It's been coming for a while of course, Second Life was a great idea, but in many ways is starting to look and feel very much past it's sell by date (Blizzard take note at the fickle nature of the customer...) Free Realms was more an inevitability rather than anything else and now; it's here.
Yes indeedy, a free game to start, a micro-transactions business model, an establish quality publisher and graphics which blow Second Life out of the water.. oh deary, deary me.... Not a great day to work at Linden Labs
Thursday, 30 April 2009
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Barca nil - Chelsea nil... My Membership costs; nil
Community is a odd thing; the concept of membership more so.
I've been a Chelsea follower for many years in a city filled with Newcastle supporters, thus, basically, in a city surrounded by fanatical Geordie's you'd think I would be alone in being an outsider... Not at all my workplace is also filled with "the great enemy" the Red and White Sunderland fans and all sorts of other assorted people.
We're all members of a community? Well this is stretching the concept a bit. I listened to the match last night, am I as equal to the person who watched it, or is he equal to the dedicated fan to went to the Nou Camp? Obviously levels exists here both within the concept of being a fan and fan dedication (as indeed, a number of academics in the area of American Football fan identification writings have already studied with the concept of levels of identification)
What interest me though isn't the community between dedicated fans; it's the meta-community. The male dominated, culturally intrinsic, footballing knowledge which allowed me, for example, to go to the most boring wedding, sit down on a table populated by people I'd never met before, and get into a four hour long interesting and wide ranging debate with two other men about football.
Football; the ultimate in men's smalltalk.
I do wonder if this is the same in America? Is an opening smalltalk gambit in the office "You see the match last night" or "You see that Homerun/touchdown/3 pointer?"
What interests me is the pervasive nature of the community, it's male dominated orientation, the fact that I'm seemingly a member of the community without paying a penny, with the only interest needed seemingly a vague awareness of the basic rules of the game (list to 606 on 5 live sometime and you'll know exactly what I mean here....).
What interests me is it's institutional nature in, at least, the UK, it's broad acceptance. Now, football is our national game, I accept that, but how is it also our national community (male dominated) accepted talking point?
The reason all this interests me is the concepts of habitus and field and their applications to World of Warcraft. As an online game, an Internet connection is a given for a player, and so an assumption that the player has a vague awareness of Internet sites etc, is I think, not a great stretch. A player inhabits an online world as well as the offline world thus, the online world being a world of his choosing usually, an thus he can choose to go to many sites about Warcraft.
How pervasive is then the community information? I'm a member of the World of Warcraft community because of what? My engagement with it? My interest in it? Just my subscription fee alone isn't my "membership", I could cancel next month, leave, go away for a few months, and then maybe return later, and my "community membership" and most of my community knowledge would still be there
Just what constitutes my membership card? The ability to have a conversation about it? When does my membership really expire?
Is the community membership a "public good"; just like my football "community membership"?
I've been a Chelsea follower for many years in a city filled with Newcastle supporters, thus, basically, in a city surrounded by fanatical Geordie's you'd think I would be alone in being an outsider... Not at all my workplace is also filled with "the great enemy" the Red and White Sunderland fans and all sorts of other assorted people.
We're all members of a community? Well this is stretching the concept a bit. I listened to the match last night, am I as equal to the person who watched it, or is he equal to the dedicated fan to went to the Nou Camp? Obviously levels exists here both within the concept of being a fan and fan dedication (as indeed, a number of academics in the area of American Football fan identification writings have already studied with the concept of levels of identification)
What interest me though isn't the community between dedicated fans; it's the meta-community. The male dominated, culturally intrinsic, footballing knowledge which allowed me, for example, to go to the most boring wedding, sit down on a table populated by people I'd never met before, and get into a four hour long interesting and wide ranging debate with two other men about football.
Football; the ultimate in men's smalltalk.
I do wonder if this is the same in America? Is an opening smalltalk gambit in the office "You see the match last night" or "You see that Homerun/touchdown/3 pointer?"
What interests me is the pervasive nature of the community, it's male dominated orientation, the fact that I'm seemingly a member of the community without paying a penny, with the only interest needed seemingly a vague awareness of the basic rules of the game (list to 606 on 5 live sometime and you'll know exactly what I mean here....).
What interests me is it's institutional nature in, at least, the UK, it's broad acceptance. Now, football is our national game, I accept that, but how is it also our national community (male dominated) accepted talking point?
The reason all this interests me is the concepts of habitus and field and their applications to World of Warcraft. As an online game, an Internet connection is a given for a player, and so an assumption that the player has a vague awareness of Internet sites etc, is I think, not a great stretch. A player inhabits an online world as well as the offline world thus, the online world being a world of his choosing usually, an thus he can choose to go to many sites about Warcraft.
How pervasive is then the community information? I'm a member of the World of Warcraft community because of what? My engagement with it? My interest in it? Just my subscription fee alone isn't my "membership", I could cancel next month, leave, go away for a few months, and then maybe return later, and my "community membership" and most of my community knowledge would still be there
Just what constitutes my membership card? The ability to have a conversation about it? When does my membership really expire?
Is the community membership a "public good"; just like my football "community membership"?
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Updating my reading list/Blogging
Decided to update my reading list and indeed, find some decent news, business and research sites which could give me more of that information I so desperately seem to need.
