The Business: MMORPGs Are Too Expensive To Not Be Normie-Friendly

Josh Strife Hayes premiered this video on why PVP-focused MMORPGs fail just a few minutes ago, as of this post.

The psychology on display here does not take a Psychology degree to comprehend.

The MMORPG genre requires far too much in the way of expenses to justify a business model that doesn't cater to Normies. Hardcore, Full Loot games are very exclusive games with a demonstrably small demographic that are willing and able to play that way; just look at Rust, Ark, and others like them to see what horrifically dysfunctional bullshit goes down.

The target audience for these games are not Normies. They see games as sport, and sport as ritualized dominance contests, so they are willing to put in the work required to win and thrive.

Normies will not work for their entertainment. Getting ganked out of nowhere is not fun for Normies. Losing all your stuff is not fun for Normies. Permanent death, or penalties for dying, are not fun for Normies; this is why Normies don't do Rogue and its legion of successors, and why "Dark Souls" is a byword for "hardcore".

By extension, games that require regular commitment over a long term are not friendly to Normies, and the entire MMORPG genre has that as a core tenant. This is why Normies don't play them.

By extension, the way most people think RPGs have to be played requires this, which is why Normies don't play them. (One of the consequences of Jeffro's rediscovery of how RPGs are meant to be played is that the game becomes Normie-friendly due to removing this commitment.)

The recognition of Normie psychology as a requirement for commercial success in game design is as underrated as an understanding of probability and statistics. The reason that companies like Tencent succeed is not merely due to factors outside of ordinary consideration--e.g. political connections--but rather due to comprehension of how successful casino operations work and adapting them to videogame product design.

Yes, that means that Mobile Trash is nothing more than a more interactive slot machine with some excuse of a narrative bolted on to avoid the censors long enough to bribe them.

It also means that your game's business plan had better have some form of psychological profile of your target audience, or you will end up on the trash heap like all of the other failed attempts before you, and that profile will be greatly informed by the commercial realities of your target genre. The MMORPG is too expensive to not cater to Normies, so you have to build your business plan around Normie psychology, and that means prioritizing making the experience thrilling without being difficult for at least 80% of playable content and leaving only at most 20% for those looking for a legit challenge- and that has to be relegated to side content or you're going to have a bad time.

And that, folks, is why the MMORPG genre--as a business--is trending as it is. It needs Normiebux to survive.