Online Games a Massive Pain

[Akasha]

Electronic Arts' decision to shut down development of Ultima X: Odyssey -- the sequel to its long-running online game Ultima Online -- may force the game industry to re-examine what it takes to be a successful developer of massively multiplayer online games.

Electronic Arts joins a growing list of companies -- Cyan Worlds, Games Workshop, There Inc. -- that invested millions of dollars in online games, only to see disappointing sales or unfinished projects. But what's surprising about EA's setback is that it is the world's biggest video-game software company, with plenty of cash, talent, marketing muscle and patience to develop a franchise. Despite that, it pulled the plug on UXO.

What's more, over the past few years EA has pulled the plug, or announced plans to pull the plug, on a string of MMO games: Ultima Online II, Motor City Online, an online Harry Potter adventure game and Earth & Beyond. Most surprising of all, The Sims Online -- an online version of the biggest video-game franchise in history -- has been a disappointment for the company, by most accounts.

MMO games are notoriously hard to develop, much harder than traditional shrink-wrapped, single-player video games. Most MMOs create huge online worlds where thousands of players, each sitting in their homes, interact with each other -- exploring, trading and pillaging. The business premise to game companies is enticing: Players have to buy a copy of the game for about $50 at a retailer, then pay an additional monthly charge of $10 to $15 to gain entrance to the virtual world. But the companies have to pay a lot of attention to keep the online environments compelling and the players interested. And things that single-player games don't need as much -- like customer support and service -- are key to keeping subscriptions active.

"Maybe what we're learning is that (a traditional game company) is not going to be set up perfectly to run big online games," said Ed Castronova, an associate professor at Indiana University, and a moderator of Terra Nova, a blog that discusses virtual worlds.

In contrast to EA, Sony set up an independent division, Sony Online Entertainment, to focus exclusively on virtual worlds, Castronova pointed out. The result: Sony Online has had huge success with its EverQuest franchise, with at least half a million subscribers, and its Star Wars Galaxies world has had more than 300,000 players.

Of course, EA is not the only company that has had problems keeping MMOs afloat. For example, Games Workshop recently announced plans to close down Warhammer Online, as did Cyan Worlds with Uru Live. And There Inc. is on the verge of abandoning its metaverse in favor of becoming a platform builder, some speculate.

For its part, EA disputes the notion that it has had problems developing MMOs. Instead, it said the UXO move was a strategic realignment of resources.

"We really thought it was a good idea to focus more resources on Ultima Online," said Aaron Cohen, the game's product manager. "In looking at the situation, we thought it was better to focus on that successful product."

Cohen also said Ultima Online is one of the most popular MMO games, evidence that EA played a key role in the history of online games. "I think EA created the genre, with Ultima Online," he said. "So investing in that community is where we think our biggest success lies. Investing in a successful franchise makes the most sense to us."

But times have changed. Some of the more successful companies are outfits like South Korea's NCsoft, whose City of Heroes has quickly surpassed 100,000 subscribers. Mythic has more than 200,000 subscribers for Dark Age of Camelot, a strong rival to Sony's EverQuest.

What seems to work with the new generation of successful MMO games are franchises that have moved beyond the standard Dungeons & Dragons mold. In City of Heroes, players take on the roles of superheroes who team up against nasty aliens. In Star Wars Galaxies, players get a chance to play a small part in the wildly popular Star Wars story line. These new games seem to be attracting new customers who weren't interested in the fantasy genre.

"Electronic Arts is teaching the rest of us in the MMO marketplace a lot of good lessons," wrote developer Michael Hartman in a thread about the UXO shutdown on Terra Nova. "It is so nice of them to spend tens of millions of dollars to fund this research. They have shown us all how incredibly important patience and focus are in the development" of these games.

Castronova argued that past disappointments for EA -- like the poor showing of The Sims Online, which has topped out at around 80,000 subscribers -- has made the company "a little gun-shy".

"They thought they had a sure-fire winner and it's turned into a game that's causing a lot of problems for them," he said. "It makes them look at the next few products and say, 'Let's not just throw money at MMOs. And I think that's good advice for the whole industry, to be a little more careful and more choosy."

EA said it thinks The Sims Online is doing fine. "Granted, the game didn't launch well, and could have used a bit more time in the studio back in 2002," said Jeff Brown, EA's vice president of corporate communications. "But since then, it's built and maintained a thriving community."

Meanwhile, Castronova suggested that if large companies like EA hope to ever repeat the success of Sony Online, they will have to commit to the idea that online games are a different animal than what they've been successful with in the past.

"What you're looking for in a sense is a mayor ... for all these little communities," he said. "Maybe the EA story is a wake-up call that this is so much more about governance than it is about game design."

Information Source : Wired News!

[R2D2]

there will be more than plenty of mmorpgs in the future... trust me on that..

the best ones. Im looking forward to is:

WOW
LOTR: BFME online
RYL
and did I forget some?

[Akasha]

I'm keeping an eye on Vanguard...

[Salalorn]

from the seat on the topic, all I can see really is EQII (just b/c they seem to have some kind of magic formula) and WoW (b/c they took that formula and gave it a shot of speed)

the others look good... but just not up to the hundreds of thousands subscriber base..... I just can't see it happening (I said the same thing about Sims online and am still saying I told ya so to some of my friends :p )

stay safe everyone,
-Sala

[farslayer77]

Original EQ was produced for about 3 million dollars. It was a word of mouth runaway hit imo from a profit standpoint. Much to the chagrin of current designers of mmporgs. EQ also produced a large pool of players who won't tolerate the same sort of crap that EQ was famous for. At the height of its subscription EQ had 500,000 accounts. Yet at the same time there were a million Ex EQ players. Basically for every person that liked EQ there were 2 that left. Also no doubt much to the annoyance of current designers ). Players know the power of the /cancel account.

It will be interesting to see what gets churned out in the coming years by mmporg designers. The gaming companies may well decide that making smaller more disposable games is the way to go. Perhaps I am wrong but the success of EQ in terms of profit and longevity may not be repeatable.

[Akasha]

I'd have to agree that I can't really see a game doing as well or better than EQ, for me it was the first game that introduced me to mmorpgs, and while I want something that will keep me entertained for almost 5 years, getting me out of bed at 6am to raid and more, I don't want the bugs and problems that came with it.

I don't necessarily think the problem of success will be the idea of the game, it will be implementing it when you have 500,000 people or more that won't stand for a sub par game, and probably more that left EQ because of it and won't touch your game if it even looks to have similar issues.

They're going to have to work so much harder no a days to keep the subscription base that EQ had because people expect more now. A little off topic, but I saw a news article from Car Dealers, who basically are now having to work for their sales because consumers like myself get onto the internet and research the car we want before going out to purchase. No more taking shoddy advice from a shoddy dealer and them laughing all the way to the bank, no sir, I now know a little about cars and won't stand for the same crap I did 10 years ago....

[boscolio]

Saga of Ryzom is shaping up to be an interesting and unique little mmorpg. it abondons the typical levelling system for it's own little concontion. it's a beautiful looking game with an interesting world. but i doubt it's going to do that well.

[Akasha]

Hmm... Saga of Ryzom, that rings a bell for some reason... Wasn't that the game that there was an open beta for recently? I'm sure I had a look at it, got the key for the beta but decided against it... no idea why... was probably one of those womanly change of mind things ;)

[R2D2]

well RYL is also open beta so go play that insteed... its kinda fun and it'll be a good game to start up on until wow... :D