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The problem is that a download-only game doesn't look as legitimate. When you buy something in the store, most people view that as more legitimate. They're more willing to give credit card information to that company instead of giving it to some company where you just downloaded a client.

The second issue is one of investment. Let's say someone buys a $50 box and take it home. If that person finds the game to be confusing at first, they are generally going to stick with it. They don't want to believe that their $50 is wasted. On the other hand, if you pay $10.95 for the same thing, you're usually much more willing to set it aside of it's a bit confusing at first.

My own game, Meridian 59 allows you to download the client for free and just pay a fairly low monthly subscription. We run into these two issues all the time since we're a small, relatively unknown company. People are (rightfully) scared to give out CC information, and this works against us. Plus, our game isn't a cookie-cutter D&D clone where you can just pick a race and class and go. It requires a bit of thought and is complex, which doesn't make for an easy newbie experience. Not significantly worse than other games, but the other games have the $50 investment to rely on.

Some information for you.

Have fun,

Has Blizzard or any of the other MMORPG guys ever posted the actual cost of running such a service vs. how much money they are taking in on it?

FWIW, I run a smaller online game called Meridian 59. My costs are a bit different since we're a smaller company. I'll talk about that later.

Anyway, you can find a discussion on this topic at http://www.legendmud.org/raph/gaming/busmodels.htm l which was written by Raph Koster of UO and SWG fame.

To summarize: Development costs are high, especially for more recent games. WoW and SWG each cost tens of millions of dollars to develop, which is a lot of money in game development. They employed large teams of people, much larger than your typical standalone game charges.

Now, running the game is an ongoing cost. The biggest expenses are bandwidth, network support, and customer service. People get very cranky when they can't log onto the game, and will post mean things if they cannot. (See other posts in this very thread for examples.) Network administrators don't come cheap, and when you're talking about hundreds of machines running these games, you're going to need a large number of these administrators. And for those times when your service is unavailable, you need CS representatives to handle the crushing wave of calls you will undoubtedly get. All this doesn't come cheap. Now figure in the cost of things like development of bug fixes and expanded content (including content you can't just charge for in an expansion), and you have a lot of expenses.

In all honesty, the price paid is probably too low. As someone pointed out, playing 1 hour per day means you're only spending about $.50 per hour to play the game. Compare this to watching a Pay-per-view movie where you'll probably pay $2-3 per hour for that entertainment.

Further, low subscription rates hurt the smaller developers. Meridian 59 is significantly cheaper that other games (only $10.95 per month instead of $15 like other large games) and doesn't charge for expansions. However, we make much, MUCH less money than a large company does and it is harder to maintain and expand the game on that much smaller of a budget. We mostly run M59 as a labor of love, though, so this isn't as big an issue for us. But it's unrealistic to expect an online RPG that is run on centralized servers with as much uptime as possible and that is expanded on a regular basis to be free or even significantly cheaper that current rates.

Some information for you.

Have fun,

As well as that console fiasco, don't forget the fact that in 1996 3D'oh (as we used to call them) bought up and subsequently trashed Meridian 59, which is now widely accepted as the first commercial graphical MUD and a forerunner to the MMORPG industry. Trip Hawkins was handed a glimpse of the future and did everything he could to squeeze the service to destruction within around three years - completely handing their slice of the market over to the 'newcomers' - UO, EQ etc.. Ranting aside, this guy has done very -very- little to expand the industry and has experienced even less 'consistent product success'. IMHO people should receive honours and awards for outstanding achievements ONLY and not simply for being part of the scene for long enough.

Oh and let's not forget the way this guy handles his critics.

Meridian 59

Hardly any downtime, no login server bottleneck. Great PvP combat that isn't just based on levels and how can catass the most "rare" items.

Give it a try if you mean what you said.

I think the big question is, how can we get small game studios back?

Start by supporting the ones out there. My own game company is a small, independent company that runs the game Meridian 59; we're entirely self-funded in order to maintain creative freedom. But, with limit funds comes limited ability to make a game "pretty" enough and to get really effective advertising.

Don't take my word for it, look at how people react. I recently submitted a story to Slashdot talking about the new M59 free trial server we're offering. Out of the 30 comments, about a quarter of them are people complaining about ugly graphics or how the story is just an ad for my game. Yes, another quarter of the comments are me trying to clarify and defend some points. But, this is how people react to a game with less-than-modern graphics trying to get a bit of marketing on a site that talks about games!

Until people take a different attitude, things won't change. Until people are willing to put up with graphics that are a little behind the curve, we're going to see EA make even more profits and pump out even more derivative (yet highly profitable) yet pretty games. Until people realize that an indie developer posting a story on Slashdot is about as sophisticated as our marketing budget allows us to be, you're going to continue to see large ad campaigns from large companies continue to get mindshare and the little studios are going to continue to be ignored and go out of business.

There's also issues of distribution; no store is going to carry my game because I'm "too small" and I can't afford the bribes, er, I mean, "Market Development Funds" that the stores require. There's a lot of reasons why independents aren't all that easy to find, but we are here if you choose to look a bit.

I've been harping on this issue a long time. Professional independent game developers like me are out here, but we keep getting ignored in favor of the larger games with flashier graphics and slicker advertising. All we have to offer fun with occasional innovation, but you can't take a screenshot of that, unfortunately.

Have fun,

I think the big question is, how can we get small game studios back?

Start by supporting the ones out there. My own game company is a small, independent company that runs the game Meridian 59; we're entirely self-funded in order to maintain creative freedom. But, with limit funds comes limited ability to make a game "pretty" enough and to get really effective advertising.

Don't take my word for it, look at how people react. I recently submitted a story to Slashdot talking about the new M59 free trial server we're offering. Out of the 30 comments, about a quarter of them are people complaining about ugly graphics or how the story is just an ad for my game. Yes, another quarter of the comments are me trying to clarify and defend some points. But, this is how people react to a game with less-than-modern graphics trying to get a bit of marketing on a site that talks about games!

Until people take a different attitude, things won't change. Until people are willing to put up with graphics that are a little behind the curve, we're going to see EA make even more profits and pump out even more derivative (yet highly profitable) yet pretty games. Until people realize that an indie developer posting a story on Slashdot is about as sophisticated as our marketing budget allows us to be, you're going to continue to see large ad campaigns from large companies continue to get mindshare and the little studios are going to continue to be ignored and go out of business.

There's also issues of distribution; no store is going to carry my game because I'm "too small" and I can't afford the bribes, er, I mean, "Market Development Funds" that the stores require. There's a lot of reasons why independents aren't all that easy to find, but we are here if you choose to look a bit.

I've been harping on this issue a long time. Professional independent game developers like me are out here, but we keep getting ignored in favor of the larger games with flashier graphics and slicker advertising. All we have to offer fun with occasional innovation, but you can't take a screenshot of that, unfortunately.

Have fun,

Eh, good a place as any to give comments. Allow me to respond....

I realize graphics aren't the main course but an upgrade sure would help catch a new user's eye.

Funny enough, we did give the game a pretty major upgrade. Take a look at these screenshots and you'll see what the game was like before the most recent upgrade. It's an improvement, but we know we're not going to compete in terms of eye candy with the other games coming out. We did the rendering engine update in order to not look quite so hopelessly outdated.

But, honestly, we've focused on making the game fun to play. M59 might not be better than sex, but it is a quite fun game to play. And, if a game isn't fun what's the point? Good graphics doesn't make up for a boring game.

I was disappointed by the character creation... in the sense that I had no idea whether I was going to create a useless character, a limited character, an uber character...

A novel complaint. I, on the other hand, personally hate class-based systems because they are too restrictive. Perhaps you're too battered down by other games where it's easy to make a lame character. We've worked to make the current M59 system into something you can really make nearly any type of character with without much fear of making a "gimp" character. Decide what you want to do and learn it! The only thing I don't particularly like about M59's system is that you have to pick your stats at character creation and they're relatively inflexible. Unfortunately, that was a design decision made before I started working on the game. After learning the system (which is what the trial is for, right?), it's easy to make a wide variety of characters. Make a character that fits your playstyle and ability, instead of making a character that is pigeonholed into a specific role.

The one thing that did catch me was that nearly as soon as I logged on, an admin offered his assistance (he could tell I was new... maybe the way I kept strafing left and right or bumping into doors game me away?). I didn't meet many people, but the people I did meet were very friendly and helpful.

We've been making sure people feel welcomed into the game. The server's only been up a few days, and we're trying to get the word out best we can, but things will be thin the first few days. But, I enjoy talking to players so I'll often greet newbies on the regular servers as well.

One thing to keep in mind is that M59 focuses a lot more on a smaller, tighter community. You'll get to know most of the people that play on your server, and you'll know many people by reputation. This is really a cool aspect of the game that often gets lost in other "massive" games. I like being known for my actions, even though it makes it harder for me to play an "unknown" mortal character. :)

Anyway, the server will be around for a month. It's a fun game if you give it a chance. It's not initially pretty and we aren't a clone of other games, so often people overlook the game. But, if you give it a real chance, you might find something you've been missing.

Have fun,

Troll in BOB! (Old M59 humor.)

Anyway, the game didn't "fail". In fact, for a while it had a large number of people paying nearly $30/month per account to play. How many people do you think would play other games if they tried to charge $30/month? Obviously there's something to the game that keeps people interested in it.

The game is alive and thriving, really. We have a core of fans that enjoy the game and are happy to pay a lot less than $30/month to play the game. The game has been changing and improving through our work. Our latest free expansion includes a rather nice graphical client upgrade as well as a lot of nice UI improvements.

No, it's not as pretty as other games and it doesn't have as many subscribers, but it's still a great game. McDonald's sells lots of hamburgers in brightly colored paper wrappers, too, but that doesn't mean it's the best possible food you can eat.

