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What Makes GoIO Different?

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redria:
What makes Guns of Icarus Online different?

(warning - long wandering OP presumably followed by long personal responses - if you don't feel like reading, sorry)

When I buy a game bought games, I used to look for the single player experience. I grew up not knowing that I would ever really be able to play with somebody, so I treasured games with a strong single player experience. This usually involved a story line. Once you beat the story, the game tended to be over and I would move on to the next game, proud of my accomplishment.

Then college happened, and if I was playing a game, odds were that someone else in the dorm would be looking to play too. I was introduced to steam. I made a lot more close friends that I spent time doing things other than video games with. Games got a lot more fun, but at the same time, I lost a lot of the desire to play games alone. However, I still trended towards games where I was progressing towards something with a friend, unlocking actual game scenarios, finding loot, etc. I played some FPS games for a bit (Halo Reach for an entire summer. Woo!) but when I played, I was still looking to level up my account - to progress. The gameplay itself wasn't too terribly varied.

But then again, for a FPS where the big thing is PVP, the gameplay doesn't have to be too varied. People will play whichever one they find the most interesting until the next version comes out. Then the old one gets mostly abandoned and everyone moves on. Because the games are made by companies that release a full game then start making the next one. There is always another coming out. Another entirely new game to move on to.

In games where single player is the main feature, you complete the story, then you move on.

The only games that haven't really followed that trend that I know of are the big MOBAs: league of legends, dota, etc. And surely they will come out with sequels eventually (if not already and I just never noticed).
Also, minecraft, but that is an entirely different beast in my opinion.

So where does our beloved GoIO sit?

We have a pvp game, made by an indy company that, let's be honest, probably won't be making a GoIO2. If/when they make more games, I would bet they would expand into different regions, as they are doing with Creavures and that hamster fighting game.
There is adventure mode and co-op coming out eventually, which may change things. Although until that happens I don't really know how they will fare.
But realistically, this is it. This is the game.

So I have 2 questions really.
1. Why are you still playing?
2. Where do you see GoIO in the future?
Regarding question 1, this is just curiosity. I will share mine, but I want to know why other people are still here as well.

Regarding question 2...
The forums currently have 218490 members as of writing this. As far as I know, you can only be a member if you bought the game.
In game, I rarely see more than 100 people waiting online. If each person stays only for an hour, and we triple that number to account for people in games/hidden somehow, and 100 stays constant all day, and then we round up a lot for no apparent reason, then we probably have no more than 10,000 people that ever play the game on even a semi-regular basis.

After over a year of this game existing, we have less than 5% of buyers playing. There is a competitive scene that is watched mostly by people who are in the competitions during their off time. There will be co-op and adventure mode, but I just don't see much new entering into the pvp game in the foreseeable future.

It is hard to say what will happen when co-op and adventure mode hit. I am curious to find out. But I feel like pvp is going to stagnate. We have mostly the same teams playing each other in competitive, and most new players don't stick around long enough to get hooked like we are.

So I guess I'm just curious if other people see something different. If someone sees a future different than the one I am seeing. Because I'm not interested in finding a new game. I am hooked and want to build on this game.

TL;DR: I'm sentimental about this game and can't take my mind off it during the day, so I want to talk about it with other people that feel the same way

redria:
You sort of have my answer to question 2. So in response to 1...

As I mentioned in the OP, I was never too big on pvp or multiplayer for a long time. Then suddenly I graduated. I was in a new city, no friends, and a waning interest in single player games. There were FPS games of course, but they didn't really interest me too much. A little too repetitive.

I had this game in my steam library and finally had a computer that could run it, so I started playing. Naturally, I was enamored at first because airships. Awesome.

Then I found a few captains that talked to me and liked having me as an engineer. So I stuck with them. If noone was takign the pilot slot I would grab it and do my best, but I wasn't that great.

As I played a little more with the pilots I considered good, I learned how they abused their engines and how, with a good engineer, engine abuse gave you a leg up.

