Yes, You Too
Can Fail at
Multiplayer!Games
20 Easy LessonsBy David Fox, VP Technology, iWin([email protected])
Multiplayer Games Are Like Restaurants
Not Launching
• Can’t Find Fun
• Running out of Budget
• Inability to Build Team
• Creative Tension
Flopping
• Location• Pricing• Quality• Accessibility• Appeal• Timing• More Effort than Worth
Most MP Games Don’t Launch
• Anecdotally, For Every MP Game you Play… 9 Never Go Live.
Most That Launch, Fail
• Mplayer• Won.net• Big Network• Imagination
Network• iGames• Heat.net• Etc.
What is Failure?
• Face it, everything fails
Success Is
• Reaching a Critical Mass
• Return on Investment
• Over Reasonable Life Span
MMOG Hype
Company Funded
Chapatiz $530,000
Handipoints $800,000
Dizzywood $1,000,000
PlayFish $1,000,000
Rebel Monkey $1,000,000
GoFish $1,500,000
Akoha $1,900,000
Seasky $3,000,000
Fluid Entertainment $3,200,000
FlowPlay $3,700,000
C3L3B Digital $4,000,000
Sparkplay Media $4,250,000
IGG, Inc. $4,500,000
ROCKETON $5,800,000
iOpener $6,000,000
Gizmoz $6,500,000
EveryScape $7,000,000
Vivox $7,800,000
Grockit $8,000,000
Gaia Online $12,000,000
Hidden City Games $15,000,000
Turbine $40,000,000
Realtime Worlds $50,000,000
9You $100,000,000
MMOG Fate
Source: Mmogchart.com
My Own Career
• Lots of Failure
• More Failure
• Some Successes (Whew!)
• Some Failures Actually Avoidable
Family Feud Online Party
Jewel Quest III Tournament
Cram In More Features. Good. Now More! 01
Lesson
Ah, PlayLink
Pogo
ClassicGames.com (Yahoo)
Features MatrixPlayLink ClassicGames Pogo PlaySite
Observing
Saving / Resuming
Automatic Tournaments
Enhanced Profiles
Expressive Chat
Custom
Avatars
Invite to Table
Play As Guest
Pogo’s Fate
• 17 million Registered Members
• Acquired by Electronic Arts in 2001 for approximately $40 million
ClassicGames’ Fate
• Acquired by Yahoo
• Became Yahoo Games
PlaySite’s Fate
• Acquired by Go2Net
• Acquired by InfoSpace
• Acquired by iWin
PlayLink’s Fate
• Acquired by a Shady Gold Mining Concern
• Left to Rust
Any Audience Worth Its Salt Will Build Organically 02
Lesson
First One at the Party…Nobody Wants to Be the
Last One at the Party…Nobody Wants to Be the
Tips To Reel Them In
• Bootstrap your community with Ringers
• Avoid the “empty lobby” deathtrap
• Don’t be ashamed to buy your traffic– Be sure you’re ready
• Virality
• Oh, and make a game worth playing
Tips To Keep Them
• Focus on happiness
• Watch your churn
• Oh, and make a game that scales
Get Massively! 03Lesson
Uneven Distribution
Shut Out
Mass is Critical
Watch Out For:
• Lost in The Crowd
• Alone on Empty Planet
Glitz Is All They Really Care About 04
Lesson
“Classic” Games
NEW IMPROVED Games!
The Result?
• Old Checkers: 200-300 PSUs
• New Checkers “Beta”: 5 PSUs
Why Don’t They Like Me?!
• You hired a UI Expert…
• Paid a fortune to a top Usability house…
• Read every book on Internet marketing…
Now, Now. Polite People Take Turns 05
Lesson
Wordscape Conversion
Wordscape Online Party
Turn-Based Blues
• Wait for others to start
• Wait for others to move
• Dropouts ruin the experience
• One winner, many losers
Pogo’s Top Games
Panacea?
Take Yer Winning Single-Player Mechanic Then “Drop In” More People! 06
Lesson
Take a Moment…
“Multi-player games are like ocean liners, but games developers are used to creating speedboats. Consequently, they tend to make their games multi-player by adding more seats. Not only does the resulting vessel fail to capture the magic of a cruise, it also loses a lot what's fun about speedboats.”
- Richard Bartle
Leaderboards Are Not Multiplayer
Is Bingo Really Multiplayer?
Panacea?!?
Can’t Go Wrong With a Big Brand! 07
Lesson
Trivial Pursuit Online Party
Innovate in Design at All Costs! 08
Lesson
Who Here Has Innovated?
• Raise Those Hands High!
• No, I Mean Really Innovated
List of Innovations• Citizen 01
• Balls
• Poker Blackjack
• Wordscape Java
• Jewel Quest Java
• Wordscape Online Party
• Jewel Quest Tournament Mode
• Mah Jong Quest Tournament
• Boggle Tournament
Jewel Quest Java
Emulate First
• Then Improve
What’re Ya a Wuss?!Build It Yourself! 09
Lesson
So Many Servers / Systems
• Web• Game• E-Commerce• Subscription Processing and
Renewals• Customer Service• Community (Chat, Forums)• Profiles• Avatars• Admin Tools• Reporting• Logging
Er, Right. I Meant…Buy All Your Tech! 10
Lesson
Out of the Box
• Nice:– Start focusing on the
game– Release something
superfast
• Not So Nice:– No control over bugs– Scaling limited– Integration– Pain to add features
Build on the Best
• For Goodness Sakes, use Standards!