Have fun,

It's about time to show these corporate bullies that we will not take this any more.

The problem is, as other people have pointed out, that hype sells. People get excited about hype, and unfortunately gamers don't cut through the bullshit very often. "FANTASTIC MULTIPLAYER!" is a check box that developers and publishers check in order to sell more units.

The problem is, if you don't hype you don't sell units. I run an independent online RPG, Meridian 59. We don't hype our product. What little advertising we've done has been focused on trying to get our name out. We have great PvP, an aspect which appeals to a niche. But, other PvP games have come out with giant hype and so our game gets lost in noise. It's hard to compete with "OMG 100% ORGASMS!" when you try to stick to honest advertising. (Of course, those other PvP games quickly prove to be overhyped and full of bugs. But, still, people buy into the hype.)

So, what can a game player do? As the parent suggests, start doing a bit of critical thinking about the game you want to buy. Unfortunately, it's really hard to find good information about games. The sad reality is that most reviews are forced to be good in order to guarantee advertising income and to meet a deadline. A few sites, such as GamersInfo.net try to give honest reviews of games. (Full disclosure: I've written reviews for the site.) But, how do you really find out how good multiplayer is in a game, or if it even exists?

My personal soapbox is to speak in favor of independent games. Garage Games has a good selection of indie games, including the quite original game Gish. Indie games tend to be more honest, because they often have to rely on great gameplay instead of super-spectacular graphics and production values. You won't see much hype for these games, because they can't afford the carpet-bombing advertising campaign in print magazines. Unfortunately, this means you'll have to work a bit harder to find out about them.

I'd recommend that instead of trying to "stick it to the man" in court, spend that energy in finding indie developers to support. Most of us just want to create cool games which people enjoy. We're not concerned with hype or lying about our product. We do the best we can, and try to get an honest word out about our games. We're not looking to sell millions of copies, just enough to feed ourselves. Honestly, I cared that much about money, I would have gone into some other line of work.

Some thoughts from an indie developer.

Have fun,

I run an "MMO", Meridian 59, so I have a bit of insight into what it takes to make one of these games.

There's two main reasons why there's no sports MMO games:

1) Teamwork. It takes team chemistry to really work together as a sports team. You'd have to get a regular team to work together. Playing on a "pick up" team isn't going to be as effective as playing on an organized team that has trained together. The online medium doesn't help.

2) Offline is better. You can go down to the park and play a real game of football if you want. You can't go down to the park and slay orcs and engage in PvP. Well, you can, but there's laws and drugs to stop people that try. Getting outside and actually playing the sport will likely never replace virtual sports. The reason why console sports do so well is because it's easy to pick up and you only need one person to play. This is the complete opposite of what an online sports "MMO" would be like.

Some thoughts from a professional.

Have fun,

My own game, Meridian 59, was purchased from 3DO, the original publisher, when we started our company Near Death Studios, Inc. The game was one of the first modern online RPGs to be released in retail. It's never been as big as other online RPGs, but it's had a dedicated fanbase. We recently did an upgrade to the rendering engine, bringing the game to the world of 3D hardware acceleration.

Another smaller game that was saved from death is The Realm. It was purchased by a number of players and is still running today.

As I've posted before, most online games will never die. There are too many people committed to keeping them alive. It's good to see that Horizons will get a new lease on life and that the fans will continue to be able to enjoy the game.

Have fun,

My own game, Meridian 59, was purchased from 3DO, the original publisher, when we started our company Near Death Studios, Inc. The game was one of the first modern online RPGs to be released in retail. It's never been as big as other online RPGs, but it's had a dedicated fanbase. We recently did an upgrade to the rendering engine, bringing the game to the world of 3D hardware acceleration.

Another smaller game that was saved from death is The Realm. It was purchased by a number of players and is still running today.

As I've posted before, most online games will never die. There are too many people committed to keeping them alive. It's good to see that Horizons will get a new lease on life and that the fans will continue to be able to enjoy the game.

Have fun,

I also think this was one of the biggest problems with the dot-com boom. Everyone was falling over themselves to make everything mass-market in order to gain the most "eyeballs" and sell more ad revenue. It's been shown that people prefer more "niche" content aimed at their interests. It's interesting to note that you can often sell more expensive advertising since you are delivering a targeted audience instead of a wide, undefined audience.

I've been doing this in my professional life, too. I'm a developer of Meridian 59, a classic online RPG. The game focuses a lot on player vs. player (PvP) combat, with the advantage of having a long time to develop a very balanced system. We've targeted the game to the niche that is interested in this type of game, and we make enough money to get by.

I think we'll see another large, sustainable boom once people realize that servicing a niche can be very profitable.

Have fun,

Here's why my suggestion usually falls down: Searching for independent artists takes a bit of work. You can't just sit on the TV and watch a commercial advertising the latest and greatest independent artist like you can the lastest big-corporation offering.

How do you find local music? Start calling around to bars and ask if they have local music playing there. Ask for dates and show times. Find out what kind of music is playing. Given the nature of the internet, you can probably do a search on a local band's name to find out more about it. This requires the use of a phone book and your phone, but there's worse fates.

Unfortunately, customers have been trained to be passive when it comes to entertainment. It may seem a bit odd to "work" for your fun, but it's more rewarding in the end. Consider some of the places you like to eat. Which is better, McDonald's or the little hole-in-the-wall BBQ place that few people know about? It's easier to eat at McD's, but the food at the small BBQ place is usually much, MUCH better.

To be honest, marketing is one of the hardest parts of being an independent. My own game, Meridian 59, doesn't get much attention, but I try to get the word out. I pimp it on places like Slashdot when I get the chance. :)

In short, become proactive about your entertainment. There's more options available than you might first think. If you're unhappy about what you're being offered, go out and find something that does fit your tastes!

Have fun,

Actually, most online games are surprisingly resistent to death. My own game, Meridian 59, was shut down by 3DO then bought and resurrected by a couple of the former developers. We've kept the game going and growing; we just released a new graphical client which includes Direct3D support, dynamic lighting, mouselook, rebindable keys, all things that weren't included in the game when it was released originally in 1996. It's not exactly cutting edge, but it looks pretty fine for a game that's about 8 years old.

Really, I think that online RPGs are probably a much better deal if you want longevity from your games. There's still thousands of people playing Meridian 59. How many games released in 1996 are you honestly still playing? Most people ignore a game after a few years, anyway.

One more thing to remember is that EA has had a startling amount of success in killing old online games. Earth & Beyond joins a long list of games that EA has shut down permanently. This is an aberration, not the norm.

Have fun,

Actually, most online games are surprisingly resistent to death. My own game, Meridian 59, was shut down by 3DO then bought and resurrected by a couple of the former developers. We've kept the game going and growing; we just released a new graphical client which includes Direct3D support, dynamic lighting, mouselook, rebindable keys, all things that weren't included in the game when it was released originally in 1996. It's not exactly cutting edge, but it looks pretty fine for a game that's about 8 years old.

Really, I think that online RPGs are probably a much better deal if you want longevity from your games. There's still thousands of people playing Meridian 59. How many games released in 1996 are you honestly still playing? Most people ignore a game after a few years, anyway.

One more thing to remember is that EA has had a startling amount of success in killing old online games. Earth & Beyond joins a long list of games that EA has shut down permanently. This is an aberration, not the norm.

Have fun,

...just give me more control over my character instead of me being a passive observer and chatter while the battle takes place.

If this is the case, then perhaps you would be served by trying some of the games I recommended before.

Meridian 59 focuses on PvP and has more action in its combat than most other online RPGs. PvP combat is especially fun given the active nature of the game.

Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates gives you little puzzles to solve when you take various actions. Your wits and reaction time determine how good do at the action. This game also supports a form of PvP between different pirate ship groups.

Both of these games encourage a more active participation by the player.

Note that, financial success does not a great game make....

I never argued that. I would be a fool to; my own game has significantly less subscribers and thus significantly less moeny than most other online games, but I consider it a very fun game.

However, at the end of the day games are still a business. So, while you and people like you might enjoy more action in their games, this goes against the general trends. The "boring" games you complain about make a lot more money. Most people already complain that PlanetSide is too expensive compared to "free" FPS servers, but the game is making significantly less money than either EQ or SWG. Large companies especially look to maximize profit, so they are going to build the games which attract the largest number of people.

I'm sorry... maybe I am misinterpreting what you mean by 'big impact'? I have to even question if you play MMORPGS, most MMO's have very little penalties beyond experience penalty and most give you a choice to go 'hardcore' and opt in to increase your penalties (challenge of the game) they do everything to make sure the character doesn't lose a significant amount of anything when you die except for a 'death fee' in experience or gold.

And that is enough to make people complain about death. This is one of the problems with our discussion: You do not seem tounderstand the audience for these games. Everyone is not like you. Some games also have very harsh penalties. In Meridian 59, for example, you drop your whole inventory on death. If you don't have a backup set of equipment or some friends to help you out, you could be in for a long period of rebuilding. Items in M59 aren't as vital as in most other games, but being naked has its disadvantages. ;) People don't want to experience this just because a router that neither the player nor the game company has control over decides to stop working just then.

Also note that FF XI success is primarily due to the Japanese....

All the other games include worldwide figures as well. EverQuest has been released in Asia and Europe as well as the U.S.

Plus, that chart doesn't even include some of the largest online games from Korea. Lineage 1 has/had over a million subscribers at one time. The largest game called "Mu Online" claimed to have over 5 million worldwide subscribers during E3! This market is bigger than yo

I know about the technical issues I play Quake and you learn all you need to know about ping and latencny playing first person shooters.
[...]
This isn't a shot at you FYI. So maybe you're not skilled enough or have enough schooling to design game mechanics/network engine around the 'challenge' of latency but other games have done just that.

I'll pretend for a moment that you're not a troll, even though you've tried very hard to not insult me by insulting me.

