by Jeff Woleslagle on Mar 27, 2009
Welcome to the 1,045th Edition of Loading...
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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 for today:
World of Warcraft EverQuest 2 Warhammer Online Age of Conan Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (UP 1)Biggest Movers in the Top 20 today :
Darkfall (UP 15 to #12) Aion: The Tower of Eternity (UP 13 to #9) Champions Online (down 5 to #16)Loading... Daily
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We link to real world news at its craziest on a daily basis, so here's a less crazy bit of news that has an unexpected MMO industry tie-ins. Earlier this week, while venturing out of my cave to pick up a pack of post-it notes (my PDA), a 72mm lens cap that a hotel in Iceland now owns, and a toothbrush, I listened to a story on NPR about how Hispanics were migrating from construction jobs to landscaping in unbelievable numbers. The simple wisdom is this: small failures are far more survivable than big failures. A developer going belly-up on a multi-million dollar strip mall you're building will gravely impact an entire region's construction industry - from contractors to builders, plumbers, electricians, roofers, painters, etc. - not only in terms of lost revenue but lost time as well. The loss of a landscaping account may be unfortunate, but its not likely to bankrupt anyone, and the "churn" of such accounts involves very little inherent cost to the landscaping cost, since they're paid by the job.
The games industry paralells are interesting, but I'll get to that in a moment. First, an eyewitness account of this year's GDC. According to WAR Creative Director Paul Barnett (our GDC 2009 blog correspondent, if you will, and with whom we spoke last night on Loading... Live), a darker mood prevails at this year's GDC. Students and out of work ex-employees are wandering the halls of the Moscone Center in search of employment, as is the case every year, but this year they're joined by entire third-party companies and developers seeking publishers and partners for their projects.
Where you can find a cool game being demoed, it's behind closed doors and under the protection of an elaborate NDA - the recession has made devs twice as paranoid that their best ideas will be stolen and developed by a more resource-rich competitor. Due to the record high pricetag on a GDC pass this year, much of the business isn't being conducted inside GDC at all, but rather in coffee places and lunch cafes across downtown San Francisco. The heroes and rebels this year, according to Paul, are the developers of asset-light games - makers of flash, mobile, facebook, and XBLA games. In other words: the landscapers, not the contractors, of the games industry.
Despite the caterwauling of those who don't see a future for MMOs and other typically high budget games (we've been hearing it ever since EverQuest was at its peak), Paul noted that we would always have the asset-heavy games among us. The trick will be making these games accessible to a broader public, perhaps through the use of streaming technology that takes the high-end console and even OS concerns out of the equation (Paul mentioned one such product that had him playing Crysis Warhead on a MacBook Air).
Still, Paul noted that as a creative guy who cut his computer gaming teeth on text-based MUDs, he's not afraid of a shift to asset-light niche gaming that iterates more on creative gameplay than cutting-edge graphics. He pointed out another trend in games - "time control" - explaining that much of Guitar Hero and Rock Band's popularity stems from its five to ten minute individual game sessions (i.e. the songs). You're not committed until the group disbands or you find the next save point.
We'll have more from Paul Barnett when the vooncast is posted next week. But in short, Paul Barnett believes the trend towards casual, asset-light niche-based online gaming will continue despite the sudden popularity of more hardcore projects like Darkfall. Do you agree? Post in the Loading... forum or send me an email, and have yourself a great weekend!
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day7 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 117 in March! 377 in 2009!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]
Warhammer Online: Paul Barnett's GDC Blog # 2 - WAR PantsHot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:
Exclusive Game Update Q&A with Aion's Brian Knox from GDC 2009 Exclusive Interview with EverQuest 2's Ryan Favale EVE Online New Player Experience Revamp How can Champions Online integrate Playable Villains? Exclusive Gatheryn GDC '09 Interview - Creating an Advanced Casual MMOG geeked: "Naivety" Exclusive Jumpgate Evolution State of the Game Interview The Final Frontier: What Does Jumpgate Evolution Need to Do to Survive? Loading... Live #9 - 38 Studios Dev Chat w/ Curt Schilling, Steve Danuser The Necessity of Espionage - Sins of a Solar SpymasterReal World News
Dead girl's parents get truancy letter two months after funeralThanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team