I started getting better at piloting, and it was all still pretty new and exciting. But I hadn't found the community yet. Mostly just a couple players.

Then one day I joined a lobby with this guy named Miau, along with Puppy Fur, Menealata, and company. They were all talking and having a blast. I hung out with them for the night and had fun. The next day I logged in and they all suddenly had a clan tag and said they were competing. I watched the first Sunday Rumble and saw them actually win.

Now, I am a person who had no interest in actually joining a clan. I never really wanted to align myself with a single group of people. I'm sort of like that IRL. I have those few close friends, but I tend to have several groups that I split my time between. Sort of a trend since spending all of my time in a non-school sport when I was younger.

That said, I kept flying with these guys, because they were fun. We joked and laughed. We won a lot, and enjoyed ourselves. They dragged me in to competitions and eventually I just stopped taking the tag off after competitions.

Now half the fun of the game is finding my friends and hanging out with them. Seeing what build they are taking, helping them get achievements, shooting mines at them, competing with them, etc.

I hardly play for the game anymore. I play to find people online that I like and hang out with them.

What gets me is that I keep finding more people I like. The more I interact with other clans the more people I find.

I keep playing not because there is always a new scenario or fight I want to have. I keep playing because I want to see what shenanigans I can get up to with friends. GoIO just provides an excellent place to find new people and mess around.

HamsterIV:
Since Redria graced us with some of his personal history so shall I.

I started gaming on flight sims when I was very young. I was too young to understand the complexities of flight aside from stick back to go up, bank to turn, and stalls are bad. I did learn how to lead targets and am quite proud of that skill to this day.

I played a lot of Starsiege Tribes during my high school and college years. I am not that good with twich reflexs, but am very good at anticipating a player and ballistic shooting. Like GOI tribes had customization options that were available from the get go. The advantages of certain weapon and armor choices were situational instead of just numerically superior.

While in college I got it into my head that I could make games with this computer science degree they gave me. After a few years unsuccessfully trying to get into the industry and a couple of self published games I landed a programming job outside the games industry and contented myself with the knowledge that I would be better able to enjoy games if I weren't so busy trying to make them. I look at the fine folk at Muse living my former dream and can't help but cheer them on. The fact they are so involved in this community only makes me want to support them more.

1. Why are you still playing?
I like to teach people stuff. I like it when people tell me "You are the best captain I ever had." I like knowing that some where in the world some one had a mind blowing experience because of the decisions I made today. I also like winning, and GOI is one of the few games I am really good at (compared to most of the game's player base).

2. Where do you see GoIO in the future?
I fear adventure mode would split the community where newbies would gravitate to PvE when they realize they aren't any good at PvP. I fear a soulless copycat studio would duplicate the aesthetic of GOI, fill the game with skinnerbox instant gratification mechanics, and rob GOI of its niche market. I fear the day I will login and see 0 lobbies or worse yet that Muse has taken the servers down permanently. Until that day comes I am going to play the heck out of this game.

Squidslinger Gilder:
1. Hope. Hope for a return of the fun game I never wanted to stop playing before 1.2. Then...what else is there? Sitting around playing BF3 alone or questing in SWTOR on another alt...Really is no games that can replicate GOIO.

2. I see it becoming a pseudo MMO. I can see it becoming something that offers the best of both worlds, MMO and non MMO. This brings with it a whole bag of new problems. Community splits will take place. That is a given. But I do not see Muse as being able to carry the project into that realm without help. Unless they get help, or really get some new investors, this'll likely take a decade to reach when a bigger studio could do it within a year or two.

Not that I want Muse to whore themselves out to someone like EA or Activision. But they're going to need a larger staff if they want to secure GOIO as the market leader for it's genre. Otherwise, they will be surpassed and they will be overtaken by bigger competitors who take notice of them and pop out in a short time what Muse has taken a long time to build.

Coldcurse:
1. I play GoIo because its a great game with a great community.

2. We all blame shinkurex. I hope the game gets more players and advances into something amazing.

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