For what it's worth, I've been working on online games since 1992, staring with text MUDs. I've been doing this professionally since 1998 with the game Meridian 59, which was originally launched in 1996 (prior to UO). I've done quite a bit more than just "play Quake", so I know what I'm talking about. I am recognized by my peers as someone quite informed about online game development, and I'm even on a panel at the Austin Game Conference talking about "Building Massively Multiplayer Games on a Budget".

At the core, it's a design issue and not a technical issue. The root issue is that the primary feature of online games is persistence. That's the reason why you have to pay the monthly subscription fee, because the server stores everything that happens. Everything that happens in the game permanently affects your character.

Consider what happens if you're playing Quake and suddenly you hit a lag spike. Someone nails you without you being able to react. Now what? Well, you respawn, grab some weapons, and go back into the firefight. Your Quake character is a throwaway shell that you don't really care about in most cases. But, now consider what happens in an online game. If that same thing happened, that death would permanently affect your character. You might lose some of your accumulated experience or skill points, perhaps some of the equipment it took you some time to collect. A lag spike leading to death isn't an "Oh, well, try again." moment. Trust me, I deal with this on a regular basis. Therefore, most games are designed to be a lot more latency-tolerant, so that lag doesn't disrupt the game, leading to permanent results.

You specifically mentioned PlanetSide a few times in your post. They've used latency reducing measures in their game, but you'll notice that PlanetSide is more like an FPS than a traditional online game. There is much less focus on persistence in PlanetSide, so they can focus more on twitch gameplay. Notably, a death on PlanetSide has very little impact overall.

It's also interesting to note the popularity of each type of game. According to the currently available version of a chart tracking online RPG subscriptions, you can see how some of these games stack up. Sony Online Entertainments two flagship products, EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies are pretty easy to see; EverQuest is the big yellow line that dominates most of the chart. You might have to look hard to find PlanetSide, which is a the small black line down in the lower right-hand corner struggling to get over 50,000 subscribers. Oh, and FFIX, the game you think is dreadfully boring? That's the red line shooting up the right-hand side of the chart, reaching a fairly hefty half a million subscribers. (Caveat: it's widely accepted that some of the numbers on that chart aren't 100% accurate, but they're not too far off the mark.)

There are no interesting game mechanics in MMO's that haven't been done MUCH better in single player games.

Except for the whole being able to play directly with a hundred, a thousand, or even more other people.

Okay, perhaps that's a bit too general. How about a real mechanic, then: political intrigue. There's plenty of that even in Meridian 59. When is the last time your game of Quake had players electing other player(s) to positions that directly affected gameplay? People

Online games can't do proper "twitch" because of latency. The split-second reflexes which make a great twitch gamer would be absolutely ruined when subjected to typical internet lag. Do you really want your character to die just because one of AT&T's routers decided to not play nice and delay your packet by 500 ms, meaning that you missed your block and took a leathal blow? Most people don't.

But, perhaps you should try some different games if you're tired of timesinks. You might expecially want to look toward more independent games.

My own game, Meridian 59 is a pretty typical fantasy game that focuses on combat, but the combat is much more active. Maneuvering and distance is important, especially in PvP play. While there's definitely a learning curve, building a competent character doesn't take a year like it does in most level-dominated games. Yeah, you're still going to have to kill monsters and collect gold, but the pace is faster than most other online RPGs which makes a lot of difference. Plus, the PvP is second-to-none. I might be biased, but I think it's a lot of fun.

A Tale in the Desert features great gameplay and doesn't even include combat. It focuses more on experiencing life in an Egyptian setting, solving puzzles, and competing and cooperating with other players. There's no "hit 'a' and pray" here.

Or, you could try Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates if that strikes your fancy. The game uses puzzles for all meanginful in-game actios. Play a puzzle to pump bilge, or distill rum, or any of the other stuff. Plus, who doesn't enjoy talking like a pirate? It's actually role-playing in this game!

There's lots of games out there to play if you're tired of "timesinks" or the "grind". Go out and enjoy them instead of just complaining.

Have fun,

I think that games like Eve Online, Meridian 59 and the other smaller MMORPGs have all proven that attentive developers and a dedicated community can keep any game alive.

Thanks for the compliment. I think. ;) (I'm one of the devs on Meridian 59.)

It's suprising how often people forget that online RPGs change, especially since that's supposed to be one of the bigger selling points. Many online games change radically as the game gets older and more content is added. The Meridian 59 you can play today is rather different than the game you could have played back in 1996 thanks to 7 updates to the game. Especially after we finish the new client upgrade, the game will be more modern.

The biggest problem is that most game reviewers don't really pay much attention to a game past launch. Most of them are stuck in the mindset of single-player games, where you want to review the game as soon as possible after launch, then you ignore it. It makes some sense; who wants to read a review of Warcraft 2 these days? Yet, a review of Meridian 59 might still be of interest to some people, since the game has changed. The same reviewers that eagerly want to review the newest sequel won't even pay attention to the latest expansion to an online game. (It's even worse for those of us that don't put boxes in stores, since it's often not seen as a "real" expansion [or even a "real" game!] without the box. Yet another reason why you have to pay $40 in the store in addition to a monthly fee for the majority of games.)

I've been marginally involved with an upcoming site that is looking to change how games are reviewed. A new perspective on how to review online RPGs should help solve some of these problems.

As for City of Heroes, it is a good game. I'll counter your assertion that focusing on one aspect is a good thing, however. While the combat is fun, it ultimately comes off as very shallow. Many games have had to endure complaints that there's a "lack of content" when they've trimmed back the game to plan for a more stable launch. The novelty of the superhero genre and CoH's highly customizable character costume creation system gave the game a bit extra time, in my opinion. Initial success is one thing, but retaining customers is very, very important to the long-term health of the game.

It's also interesting to note that the publisher of CoH, NCSoft, is a very experienced online game publisher. NCSoft has plenty of experience to share, and they've hired on some of the more experienced US online game developers.

Some more information for those interested.

Have fun,

I think that games like Eve Online, Meridian 59 and the other smaller MMORPGs have all proven that attentive developers and a dedicated community can keep any game alive.

Thanks for the compliment. I think. ;) (I'm one of the devs on Meridian 59.)

It's suprising how often people forget that online RPGs change, especially since that's supposed to be one of the bigger selling points. Many online games change radically as the game gets older and more content is added. The Meridian 59 you can play today is rather different than the game you could have played back in 1996 thanks to 7 updates to the game. Especially after we finish the new client upgrade, the game will be more modern.

The biggest problem is that most game reviewers don't really pay much attention to a game past launch. Most of them are stuck in the mindset of single-player games, where you want to review the game as soon as possible after launch, then you ignore it. It makes some sense; who wants to read a review of Warcraft 2 these days? Yet, a review of Meridian 59 might still be of interest to some people, since the game has changed. The same reviewers that eagerly want to review the newest sequel won't even pay attention to the latest expansion to an online game. (It's even worse for those of us that don't put boxes in stores, since it's often not seen as a "real" expansion [or even a "real" game!] without the box. Yet another reason why you have to pay $40 in the store in addition to a monthly fee for the majority of games.)

I've been marginally involved with an upcoming site that is looking to change how games are reviewed. A new perspective on how to review online RPGs should help solve some of these problems.

As for City of Heroes, it is a good game. I'll counter your assertion that focusing on one aspect is a good thing, however. While the combat is fun, it ultimately comes off as very shallow. Many games have had to endure complaints that there's a "lack of content" when they've trimmed back the game to plan for a more stable launch. The novelty of the superhero genre and CoH's highly customizable character costume creation system gave the game a bit extra time, in my opinion. Initial success is one thing, but retaining customers is very, very important to the long-term health of the game.

It's also interesting to note that the publisher of CoH, NCSoft, is a very experienced online game publisher. NCSoft has plenty of experience to share, and they've hired on some of the more experienced US online game developers.

Some more information for those interested.

Have fun,

Thanks for the kind words. :)

A few thoughts about your comment:

The final state is presumably a 'virtual world' where nothing is scripted and everything is the emergent result of interactions within that world.

That's one possibility that people have advocated. Personally, I think that this is not the likely outcome. Even at Disneyland, which you mention later, the experience is rigrously organized and highly polished. Since people are paying for the entertainment, there are certain expectations. While I could conceive of a movie of various images and sounds strung together and left to the audience to construct something meaningful of it, I don't think that's the best way to entertain people. Likewise, virtual worlds need a bit of structure imposed by a competent developer in order to make it truly fun and worth paying for.

What I mean by that is that I imagine virtual worlds will be something like Disneyland where there are automated NPCs but also people employed to work as an in-game agent to keep the immersive experience running smoothly.

The problem is that the audience isn't willing to pay for it. Doing a quick lookup, the standard 3-day "park hopper" ticket for Disneyland is $124 if purchased in advance. That's only a bit under what you'd pay for a full year of Meridian 59! Yet, you see numerous complaints from people on sites like Slashdot complaining about having to spend $15/month on subscriptions. Honestly, the audience that are interested in virtual worlds isn't ready to pay the price for a focused experience like you get at a theme park like Disney.

Really, this gets into the reasons why we're stuck at the level we are. People have stated what they're willing to pay, and they mostly accept what online games have to offer. Until the market is willing to pay more and demand more, we won't see anything startlingly new.

That said, I think there's some cool things in the future that will turn expectations on their sides. A number of smaller developers have started making some cool games. Including my own game Meridian 59, you can take a look at the wonderful games of Puzzle Pirates and A Tale In The Desert. All these are games that were developed by a group of dedicated people, usually single-digit number of developers. These are games that offer something besides the same-old, same-old.

Some further points to ponder.

Have fun,

I'm a game developer with degrees in both Computer Science and Spanish Literature. I know a bit about writing and have some practical experience working on my game Meridian 59.