On a blogging note, this blog so far is more than fulfilling it's function as a useful wall and I'm quite happy with the blogging result so far.
On a blogging note, this blog so far is more than fulfilling it's function as a useful wall and I'm quite happy with the blogging result so far.
Monday, 27 April 2009
Game Design Analysis: Customer Effects
I must admit fascination with some of the discussions of Richard Bartle in his recent IMGDC 2009 keynote speech. Some interesting analysis of learning curves in there, though I must admit to LOVING this diagram above of the effect of steep learning curves on customer numbers (the falling stick men being rather great metaphors!). I must say though, from a purely personal perspective, I kinda disagree with POTBS being placed in that diagram with a lower entry point than WoW, I found POTBS a huge problem to get to grips with myself
The discussion of a two tier game system (the quest and raiding system of WoW) and the attempt to be all things to all people (and the sheer expense of doing so) rings bells with me though. I must admit however, to being rather doubtful regarding his conclusion that "Wendy" & "Dorothy" can live together and indeed, learn from each other.
In many ways Bartles comments fail to realise that while the roots of MMO's might be in MuDs etc. He is talking about things that only a few thousand, maybe tens of thousands, have really experienced. The real birth of the modern MMO that all gamers lies in more of the Everquest and WoW games. These have a root base, however the sheer customer volume means that far from being a small consequence, WoW in particular is the benchmark.
In other words, what WoW does, how it does it, is your ultimate MMO comparator.
That doesn't mean WoW is the be all and end all, but it does mean, for the majority of players, your product must be, at the very least, fulfilling that WoW fix (i.e. questing and raiding) to get that slice of the pie.
We have though, seen, many living corpses (WAR, Conan etc) have tried that route.
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Potent Symbols of Membership: Research Musings
Been trying to think of some of the most potent symbols of game identification. What stands out as an attribute which says, I not only play the game, I've bought into the entire culture, I'm a WoW gamer.
It was pretty easy to narrow down. It would have to be guying into something which is a cultural artefact, buying into something that says, more than anything, not only do I play WoW, I've really bought into the entire thing.... And the answer...
DKP.
There probably isn't a more single indicator of true buy-in than I can think of, something which truly is a merit badge of "I'm a wow gamer", "I'm a member of a community" than using, having used, or being a part of a DKP system.
DKP is completely a meta-currency, it has no in-game value, you can't complain to a GM about your DKP being docked etc. It is as the word meta implies, completely beyond the game; a cultural artifact.
Of course, not everyone likes DKP, or indeed has used it, and not everyone currently uses it, but a bit like a badge which one put on, is hard to take off, past use or current use of a DKP system is possibly the most power symbol of buy-in I can come to.
Placing value not in the game, but in a artificial construct beyond the game which has a collective meaning to your consumptive community, but nowhere else.
It was pretty easy to narrow down. It would have to be guying into something which is a cultural artefact, buying into something that says, more than anything, not only do I play WoW, I've really bought into the entire thing.... And the answer...
DKP.
There probably isn't a more single indicator of true buy-in than I can think of, something which truly is a merit badge of "I'm a wow gamer", "I'm a member of a community" than using, having used, or being a part of a DKP system.
DKP is completely a meta-currency, it has no in-game value, you can't complain to a GM about your DKP being docked etc. It is as the word meta implies, completely beyond the game; a cultural artifact.
Of course, not everyone likes DKP, or indeed has used it, and not everyone currently uses it, but a bit like a badge which one put on, is hard to take off, past use or current use of a DKP system is possibly the most power symbol of buy-in I can come to.
Placing value not in the game, but in a artificial construct beyond the game which has a collective meaning to your consumptive community, but nowhere else.
City of Heroes: User Generated Content
So finally I've tried out the new City of Heroes patch.
Does it make me want to play CoH/V? Not by a long stretch.
Is it interesting, yes. Novel, yes. Would it make me renew my subs? Not in a million years. Indeed, the very fact that the user content creator system works how it does highlighted to me WHY I cancelled almost 2 years ago (that long!) the account in the first place.
The gameplay, frankly, is appallingly bad. The entire instancing part of the game, where it literally is just random encounter after encounter with little rhyme or reason is strongly highlighted by the user content system in which you to can create vacuous content just like the developers.
City of Heroes is one of those games where it has certain parts of it which always stood out as amazing, and the character creation system, to this day, 5 years after release, remains a benchmark in many gamers minds as to how far you can go with character customisation.
The content system is fun, don't get me wrong, and in a superteam situation I can definitely see how you'd have nights when you with your superteam might sit down and play through each others content.... But...... the gameplay itself isn't changed.
I've paid up until the end of the month, so I may visit the Villainous Isles a few more times and play more with the content creation system. It is fun. I played on a few "developers choice" arcs (basically misson arcs singled out as awesome) and they gave me ideas of what I could do. I also like the idea that you can create, publish and then play in your own stories. You can, literally, level up your character in the "VR" user created content zone,, even using your own stories, which makes for an interesting twist.
Given that there is now more user created missions in the game than developer ones, and this is an ever add-ed to number, and that these missions (given what I've so far played on the developers choice etc) are of an at least equal standard to the main games on I can see many people starting level 1 characters, taking them to the VR labs and playing there.
