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I’ve never wanted to wash my hands after playing an iPad game. That is, until I’d played Luxuria Superbia. At first glance it reminded me of rhythm roller-coaster Audiosurf, although perhaps with a seedy seventies vibe. The truth, it turns out, was even more peculiar, with my fingers playing as unwitting servants to the sultry demands of a digital flower.
It’s become almost a perennial tale: an MMO in distress makes the switch to free-to-play and becomes instantly successful. But, without hard numbers, it’s been difficult to appreciate just how much a difference it can make.
That has now changed. In a great interview with Daniel Tack at Forbes, Rift Creative Director Bill Fisher revealed some fascinating figures. It’s worth reading the entire article, but the headline number is staggering: revenue increased five times. That’s difficult for any developer to ignore.
It gives rise to a number of follow-up questions. Was the uplift a momentary surge or sustained growth? What does the average revenue per active player look like? How reliant are they on a certain subset of players? Has the change improved Rift’s long-term fortunes, or was it just a blip on the radar?
Just over two years ago, I built a PC that would be able to play the ‘next generation’ of MMOs. It was a silly notion considering that, at the time, I didn’t have an idea what next generation truly meant. I just wanted to build something that would provide obscene frame rates without leaving me penniless.
It’s a strategy that worked. I’ve gone from WoW: Cataclysm, to SWTOR, to TERA, to The Secret World and Guild Wars 2, all without a hitch. I’ve managed to run them on high settings and capture stunning video. Whatever game I’ve wanted to play, my hardware hasn’t held me back.
When it first launched, The Room caught me by surprise. As the debut title of an unknown studio, the carefully paced puzzle game brought a fresh experience to the iPad. But there was something more to it: an intricate tale of arcane mysticism that refused to be fully unmasked.
Since then, Fireproof Games’ initial offering has made it to both iPhone and Android, and I’d strongly recommend it. Meanwhile, I’ve been desperately craving a sequel. The original took me deep into a rabbit hole, but left me with a collection of questions about the world I’d fallen into. With a sequel on the horizon, I was eagerly anticipating some answers.
About 5 months ago, I made the decision to preorder a PlayStation 4. Some of you might see that as a bold or brave choice, while others might think that it’s ridiculous or short-sighted. A few might even wonder why, as a heavy-PC gamer with a powerful gaming rig, I’m getting a console at all.
The truth is, I’ve been eyeing up the next generation of consoles for some time now. The graphical grunt and online capabilities of each machine feel like they’re getting good enough to deliver some incredibly rich experiences. Take one look at titles like Titanfall, Destiny, The Division and Dying Light, and it’s clear that the concept of multiplayer gaming is changing. With flexible grouping systems and an open-world feel, they’re beginning to borrow from the MMO playbook.
It’s been a while in coming, but the news is finally out: WildStar is going with a hybrid subscription model. We’ll pay once for the box (with a free month thrown in), then pay every month for continued access to the game.
The hybrid part comes in through Certificates of Research, Exploration, Destruction and Development, or CREDD. There’s a neat little guide to how this works over on the WildStar official site, but essentially it’s very similar to the PLEX system in EVE Online. Players can buy a CREDD from Carbine for cash, and then sell it in-game on the Commodities Exchange for in-game gold.
WildStar already holds my attention as an upcoming MMO. But in among the regular feature updates and videos, there’s a special reason why I’m watching it closely.
It’s the first time in a very long time that I’ve watched a roleplaying community form, share ideas and develop their own character concepts.
The last time was about seven or eight years ago, as some friends and I started planning our characters for World of Warcraft. Of course, back then we didn’t have the benefit of preexisting communities or comprehensive wikis. All we had were some rough ideas sketched out in emails, or discussions over a pint in the local pub.
I mention it now, because WildStar invokes the same feeling. There isn’t a monstrous tome of lore to base characters from. There isn’t a sprawling franchise of games to give us heavy guidance about the world we’re planning on diving into. All we have are a series of edges and outlines on which to put our own imprint.
And that’s incredibly liberating.
When was the last time you saw an MMO launch that went off without a hitch? From login issues preventing access, to major functions being disabled, it seems that almost every modern MMO has a rocky start in life. Even complex online games have been exposed to similar problems, from days of inaccessibility to weeks of poor performance.
But why does it happen? Why do experienced companies who are used to building and maintaining these types of systems continually run into these kinds of problems? Why are they, in many cases, unable to thoroughly test these kinds of systems. And what can be done to make sure that gamers still have a good experience, even if some features are unavailable?
I’m going to try to tackle a handful of these issues, explaining what companies can do, but why they also don’t help cater for every example. And while I have experience of designing massively multi-user systems myself, the usage patterns relating to MMO gaming are somewhat different to an online shop or customer service portal. Don’t start lambasting developers for what I write here, ‘kay?
If you’ve been tracking the tech news over the past 48 hours, you’ll have seen a new name crop up with increasing regularity: Ouya. Currently in a prototype, the design studio behind the project are raising funds via Kickstarter to bring the concept to living rooms worldwide. Gamers have been overwhelmingly positive in their response – with roughly $3.5 million already pledged in the first 48 hours alone, the console looks almost certain to become a reality.
So what exactly are people buying?
This is not a games console in the traditional sense. Ouya seeks to change the relationship between developer, platform owner and consumer. Instead of having expensive development kits and closely guarded marketplace access, the team behind Ouya are keen to make it as easy as possible for developers to get on to their platform, using pricing and payment models that are right for them. By building their own console, rather than relying on someone else’s platform, the team behind Ouya can control each point in the process.
I’m going to start with a bit of a history lesson.
Back when I was a kid, we used to go to the games store and buy a cassette tape. We’d take it home, play it into the machine, and wait half an hour to play the game we just bought. Sometimes it’d work, sometimes it wouldn’t. Sometimes it would randomly crash, or the last few levels would be impossible. We also had no internet, which meant no patches. We had a tape, to enjoy or not, as we chose.
Today’s gaming industry is radically different. Gamers are spending incredible amounts of time in multi-player games of one form or another. We’re consuming downloadable content to extend the lifespan of games we’ve bought. We’re using networks to interact with each other, from console variants such as Xbox Live, through to publisher or developer related ones such as Steam and Battle.net.
Games are becoming increasingly reliant on this back-end network to deliver significant parts of the experience. While this transition from Gaming as a Product to Gaming as a Service has benefits for both sides, what risks does it pose? How do we critically appraise a game that’s heavily reliant on these service components? What is the importance of reputation? And what happens when this service-based industry reaches saturation point?
Continue reading “Gaming: The Journey to Service Saturation”