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Alternative Distribution Schemes For The MMO?
Thanks to The Adrenaline Vault for its editorial discussing ways the MMO and online gaming industry can evolve beyond its current saturation levels. The author argues: "The structure of MMOGs all but requires consumers to choose one title to the exclusion of all others... so, how can game makers continue to use this business model without collectively suffocating?" Therefore, a solution is suggested: "Scale projects back and use episodic content instead. Under the drip feed model, users pay for gameplay in small chunks rather than a periodic access fee. For example, Resident Evil: Outbreak would have translated perfectly into this type of game because its scenarios are encapsulated and self-sufficient... This approach... requires much less in the way of maintenance costs and initial investment [and] provides entertainment in digestible bursts... which means more room in the marketplace for everyone to sell their wares."
It looks fairly alive to me... nwvault.ign.com
Okay, from the Planetside manual:
Capturing bases, killing enemies, & destroying their equipment will give your character Battle Experience Points (BEP). As you accumulate these BEPs your character will go up in Battle Rank. As your character goes up in Battle Rank, you will earn Certification Points and Implant Slots.
* Certification points can be spent at Certification Terminals at the Sanctuary or at friendly Bio Labs to unlock access to various types of equipment, such as the Medical Applicator which allows you to heal injuries you or your friends may have suffered. Certifications also unlock access to vehicles such as the Basilisk or AMS (Advanced Mobile Station).
o By spending your Certification points, this is how you will begin to specialize your character. You could choose to go Heavy Assault and grab the tougher armors and bigger guns but then you might be dependent upon getting transported to the battle by others that have chosen to specialize in Piloting Vehicles. Or you could choose to be an Advanced Combat Medic with the ability to revive fallen comrades on the field or an Advanced Hacker with the ability to quickly hack your way into an enemy base. Or perhaps a smattering of all of the above? In any case, the choices you make are not permanent as you may unlearn certifications and choose others in their place via the "Unlearn" feature in the certification terminal.
* Implant Slots are where cybernetic devices known as Implants are surgically implanted within your character. These devices can endow you with super human abilities such as Surge, which allows for a brief but explosive burst of running speed or the Personal Shield implant, which when activated gives your character a temporary force field to protect them from damage. Your character can earn up to a maximum amount of three Implant Slots but beware, Implants when activated, can quickly use up your stamina leaving you drained and unable to run. Implants may be installed via Implant Terminals at the Sanctuary or friendly Bio Labs on any of the Battle Continents.
Playing poker with a joker and some Uno cards
Skotos does this distribution method exactly.
Majestic showed the main reason that episodic online games don't work too well. The Majestic episodes were way too short and people got bored with it quickly.
Also, the interaction with most other players in the game was actually detrimental to the game experience. You were supposed to be able to team up with other players to solve clues and what not, but most of the time the other players you talked to would straight out spoil the game for you by telling you everything you needed to solve everything.
When people would contact me to ask me about stuff in the game I would always play as if I were in on things and give them cryptic hints and tips to try and keep the game interesting for them. Mostly they'd just get pissed off at me and go on to someone who would just give them all the answers.
It was a really fun and deeply interactive game that I wish would have survived. Unfortunatly they just couldn't keep the content coming quick enough and keep it varied enough that players wouldn't ruin the game for each other.
SOE currently offers their All Access Pass :
"If you play more than one SOE game, or you want to try the other great SOE games available, SOE All Access opens the SOE game catalog to you.
SOE All Access grants access to all current games published by SOE*, which includes: EverQuest® EverQuest® Macintosh Edition PlanetSide EverQuest® Online Adventures Station Pass access, which includes the popular games Infantry Online, Cosmic Rift and Tanarus
Full access to these games for the low monthly subscription price of $21.99 is a potential savings of more than $18.00 every month over the total cost of the individual subscriptions!"
PlayNC (NCSoft) does not offer such a deal but is a central site for managing your online game subscriptions and I imagine once Guild Wars, Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault and others are released, we may start to see some special offers from them as well.
Skotos has been offering this type of service for a long time. For one monthly fee you can access and play all 11 of the games that they offer. Only 2 are graphical MMOGs (Meridian 59 and Underlight), but the other games are very good as well.
The largest factor in offering multiple "A list" titles for one monthly fee is offsetting development (and in the case of MMOGs, maintenance) costs and bringing in enough revenue to show a good profit. The bottom line is always a driving factor in any business. However, there is hope. As technology moves forward, we will start to see more and more rapid development of MMOGs of higher quality and consequently we should start to see a wider array of offerings and price points.
I also agree that some sports games should start to appear on the scene. XBox Live will probably be a driving factor to this more than anything. Playing football online against other players is quite fun and should prove to be very popular considering the amount of sports console games sold. Now, as to whether that genre will move to PC is yet to be seen, but as I mentioned before, in SOE's All Access Pass, they combine online console and PC subscriptions into one package. A diverse product line benefits them in this case. More comapnies need to grow in the genre and diversify at the same time, but that takes time and money. Soon though... very soon.
Majestic showed the main reason that episodic online games don't work too well. The Majestic episodes were way too short and people got bored with it quickly.
I think the slow/boring charge has less to do with the episodic content as it did the gameplay itself. It was designed to be tied into the real quite heavily - and unfortunately, stuff isn't always happening. So you might want to play, except that the characters are all stuck in a van twiddling their thumbs during a cross-country road trip. It certainly adds to the immersion, but it's nothing like your normal MMOG. And this is what really killed the game. Their target audiance was the relatively hardcore MMOG player, who will be bored shitless with the gameplay. But to anyone with a busy schedule and limited time, it fits in perfectly.
Unfortunately, you've got a very good point in regards to the community. Like any online game, they can really make or break the fun. Solving Majestic's (Or any MMOG's) puzzles was twice as enjoyable when it's done in a group. But that assumes everyone is equally ignorant. The inability to ensure that all participants are at the exact same place likely means that plot/puzzle based online games aren't going to do very well.
--LordPixie