One very interesting feature is the in-game tickets you gain for playing through a mission. These tickets provide an interesting "progression track" if you would for content developers, extra maps, extra costumes for mobs, extra power sets, specific characters etc. It's a very interesting system.
Again though, the systems and bits and pieces of the game seem to work, the game as a whole.... Nope. You start to appreciate the power of a well crafted RP storyline after playing CoH/V, and while static dungeons in WoW may have there issues with repetition, for some reason (I suspect quality) they don't suffer the same lacklusterness of doing meaningless warehouse map 4 over and over again...
I think there's a lot other games (and game designers) can learn from this though.
Does it make me want to play CoH/V? Not by a long stretch.
Is it interesting, yes. Novel, yes. Would it make me renew my subs? Not in a million years. Indeed, the very fact that the user content creator system works how it does highlighted to me WHY I cancelled almost 2 years ago (that long!) the account in the first place.
The gameplay, frankly, is appallingly bad. The entire instancing part of the game, where it literally is just random encounter after encounter with little rhyme or reason is strongly highlighted by the user content system in which you to can create vacuous content just like the developers.
City of Heroes is one of those games where it has certain parts of it which always stood out as amazing, and the character creation system, to this day, 5 years after release, remains a benchmark in many gamers minds as to how far you can go with character customisation.
The content system is fun, don't get me wrong, and in a superteam situation I can definitely see how you'd have nights when you with your superteam might sit down and play through each others content.... But...... the gameplay itself isn't changed.
I've paid up until the end of the month, so I may visit the Villainous Isles a few more times and play more with the content creation system. It is fun. I played on a few "developers choice" arcs (basically misson arcs singled out as awesome) and they gave me ideas of what I could do. I also like the idea that you can create, publish and then play in your own stories. You can, literally, level up your character in the "VR" user created content zone,, even using your own stories, which makes for an interesting twist.
Given that there is now more user created missions in the game than developer ones, and this is an ever add-ed to number, and that these missions (given what I've so far played on the developers choice etc) are of an at least equal standard to the main games on I can see many people starting level 1 characters, taking them to the VR labs and playing there.
One very interesting feature is the in-game tickets you gain for playing through a mission. These tickets provide an interesting "progression track" if you would for content developers, extra maps, extra costumes for mobs, extra power sets, specific characters etc. It's a very interesting system.
Again though, the systems and bits and pieces of the game seem to work, the game as a whole.... Nope. You start to appreciate the power of a well crafted RP storyline after playing CoH/V, and while static dungeons in WoW may have there issues with repetition, for some reason (I suspect quality) they don't suffer the same lacklusterness of doing meaningless warehouse map 4 over and over again...
I think there's a lot other games (and game designers) can learn from this though.
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Returning to a game: Stage 2
A mixed bag. I still can't log in. WHY?
Because Ncsoft, in their account management "return to the game" link lead you to download the US version of the fecking game client (which, nicely, doesn't work for us EU people).
But, gotta take the rough with the smooth. I filed a ticket and recieved an e-mail reply within 10 minutes detailing the solution to my issue and giving me a link to download the EU client.
So yes, very fecking annoying to say the least as the download is a 5 hour one.
But, I do appreciate good customer care (SEE! I shout to my critics, I CAN!) and 10 minutes turn around time is practically unheard of in MMO's to answering a query.
Because Ncsoft, in their account management "return to the game" link lead you to download the US version of the fecking game client (which, nicely, doesn't work for us EU people).
But, gotta take the rough with the smooth. I filed a ticket and recieved an e-mail reply within 10 minutes detailing the solution to my issue and giving me a link to download the EU client.
So yes, very fecking annoying to say the least as the download is a 5 hour one.
But, I do appreciate good customer care (SEE! I shout to my critics, I CAN!) and 10 minutes turn around time is practically unheard of in MMO's to answering a query.
Weight Watchers: The Unexplored Country
I'm on a diet. Who would have thought.
I've quit drinking for the last week or so now, and I've been on weight watchers with my wonderful points system (which, admittedly, on Thursday, goes a little out the window....)
I'm on weight watchers, but I'm not a part of weight watchers. Which is an odd one for me thinking about membership and subscriptions, and it makes me wonder, would I be better off joining weight watchers properly and going along to the meetings?
Weight Watchers is an odd type of membership, me and the wife bought the WW books off Ebay and thus have all the documents available to do the diet, all the points calculation stuff etc. Thus the only thing going and paying money to weight watchers would give me is the ability to go to WW meetings.... Which... To be honest (maybe it's the masochistic streak in me) I'm vaguely interested in going along to just to see if they are what I imagine them to be.
The concepts of community, a consumptive dieting community, also intrigue me.
Is it like having a real life raid? Where the small happy of satisfaction is a few pounds lost? Is there a community? Which I would gain access to, if only I paid my monthly membership fee? Do people feel commitment to their WW group, is it a self-reinforcing experience? And so on, and so forth...
(I'm quite obviously going slightly potty doing my research as I'm starting to think of everything in terms of my research and what I can add to it.)