The biggest issue is that online games involve a level of participation you really don't find in many modern storytelling media. The closest you find are some interactive plays such as Tony and Tina's Wedding or some forms of oral storytelling, notably campfire stories or "egg timer" stories. And, while we have plenty of practice in evaluating traditional literature (I even have a degree in it!), there's less attention dedicated to more interactive forms. One of the more interesting treatments is Hamlet on the Holodeck .

Personally, I think the different media are different enough that it becomes hard to really define online storytelling in traditional terms. Even the title of Lee Sheldon's new book includes the term "Character Development", which is often largely out of the hands of the developer in online virtual worlds; players will develop their own characters, and often not in the ways that would make the most interesting characters and stories. It's very difficult for traditional storytellers/writers to let the players take nearly complete control over the creative direction of the story.

Even in single-player games you run into problems, as one of the most important aspects of good storytelling is pacing, and the player's actions play a large part in the pacing of a game. Highly linear games tend to do good with pacing, but they tend to be restrictive. More open-ended games really focus on the interactivity of the game, but often at the expense of control over pacing. If the pacing isn't right, then that interesting character is going to be of less interest to the player.

That said, I don't think storytelling in online game is a lost cause. I think there will be interesting stories told, but I don't think they'll conform to the forms we've defined for traditional non-interactive media. I think we might see some cool new things, and I especially hope that some of them show up in my future projects.

My thoughts,

I worked at 3DO while it was still in business, and I have similar stories to tell.

I think the trick is that game developers originally wanted to stay long hours because they legitimately enjoyed their jobs and wanted to make the best creative efforts they could. While working on Meridian 59 at 3DO, I came in on holidays to put in extra hours to improve it as much as possible. (I loved the game so much that I now own Meridian 59.)

However, I think it evolved into something that was just assumed by managers and worked into the schedule. On the last project I worked on at 3DO (before quitting, mind you) we were told to put in long hours by our managers. The word "fired" wasn't necessarily used, but there was a strong element of peer pressure at work. We were given 6 months to finish a game that realistically should have taken about three times that. Of course, we slipped a few weeks and were blamed for that. We were supposed to ship one day before my birthday, but since we slipped my request for time off on my birthday was denied, even though all my assigned work was done and there wasn't enough time on schedule for me to pick up a new task. (It shouldn't come as a surprise that I was never able to use any vacation time while I was working at 3DO, and when I quit I was maxxed out on accumulated time.)

As a footnote: I got the last laugh, though, because even though that game was universally panned by critics, the obligatory "good things" that every game review has to include focused on the sound and the map, things I did the programming for!

Anyway, this issue is one of the reasons why I own my own company now. I still have to work long hours, but at least I'm doing it for my own benefit instead of for the benefit of someone else that profits off of my long hours.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with this lawsuit. Given the number of companies that do require people to put in the long, hard hours to complete projects, this could have far-reaching effects if it goes against Vivendi.

Have fun,

Skotos has been offering this type of service for a long time.

I'd make note that we make significantly more money on the Meridian 59 servers we host ourselves than the ones we licensed to Skotos. The Skotos server is a bit different (it's the non-PvP version compared to our PvP-focused servers) so it's not necessarily a direct comparison.

That said, I think there's more room for indie developers than people might otherwise think. The biggest thing is that the market needs to support the games the indies develop. A Tale in the Desert and Puzzle Pirates also offer innovative and interesting gameplay you won't find in the larger, heavily-marketed online RPGs.

Have fun,

One of the biggest obstacles I see towards widespread MMO adoption is the current distribution model which emphasizes inital purchase of the "starter" set rather than giving it away.

The problem has many levels.

First, most game purchases are made by people browsing games at the store. Go to your local large chain store and watch people in the game aisles. They look through different games and pick up boxes to look at the marketing on the back. If someone has $40 and I'm in the local Best Buy, they're probably not going to hold off on their purchase just to go check out download-only titles online. My own game, Meridian 59, allows you to download the client without a box purchase, but it's hard to get as much attention because you don't have the store presence, you don't have a store willing to advertise your game in their circular, and there's still an overriding perception that a game that is good will be available in the store not downloaded.

In addition, it's a question of investment. If you pay $40 for a box, you're going to stick with the game a bit longer. All games have learning curves, and online games are a bit worse because you sometimes have an audience as you fumble around the game. It's easy to get embarassed and frustrated. If you only paid $10 or even nothing for a free trial, you are more likely to quit out and not want to play the game again. A larger investment means that you will be more interested in learning the game in order to get your money's worth.

Further, some games just don't lend themselves well to free trials. Meridian 59 is a game that focuses more on PvP fighting than many other games. Allowing for a free trial means that players could distrupt paying customers with the trial accounts. Restricting the activities of these trial accounts means that they could not participate in the focus of the game. Plus you have to consider the additional customer service costs of allowing anonymous people to log onto your game easily; putting more restrictions on the signup will make less people interested in trying out the free trial. So, really, a free trial is sometimes not the answer.

There's a few other reasons, too, but I won't bore you with them. :) Needless to say, I've looked into this area a lot and have a bit of practical experience.

Have fun,

Set up an MMO world that plays like D+D.

Just so you know I'm not talking out of my ass: I run my own subscription-based online RPG, Meridian 59.

The problem is one of cost. If you've run a D&D session before, you know how much time goes into running a good gaming session. It takes a lot of prep work to do a great gaming session.

This isn't so bad, but the problem is that people simply aren't willing to pay what this service is worth. Look at the people complaining about having to pay the box fee and a subscription fee in order to play online RPGs in this very thread. (Not that I don't agree with them; Meridian 59 has no "box fee" because we want to offer a good value.) Consider that a 5 hour session requires a minimum of 5 hours of prep work and that someone smart and tech-savvy enough to run a game like this could probably easily make $20/hour in a "real" job. Are you and your friends ready to spend $200 for a night's worth of entertainment? How many people do you think are willing to do that on a regular basis? Unfortunately, it seems there are very few people willing to do so.

A perspective from someone actually running one of these games. ;)

Have fun,

I'll admit my biases up front: I own and operate the online game Meridian 59 which requires a monthly subscription fee.

If you really think about it, the subscription for an online game really isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Of course, there's the usual comparison between movies and online RPGs (2-3 hours of entertainment vs. 1 month of entertainment), but even if you compare it to standalone games it's a good bargain. Even if you only buy one new release game every 4 months (3 times per year), you'll still spend more per month than a typical online RPG ($50/4 = $12.50 per month compared to $10.95/month for a game like Meridian 59). Even compared to ISP charges we're talking about chump change here; I have paid much more $10-15/month for internet connectivity for many years now.

And, what do you get for that fee? You get a game with a developer that has a vested interest in fixing problems ASAP. You have stable servers with as much uptime as humanly possible on a connection that most home users can't afford. You have in-game assistance for your problems.

In addition, the online games market is growing, not becoming saturated. It might be easy to forget that the U.S. isn't the only market for these games. The biggest game, Mu Online, claimed to have 5 million people playing their game during peak times at E3. You probably haven't heard about the game much unless you're in Asia or attend E3. Anecdotally, most developers don't see a change in subscriptions when other games launch; online populations might dip, but the number of subscriptions generally remains constant. Some games even see a growth in overall subscription figures as new players are introduced to online games.

But, to bring this post back on-topic: making and operating an online RPG is a huge task. They are generally expensive and difficult to make, and just when you think the work is done (shipping the game, but traditional game development standards), you find out that the real work is only beginning. Most game companies now realize that online games are a service, not just a product, but this has taken a long time for many companies to understand. You have to continue to support the game after launch, and a bad decision can leave a large legacy of problems.

As for Warhammer Online, this official post shows that they learned a lot about the online game space and essentially didn't like the risks. I disagree with their assessment as an indie online RPG developer, but it's a reasonable reaction.

Have fun,

Correction: There are few things less challenging than playing an MMORPG dual against another human being.

Admittedly, I'm a bit biased since I run my own PvP-focused game, Meridian 59, but I'm going to have to disagree with this assertion. While it may feel ultimately hollow in many games, there are some games out there that focus on providing an interesting experience when fighting against other players; it depends on the game.

Fighting against another player can be a lot of fun because other players can come up with creative strategies and use their abilities in interesting ways in order to fool their opponent. In Meridian 59, you can take over an opponent's guild hall if you can sneak in behind another player. So, one player used a polymorph spell to change himself into a small monster (a dreaded giant rat of all things!) and used the size difference to hide easier.

In another example, there's a spell called "Mark of Dishonor" which reduces the target's vigor if they are evil. Since vigor is important in regeneration, this can be a crippling blow to an opponent. However the spell is an enchantment that prevents you from recasting the spell. However, you can cast a spell that is normally helpful that removes negative enchantments to remove Mark of Dishonor and cast it on an opponent again. This strategy has the disadvantage that if an ally is trying to cast a harmful spell, like Hold, on the target, you could remove that as well. We simply can't program an A.I. to come up with strategies like that on the fly and realize the consequences of the strategy.

So, in M59 you have challenge, skill, and the accomplishment of vanquishing a worthy opponent. A bit contrary to your assertion.

Of course, there are games where this isn't true. Many games are dominated by character level and equipment. A weak opponent has no chance to fight against a much more powerful opponent. When your only strategy is to have a higher level and use your most powerful damage abilities repeatedly, then the game becomes shallow and superficial. Victory means nothing since it was mathematically guaranteed before the first blow was even landed.

Have fun,

Actually, the original Might and Magic games are RPGs, just like the old Ultima games were. Heroes took the game in a turn-based direction.

To reward those that read the comments a bit later, I'll share some dark secrets from 3DO. Since 3DO's bankrupt, I doubt there will be any trouble caused by posting this.

