This is my theory (I don’t really know where else to post this
) :
There is a group of gamers, who are extremely dedicated to their beloved game. They have played this game for years and it has given them much joy, both virtual and real.
It has been their heaven from economic depression, joblessness, war, crime, pollution, loneliness, feelings of helplessness, feelings of worthlessness. Some have had real-life fulfilling relationships brought about by this game. And thus they have come to view this game with love and affection.
This strong feeling of love for this game have made them believe that no matter what happens, their game should always be number one. It has to be because they love it.
These people are well educated, calm, thoughtful, more than capable of carrying out a well reasoned debate, and usually employed. They are in no way the childish, elitist, fanboy (although they are in-fact the biggest “Fanboys”) type people.
The game has been around for years and with a huge general population. The number of these dedicated gamers is also quiet large, with an even larger network of friends.
I’ll call these people, The Guild.
This game for years had kept this promise to The Guild of being number one, by changing, growing and adapting. And The Guild loved her more for it. Other games had come and because of her success had tried to clone her but all had failed. Still others tried to take a different path but did not fully succeed, or did succeed by pandering to a completely different crowd (sci-fi vs fantasy, FPS vs button-mashing)
Now other players had started to look for different things in their game. Fantasy but with different combat mechanics, different leveling, different reward system, etc. What started out as a trickle (easily ignored by The Guild), soon turned into a torrent.
Now developers had taken note and lately tried to come up with games that although follow the same theme use slightly different mechanics. 3 Faction PvP, PvP centered PvE, RA material, Story, different combat mechanics, etc. These posed to direct threat to their beloved. So a plan was put into action.
- If possible get one of The Guild into the development team.
- Screw up the system so that the game gets indefinitely delayed.
- Implement game mechanics that are similar and inferior to the beloved, so that when the game launches it fails.
- Push the other developers onto the path of creating a clone instead of the original idea. (Any clone as mentioned above is sure to fail.)
- Add in ideas that so totally diverge from the initial, that other players would feel cheated and leave the game.
- Get in Beta
- Suggest changes to the game such that the the direction of the game is totally changed.
- Delay the game because of suggestions
- Suggest changes so that the game ends up becoming a clone of the beloved.
- When the game launches, join the game’s forums.
- Stir up a hue and cry stating that if the new game does have the same mechanics as the beloved then it is bound to fail. Get some of The Guild members leave at this point to prove how true this is. The new game then tries to implement these changes alienating the players who actually wanted to play the game for what it was supposed to be.
- Stir up more resentment to the new changes, so people leave.
- Stir up complaints about parts of the game mechanics
- Blow up small issues to cast the game into a bad light.
All this done so that their beloved once again can reign supreme.