Anyway... I'm very tempted. The lifestyle of an MMO gamer is a rather sedentary one, and I spend far too much time sitting on my own ass to be eating the huge amounts that I do and drinking the amount I normally do.... 17st 10lbs ARG!! I remember when I met my wife I was 13st and going to the gym an hour a day... I had a six pack!
Is that what WW membership gives? WoW raiding feeds to the expectation of satisfaction, does a WW membership feed you something much more devilish in it's power and potentially far more harmful... does it drip feed you the hope that you can return to years gone by, or, some beauty magazine idealised "norm"...?
Thoughts to ponder for me.
I've quit drinking for the last week or so now, and I've been on weight watchers with my wonderful points system (which, admittedly, on Thursday, goes a little out the window....)
I'm on weight watchers, but I'm not a part of weight watchers. Which is an odd one for me thinking about membership and subscriptions, and it makes me wonder, would I be better off joining weight watchers properly and going along to the meetings?
Weight Watchers is an odd type of membership, me and the wife bought the WW books off Ebay and thus have all the documents available to do the diet, all the points calculation stuff etc. Thus the only thing going and paying money to weight watchers would give me is the ability to go to WW meetings.... Which... To be honest (maybe it's the masochistic streak in me) I'm vaguely interested in going along to just to see if they are what I imagine them to be.
The concepts of community, a consumptive dieting community, also intrigue me.
Is it like having a real life raid? Where the small happy of satisfaction is a few pounds lost? Is there a community? Which I would gain access to, if only I paid my monthly membership fee? Do people feel commitment to their WW group, is it a self-reinforcing experience? And so on, and so forth...
(I'm quite obviously going slightly potty doing my research as I'm starting to think of everything in terms of my research and what I can add to it.)
Anyway... I'm very tempted. The lifestyle of an MMO gamer is a rather sedentary one, and I spend far too much time sitting on my own ass to be eating the huge amounts that I do and drinking the amount I normally do.... 17st 10lbs ARG!! I remember when I met my wife I was 13st and going to the gym an hour a day... I had a six pack!
Is that what WW membership gives? WoW raiding feeds to the expectation of satisfaction, does a WW membership feed you something much more devilish in it's power and potentially far more harmful... does it drip feed you the hope that you can return to years gone by, or, some beauty magazine idealised "norm"...?
Thoughts to ponder for me.
Monday, 20 April 2009
Returning to a game: Stage 1
I've returned to WoW before. I re-loaded the disks, fired up the olde account, and away I went. To be honest, I never really considered the implications of what I was doing
Returning to City of Heroes makes for an interesting experience as I'm examining everything with a critical eye. After all, isn't goods system design about fulfilling your business needs? So How good is NCsoft's systems?
Well, the first problem I found I had was that I'd thrown away my disks. Which struck me as kind of an issue, but, not to be undone at the first hurdle I boldly strode on and decided to go straight to the account page.
Stumbling block. I had a serious WTF moment for about 10 minutes running though every variation of username/password I could remember. This is compounded by the fact that, as the paranoid person I am, I use a series of alphanumberic passwords, some of which use capitals etc. It's a hangover from my Uni days when the computer admin people would hand us out long useless to remember password combinations which everyone instantly changed as soon as they could. I just never bothered with changing them as the passwords are effectively unguessable and you'd never hit them in a million years by random... See paranoid.
Well, after 10 minutes of trying I hit on the right combination. Ok first hurdle. Not bad, nearly scuppered by my own paranoia, but at least most people aren't as idiotic as me when it comes to password security.
Next hurdle, a pleasant surprise, I could download the client from their website... or so I thought.... first you need to download a 1 meg file which will download the rest... which at a speed of 763 bytes per second (that's bytes, not KB or MB, bytes) I was rather upset about.... after much re-attempting to download I finally got a direct download with a 2KB transfer speed (woot?)..... then stuck at 70%.... then stuck at 70% again...
Hmm, I would suggest that it's rather bad systems design on NCsoft's to not have the "returning to game people" on a faster download server, especially before your made them pay!
Oh well, Finally my 1 meg was complete....
Now just the 5 hours for the 3 gig to download at 220KB per second (hey, the got something right, not a bad speed on only a 2 meg connection, better than most WoW updates to be fair)
Oh well....
All this to just try out user created content... yep, I'm that dull :-)
Returning to City of Heroes makes for an interesting experience as I'm examining everything with a critical eye. After all, isn't goods system design about fulfilling your business needs? So How good is NCsoft's systems?
Well, the first problem I found I had was that I'd thrown away my disks. Which struck me as kind of an issue, but, not to be undone at the first hurdle I boldly strode on and decided to go straight to the account page.
Stumbling block. I had a serious WTF moment for about 10 minutes running though every variation of username/password I could remember. This is compounded by the fact that, as the paranoid person I am, I use a series of alphanumberic passwords, some of which use capitals etc. It's a hangover from my Uni days when the computer admin people would hand us out long useless to remember password combinations which everyone instantly changed as soon as they could. I just never bothered with changing them as the passwords are effectively unguessable and you'd never hit them in a million years by random... See paranoid.
Well, after 10 minutes of trying I hit on the right combination. Ok first hurdle. Not bad, nearly scuppered by my own paranoia, but at least most people aren't as idiotic as me when it comes to password security.
