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IGDA Persistent Worlds White Paper Released
Elonka writes "The Online Games SIG of the IGDA has released the latest in a series of White Papers on the online computer gaming industry. The 2004 Persistent Worlds White Paper (80-page, 457K pdf) had several contributors from across the industry, and gives general "developer to developer" advice, covering everything from a quick overview of major products, to design considerations on multiplayer gameplay and dealing with online communities, to technical considerations, to some stats about the international marketplace, including the rapidly-growing Asian market. Editors included Daniel James of Three Rings Design, makers of Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, and Gordon Walton, VP and Executive Producer at Sony Online and presenter of the Ten Reasons You Don't Want to Make a Massively Multiplayer Game talk at the 2003 Game Developers Conference."
The one feature I have enjoyed the most in any multiplayer game has been the ability to ignore other players. A simple /ignore #playerID and all the n00b, j00 suX, ph33r m3, 1337 bs get's flushed down the toilet.
That's in the white paper, right?
RIGHT!
-Teiresias
It's pretty common to distribute white papers in PDF format.
An HTML version would have been nice, but it's not completely unexpected to see something like this as a PDF.
Sinch
Except that:
"'Is there any upside here? NO,' Walton grunts. It's simply a necessary (and frustrating) expense."
Is in reference to having to retain lawyers to fight the lawsuits that are filed against the company. It is NOT in reference to customer service.
G
"Plurality should not be posited without necessity." - William of OccamThere's a great chart on page 8 of TFA which shows the number of subscribers to the major MMORPGs. I was curious and found the source of the charts, it's Bruce Sterling Woodcock's site and there's a newer version of the chart I liked here, and there are lots more.
Read Epic the first RPG novel.
this might be insightful except for the fact that he took quotes from two separate reasons and put them next to each other. He does go on to say after the first quote that supporting the customer is essential to success with a subscription based model.
then he goes on to the next reason, which is that you need to retain a lot of good lawyers to run a mmog. it discusses lawsuits in small claims courts from players regarding hacking, cheating, etc. as well as the commonly disputed issue of who owns all of the virtual stuff. in the game.
in short, retaining lawyers is a necessary (and frustrating) expense, not supporting the customer...
If I don't put anything here, will anyone recognize me anymore?
I agree that it could be stronger in lots of ways, and the technology section is deliberately low-level. Frankly I'm not sure it's useful to even have a technology section, and came close to killing it, but remember our focus; independent developers who are thinking about going into MMPs, not big-co's and experienced MMP developers.
And yes, there are ommissions. Volunteer to contribute to the update and next year's paper!
I'm not sure what you mean about naive economic discussion, though.