by Tami on September 1, 2010
I was surprised to discover just how like an MMO Frontierville was. You level. You do quests. You group together with friends to do large tasks, but there’s plenty to do on your own. And it never, ever ends. I’d like to say the only real difference would be the begging from your friends for help, but … go listen to the general chat of any MMO out there. You’ll hear that same thing.
(Source: Tipa of West Karana fame)
Hip hip hooray to Tipa, who is as close to from the horse’s mouth as it gets. An avid MMO player who always has great wisdom from a player perspective is understanding social games at a pace that is leaving most MMO bloggers behind.
Large scale MMOs are just putting game mechanics together in a different order and burying them, iterating on these mechanics, spending years to make the medium more grandiose, and putting more mainstream marketing on the final package. However, when it comes down to it – social games are MMOs broken down to those purest mechanics. Casual games, too. You might not like it, because the gaming mechanics are exposed in a way that is transparent to you as a ‘hardcore MMO gamer’ that makes them feel rudimentary and archaic. Luckily, you don’t have to like it..because millions of people do. 
A comment on that article by Pete S. (from Dragonchasers) said the following
I was so sad to see Brenda Brathwaite announce that the company she’s now working for (Lolapps) released their newest game on Facebook and … it was yet another “island” game. Critter Island. I followed her link, looked at the game and just couldn’t bring myself to even try it.
Lolapps and Brenda are making games for the social gaming audience. For some reason, MMO gamers get so upset or saddened to see that these games aren’t evolving at a pace that suits them. When it comes down to it though, social gamers like island games. They like pet games, they like RPGs, they like treasure hunting, and glamor, and mafias, and cooking and building cities. Brenda Brathwaite’s game Critter Island is already getting good reviews, and almost 10,000 people are logging in and playing it every day. It’s okay that the MMO gamers don’t want to try it, or want to dismiss it.
At some point, MMO (and console) gamers are going to see social gaming for what it really is. A new, innovative genre of gameplay that broadens the gaming demographic and brings gaming onto more commonplace platforms than ever seen before. Something families can enjoy, people young and old. A medium of gaming that goes to where the people already are, instead of making them jump through hoops to partake. A genre of gaming that they don’t have to enjoy playing in order to respect it’s strengths and acknowledge its existence with positivity. Gaming where the titles come at a blinding pace and there is always something new to play. Gaming that doesn’t require you to spend a dime in order to have fun.
At that point, maybe people will smile and think it’s neat when I say I work for a Facebook game company instead of saying things like “Ugh, so you’re the one spamming my wall?” or “That FarmVille crap?” or “You don’t work in games, you work in Facebook games.”
by Tami on August 19, 2010
I just read a massive dissection of what went wrong with RealTime Worlds and All Points Bulletin, and found a lot of it very interesting. It was no surprise to me how much they spent on the game (which is astronomical, by the way). However, one quote by the writer in the article really hit home for me:
A game designer’s job is now at least 25% about building the business model. If you don’t want to do that, you have no place designing online games.
(Source)
This is a very bold statement, and sounds like something that could have came out of my mouth. Left and right, we’re seeing the large AAA developers jumping into free-to-play, microtransactions and alternate business models – yet so often it feels like the biz model was tacked on at the last minute. This is something that is a critical part of the game’s success. You absolutely need to know what your game’s business model is while you are designing the systems and the mechanics of your game. You are simply setting yourself up to fail if you don’t know this early in the game’s development. Game designers have to have the market research skills to know what works and what doesn’t in the free to play space.
The top Facebook game companies that are showing success are doing this because they have mastered their business strategy. They understand the value of growth and customer retention, and know exactly what knobs need to be turned and when. The monetization of the game is designed on day 1. If it isn’t, the game doesn’t succeed. And the whole team is bought into the business model and knows why it works, not just the marketing team and the producers. Everyone understands metrics, knows how to evaluate and react to them.
It is possible to do microtransactions and free-to-play wrong, and I’ve talked about it before.
by Tami on August 8, 2010
A lot has been going on in my life lately, and I haven’t had nearly as much time to enjoy writing as I’d like to. We’re finally all moved in to our new house, and although the unpacking hasn’t yet been finished – it is cozy and feels like home already. It’s nice having a backyard space for our dog to call her own, and it’s great to not share walls with any random strangers anymore.
