Dragon Age - A Massively Single-Player RPG

Didn't Prairie Games' RPG/MMORPG Minions of Mirth once bill itself as a "massively single player RPG"? Kotaku writes that BioWare will use Facebook and Twitter to extend the reach of Dragon Age:

As a Dragon Age: Origins demo I received in a rented New York City nightclub was nearing its conclusion yesterday, I was shown a video that teased more of the game's content. There were fights and arguments and epic beasts. And there were flashes of logos at the end for the companies or platforms involved — I can't remember — along with — and this is burned into my mind's eye — the logos for Twitter and Facebook.
I turned to David Silverman, the senior product manager for the EA/BioWare game and asked him what that was all about.
He said he couldn't reveal much, but that I should think of Dragon Age: Origins not just as a single-player game with hundreds of hours of content, but as a "massively single-player role-playing game."

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More information.

I assume ... this sounds like ... as if they were trying to erect this game as a new "standard" in role playing games ... Similar to what BG and D2 have grown/become into ...

Their marketing move is obvious : Make evceryone Talk about it ! Spread the word through talking 1 Use social networks for viral marketing ! Everyone should get to know this game !

And how is the marketing able to get people talking about it ?

Through provcation ! This is the new shit !

Someone in the marketing department has obviously learned a huge lesson through the "romamcing" stuff that was widely discussed about Mass Effect . It even got into the News ! Into the Newspapers ! THIS is the real, the *best* advertising they could imagine !

So now someone's taken that listen and - broadly expands it. With Web 2.0 tools.

Now this is the new Shit ! Make people talk about it !

Lots of people !

I just hope that, when my party, hurt after the last fight against the giants, ready as they can be to open the door and face the mysterious Lord Gang, about to release the prepared spells when suddenly a window pops up saying 'You got a new Trophy for clicking your mouse 1000 times!' or 'your friend xxxMichaelJacksonSucksxxx' just killed his 10th ice troll'.

Bioware has already been using Twitter heavily on this and ME2.

Yes, but it seems to that both facebook, twitter and youtube channels for DA: Origins are not that filled; channels for Mass Effect are more filled, I think? with people talking about Mass Effect.

And I don't know what a massively single player game is?

It also seems to me that Bioware may be going with games for windows live with that one so that we, the players, can boast on Xbox Live or MS Live with how many acheivements we've gotten.

Boasting about one's achievement is just what (most?) people from 13-19 or maybe 25-29 may do; not a mature audience which I thought would be the ones to buy the game - apparently not... (as always, this is imo...)

And yes, someone in marketing actually thought it would be a very good idea to stir up something or make something that could gather as much attention as Fox News story about the sex (love) scene in Mass Effect. What these guys fail to understand is that a) it doesn't work as well when marketing themselves are doing this and b)
it took a fairly (relatively) long time before Bioware and EA even defended themselves. It actually were the fans of Bioware (and EA?) that defended them and urged them to defend themselves from the allegations made by Fox News.

The problem is that we can't do this if the storm breaks once again; Bioware has themselves made a marketing move that undermines this, especially with the showing of 'this is the new shit trailer'.

It was probably to attract the action fans and the ME players; it seems to have failed or backfired; people these days can easily tell when they're being manipulated - or in case this is too strong a word - when someone (EA) is trying to mess with their heads getting them buy something they wouldn't...

Me, I don't know....

The game looks great and all, but why are Bioware insisting on making a game that too me looks and probably plays a lot similar to Oblivion or Morrowind? The game's combat and story also looks great, to me, I find. However, when I see the combat videos, there's something missing that is very hard to define; for lack of better word I think I'll use the word soul...

It is as if no-one at Bioware really did care about this game....but we promised our pc fans....and we need to make money...

In the words of Cespenar 'ooh, shiney' --- and that all that it seems to be - at the moment...

And why do they have to use so much bloom...?

aries100 said:

And I don't know what a massively single player game is?

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MSPRPG.....

Seriously though, it would be a nice trend if we started seeing more of them...

Seriously though, it would be a nice trend if we started seeing more of them...

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Yes please if it's a Baldur's Gate 2 type mixture of size and quality.

No thanks if it's just a single player MMORPG with grinding, fedexing, monty haul loot etc.

Fingers crossed Bioware can rediscover what made their games so good instead of the bland 2-3 previous offerings...

I feel that some people over-analyse some things and forget to just have fun. Ooooh, shiny can be just that, and fun as well. Maybe I'm just not in the hardcore niche and hardcore niche only demographic.

I think of Oblivion as Massively Single Player.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Now this is the new Shit ! Make people talk about it !

Lots of people !

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If it works then I'm all for it and obviously it has worked because I'm still seeing "This is the new shit!" EVERYWHERE! I can't go to one forum without one person typing that Any day now I expect to see that little sentence on the homepage over at codex. I believe it's their new mantra.

It sure created drama.

This is sounding a little Lionhead'ish, isn't it? Hopefully they are just going to use Facebook/Twitter as a way to do achievements.

A Massively Single-Player RPG would be a game with a very large world and a lot of content that lasts for more then 60 to 80 hours and is usually above 100 hours.

PS. Minions of Mirth was refered to as a Massively Single-Player RPG by the developers but they didn't coin the term. I'm not sure when it was coined but it was no later then the mid-nineties.

I am sure that "Massively Single-Player RPG" means nothing. There will probably be nothing original in this game. They just want to hype it as something original.

can i grind reputation?

I have rather the feeling as if the marketing of EA tries to give the term "massively single player RPG" a whole new meaning - a completely new definition.

That's why I wrote my initial post here.