busy with something else at the time the next game is released. Whatever the reason is, if it's a continuous series where you need to start at the beginning, the number of people who play the 2nd game is nearly always going to be lower than those who play the first. Almost no-one is going to play the 2nd game but not the first. Whereas plenty will play the first but not the second.