• Use Best of Breed
• Just ‘cause Club Penguin used it doesn’t mean it’s right for you.
My Kung Fu Has No Weakness! 11
Lesson
PlayLink’s Downtime Problem
• One crash a day isn’t that bad, is it?
We’ll Worry About Scaling Later
• That’s a “success problem”, right?
Disasters Happen
Reality-Based Game Design
• Network latency isn’t an urban legend
Tips
• Load test with bots acting like real players
• Real beta test
• More hardware than you think you need
• Population monitors and alerts
• Quick response times
• Reliable Auto-updater
I’m Money with My AAA+++ Team 12
Lesson
Risk Online Party
Planned Network Design
Actual Network Design
Fire and Forget, Launch and Laugh,Gold Master and Go! 13
Lesson
Family Feud Flatness
Get Episodic!
Business Models Change
• Subscription plan– Terms– Payment Processors
• Trial length
• Distributed it on other sites
• Advertisements
Audiences Have Minds
• Reskinned• Added new awards• Round status in lobby• Removed bad
questions• Fixed tons of “why-
the-f-not?” answers
Data Data Data
• Design metrics up front
• More is better
• Uh… but what to do with data once you get it?
Gotsta Get Creative with Your Business Plan 14
Lesson
iWin’s Skill-Based Games
• Difficult to gain audience trust
• Heavy cheating
• Scales slowly
The Truth about Micro-Trans
• Design game around MT from ground-up
• Not a panacea
• Requires huge scale
The Truth about Advertising
• Requires education
• Requires finesse
• Requires mondo impressions
Go With What You Know
• Yahoo Advertises– Now in download games too!
• Club Membership Subs at Pogo
• Discounted Club Subs at Real/BigFish
Designers Design,Marketers Sell 15
Lesson
Game Is Marketing
• And Marketing is Game
• Audience is Lifeblood of MP Games
Business Models Matter
• Pass the basket around after the fiery sermon
• Pay inextricably linked with play
Free To Play is The Only Way 16
Lesson
People Want to Be Free
• But they will eventually pay, right?
• How?
• Remember, ads ain’t easy.
The Balance of Free
• Fun Enough To…– Build up core audience– “Earn the right” to charge
• But Painful Enough…– Feeling that something’s
missing– Need more and more
I’m on , I Can’t Lose! 17
Lesson
• Doesn’t equal viral• Harder than ever for
apps to get noticed• Can’t spam
anymore• Too asynchronous
is just a single-player experience
Oh, And…
• No viable business model yet
Free Community Volunteers Can Do All the Dirty Work 18
Lesson
Watch Out
• Your biggest fan…
Volunteers Aren’t Employees
• Bad Bad Bad…
• Potential for Lawsuits
Tips
• Arm Community leaders– With admin tools
• Be active in your own forums and lists
• Read your customer service e-mails
• Pick the right leaders
• Keep your community leaders very happy
Cheaters Never Win in the End 19
Lesson
Cheating Takes Many Forms
Tips
• Server-Based Logic • Simple Cheat Prevention
– Staff must analyze
• Admin Tools– Staff (can be volunteer) to police
• Reasonable Response• Plan on it!
Give Up! 20Lesson
Money Money Money
• Hits are HITS
• Long, long income stream
Social Potential
• Change Society • Connect People In New Ways
Do It!
• Deep pockets
• Realistic expectations
• Intestinal fortitude
Hungry for More?
This Isn’t New Stuff…
• 1997: Dani Bunten Berry, Imaginary Playmates in Real-time or Why Online Games Suck http://www.anticlockwise.com/dani/personal/biz/online2.htm
• 1970s: Richard Bartle, Assorted Writings http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/
http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/
Also…
Check out Kenny Rosenblatt’s Talk:
All Games Want To Be Great - Great Games Want To Be Multiplayer!
Tomorrow, 3pm
Let’s Discuss!1. Cram In More Features. Good. Now More!
11. My Kung Fu Has No Weakness!
2. Any Audience Worth Its Salt Will Build Organically
12. I’m Money with My AAA+++ Team
3. Get Massively 13. Fire and Forget, Launch and Laugh,Gold Master and Go!
4. Glitz Is All They Really Care About 14. Gotsta Get Creative with Your Business Plan
5. Now, Now. Polite People Take Turns 15. Designers Design, Marketers Sell
6. Take Yer Winning Single-Player Mechanic Then “Drop In” More People!
16. Free to Play Is the Only Way
7. Can’t Go Wrong With a Big Brand! 17. I’m on Facebook, I Can’t Lose!
8. Innovate in Design at All Costs! 18. Free Community Volunteers Can Do All the Dirty Work
9. What’re Ya, a Wuss? Build It Yourself! 19. Cheaters Never Win in the End
10. Er, Right. I Meant… Buy All Your Tech! 20. Give Up!
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