Next hurdle, a pleasant surprise, I could download the client from their website... or so I thought.... first you need to download a 1 meg file which will download the rest... which at a speed of 763 bytes per second (that's bytes, not KB or MB, bytes) I was rather upset about.... after much re-attempting to download I finally got a direct download with a 2KB transfer speed (woot?)..... then stuck at 70%.... then stuck at 70% again...
Hmm, I would suggest that it's rather bad systems design on NCsoft's to not have the "returning to game people" on a faster download server, especially before your made them pay!
Oh well, Finally my 1 meg was complete....
Now just the 5 hours for the 3 gig to download at 220KB per second (hey, the got something right, not a bad speed on only a 2 meg connection, better than most WoW updates to be fair)
Oh well....
All this to just try out user created content... yep, I'm that dull :-)
User Created Stuff: City of Heroes storms the scene!
City of Heroes isn't a game I've touched in quite a while. From a purely research point of view, this may have to change.
Community building and the importance of community is time and again coming to the heart of my research. Games companies both need to create consumptive content for players to enjoy and then encourage groups to form to enjoy it together. It's a dual process.
The holy grail would be for the community to create their own content to enjoy, and you as the game company provide the sandpit. In many ways this "holy grail" is something Eve has been doing for years, and indeed, is the very existence of many virtual worlds like project entropia and second life; community built content.
Now City of Heroes have joined the act, in a SERIOUS way, they've opened those doors and let the community take the lead.
Though I'm sure the initial enthusiasm will wane (as indeed, with me and blogging!) and the cynic in me asks the question with DC Online on the horizon and an ageing game, what do they have to lose? The researcher in me though wonders what will be the result.
Its a fascinating display of community engagement at the very least, and certainly the game itself, and the way instances work, very much lends itself to this. It also clearly has quality issues, which is where their community rating system obviously comes in. The sheer volume of content generated though is an obvious headline figure. Quite obviously a huge number of committed fans have engaged with this, and you can obviously see, in a guild situation, how enjoyable this could be, with guild members and friends producing content for each other to enjoy.
The wave of the future? Well certainly it's going to be a reason for people, when the new games come out like DC Online etc, to think before they just automatically jump ship (again, I'm the ultimate cynic here). It also raises high expectations of similar features by players in other similar games which may not be fulfilled (for example how WoW instills various expectations in other games).
I'll be honest though, I still don't see this preventing COH/V numbers getting hammered by the new-er MMO's in the next few years, but as a pre-emptive community defensive measure, its a magnificent attempt (possibly a masterstroke) to create a community value which is un-replicable and un-replaceable. Will CoH/V survive it's competition and retain its customers, well, any game designer out there at the moment building a superhero game has just seen a huge new factor enter the mix, and will be remembering how, in the Fantasy genre with WoW, established communities, established expectations and established relationships have time and again formed business/product corpses in the form of Age of Conan, Warhammer Online etc (I'm being harsh here, as these are viable games, with small numbers admittedly, however, in a seroius way, they are dead men walking as games)
Hmm... My subscription might need to be renewed to get a first hand look.
Community building and the importance of community is time and again coming to the heart of my research. Games companies both need to create consumptive content for players to enjoy and then encourage groups to form to enjoy it together. It's a dual process.
The holy grail would be for the community to create their own content to enjoy, and you as the game company provide the sandpit. In many ways this "holy grail" is something Eve has been doing for years, and indeed, is the very existence of many virtual worlds like project entropia and second life; community built content.
Now City of Heroes have joined the act, in a SERIOUS way, they've opened those doors and let the community take the lead.
Though I'm sure the initial enthusiasm will wane (as indeed, with me and blogging!) and the cynic in me asks the question with DC Online on the horizon and an ageing game, what do they have to lose? The researcher in me though wonders what will be the result.
"I feel like everything we have worked on has really been worth it when I see that within 60 minutes, we had 360 entire Mission Arcs (each containing up to 5 missions) available for other people to play. By midnight on day one, we had over 2600 arcs, and exactly 24 hours after launch we were already at 3800 arcs. We did some data mining of our own, and 3,800 surpasses the amount of content that we, the developers, have made for all of City of Heroes and City of Villains combined. In just one day our users did more than we could in almost five years. "
Its a fascinating display of community engagement at the very least, and certainly the game itself, and the way instances work, very much lends itself to this. It also clearly has quality issues, which is where their community rating system obviously comes in. The sheer volume of content generated though is an obvious headline figure. Quite obviously a huge number of committed fans have engaged with this, and you can obviously see, in a guild situation, how enjoyable this could be, with guild members and friends producing content for each other to enjoy.
The wave of the future? Well certainly it's going to be a reason for people, when the new games come out like DC Online etc, to think before they just automatically jump ship (again, I'm the ultimate cynic here). It also raises high expectations of similar features by players in other similar games which may not be fulfilled (for example how WoW instills various expectations in other games).