It's a little-known fact that 3DO had plans to make a Might & Magic online RPG a very long time ago, before UO was even launched. 3DO bought Archetype Interactive, the company responsible for Meridian 59 (the game I currently own and operate). They also bought New World Computing (NWC) about the same time to get the valued Might and Magic franchise. They wanted to use the M59 technology (which was pretty cool back in '96) to take Might and Magic online.

Well, things didn't quite work out that way. 3DO was looking at the game as a game, not the service it really is. So, they neglected M59 in favor of working on their new project. In the end, M59 didn't do as well as it could have despite launching a full year before UO was launched. Meridian 59 got little internal support, no resources for expansion, and terrible marketing support, so it's little surprise that the game didn't do that well.

In addition, UO was widely panned by most critics when the game launched. The lag, the bugs, the design flaws, all these things helped the game win multiple "coaster of the year" type awards. The secret was that there were multiple thousands of Ultima fans that played the game despite the complaints the critics had. EA/Origin kept mum about their real subscription levels, and everyone assumed it was a collosal failure.

The "failure" of M59 and UO convinced the 3DO that online games were just not profitable. So, they scrapped the Might & Magic Online plans and laid off the whole team. Of course, many Meridian 59 developers left the company as well in sympathy for their friends that were just laid off, ensuring that 3DO would always be an "also ran" when it came to online games. This was about the time the dot-com bubble was heating up. ;)

Interestingly enough, the concept that online games were a failure stuck with the 3DO management for a very long time. Trip repeatedly gave interviews saying that "the market isn't ready" for online games. Even after UO was proven to be a success and EQ entered the scene with a HUGE splash, 3DO still stuck to this story, even when I left the company in 2000. Denial is an ugly thing, really.

Personally, I'm not sure the cancellation was a bad thing. 3DO proved repeatedly they didn't know how to run an online game. I had to fight tooth and nail while working on Meridian 59 to get the resources necessary to fix and improve the game. Jumpgate, also published by 3DO, faded into a completely undeserved oblivion. (It's interesting to note that NetDevil, the studio making Auto Assault for NCSoft, was the developer for Jumpgate.) It might be better to have our memories of Might and Magic as they are, not tainted by another "failed" game.

On the other hand, it could have been different if 3DO had kept competent people. Meridian 59 is actually a really fun game with multiple innovative elements that have only just recently been copied by other games. If you like online games and want something a little different than the ordinary fare, I recommend Meridian 59. (The good news is that after we bought the game from 3DO, we were able to do a lot of the work that the game absolutely needed.) Those of you that remember Meridian 59 from before might want to check out the new rendering engine that we're working on. The game is getting a bit of a facelift from the old software renderer to a new hardware-accelerated renderer.

Some information for the curious out there.

Have fun,

Actually, the original Might and Magic games are RPGs, just like the old Ultima games were. Heroes took the game in a turn-based direction.

To reward those that read the comments a bit later, I'll share some dark secrets from 3DO. Since 3DO's bankrupt, I doubt there will be any trouble caused by posting this.

It's a little-known fact that 3DO had plans to make a Might & Magic online RPG a very long time ago, before UO was even launched. 3DO bought Archetype Interactive, the company responsible for Meridian 59 (the game I currently own and operate). They also bought New World Computing (NWC) about the same time to get the valued Might and Magic franchise. They wanted to use the M59 technology (which was pretty cool back in '96) to take Might and Magic online.

Well, things didn't quite work out that way. 3DO was looking at the game as a game, not the service it really is. So, they neglected M59 in favor of working on their new project. In the end, M59 didn't do as well as it could have despite launching a full year before UO was launched. Meridian 59 got little internal support, no resources for expansion, and terrible marketing support, so it's little surprise that the game didn't do that well.

In addition, UO was widely panned by most critics when the game launched. The lag, the bugs, the design flaws, all these things helped the game win multiple "coaster of the year" type awards. The secret was that there were multiple thousands of Ultima fans that played the game despite the complaints the critics had. EA/Origin kept mum about their real subscription levels, and everyone assumed it was a collosal failure.

The "failure" of M59 and UO convinced the 3DO that online games were just not profitable. So, they scrapped the Might & Magic Online plans and laid off the whole team. Of course, many Meridian 59 developers left the company as well in sympathy for their friends that were just laid off, ensuring that 3DO would always be an "also ran" when it came to online games. This was about the time the dot-com bubble was heating up. ;)

Interestingly enough, the concept that online games were a failure stuck with the 3DO management for a very long time. Trip repeatedly gave interviews saying that "the market isn't ready" for online games. Even after UO was proven to be a success and EQ entered the scene with a HUGE splash, 3DO still stuck to this story, even when I left the company in 2000. Denial is an ugly thing, really.

Personally, I'm not sure the cancellation was a bad thing. 3DO proved repeatedly they didn't know how to run an online game. I had to fight tooth and nail while working on Meridian 59 to get the resources necessary to fix and improve the game. Jumpgate, also published by 3DO, faded into a completely undeserved oblivion. (It's interesting to note that NetDevil, the studio making Auto Assault for NCSoft, was the developer for Jumpgate.) It might be better to have our memories of Might and Magic as they are, not tainted by another "failed" game.

On the other hand, it could have been different if 3DO had kept competent people. Meridian 59 is actually a really fun game with multiple innovative elements that have only just recently been copied by other games. If you like online games and want something a little different than the ordinary fare, I recommend Meridian 59. (The good news is that after we bought the game from 3DO, we were able to do a lot of the work that the game absolutely needed.) Those of you that remember Meridian 59 from before might want to check out the new rendering engine that we're working on. The game is getting a bit of a facelift from the old software renderer to a new hardware-accelerated renderer.

Some information for the curious out there.

Have fun,

What's the cost of running a counterstrike server compared to one of these MMORPGs? It's the same! And yet they have managed to charge people a fee for providing the same service.

Uh, not really. I run my own online game, Meridian 59, and I know what it costs to run a server.

Although we keep costs as low as possible, it does cost quite a bit to keep the server connected. Players will use a lot of bandwidth when you're talking about a few thousand people all on at the same time. Keeping the server up also costs money for support in case some router decides it doesn't want to work overnight. (People get really cranky about the service going down if they're paying you.)

On the flip side, running a FPS server at that level of availability isn't exactly cheap, either. Consider the prices at this site; they do "professsional" hosting of FPS servers and charge between $5-10 per person for that. Considering the depth an online RPG provides, and the fact that regular updates are provided, a game like my own that only charges $10.95 is a pretty good deal. (Meridian 59 doesn't require an up-front box purchase, so it's an even better deal than usual.)

As for the topic on hand, I worked at 3DO for a while and remember JVC's interesting email commentary to some of the events there. I hope he finds a place where he can get good creative freedom and make some great games.

Have fun,

The folks who played rogue? They did OK, I guess. But I think they would have done much better if they'd taken the opportunity as seriously as I did.

It depends. I played a lot of text MUDs in college. Of course, I was lucky enough to play the LP types that have user programming, so that was a creative outlet to expand my programming ability.

After college I got a rather boring job working at a standard software company. After a year of that, I got a job in the games industry. I was able to draw upon those years of playing text MUDs and help maintain the classic online game Meridian 59. Later, I started my own business and bought Meridian 59 and currently administrate it. I make a fair living at it, and I'm recognized by many of my peers in the games industry as a talented developer. Seeing how I'm only 30, I've done pretty good so far.

As to the question in the article, I can speak with some authority. I have a very wonderful significant other that has put up with me for nearly 10 years, and she has accepted with my gaming obsession. I work on games for a living, so I'm pretty hard-core when it comes to gaming. It's a central part of who I am, but I also keep her happy. (She keeps me sane, too!)

I'll echo what a lot of people say here in that it's all about compromise. You need to compromise on the amount of time you spend playing the game, and your significant other needs to compromise in realizing that this is part of who you are. Make sure you let her know that she's still special. Set aside some time to spend with her and away from the game. Play in moderation, and learn that you can say "no" when there's something more imporant to do than gaming.

One nifty thing about City of Heroes, specifically, is that you can become the "sidekick" of another player and play as a higher effective level. This means that you can play with your friends that can play more often than you can. Alternatively, everyone can create multiple characters; play one character when you are together, and a separate character that can level faster without worrying about outdistancing the rest of the group.

One thing to remember is that just because you can play a game for endless hours doesn't meant you should. It's okay to play "only" a few hours per week when you can get together. There's a variety of great games out there that allow for a variety of play styles; Meridian 59, for example, allows for the "15 minute" gameplay by allowing you to log on and practice a few spells instead of requiring multiple hours in a single sitting. If you get tired of CoH, look around for other games that suit your needs.

Some things to think about,

Some interesting things in the interview, but I'm going to have to disagree with this assessment about team size, etc. There are a small number of online world that were built and are maintained by small teams. My own game, Meridian 59, is one example that is being maintained by about 4 people. A Tale in The Desert is another game that was built and is being maintained by a small team. Yes, these games are a bit smaller than the ones that get all the press, but they're still interesting virtual words that show it can be done.

I think the bigger problem is that everyone wants to be the "million seller" online game. I suspect There had its sights set too high, and when the million subscribers didn't show up, they became a bit disillusioned. But, I think it's interesting that he says smaller projects can lead to bigger things. I've been a firm believer in that; Meridian 59 is a niche product, and we offer it to the playerbase in order to scratch a particular itch they have, namely balanced PvP.

In short, I think it's quite possible to do a virtual world with a small team. You just have to be smarter about it and not expect to be an "EverQuest-killer" out of the gate. Target an audience and serve them well. That's my plan, at least.

My thoughts,

One of the biggest things you can do is to support independent developers. There are a number of smaller developers out there that are trying to push the envelope in gameplay. Of course, with limited resources the smaller developers can't provide the flash and dazzle of the larger games.

