The second side note is this:  Tabula Rasa later reversed themselves, and included a limited number of alien “hybrid” options into their game.  Functionally, this meant simply giving players different skin colors and exotic, other-worldly heads to choose from.  (The number of art assets they needed to introduce into the game to make these other races available was, as it turned out, very small.  They could have done it from day one with minimal expense.)  I remember distinctly the positive player response, the edge, and the 'cool factor' that this brought into the game.  Players talked about it excitedly and openly, but it was too little too late. The game was deemed  to be under-performing by its corporate overlords, and was shut down shortly thereafter. 

The third side note is this:  the most dominant MMO in the history of the genre offers a nice, wide variety of race and class combination.  In fact, WoW keeps including more races with each expansion.  Maybe, just maybe, they know what they're doing.    

Is the “humans only” error the only factor contributing to the death of Fury, Hellgate, and Tabula Rasa, and the comparatively smaller subscription numbers of the other games mentioned?  Of course not.  In fact, a number of factors were clearly involved in every case.  The very fact that the “humans only” error is a trend, and not the only deciding factor behind an MMO's failure, is the reason that MMO developers and publishers keep turning a blind eye to the issue.  (Of course, there are always a few games developers can point to and say “Oh yeah, look at X Online!  Your “humans only” rule is wrong and it sucks and you're just a stupid MMO writer!”)  Also, putting more races into the game is admittedly a bit more expensive.  However, as Tabula Rasa proved, you can do it by only changing a few heads and skin colors, and keep costs to a thrifty minimum.  However, it seems that the payoff, in terms of success of an MMO,  is potentially huge.   

I have a purpose in writing all of this.  I want the developers of one game, a potentially fantastic game, to read this and to make a change to the game they've been lovingly crafting for several years.  The game I'm referring to is an MMOFPS – they call it an “action MMO” – and it's already breaking ground in a number of areas.  This is a game that is taking two huge risks within the MMO genre, and I like that.  First of all, it's a sci-fi MMO, and those don't tend to do very well.  Second, it's an MMOFPS, and there isn't a single successful one on the market at this time.  If these developers are successful with their action-MMO, they may just revolutionize the genre. 

The problem?  It's a “humans only” game.  I don't want them to take this third, unnecessary risk, one that may ruin their chances to revolutionise the genre, one that has negatively impacted a large number of MMOs in the past, and one that they may be blind to.  I want them to acknowledge that the “humans only” error is a very real trend, and I want them to introduce aliens, mutants, or whatever into their game so that players will have choices, and so their game will have the best chance possible of being a breakout success.  If they don't do so, I'm afraid their game may wither, and even fail, despite its other good qualities.  

Are you listening, Hi-Rez Studios?  In the most heartfelt manner possible, I deeply and genuinely hope that you are.

If you enjoyed this insightful (or bizarrely opinionated, depending on your point of view) little scribble-fest, feel free to join us every day over at WanderingGoblin.com, where we explore (and often make fun of) virtual life every day.  For now, ciao!

We caught up with Global Agenda developers yesterday and asked them why them opted for humans-only. Check out the interview to see their response.

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