Tonight we watched Kick-Ass for the second time, and damn it’s a fantastic movie. The character who steals the entire movie is Hit-Girl, played by a 13-year old actress. I love watching her completely own the movie, but I have to say it is very difficult watching the violent scene near the end where she is beaten up by the older man. I have a really hard time watching that scene, because it’s not often that you have to watch children being beaten and bloodied. That scene is the only one in the movie that makes me uncomfortable – the rest of the gratuitous violence and foul language is just par for the course.
Luke and I ended up skipping the SOE Fan Faire this year, which we had planned to go to. He’s been sick for a long time and just needed a weekend to rest and start feeling better. Instead, I went out to the Del Mar Racetrack and watched the superhorse Zenyatta win her 18th race in a row. It was definitely the most epic sporting event I have been to. The standing ovation, the massive cheers, the homage video, the chanting – everyone forgot about betting to win cash and just cheered on one of Thoroughbred racing’s ultimate superstars. I love going to the racetrack, and I’ll be sad to see the Del Mar racing season come to an end.
Gaming-wise, the only thing I’ve been playing is Facebook games. I wish I had more time to do things like that, but alas, there is no time.
I still can’t put down my iPad. I’ve now traveled with it, and it’s a lifesaver. It’s constantly attached to my hip, and I don’t want to go anywhere without it.
I’m still debating between getting an iPhone 4 or going Android. Right now, I’m leaning towards the iPhone 4, because there isn’t a killer Android to rule them all just yet. I think I’ll give it more time and watch how the reviews of the Droid 2 end up. We shall see.
This weekend, Luke and I are moving AGAIN. I’ve now lived in San Diego for 3 years, and this will be the 6th place that I’ve lived in. I guess I don’t like to settle down much! Let’s take a peek at how much moving I’ve done:
- Moved to San Diego, lived in Escondido because I didn’t know anything about the area.
- Moved to Scripps Ranch, where my boyfriend and I stayed in a friend’s apartment for awhile.
- Moved to Rancho Bernardo, where we lived for only one year before getting the heck out of suburbia.
- Moved to Bankers Hill, where we lived in a beautiful loft until they sold it and we were forced to move.
- Moved to Hillcrest, where we have been paying way too much ($2000+) for a condo that simply isn’t worth it.
Now, we’re moving 4 blocks from where we are, staying in Hillcrest. We’re renting a house, and moving in with my best friend who moved here from Minnesota with me three years ago. This place is ADORABLE. It’s a little (1200 square feet) 2 bedroom, 2 bath house. It has a fenced front and back yard, beautiful french doors leading to a wood patio, hardwood floors throughout, beautiful tall ceilings and a stained glass window, and it is cozy and cute as can be. We’re moving on Sunday, so there is lots of packing work to be done!
Here are some pictures of our new place:
News came out yesterday that Everquest II was going free to play. That is, on select opt-in servers. My take on this is that it will be an overwhelmingly positive thing for EQ2. The game is bleeding subscribers slowly, as it has been for quite some time. This is not at the game’s fault, this is the natural lifecycle of a game of its nature. This is the best (and cheapest) way for SOE to bring new life to the game and allow more people to take advantage of what is actually one of the deepest (and best) MMOs on the market. This can only be good for SOE and the game.
Many people are calling it a colossal rip-off. Mainly, because you can upgrade on the F2P servers to a monthly $14.99 subscription without getting access to the full game. You don’t get all the races, or all the character slots. People who are upset by this have clearly never put a retail box in a store before. Retail sales have been crucial to EQ2, because it has been the one way people find out about the game aside from word of mouth. They have been driving players to buy retail boxes for the last 6 years, giving extra perks and rewards and bonuses for people who do.
The EQ2 community is a dedicated and engaged low-churn community who have been buying expansions and adventure packs for the last 6 years. That’s 6 expansions. Now a new F2P server opens up that allows anyone to start up with no initial cost. No boxes, no additional expansions. You better believe that SOE is going to give a benefit to the people who have been dedicated players for the last few years. If they didn’t, the same people who are complaining now about the $14.99/month not giving them the full experience would be complaining that old school players are completely screwed and were ripped off.
SOE is showing utmost loyalty here. It would have been easy (possibly even EASIER) for them to just give subscribers on the new F2P servers everything that subscribers have who have bought expansion after expansion. This would have been a major slap-in-the-face and I’m surprised no one is talking about this.
SOE is doing F2P right:
- Giving multiple subscription levels, including completely free to one time fees to full monthly sub fees
- Putting F2P players on their own server, not affecting the gameplay of the longtime subscribers
- Giving a bonus benefit to their longtime customers who play on regular servers
Sounds good to me.