by John Hoskin on Apr 16, 2007
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**Special Content Today**
We are fortunate enough to have a video interview with none other than Dr. Richard Bartle, a legend in the MMOG industry. Enjoy!
Dr. Richard Bartle Video InterviewCody "Micajah" Bye was honored to sit down with one of the true visionaries of online gaming at IMGDC 2007, Dr. Richard Bartle, and we bring our time with Dr. Bartle to you in streaming video, complete with all the dry English wit and class he brought to the Indie MMO conference. Bartle, whose very accessible and fun-to-read scholarly work is required reading for anyone hoping to understand MMOs and MMO communities, speaks to the challenges and great opportunities for virtual world games developed by an indie developer with complete creative control over his or her work.
Last week we asked the development community what could be done to lower the barrier to entry to massively multiplayer games. I posted many of the answers in, "Devs Tear Down The Wall". Chris Klug, the Creative Director of Stargate Worlds weighed in over the weekend and his insight, as usual, is right on.
"The one thing that would lower the barrier to entry would be to choose a game topic that would appeal to a broader audience than simply aiming at geeky gamers. For instance, an MMO detective game, an MMO romance soap-opera game, an MMO sports title, all would have the potential to open the space to a much broader audience. We tend in the industry to design games only for ourselves." - Chris Klug, Creative Director - Stargate Worlds
The most intriguing idea in that quote is that developers design games that they themselves would like. It's a basic premise and of course it is true; most basic premises are. The bottom line is that until some bright light who enjoys sports games also starts enjoying MMOs that we aren't likely to see a good MMO sports title delivered. Role playing games are by their very nature and design a cooperative experience. So far, sports titles have not reached the same level. Someday...dare to dream!
This past weekend my comrades in virtual ink Jeff Woleslagle and Cody Bye attended an event in Minneapolis geared toward independent game development. You can explore all of the IMGDC event coverage right here.
I've been a fan of independent developers since, well, that's all that there were. I'm old you see, at least in terms of this industry. I remember when Allakhazam was a twelve-page site updated by hand by a lawyer sitting in his Philadelphia office wanting to do something other than deal with the law.
I remember when Ultima Online launched and the cries that "nobody will pay a monthly fee" rang throughout the gaming interweb industry.
I remember when Lum the Mad and Shlonglor were writing nasty bits about games rather than developing them.
I remember when EverQuest had a 989 Studios logo on it.
Can an independent team compete in the massively multiplayer online game market today? I would like to believe that the answer to this question was in the affirmative, but at least from a "first launch" perspective I can't rationally believe that it is true.
Even taking World of Warcraft out of the equation, can an independent developer compete with the likes of Turbine, Sony Online Entertainment and the other players? From a resources point of view I can't imagine that it can happen, though my recent visit to Perpetual Entertainment to see the progress on Gods and Heroes (now published by SoE) and Star Trek Online showed me that a smaller company can compete with the big dogs and perhaps even kick them off the porch. The Chronicles of Spellborn is another example of a game that could create momentum as a first-launch title giving the development team the additional resources required to compete while building a next-generation game.
Blizzard has stated that in three-years and for $50 million they can create a MMOG. Can any of these smaller companies hope to compete with the vast resources that Blizzard now has in-hand?
What are your thoughts?
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Today's Exclusive TenTonHammer.com Content!
04.16.2007
IMGDC: Josh Williams Keynote - The Outlook For Indie GamesHot Content
Vanguard: SoH - Interview - Norm "GM_Volson" Freeman FireFly: IMGDC - The Verse Behind Firefly IMGDC: Would You Rather Have Class Or Skill? IMGDC: Josh Williams Keynote - Outlook For Indie Games IMGDC: Ten Ton Hammer Kicks Off LIve IMGDC Coverage Dreamlords: Review Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - UI Database NetDevil Celebrates Auto Assault Anniversary With Q&A Pirates of the Burning Sea: Exclusive Screenshots Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - Ten Ton Armour Project Archlord: Review Lord of the Rings Online: Hands-on Preview Gods and Heroes: Developer Diary - Introducing The Nomad Fury: Interview With C.E.O., Tony Hilliam Lord of the Rings Online: Beta RecapReal World News - You Can't Make This Up
Doody Family Crowned "The Faggot Family" [Thanks Matt]Vin Diesel Fact: Vin Diesel keeps coffee awake. [Thanks Pat]
Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com
- John "Boomjack" Hoskin