I'm part of one of those smaller game development houses; we develop online RPGs. Our current game, Meridian 59, is a classic online RPG with open PvP. Yes, open PvP isn't for everyone, but many people wish to have this in their game. Our game is smaller and not as well-known as the larger online RPGs, but we get by.

Of course, the first reaction of most people is to judge the game by the graphics. Unfortunately for them, the graphics do not indicate the quality of gameplay. The combat is fun, there is not much of the "treadmill" you see in other games, and the PvP has been carefully balanced over the years. Meridian 59's gameplay is very fun, and we even charge less than most other games requiring no box purchase to play the game in the first place. But, people who judge games only on screenshots will never enjoy these finer aspects of Meridian 59.

Really, this is why many games go for the flash instead of substance; it sells more games. We're working on an engine upgrade to Meridian 59, but this is not going to affect the gameplay, it will only make the game look better in screenshots. And, we have many other upgrades in store as the game grows. However, think of the time and effort we could have poured into gameplay....

The point of this ramble is that if you want to see more innovative games, then start searching them out and playing (and paying for!) them. There are a number of great independent online games (I'm more familiar with them given that I work with online games), and there's a good number of quality single-player games out there as well. It's just a question of going a little bit off the beaten path and finding them for yourself.

My thoughts,

Crunch time as we have it now is a perversion of what originally made the industry great.

In the olden days of game development, you had people that were genuinely passionate about their project. These people were willing to go the extra mile to make the game great. That often included working insane amount of hours to put as much quality into the game as possible.

Somewhere along the lines, management decided this seemed to be the norm, so why not schedule for it? Just assume that game developers will work 60-80 hour weeks, and you can save a lot of money. So, "crunch" time went from being something developers did as a sign of pride in their work to something that managers just scheduled for.

Unfortunately, this change makes all the difference. If you don't care about the game you're working on and you're still expected to make 16 hour days for the next few months, then you're going to burn out quickly. Of course, there's a seemingly endless supply of fresh college grads willing to take the job, especially with the current economic conditions.

This is one of the main reasons why I started my own company. I wanted to feel passionate about the games I worked on, and I wanted my long hours to directly contribute to my own well-being. For the record, I work on the game Meridian 59.

My point of view,

Well, I'm one of those people you "hate"; I run an online RPG which charges a monthly subscription fee and feel it's a better deal than most other entertianment, games included. But, allow me to point out some fallacies in your argument.

First, let's get the money out of the way. You think $50k profit on 100k users is impressive? That's $6/year per customer. That's a shameful amount for any business. Many companies make at least that much profit off a customer in one visit without the costs of developing an online RPG that can hold 100k subscribers.

But, let's focus on games as you requested. So, let me ask you: when was the last time you negotiated a peaceful agreement between opposing groups in UT2004? What? Never? That's funny, because someone posted about doing that very thing on Meridian 59 just the other week. See, politics is an important force in some online RPGs, and an interesting way to engage in player vs. player competition. The problem with UT2004 is that the lack of persistence means that there is no reason for deeper interactions between players in the context of the game. My only options in UT2004 is to shoot my enemy before s/he shoots me.

It's the persistence that give online RPGs the depth you don't find in other games. Politics is just one thing, but meaningful conflict is another. When I kill a player in Meridian, that player suffers penalties. Those penalties don't go away once the game resets (except for some special events), so that player has a reason to hold a grudge against me. I have to deal with the consequences of my actions, which leads to interesting interactions between players.

In the end, it's that persistence you pay for in a online RPG. You're not just paying for the game, but also for the service that keeps the servers active and available for you to play on, and polices the game for cheaters, etc. This isn't to say that everyone has to love persistence and dealing with the consequences for their actions, but there are a lot of us that really do appreciate this and think that a monthly fee is well worth it.

And, to pimp my own game for a bit, some games are great bargains. Meridian 59 is only $10.95 per month (not $15 like City of Heroes will be), and does not require the purchase of a box or expansions. We keep expanding and improving Meridian; in fact, we're in the middle of a rewrite of the rendering engine to improve the graphics of the game. All as freely downloaded content to the players of the game.

In the end, you'll be hard pressed to find any other form of entertainment, including games, that has as low a buyin as $10.95 and is that cheap per month.

My take on things,

Well, I'm one of those people you "hate"; I run an online RPG which charges a monthly subscription fee and feel it's a better deal than most other entertianment, games included. But, allow me to point out some fallacies in your argument.

First, let's get the money out of the way. You think $50k profit on 100k users is impressive? That's $6/year per customer. That's a shameful amount for any business. Many companies make at least that much profit off a customer in one visit without the costs of developing an online RPG that can hold 100k subscribers.

But, let's focus on games as you requested. So, let me ask you: when was the last time you negotiated a peaceful agreement between opposing groups in UT2004? What? Never? That's funny, because someone posted about doing that very thing on Meridian 59 just the other week. See, politics is an important force in some online RPGs, and an interesting way to engage in player vs. player competition. The problem with UT2004 is that the lack of persistence means that there is no reason for deeper interactions between players in the context of the game. My only options in UT2004 is to shoot my enemy before s/he shoots me.

It's the persistence that give online RPGs the depth you don't find in other games. Politics is just one thing, but meaningful conflict is another. When I kill a player in Meridian, that player suffers penalties. Those penalties don't go away once the game resets (except for some special events), so that player has a reason to hold a grudge against me. I have to deal with the consequences of my actions, which leads to interesting interactions between players.

In the end, it's that persistence you pay for in a online RPG. You're not just paying for the game, but also for the service that keeps the servers active and available for you to play on, and polices the game for cheaters, etc. This isn't to say that everyone has to love persistence and dealing with the consequences for their actions, but there are a lot of us that really do appreciate this and think that a monthly fee is well worth it.

And, to pimp my own game for a bit, some games are great bargains. Meridian 59 is only $10.95 per month (not $15 like City of Heroes will be), and does not require the purchase of a box or expansions. We keep expanding and improving Meridian; in fact, we're in the middle of a rewrite of the rendering engine to improve the graphics of the game. All as freely downloaded content to the players of the game.

In the end, you'll be hard pressed to find any other form of entertainment, including games, that has as low a buyin as $10.95 and is that cheap per month.

My take on things,

Oddly enough, the same philosophy fits computer games (MMPORGS) perfectly as well.

As an administrator of an online RPG and a former M:tG player, I think this is a bit of an unfair comparison.

The most obvious thing is price. My own game, Meridian 59 costs $10.95 per month with no boxes or expansions to buy. That's the equivalent of, what, 3-4 boosters? Who do you know that only bought 3-4 boosters per month while playing Magic?

Further, consider what you get for your payment. In M:tG, I'm getting printed pieces of cardboard that I hope will improve my deck or be worth enough for me to sell at a profit. I still have to find people to play with.

In an online RPG, on the other hand, you are getting a lot more. You get a dynamic world that is expanded on a regular basis. You get a group of ready players interested in the same game that you can interact with. You get a service that maintains the game and polices it for undesirable behavior, such as cheating.

If I could have remained competitive at M:tG by only buying 3-4 booster packs per month, and I would have had a guaranteed group of honest players from the publisher to play with, then I'd probably still be playing M:tG today. Admittedly, not all online games are as good a deal as Meridian, but that doesn't mean they're not worth the monthly fee if you appreciate the service.

My view on things,

Running a game company isn't as easy as it sounds. Given the huge creative effort that goes into these games, there are multiple failure points. I speak from a position of experience as the co-founder of Near Death Studios, Inc., current developers and administrators of the online game, Meridian 59.

The biggest sin mentioned in the article isn't the trips (which can really help to build team spirit and loyalty), but rather talking about they should have fired the "least qualified people" and kept paying the founders. In a small gaming studio, there's no room for "least qualified" people. All your developers need to be top-notch and should ideally have multiple skill sets. If there's an obvious person to fire when the budget cuts come, that person probably should have been fired before the budget got tight.

The article also highlights the problem with the current developer and publisher relationships in modern game development. In reality, the publisher cares very little about you or your company, and cares even less about the creative aspects of game development. They look at the developer simply in terms of income potential.

Now, before any publisher types get their panties in a twist about this, let me give an example. I was watching the Mallrats DVD last night and watched the retrospective with Kevin Smith. He talked about creating the movie, and how people insisted that the movie's budget be at least $6 million. Mr. Smith was perplexed by this, since his previous film, Clerks cost $27,000 (if memory serves); the people in charge of the budget knew what a movie like Mallrats would cost to develop and wanted to make sure they didn't fall short on the budget before finishing the movie.

Yet, if Kevin Smith were a game developer, he would have asked for less money than it really required to make the game and probably wouldn't have even gotten that. Then when the costs ran over budget, he would have had to go back to the publisher and renegotiate a less favorable deal in order to get the money he should have gotten in the first place to finish the game. I've personally been in the industry for over 6 years now, and I've never heard of a developer getting more money than they thought they needed as Kevin Smith did with Mallrats.

Unfortunately, the publishers are only too happy to eat their young in order to profit. The publishers care very little about the business health of game developers and only care about the bottom line of how much the game makes. Sure, it's their perogative as a business, but it hinders the long-term growth of the industry if it does not cultivate talent to expand the market in the future. One "failure" like Escape Factory shows and they're done for. In the movie business, the "failure" of Mallrats was followed up by a series of wonderful movies including Chasing Amy and Dogma. We'll never know if Escape Factory could have done bigger and better things.

Sadly, the problems don't just stop there. As the article points out, you have to make the publisher think you're making the greatest game ever. That often means you have to lie to them. A friend of mine was working for an online RPG ("MMOG") for a large publisher. He had worked on previous online RPGs, so he knew the pitfalls. So, when the publisher came around to ask the status of the project, he was honest about the shortcomings. Other online RPG projects run by the same publisher didn't have the experience; they weren't able to accurately gauge their progress and told the publisher everything was fine even though they were many, many months behind where they should have been. In the end, my friend's project got cancelled while the other projects were still funded. In the end, the other projects ran late, had terrible launches, and one has already been cancelled after launch.