I'll be honest though, I still don't see this preventing COH/V numbers getting hammered by the new-er MMO's in the next few years, but as a pre-emptive community defensive measure, its a magnificent attempt (possibly a masterstroke) to create a community value which is un-replicable and un-replaceable. Will CoH/V survive it's competition and retain its customers, well, any game designer out there at the moment building a superhero game has just seen a huge new factor enter the mix, and will be remembering how, in the Fantasy genre with WoW, established communities, established expectations and established relationships have time and again formed business/product corpses in the form of Age of Conan, Warhammer Online etc (I'm being harsh here, as these are viable games, with small numbers admittedly, however, in a seroius way, they are dead men walking as games)
Hmm... My subscription might need to be renewed to get a first hand look.
Expectations of Greatness: Star Trek Movie
I'm a Star Trek Fan.
Weirdly, I wouldn't consider myself a trekkie, though indeed, I clearly remember in my head not classifying myself as a Star Wars fan either and managing to dredge up quite a wealth of info on it when playing Star Wars: Trivial Pursuit.
I do though, like Star Trek. Though funny enough I never really got my teeth into the Original Series, and indeed, I found the acting (especially in the first few series) of TNG rather wooden. DS9 was always my favourite (Though I'd missed b5 and it was only later could I see the huge and stark similarities in storylines)... But again, my fingers wander, back to the point.......
I SO want Star Trek to do well, I have such high hopes.
This is unusual for me to be honest, I usually (and intentionally) dampen any hopes and expectations down to not get let down (as I've many times in the past) by movies. This time though, with this franchise, I'm sold way before even the movie is released (hmm, there's a post in here somewhere about retention even when the product is shite... I survived the last Star Trek movie after all.... Nemesis urg!)
The MMO comes out soon, which I'll probably also have a look at, but if the re-boot movie does well, I have such high hopes for the Star Trek-ing future. I do so want another regular series, hopefully one in which, in the post BSG world takes on board some of the concepts about realism and character depth that past series have attempted (with hit and miss success)
I think the bottom line is though; I'm completely sold on Star Trek, the marketing campaign, the word of mouth........ and indeed, the TIME since the last one, have all done their job.
I, and the millions like me, must be a Time Warner Marketing Exec's wet dream...
Want.... it........ now....
Weirdly, I wouldn't consider myself a trekkie, though indeed, I clearly remember in my head not classifying myself as a Star Wars fan either and managing to dredge up quite a wealth of info on it when playing Star Wars: Trivial Pursuit.
I do though, like Star Trek. Though funny enough I never really got my teeth into the Original Series, and indeed, I found the acting (especially in the first few series) of TNG rather wooden. DS9 was always my favourite (Though I'd missed b5 and it was only later could I see the huge and stark similarities in storylines)... But again, my fingers wander, back to the point.......
I SO want Star Trek to do well, I have such high hopes.
This is unusual for me to be honest, I usually (and intentionally) dampen any hopes and expectations down to not get let down (as I've many times in the past) by movies. This time though, with this franchise, I'm sold way before even the movie is released (hmm, there's a post in here somewhere about retention even when the product is shite... I survived the last Star Trek movie after all.... Nemesis urg!)
The MMO comes out soon, which I'll probably also have a look at, but if the re-boot movie does well, I have such high hopes for the Star Trek-ing future. I do so want another regular series, hopefully one in which, in the post BSG world takes on board some of the concepts about realism and character depth that past series have attempted (with hit and miss success)
I think the bottom line is though; I'm completely sold on Star Trek, the marketing campaign, the word of mouth........ and indeed, the TIME since the last one, have all done their job.
I, and the millions like me, must be a Time Warner Marketing Exec's wet dream...
Want.... it........ now....
My Relationship with My Game: Research Musings
What sort of relationship do I have with World of Warcraft?
Certainly it's a transactional one, on one level, I pay a monthly fee and I gain access to a playing a game, however, the transactional value of the fee is so relatively low that the fee is rather meaningless to me (though, I accept, to someone on a lower income the transactional element may be higher)
For me though, in my personal situation, that relationship then goes beyond money into something else. It's a relationship based on emotion. Or, more accurately, expectations of emotional fulfilment (i.e. I expect to get a small happy out of the game). The transactional cost, in it's meaninglessness to me, is far outweighed by even the slightest time consumption "happy" created.
Yesterday I paid £20 for a pizza, £15 for some beers and about £30 for (gourmet admittedly) Fish & Chips; £65 spent in a blink of an eye. £10 a month in relation to that for evening after evening of entertainment is rather a good deal. I must have spent about 15 hours in the last week on WoW at least, multiply that to a monthly basis and you get about 70 hours of entertainment for the cost of £10, or, 14 pence per hour.
Now, if I was economic rational man (homo idoiticous, as I like to think of the guy) I'd be very happy at this. I'm not though. To be honest I never actually work that sum out. (Apart from now obviously) as again, the sum is so relatively small. And indeed, the cost of WoW to me, is more about alternatives rather than the transactional subscription cost.
I lead, in many ways, a very lucky life at times (something I'm admittedly very happy about). I have a great deal of leisure time, and, because of the way my personal life seems to work I seem to spend a rather lot of that time alone. I have a lot of time on my hands in other words.
How do I spend it? Well, I play computer games, mainly WoW (admittedly a very unconstructive use of the valuable resource). But the point is, for me, this is time to be filled. My leisure time, and filling that leisure time has a cost though, which WoW nicely fits in giving me a sufficient level of happy to fill my leisure hours, at a cost that it so low as to be meaningless.
