MMOs as Steak Dinners

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Written by Admriker4444

Think of an MMO as a Steak dinner....

For the first 6 years of MMO history, you only had about 4 restaurants around that served a steak dinner.

The steak was a prime cut, maybe a filet mignon or kobe beef. the dinner included a salad, veggies, bread, soup, and dessert. The price was $50 and an additional $15 tip

Then in Year 7 a new restaurant in town opens (World of Warcraft).

The steak isn’t quite the same quality of beef. It's definitely not kobe. However, the meat has already been cut up into bite size pieces for you so it's faster and easier to eat. It likely came from the shoulder or hind leg but they cover the meat with a cheap sauce so you cant notice its inferior quality. They don’t give you a salad. And the veggies are clearly from a can. They still charge you $50 plus a $15 tip.

Now at this point two things could have happened. The customer could have rejected the dinner, demanding better food or a discounted price - maybe wave the tip since he is getting less for his money compared to the previous 4 restaurants offer.

Or the customer can just accept the lesser quality dinner and bloated price. Perhaps the customer also has never eaten at the other 4 restaurants and therefore doesn’t even know he is getting less for his money. He blindly accepts the meal and costs.

Year 8 though 13 several new restaurants open hoping to copy the success of they year 7 restaurant. They all offer the same cut of beef sliced up, they offer the same price. some tweak things a bit, maybe offering a soup instead of salad. unfortunately all of these restaurants are struggling to get by because they aren’t quite as good or different as the Year 7 place.

Year 13 begins with a new direction for a restaurant (Champions). It's followed by an exact replica down the street (STO). rather than try and spend the same money to build a similar restaurant as the Year 7 place, they opt for a fast food joint. They cut out the veggies, just fries now for everyone. Soup or salad is not an option and the steak is only 30% real meat, the other 70% chemical fillers that likely cause cancer. You get paper napkins instead of cloth. and forget about refills on water or iced tea.

They still charge the same $50 and a tip of $15. In addition, they also now charge for extras, lemon for your tea well that’s another $2. Sauce for the steak, another $2. A clean fork well that’s coming next week once the washer is fixed oh and its another $2. They also offer a prepaid service. Pay them several hundred dollars today and all future meals are free (guess you just have to hope they don’t close down).

Since the customers continue to accept lesser quality food and service, year 14 sees yet another place open...

another restaurant opens in year 14 (DCUO). This one has eliminated pretty much anything considered extra. servers are now gone. You order through a box. Seats aren’t necessary, you can eat it from the car. plates, glasses, bowls, silverware are gone, you get a paper wrapper. your sauce to cover that poor meat comes in a small pouch now and they never give you enough. Yet they still charge you the same fees.

I sure do miss my steak dinner. Sadly the 4 restaurants that served a great meal, well they’re all struggling to survive. Nobody cares about good service or fine wines anymore. French fries appeal to the town more than glazed mushrooms in a risotta sauce over a bed of rice. One of the restaurants even changed their menu to resemble the year 7 place but it only drove away their loyal customers

Year 15 approaches and several new restaurants appear close to opening. What can we expect from them ? Will they follow the trend downward ?


Can you see the pattern here? If a restaurant can give you less and receive the same money or more than the finest steak restaurants, why wouldn’t they ? If you as the customer are willing to accept a hair in your food, shoddy meat that’s not even real, poor service, etc then that’s exactly what you will get.

The type of restaurant we get is clearly up to us.