In the end, running a game development studio is not an easy task. Publisher callousness towards the developers makes it even worse, causing problems for the long-term health of the game development industry. This is my view of things as a self-pubished, self-funded independent online RPG developer.

Actually, in most cases it's damned hard to kill an online RPG. The game I own, Meridian 59 was originally developed by 3DO and launched in 1996. 3DO closed the game down in 2000, but it was relaunched quickly in 2001 after my company bought the rights to the game. The game has been running strong ever since. We have thousands of fans. It's no EverQuest, but it does pretty well for a game on a tight development budget.

Really, you only have to worry about this with the really big companies. Smaller, independent developers have a lot more investment into the game. Meridian 59 will never die as long as I have any say in it, and my business partner is even more adamant about this than I am!

It's notable that despite the difficulty in killing off these types of games, EA is the company that's had the most success in doing so. They closed down a lot of Kesmai's games when they bought that company, shut down Motor City Online, and have now shut down Earth & Beyond. That track record speaks for itself.

Anyway, give some of the smaller games a try. We're often cheaper than the bigger games; Meridian 59 doesn't even require you to buy a box to play the game, just pay a subscription fee. You'll find that these games will be around for a very long time because the developers see them as something more than just a cash cow. I went into serious personal debt during the dot-com crash just to buy Meridian 59 from 3DO; I'm pretty serious about keeping it available for people to play.

My thoughts as an indie online RPG developer,

I'm going to reply to this instead of modding it down. Let's see how this works.

A heartfelt rant, I'm sure. The problem is that you ignore some very important facts.

First, while it is fair to say that companies look to profit from their copyrights, not every business interested in protecting their copyrights is some big business looking to pay those that already make a lot of money. I'm a small game developer that doesn't live in Bel-Air, that doesn't have any aspirations to buy golf clubs, and that considers it a financial treat to just eat out. Yet, I own copyright on Meridian 59 and would very much like to keep people from copying the work I've put my time, money, and effort into. People can create or buy their own work if they want it. The truly ironic thing is that the same copyright laws that make it illegal for you to download music also make it download for a large publisher to take music from an independent artist and sell it without compensation. Copyrights benefit the small businesses, too, and taking away copyrights will ensure that the large companies maintain their stranglehold on entertainment.

The second fact is that there are alternatives. There are a LOT of indie artists, developers, etc. out there that would love your support. For every overhyped Ms. Spears there's a handfull of hard-working bands that you'd probably enjoy. The problem is, of course, that looking for the independent is much harder than listening to the advertising singing the praises of the latest media darling. It's easy to listen to the ads that hype up some artist that sold his or her soul to the RIAA for superstar coverage. It's harder to go around town and find the small venues where the good local bands play.

The real solution to this problem is obvious once you consider these two bits: Go support the independent artists. The reasons for doing this are so numerous it boggles the mind. First you get originality, you provide a way for an artist to make money without having to sell out to a large marketing company like the RIAA, you don't pay more money so that the fatcat entertianment executives can buy more golf clubs, you don't have to break the law to enjoy entertainment, etc. The list just goes on and on.

This applies to most entertainment. Don't want to pay $18 for a CD? Hit an independent musician's site. Many times you can get free MP3's of their songs right off their websites. Check out some local bands at live shows in small clubs. Don't want to pay $50 for a game? Check out some quality independent games. The Independent Games Festival shows off some of the better games that were made without relying on publisher funding.

Don't want to pay for a box if you're going to pay for a monthly fee for an MMORPG? Check out one of the independent games that allow you to download the client instead of paying $50 in the stores. My own game, Meridian 59, only charges a $10.95 per month subscription fee with no startup fees. We intentionally kept the price low so that people would get a great deal from our game. Sure, it's not the most prettiest game out there, but it's fun like a good game should be. (If you just want to look at cool pictures, I might recommend a museum instead.)

In the end, there's alternatives to just taking what you want and applying flimsy justifications for it. There's alternatives out there, and lots of us independents that don't want to contribute directly to the large companies that harm entertainment would be more than happy to have your support. Consider checking us out instead of breaking the law next time you want something fun.

Really, it's up to the market to start supporting the alternatives. That's the only way that the executives will be unable to cover their Bel-Air mortgages and will have to re-evaluate their business model. Giving the independents the ability to compete with the lar

I'm going to reply to this instead of modding it down. Let's see how this works.

A heartfelt rant, I'm sure. The problem is that you ignore some very important facts.

First, while it is fair to say that companies look to profit from their copyrights, not every business interested in protecting their copyrights is some big business looking to pay those that already make a lot of money. I'm a small game developer that doesn't live in Bel-Air, that doesn't have any aspirations to buy golf clubs, and that considers it a financial treat to just eat out. Yet, I own copyright on Meridian 59 and would very much like to keep people from copying the work I've put my time, money, and effort into. People can create or buy their own work if they want it. The truly ironic thing is that the same copyright laws that make it illegal for you to download music also make it download for a large publisher to take music from an independent artist and sell it without compensation. Copyrights benefit the small businesses, too, and taking away copyrights will ensure that the large companies maintain their stranglehold on entertainment.

The second fact is that there are alternatives. There are a LOT of indie artists, developers, etc. out there that would love your support. For every overhyped Ms. Spears there's a handfull of hard-working bands that you'd probably enjoy. The problem is, of course, that looking for the independent is much harder than listening to the advertising singing the praises of the latest media darling. It's easy to listen to the ads that hype up some artist that sold his or her soul to the RIAA for superstar coverage. It's harder to go around town and find the small venues where the good local bands play.

The real solution to this problem is obvious once you consider these two bits: Go support the independent artists. The reasons for doing this are so numerous it boggles the mind. First you get originality, you provide a way for an artist to make money without having to sell out to a large marketing company like the RIAA, you don't pay more money so that the fatcat entertianment executives can buy more golf clubs, you don't have to break the law to enjoy entertainment, etc. The list just goes on and on.

This applies to most entertainment. Don't want to pay $18 for a CD? Hit an independent musician's site. Many times you can get free MP3's of their songs right off their websites. Check out some local bands at live shows in small clubs. Don't want to pay $50 for a game? Check out some quality independent games. The Independent Games Festival shows off some of the better games that were made without relying on publisher funding.

Don't want to pay for a box if you're going to pay for a monthly fee for an MMORPG? Check out one of the independent games that allow you to download the client instead of paying $50 in the stores. My own game, Meridian 59, only charges a $10.95 per month subscription fee with no startup fees. We intentionally kept the price low so that people would get a great deal from our game. Sure, it's not the most prettiest game out there, but it's fun like a good game should be. (If you just want to look at cool pictures, I might recommend a museum instead.)

In the end, there's alternatives to just taking what you want and applying flimsy justifications for it. There's alternatives out there, and lots of us independents that don't want to contribute directly to the large companies that harm entertainment would be more than happy to have your support. Consider checking us out instead of breaking the law next time you want something fun.

Really, it's up to the market to start supporting the alternatives. That's the only way that the executives will be unable to cover their Bel-Air mortgages and will have to re-evaluate their business model. Giving the independents the ability to compete with the lar

It's a bit funny, because at the 2001 GDC Mr. Rubin had a talk entitled "Coming Out Of the Garage". He spoke about how independent developers need to "grow up" in order to get out of the garage, and how they need to accept publishers as vital to the process of game development. Guess he's seen what happens from that attitude. ;)

Make no mistake about it, the publisher holds most of the cards. The developer is at the publisher's whim for the most part, since the publisher holds the purse strings. The few developers you see that are recognized, namely id, Blizzard, etc, were first successful outside of publisher influence. Take id for example; they started with shareware games. Even before DOOM and Wolfenstein 3D they had Commander Keen. Once DOOM hit the big time through shareware channels, id was able to negotiate a favorable deal with publishers to get the game on shelves. Their next games were sweet deals with publishers because they were already recognized; the Quake games had practically guaranteed audiences, the publisher just needed to get boxes on the shelves.

And, for the apologists that say the developer takes big risks, I'll have to call you on that bullshit. Great game development studios go out of business all the time, so obviously some risk is assumed by the developers as well, even if they have a wildly successful game series.

The main problem, in my opinion, is that games cost a lot to develop these days, and small companies rarely have the money to create a modern game. In the past, creating a game like Wolf3D was the result of a fairly small team of people. These days you need lots of developers to create high production value assets; the market demands the shiniest graphics and the coolest explosions. A great game without the expected level of polish is going to be ignored for the most part.

Yes, I realize that some people can look past the exterior to see a great game, but it's SO much easier to market a prettier game. My own game Meridian 59 shows this perfectly. The game has a DOOM-type software rendering engine, and gets consistently passed over in favor of the newer, shinier competitor. We've tried to develop a game that offers what other games on the market lack, namely balanced and fun Player vs. Player (PvP) combat. Yeah, this is considered a niche market, but not as niche as our subscriber numbers might otherwise indicate. (As a note, we are working on a significant engine upgrade. [Warning: large images.])

In the end, publishers hold all the cards, and the developers aren't going to be able to do much about it. The real power lies in the game buyers, who can choose to either buy what's marketed to them, or they can go look for the independent game developers that are creating innovative products. But, for now, the alternative to taking publisher money is to focus on smaller-scale niche titles by developing a taste for Ramen noodles. There's a reason why the phrase "starving artist" exists.