Hmm...
Which, if extrapolated, leads to a number of hypothesis based on my personal situation.
At high levels of disposable income and high levels of leisure time one would expect an online gaming subscription (if it continued to deliver a sufficent level of happy) to be continued. This indeed, is the perfect customer for the gaming company. It's also the most dangerous customer to try to retain as with that high disposable income this customer is probably one of the most likely to shop around and look for other products which also give the "happy". I'll call this guy the Travelling Merchant. A well off, relatively wealthy, nomad, seeking the best "happys". To tie this nomad down thus, you'd have to create something in game which ties him beyond "little happys" (which he might get elsewhere), that being something he can't get in another game.... Perhaps a community or social group he's also bought into which his money can't buy elsewhere?
At low levels of disposable income and high levels of leisure time one would expect an online gaming subscription (if it continued to deliver a sufficent level of happy) to be continued. But, in contrast to the higher earner, this person wouldn't expect to have as much of a wandering gaze (he can't afford to) and as such, as he is either ignorant, or purposefully not interested, in the alternatives. He would also, unlike the Travelling Merchant be much more salient of his expenditure, and thus possibly places higher emotional attachment to his expenditure (as it could be his primary form of entertainment, not just one in a range of alternatives). Spending a great deal of time in game, this sort of person may be a committed community member (whatever the purpose of that community may be) and indeed, is a Committed Follower. Much like in the religious sense. Perhaps a lot like a committed football fan, whom for a season ticket price represents a high expenditure, he bonds with the game. For the games company this is the type of person you'd love to have, the Committed Follower, as long as you keep that level of happy to a sufficient level, is your best, lifelong customer. He also represents people like students, the unemployed, the unable to work, and people on low paid jobs. In other words, a huge potential catchment. For these people certainty of expenditure is king (so don't mess with your pricing structure) and that expectation of satisfaction, which maybe transcends the game itself and is inclusive on concepts such as "happy with his guild etc" i.e the metagame as well as the game, is critical.
That continued level of small happy is pretty key for both though, as a great marketeer once said, even a dog can only show so much loyalty. If the game fails to give that expectation of happy, or indeed, burnout (something I'm going to have to explore more fully sometime) occurs, the games company similarly loses out.
And what of the high income, low time, and the low income, low time people? These two types might actually represent the worst types of customers for games companies. High income, low time Sensualists are the nearest to the hedonistic, utility maximising economic rational man as you'll probably get. They have some of the highest comparison levels with other products, as they can afford them, and so like the Travelling Merchant they are the most mobile, but they also have the least time to develop the links of community that might keep them. An MMO, by it's nature, is a time sink, and these people are much more likely to move towards games which give instant rewards in short play time (FPS, single player RPG's etc) rather than stick with something which would, at 4-5 hours a week playtime would literally need months of effort to get anywhere with. Even more than the Sensualists though, the Vagrants have the highest comparison level of anyone. They have very little cash, and very little time to spend it in, to retain this type of customer the meta-game would need to be exceptionally strong, and indeed, even that may not be enough.
And so we have it Travelling Merchants & Committed Followers is what you as a games company can really try and sink your teeth into, Sensualists and Vagrants are customers to avoid; despite the fact that the Sensualist is a VERY appealing customer grouping.
It also brings to mind a few other things.
Establishing a consumptive self reinforcing community is king; both for Travelling Merchants & Committed Followers the establishing of a consumptive community for an MMO games company is a key part of the overall strategy, as, especially for the Travelling Merchant, its value which cannot be replaced easily.
Expectation of Satisfaction is king: you have to keep up that regular drip feed. One of the reasons why WoW has been so successful has been the regular drip feed of content. Indeed, The 5 month content gap between the launch of WoTLK and patch 3.1 and the agony that some guilds have gone through with this is a good indicator that despite their past success, maybe Blizzard got this one wrong. A more regular drip feed of content would seem to be better than huge gaps in time with your most Committed Followers sitting twiddling their thumbs wondering, hey, whats City of Hero's like?
Hmmm... will have to do smaller blog posts in future!
Certainly it's a transactional one, on one level, I pay a monthly fee and I gain access to a playing a game, however, the transactional value of the fee is so relatively low that the fee is rather meaningless to me (though, I accept, to someone on a lower income the transactional element may be higher)
For me though, in my personal situation, that relationship then goes beyond money into something else. It's a relationship based on emotion. Or, more accurately, expectations of emotional fulfilment (i.e. I expect to get a small happy out of the game). The transactional cost, in it's meaninglessness to me, is far outweighed by even the slightest time consumption "happy" created.
Yesterday I paid £20 for a pizza, £15 for some beers and about £30 for (gourmet admittedly) Fish & Chips; £65 spent in a blink of an eye. £10 a month in relation to that for evening after evening of entertainment is rather a good deal. I must have spent about 15 hours in the last week on WoW at least, multiply that to a monthly basis and you get about 70 hours of entertainment for the cost of £10, or, 14 pence per hour.
Now, if I was economic rational man (homo idoiticous, as I like to think of the guy) I'd be very happy at this. I'm not though. To be honest I never actually work that sum out. (Apart from now obviously) as again, the sum is so relatively small. And indeed, the cost of WoW to me, is more about alternatives rather than the transactional subscription cost.
