by Jeff Woleslagle on Jun 08, 2009
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E3 2009 was rife with Persistent World Shooters (PWSs), a close cousin of the MMOG. What must these developers do to prove their games and, in bigger terms, their niche has what it takes to crack a tough market? We examine the obvious and the not-so-obvious factors in PWS success and continue to offer a complete slate of E3 2009 coverage in today's Loading... How Can PWS Spell Success?
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The Pulse
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results this week:
World of Warcraft EverQuest 2 (UP 1) EVE Online (UP 3) Age of Conan Star Wars: The Old Republic (UP 12)Biggest Movers in the Top 20 today :
Global Agenda (UP 43 to #19 ) Runes of Magic (UP 5 to #19) Atlantica Online (UP 6 to #12) Recent MMO Releases 5/11 - Chronicles of Spellborn 1.0.4 - "Scrolls of Keys and Courage" (patch) 5/15 - EVE Online Apocrypha 1.2 (patch) 5/19 - Warrior Epic (launch date) 5/19 - Vanguard "Halls of Pantheon" (content patch) 5/28 - Dragonica (CBT key giveaway) Upcoming Releases 8/25 - CrimeCraft (release date) 9/1 - Champions Online (release date) ?? - Jumpgate Evolution (release date) Important Dates 7/23 - 7/26 - San Diego ComicCon 2009 8/21 - 8/21 - BlizzCon 2009Loading... Daily
Some of you might remember Fury, Brisbane developer Auran's lightning-paced, PvP-driven online game. If your character ran around with a gun, Fury would have been called a persistent world "shooter", might have been the first to make it to market actually, but instead it was magic in melee in lobby and instance style setting. Fury didn't go over well and despite shifting into free-to-play two months after its October 2007 launch, went into the scrap heap in August 2008.
I mention Auran's flop because E3 2009 was ripe with games that, like Fury, run a fine line between MMO and online shooter. Like Fury, the fact that you could craft, buy, sell, grab quests, and interact with other players in game-influencing ways (getting into guilds, etc.) means that at least the graphical "lobbies" meet the classical definition of the MMOG - more than 92 players pursuing game objectives in a single area.
A number of games we saw at E3 were built on this premise, for example: CrimeCraft, Huxley, Global Agenda, and to a lesser extent APB. I make APB something of an exception because combat occurs in the open when criminals break the law and enforcers chase them down and everyone else watches, but only select enforcers and criminals can actively participate to avoid imbalance. The non-participants can do things like call in the crime, for example. But the rest of these PWSs are fairly straightforward hub-and-instance shooters, albeit with very interesting ideas on how core gameplay ties into character and guild development and overall story.
My final thought on Fury is that, at its core, it was simply a game before its time. Communication with other players was spotty or at best underutilized, and games like Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead had yet to set the stage. Were Fury a free-to-play Steam game (and I have my problems with Steam) with loads of unlockable achievements, I'd be very curious to see how it would do today.
At any rate, these games, like small-scale subscription-driven MMOs, are fighting an uphill battle. Contrary to popular wisdom, I think it's much easier to justify a monthly subscription fee than to justify a $50-$60 retail box price that becomes instantly worthless when a game cancels. People understand paying for their continued enjoyment, what they don't understand is having a game they paid good money for effectively stolen from them - that's worse than spending money for a bad game because at least you still have the game. There's probably a thorny licensing issue having to do with breach of contract by publishers who cancel online-only games - even if it's somehow in the EULA, the ability to torpedo a game at any time after you buy it sounds like it has serious potential for fraud - but no court has explored this issue yet nor will until a publisher with deep pockets tempts fate.
So what can these PWS developers do to succeed? If the premise is sound (the jury's still out) and the games are fun (they are, at least in demo-sized doses), then it's all about reputation and quality - the incredibly expensive commitment to identifying and fixing what's wrong before the public sees it in beta. That's a given for any game, but especially important for a niche that has yet to prove itself. Vogster, Hi Res Studios, Realtime Worlds, and Ijji should pull out all the stops, support themselves with mobile games, iPhone apps, whatever, until they're sure they have something much more than just a polished E3 demo.
From there, I'd argue that decreasing the price point doesn't work; games are luxury goods and a discount, like the notion of free-to-play, leads to inferences about quality. The lone exception is Guild Wars, which has almost certainly become a financial bugbear on the long tail now that no new expansions are being released to support the game.
I'd propose a sort of reverse Guild Wars, where you pay nothing for the game, don't get a free trial, and instead pay for three months at once. $39.99 or so, that's about what you'd pay for a game anyway. Make it a non-recurring payment, like we do with our Ten Ton Hammer premium memberships, if you really want to try and build trust. Let folks buy an additional game at their local retailer to extend their subscription, rather than keeping a credit card on file, unless they actively want to pay you by CC.
Retailers would like it because they'd continue to move copies after the initial rush, distro costs would be partially offset by the billing support staff you don't need, and the gamers don't feel like they have Damocles' sword hanging over their head if they don't unsubscribe before the end of their billing month. The pressure to cancel subscriptions is one of the least understood forces in all of MMO gaming, yet it's killing games slowly left and right. The patch and expansion pipeline is already in place, getting players into the game more quickly after install, and if, heaven forbid, you have to cancel, you simply shutdown the pipeline and keep the servers running until the very last "subscription" elapses. Everyone gets exactly what they paid for.
Publishers would never go for the "non-recurring payment" thing, I'm guessing, but it's fun to dream. What sorts of things, price-oriented or otherwise, should PWS or newer MMO developers do to succeed? Have your say in the Loading... forum, or as usual, feel free to email me.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day5 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 48 in June! 685 in 2009!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]
Aion: Exclusive Preview Event ScreenshotsReal World News
80-yr old graduates High School in MinnesotaThanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team