My thoughts,

It's a bit funny, because at the 2001 GDC Mr. Rubin had a talk entitled "Coming Out Of the Garage". He spoke about how independent developers need to "grow up" in order to get out of the garage, and how they need to accept publishers as vital to the process of game development. Guess he's seen what happens from that attitude. ;)

Make no mistake about it, the publisher holds most of the cards. The developer is at the publisher's whim for the most part, since the publisher holds the purse strings. The few developers you see that are recognized, namely id, Blizzard, etc, were first successful outside of publisher influence. Take id for example; they started with shareware games. Even before DOOM and Wolfenstein 3D they had Commander Keen. Once DOOM hit the big time through shareware channels, id was able to negotiate a favorable deal with publishers to get the game on shelves. Their next games were sweet deals with publishers because they were already recognized; the Quake games had practically guaranteed audiences, the publisher just needed to get boxes on the shelves.

And, for the apologists that say the developer takes big risks, I'll have to call you on that bullshit. Great game development studios go out of business all the time, so obviously some risk is assumed by the developers as well, even if they have a wildly successful game series.

The main problem, in my opinion, is that games cost a lot to develop these days, and small companies rarely have the money to create a modern game. In the past, creating a game like Wolf3D was the result of a fairly small team of people. These days you need lots of developers to create high production value assets; the market demands the shiniest graphics and the coolest explosions. A great game without the expected level of polish is going to be ignored for the most part.

Yes, I realize that some people can look past the exterior to see a great game, but it's SO much easier to market a prettier game. My own game Meridian 59 shows this perfectly. The game has a DOOM-type software rendering engine, and gets consistently passed over in favor of the newer, shinier competitor. We've tried to develop a game that offers what other games on the market lack, namely balanced and fun Player vs. Player (PvP) combat. Yeah, this is considered a niche market, but not as niche as our subscriber numbers might otherwise indicate. (As a note, we are working on a significant engine upgrade. [Warning: large images.])

In the end, publishers hold all the cards, and the developers aren't going to be able to do much about it. The real power lies in the game buyers, who can choose to either buy what's marketed to them, or they can go look for the independent game developers that are creating innovative products. But, for now, the alternative to taking publisher money is to focus on smaller-scale niche titles by developing a taste for Ramen noodles. There's a reason why the phrase "starving artist" exists.

My thoughts,

There are games that work close to what you want; however, as other people have pointed out there are problems with latency in heavily "twitch" based games. Appropriate "twitch" mechanics require fast reactions, faster than the time it takes for the client to communicate with the server in most cases.

Another issue you run into is cheating. Think about the aimbots for most FPS games. When you're paying a monthly fee, there's the expectation that there won't be cheating in the game. Therefore, most online RPGs focus on mechanics that can be verified and can't be cheated.

However, there are some games that have compensated for this and offer some level of twitch gameplay. Planetside, World War II Online, and Neocron are two FPS-type games. Asheron's Call had some twitch-based elements in that you could "dodge" projectile weapons. My own game Meridian 59 has some twitch aspects to it since the game encourages a lot of movement, especially in Player vs. Player (PvP) combat. Knowing where to move in order to outmanuever your enemies is a key skill in M59's PvP. The lower system requirements of the game also means that you have pretty low latency which lends itself better to twitch style.

There's options out there if you care to look beyond the highly advertised games.

I have definitely been noticing this trend and I don't like it one bit, but it doesn't seem there is very much I can do about it apart from abandoning some web sites that are not too essential.

Actually, you could do something else. Start up your own site and provide your own content for free. Nothing's stopping you from doing that besides money and your own motivation.

Of course, doing that is expensive and you probably aren't in a position to lose money every month just to benefit others people. Not too surprisingly, neither are most businesses.

I charge $10.95 per month for the game I run. Not because I'm a greedy bastard, but because it's what keeps the ISP bills paid and the ramen noodles stocked in the pantry.

Don't want to pay? Do it yourself. Don't have the time? Then perhaps it's worth some money to save you the time.

My thoughts,

Interesting use of the word "independent" in that article. Usually I consider an independent game developer one that doesn't rely on an outside publisher for support. Yet, most of the people there talked about publisher contracts, etc.

Being an independent game developer that does not rely on a publisher and that has been around for three years this month (yay!), I know a thing or two about this topic. I have some stock rants that I like to recite when this topic comes up, too.

Some background, first. My game is Meridian 59, a fantasy online RPG. Our game is a bit unique in that it was previously owned by a larger company, the now defunct 3DO, but we bought the rights to the game from them. I worked on M59 for a few years before starting our company, Near Death Studios, Inc., so I had an emotinoal investment in the game before we bought it. My business partner, Rob "Q" Ellis II, is also one of the original developers of the game.

The biggest problem for a true indie isn't money (although there's plenty of money issues for the independent), it's actually exposure. It's tough to get attention for your game when you're competing with other games that spent a lot of money on production values and marketing. Just being a "good game" is often not enough to get noticed in market saturated with advertising.

For example, we went to the offices of a reasonably sized gaming magazine. The features editor had told us that we would get some good coverage if we showed off the new 3D hardware-accelerated rendering engine from the game. (Note: Warcry is one of the good journalist sites to work with, and not the company in question here.) So, two of my co-workers bought a suitable notebook computer and drove 2 states away to show off this game. Unfortunately, the editor we had talked to wasn't in the office that day (and didn't contact us about it), so we talked to someone else at the offices. End result: we get an unflattering description in a list of other names and no pictures of our new engine. But, you can quickly see the reason why we get ignored: flipping through the magazine to the big story about EverQuest 2, you pass by 3 double-page ads for EQ-based products. (There are plenty of other bad things you can say about games "journalism" as well. But, there are a few bright points to contrast the negative.)

But, let's say that someone does somehow notice my game. They head to our website and sign up for an account. When they log in, they see a graphics engine that's obviously dated. And, at this point, we lose a lot of customers because glitz does matter to many people. They don't care about the gameplay because they instantly equate "bad graphics" to "not fun to play". The big companies don't really help much with this; people that are happy with the game they were playing 10 years ago aren't going to be buying up new games as they come to market. Therefore, they work hard to convince gamers that "better graphics" = "more fun to play".

But, we get to the final reason why being an indie developer sucks: the current business models don't help us. Most people won't buy a downloadable game for nearly the price of a game they could buy at the local store. So, while the larger companies charge $50 for the box, the indie can only expect to sell his or her game for $20-30. Admittedly, a lot of the price tag for the boxed game goes to distribution charges, but there's other factors at work here, too; people, in general, view a $50 item (a game, in this example) as "better" than a $30 item.

This gets worse on the online RPG (MMORPG) side of things. Meridian 59 charges $10.95 per month for a subscription; we could not charge less, otherwise we would operate at a net loss given current expenses. Larger games charge a few dollars more than that. But, most players don't care about that minor price difference; they don't care that one

Writing this late in the day on the west coast, so it'll probably get ignored, but....

Not every copyright holder is a large corporation or association. The fact that artists don't get properly compensated from these large companies isn't the fault of copyright; the artists chose to give up their rights in exchange for the marketing these large companies provide. The real problem is that few people will take the time to look outside the heavily-marketed mainstream in order to find something that suits their tastes.

I run an online game, Meridian 59. It's a niche game that offers full PvP and character interaction. My game is profitable, but only because the employees (including myself) make about 13% of what I could make by working at a large gaming company. We make nowhere near as much money as the larger games do, however.

A lot of online gamers complain that games water down their PvP offerings in order to appeal to a wider audience. Many games either don't offer any PvP options, or relegate PvP to one server where the game operators ignore cheating and generally refuse to balance the game with PvP in mind. In theory, the audience is there for a well-run PvP game.

In practice, it's not going to come unless I spend a lot of money on advertising. My company can't afford to have a huge marketing blitz where we put full color ads in major gaming magazines. People are mostly content to sit around and only pay attention to what is aggressively advertised. So, my game gets ignored compared to the larger offerings out there that can afford these types of marketing blitzes.

Some might point to the relatively "ugly" graphics in the game. This is just another facet of this money problem. I'd have to spend a lot of money to update all the art, which would require taking more investement money. In the end, this would require me to give up some of my control and profits for this investment. (Further, no investor would give me money if there weren't some way to protect the investment, namely copyrights and trademarks.) This situation has exactly the same problems as when an artist signs their career away to a major label.

Now, an online game is really a service, not a product. While I might distribute software, that's just a convenient way to use the service. It's not practical to give away a service for free as the anti-copyright advocates suggest for products. It's like an accountant allowing other people to sign his or her name on tax returns. If the IRS finds a problem and finds out the accountant allows others to sign his or her name, then the problems are going to fall squarely on the accountant's shoulders. Similarly, someone running a bad service using my copyrights and trademarks will reflect poorly, in the customer's eyes, on the product as a whole. So, a lot of the advantages touted by the anti-copyright group simply don't apply in my situation.

So, what can we do? The best way to solve the problems of artists not getting compensated is to look for independent artists. If enough people supported independent artists, we'd see a real change in the industry. Artists wouldn't be forced into horribly lopsided contracts that favor the large associations. They'd have more freedom to allow their music to be copied freely. They'd get a LOT more money per record and would be able to support themselves doing what they love. But, until then the artist needs to have the exposure the labels can give them in order to make enough money to really do what they love.

Of course, this means a bit of sacrifice. You might have to put up with lower sound quality since the independent musician didn't have enough cash to get the record professionally produced in an expensive sound studio. You might have to put up with 2D sprites in an older game engine instead of having the latest high-poly count 3D models because the independent game developer couldn't afford the artists to update the game. You might have

consider staff:
you need a certain number of people to ensure 24x7 service at a constant level of quality for a single server farm. yet you do not need twice as many people to cover twice as many servers. furthermore, over time, utilities and procedures will make the most commonn problems easier to deal with, and the bug fixes will make exceptions less frequent. server-maintenance staffing costs fall as the game becomes more popular and the game ages.