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Creating
the concepts behind an MMO success is its own art form.

At
the start of this year, I and some of the other Ten Ton Hammer
writers href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/61314" target="_blank">put
in our best guesses as to what
might transpire in the wonderful world of MMOs in 2009. Among my list
of ten predictions, I made a fairly bold statement about
NetDevil’s upcoming href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/306"
target="_blank"> style="font-style: italic;">Jumpgate Evolution:

6. Jumpgate Evolution
will be one of the year’s biggest
success stories. Even in such a diverse year for new MMOG releases,
this will be the game that garners the most mainstream media attention.
As a result, flight sticks will become the new 'must have' upgrade
component for PC gamers.

Yet the definition of MMO success is a slippery beast at best,
constantly shifting depending on the perspective of a given individual.
If I had my way every MMO in development would launch to huge success,
turning millions of heads and twice as many non-believers into
believers. There would be href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/65537" target="_blank">12
foot tall statues of game
characters
erected at key locations in major cities, or at the very least party
hats distributed at the entrance to local pubs with the latest and
greatest iconic MMO heroes emblazoned upon the front. So smashing would
be their success that national holidays would be handed out like stale
candy at a parade for each and every MMO launch date.



That’s not to say I believe all MMOs are created equal, but
rather that I understand and appreciate the monumental task of bringing
a wholly unique form of interactive art to market, whether the
development team consists of dozens or hundreds. All that hard work,
planning and creativity style="font-style: italic;">should
culminate in a massive payoff once a new
MMO goes live, shouldn’t it?



Then I snap back to reality and remember that as the industry expands,
it potentially opens up more cracks for games to fall through than it
does a solid platform for them all to stand proud and tall. That
particular real estate is a precious commodity, and as with any medium
that makes the big time, publishing giants tend to snatch up all but a
handful of lots. Smaller or less established studios are expected to
aim for what’s left over; a nice niche next to the sizable
ditches between tracks of MMO land. You see this attitude expressed all
the time, and while there’s certainly a measured amount of
truth involved, if creativity is expected to flourish then it
shouldn’t matter if MMO X is already successful in a specific
genre. Each new title hitting the cold metal of retail shelves should
be judged on its own merits, rather than continuously compared to
what’s come before.



Momentarily turning my gaze towards Hollywood, I see the long funeral
procession of dead films being brought back to life for a new
generation and I wonder if we, as a culture, aren’t simply
content to eat a diet of sameness for our entertainment meals day in
and day out. Or have we been lulled into complacency by accepting the
only option put on the table one too many times? But if you
don’t bother telling the chef your meal is cold, it never
will
be hot. What’s more, we never know if that next meal
will be the best one yet until we try it.

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MMO
success now comes in two great new flavors.

But the gaming world is fueled by consumable commodities the same as
any other major industry. At the end of the day decisions must be made
to keep the books in line, even if some of those decisions encroach on
creativity for the sake of conformity to an established norm. When a
product does
become a success, suddenly everybody wants a piece of the
pie. Even those party hats start sounding like a good idea; after all,
there’s money to be made in licensed goods.



Then I look at the heaping pile of console cozies, terrycloth headbands
and even the tin can underwear sets bearing game logos; all of it
reminds me that sometimes a simple glass of champagne is the best way
to celebrate success. Otherwise,
each piece of packaged cardboard has a
cheapening effect on your crowning creative
achievement.



But I fear href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/65571" target="_blank">licensed
goods are here to stay, and
it’s only a
matter of time before the MMO industry as a whole puts both feet in the
wagon. That being the case, perhaps MMOs could borrow something from
the sports world in the form of team colors. A unifying identifier to
help a scattered following become a seeded army of loyal fans. Whether
you travel to New York, London or LA you’d know at a glance
exactly who is rooting for your favorite MMO team. At the style="font-style: italic;">very
least
there should have been sets of developer trading cards made by now.



*makes a mental note to bug Ethec about creating a virtual developer
trading card series for the site before someone else steals the idea*

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Jumpgate
Evolution is a solid contender in the space race visuals category.

Trying to pin down exactly what success means for a given MMO is a
difficult task – something my long preamble could easily
attest to. What’s of equal importance is figuring
out how a specific title can make a large enough impact on the market
to ultimately define success on its own terms, regardless of what
opinionated sci-fi columnists might think about tin can underwear sets.



Based on the firsthand accounts of two Ten Ton Teamsters href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/64422" target="_blank">fortunate
enough to get some href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/64562" target="_blank">hands
on time with the game last month
at
Codemasters’ Gamers Day event, I believe the first key to
unlocking the doors of success for style="font-style: italic;">Jumpgate Evolution
may already be in
the hands of developers NetDevil. A quick glance at the official forums
is all it takes to see that a core following of style="font-style: italic;">X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter
and Wing
Commander fans are behind the
project, but to reach a larger
audience JGE needs to be accessible to gamers who may have never used a
flight stick, or are perhaps more comfortable with the common WASD
control scheme found in most MMOs.



But accessibility extends far beyond the interface. If there was only
one lesson learned
from the success of WoW, it would be that crafting
an MMO that can run on a wide spectrum of machines is crucial if you
ever hope to appeal to a broader audience. If NetDevil can deliver on
the epic scale of 50v50v50 space combat scenarios and provide a stable
platform for those battles that even a gamer with lower end machine can
enjoy, then one of the bigger obstacles to success will be neatly taken
out of the picture. The fact that JGE looks amazing from a visual
standpoint is simply starry icing on the space cake.



There’s also a lesson to be learned from delivering all flash
and no bang. The beautiful images that currently reside in our href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/306/images"
target="_blank">gallery
are proof positive that style="font-style: italic;">Jumpgate Evolution
has the
‘flash’ nailed down tighter than a coffin full of
vampires you don’t want to let out of the graveyard anytime
this century. But for JGE to truly succeed, core gameplay elements will
necessarily have to be equally intriguing and epic. Striking that
perfect balance between the micro and macro can be tricky to say the
least, but NetDevil is one of the few MMO developers out there with as
much experience in forging its own path. While that in and of itself is
no guarantee for success, it certainly paints an MMO picture
that’s full of potential.



Taking the above into account, I tend to look at style="font-style: italic;">Jumpgate Evolution
as
one of those rare MMOs that’s being developed on its own
terms, rather than attempting to conform to any kind of predefined
norm. The concept of ‘niche’ has a general
connotation that a developer specifically selects a target market
that’s 30 degrees to the left of established behemoths like
WoW, but I believe that it can mean so much more than that, especially
when an MMO is crafted with a unique enough approach while still
offering a core gameplay experience that could very well appeal to an
audience that breaks the MMO bonds and appeals to a broader spectrum of
gamers.



Will Jumpgate
Evolution be that game? Only
time will tell, but I
certainly stand behind my prediction from earlier this year. Do you
find yourself nodding in agreement not unlike a bobble-head or a fan in
the front row at a metal concert? Be sure to stage dive headfirst into
the discussion right here on our forums, or you can always feel free to
contact
me directly with your thoughts
on Jumpgate
Evolution’s
potential for success!