I lead, in many ways, a very lucky life at times (something I'm admittedly very happy about). I have a great deal of leisure time, and, because of the way my personal life seems to work I seem to spend a rather lot of that time alone. I have a lot of time on my hands in other words.
How do I spend it? Well, I play computer games, mainly WoW (admittedly a very unconstructive use of the valuable resource). But the point is, for me, this is time to be filled. My leisure time, and filling that leisure time has a cost though, which WoW nicely fits in giving me a sufficient level of happy to fill my leisure hours, at a cost that it so low as to be meaningless.
Hmm...
Which, if extrapolated, leads to a number of hypothesis based on my personal situation.
At high levels of disposable income and high levels of leisure time one would expect an online gaming subscription (if it continued to deliver a sufficent level of happy) to be continued. This indeed, is the perfect customer for the gaming company. It's also the most dangerous customer to try to retain as with that high disposable income this customer is probably one of the most likely to shop around and look for other products which also give the "happy". I'll call this guy the Travelling Merchant. A well off, relatively wealthy, nomad, seeking the best "happys". To tie this nomad down thus, you'd have to create something in game which ties him beyond "little happys" (which he might get elsewhere), that being something he can't get in another game.... Perhaps a community or social group he's also bought into which his money can't buy elsewhere?
At low levels of disposable income and high levels of leisure time one would expect an online gaming subscription (if it continued to deliver a sufficent level of happy) to be continued. But, in contrast to the higher earner, this person wouldn't expect to have as much of a wandering gaze (he can't afford to) and as such, as he is either ignorant, or purposefully not interested, in the alternatives. He would also, unlike the Travelling Merchant be much more salient of his expenditure, and thus possibly places higher emotional attachment to his expenditure (as it could be his primary form of entertainment, not just one in a range of alternatives). Spending a great deal of time in game, this sort of person may be a committed community member (whatever the purpose of that community may be) and indeed, is a Committed Follower. Much like in the religious sense. Perhaps a lot like a committed football fan, whom for a season ticket price represents a high expenditure, he bonds with the game. For the games company this is the type of person you'd love to have, the Committed Follower, as long as you keep that level of happy to a sufficient level, is your best, lifelong customer. He also represents people like students, the unemployed, the unable to work, and people on low paid jobs. In other words, a huge potential catchment. For these people certainty of expenditure is king (so don't mess with your pricing structure) and that expectation of satisfaction, which maybe transcends the game itself and is inclusive on concepts such as "happy with his guild etc" i.e the metagame as well as the game, is critical.
That continued level of small happy is pretty key for both though, as a great marketeer once said, even a dog can only show so much loyalty. If the game fails to give that expectation of happy, or indeed, burnout (something I'm going to have to explore more fully sometime) occurs, the games company similarly loses out.
And what of the high income, low time, and the low income, low time people? These two types might actually represent the worst types of customers for games companies. High income, low time Sensualists are the nearest to the hedonistic, utility maximising economic rational man as you'll probably get. They have some of the highest comparison levels with other products, as they can afford them, and so like the Travelling Merchant they are the most mobile, but they also have the least time to develop the links of community that might keep them. An MMO, by it's nature, is a time sink, and these people are much more likely to move towards games which give instant rewards in short play time (FPS, single player RPG's etc) rather than stick with something which would, at 4-5 hours a week playtime would literally need months of effort to get anywhere with. Even more than the Sensualists though, the Vagrants have the highest comparison level of anyone. They have very little cash, and very little time to spend it in, to retain this type of customer the meta-game would need to be exceptionally strong, and indeed, even that may not be enough.
And so we have it Travelling Merchants & Committed Followers is what you as a games company can really try and sink your teeth into, Sensualists and Vagrants are customers to avoid; despite the fact that the Sensualist is a VERY appealing customer grouping.
It also brings to mind a few other things.
Establishing a consumptive self reinforcing community is king; both for Travelling Merchants & Committed Followers the establishing of a consumptive community for an MMO games company is a key part of the overall strategy, as, especially for the Travelling Merchant, its value which cannot be replaced easily.
Expectation of Satisfaction is king: you have to keep up that regular drip feed. One of the reasons why WoW has been so successful has been the regular drip feed of content. Indeed, The 5 month content gap between the launch of WoTLK and patch 3.1 and the agony that some guilds have gone through with this is a good indicator that despite their past success, maybe Blizzard got this one wrong. A more regular drip feed of content would seem to be better than huge gaps in time with your most Committed Followers sitting twiddling their thumbs wondering, hey, whats City of Hero's like?
Hmmm... will have to do smaller blog posts in future!
metaresearchboi lives
So, I started a blog.
This boi might post some time later why he needs a blog, but lets just say I need a wall to paint ideas against. Thus, this has a point. I seem to do best when I throw my ideas against a wall and I see what sticks, so please forgive me for my musings (indeed, when you see the Tag: Research Musing, be warned!)
This boi might post some time later why he needs a blog, but lets just say I need a wall to paint ideas against. Thus, this has a point. I seem to do best when I throw my ideas against a wall and I see what sticks, so please forgive me for my musings (indeed, when you see the Tag: Research Musing, be warned!)
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