originally a mass of badly dressed Call and its wide open world. Michael Escapist Forum: I very much respect characters became a group of Zenke speaks to a few radiomen at the the hard work Richard has done over the individuals, individuals selling stuff and forefront of the MMOG movement. years, but I have a very hard time For me, it started way back in 1999. It talking about killing things bigger than And Dana Massey explains what Blizzard reconciling what he’s saying here with was February; I was 15. A friend of mine rats. A guy dressed like a did right with , but his new chosen medium. had me over to take a look at a new summoned a demon right next to me, worries none of the other players in the game he just got: . He then named it “a” and told it to follow field learned the correct lesson. MMOs are a poor vehicle for telling a showed me an ugly little isometric view him. Then a woman wearing nothing but story. While all MMOs HAVE a story, the of a town called Britain, though I a robe stole the sword I had in my Enjoy! players are usually so busy squabbling couldn’t figure out why - no fog or guys backpack. The whole place teemed with over mechanics or questing for that in furry hats. The area he referred to as possibility, and I was hooked. Yours, they couldn’t care less about WHY the bank was overrun with people, real they’re doing it. I agree wholeheartedly people, which was sorta cool. Then, he Now, eight years later, MMOGs are with Richard’s stance on bringing went down a ladder and started killing bigger than they ever were. No matter accountability to gaming actions; that, to rats. Not demons, not hill giants, not what genre you like best, there’s me, would be far more dynamic then people. Rats. And then he told me he probably an MMOG out there deformable terrain. Anyone can destroy was paying $10 a month for the privilege. representing it. If not, someone’s a building, but it would take real effort to probably shopping a design document as rescue the destitute of an entire city. This What? we speak. What, for me, began with a kind of action almost requires a persistent crowded scene outside a gray stone bank world, but I don’t believe that the MMO In response to “Blood and Trumpets Somehow, and I’m still not sure how it has exploded into gaming’s great white players of today have been trained to in the Rastan Saga” from The happened, he got me to pick up a copy hope, both financially and philosophically. think of their games in this manner. Escapist Forum: It is interesting to at Best Buy the next day. The following note that there is an article about Howard weekend, I managed to log over 24 Which is why we’re setting aside this - Scopique fantasy and Lovecraft fantasy in the hours in game. Watching him play his week to talk to you about them. In issue same issue; Howard and Lovecraft were character was passive and boring. But 103, “Massively Multiplayer,” Darius Kazemi In Response to “Richard Garriott: correspondents and, apparently, friends. when I logged in for myself, I realized makes his The Escapist debut to tell a The Escapist Interview” from The what so many first-time MMOG players modern-day detective story about tracking Escapist Forum: When I think of seeing - Bongo Bill do: This is big, this is special. down gold farmers in a popular game. both sides of an issue, I think of Dark Allen Varney checks in from the Orient Messiah. I always sneer when the hero In Response to “Richard Garriott: I found my way over to that bank my with a look at Korean MMOGs. Shawn pauses to listen to the baddie’s The Escapist Interview” from The friend showed me, and what was “Kwip” Williams reminisces about Asheron’s monologue at the climax of most stories, but with Dark Messiah I found myself could be, when everyone else was going collapse in on itself someday. These doing it out of choice. I stood there, with real-time or pause-based combat.” high-risk high-profit ventures are a way weapon raised but genuinely wanting to That’s no different now, everyone else is to instable base for an industry. Heck, hear the opposing view. going with real-time or pause-based, you don’t see any other industry doing it. only this time so is Fallout. The plot may have been bunk in general - Brother None but it did a fantastic job of making you ask So if anything has changed it’s that the difficult question about your morals and unique situation behind Fallout can’t be In response to “Cthulhu: Why So justifying the so-called bad guy’s actions. reproduced. Not because the people Difficult?” from The Escapist Forum: aren’t there, but because the companies I think there needs to be some flexibility, - Tom Edwards have closed ranks, and even a both on the part of developers and fans. proclaimed independent like Bethesda It’s entirely possible for a design to In Response to “Richard Garriott: joins those ranks. Only Blizzard remains, retain certain fundamental elements of The Escapist Interview” from The I guess, with their hearty sod off to the, Lovecraft while discarding ones that Escapist Forum: When Quite simply, as CVG put it, “’big new feature’ kind of don’t translate well. Allen did a great job sincerely, I cried. showmanship.” … I’m sure Bethesda’s of isolating the latter category. Fallout 3 has the potential to outsell the There, right there, is a person who Fallout 3 BIS was working on, but BIS If it’s the kiss of death to market your understands. Unique, unparralelled and didn’t need to sell a million copies just to game as Lovecraft-inspired (and I’m not unequalled.Whether Tabula Rasa break even. necessarily sure it is), then don’t wear it succeeds or fail as a game, Richard is on your sleeve. Joe Gamer doesn’t need forever my hero. The base investment cost of the license to see tentacles or go insane or be and ludicrous expenses like their PR gimped in a fight to be chilled by the - Ramification department (including a community realization that we’re very, very small in manager who doesn’t really do anything, a cold, indifferent Universe. Allen’s right, In response to “Gaming’s Fringe from what I can tell) or hiring Liam that realization isn’t sustainable, but it Cults” from The Escapist Forum: As Neeson are choices Bethesda made, and doesn’t need to be. While that’s the point for “the industry has moved on,” it has only because of those choices do they where many of Lovecraft’s works climax, and it hasn’t. It’s not that much have to compete in three markets to so we needn’t stop there. After all, the different. For instance, Cain once said much as break even. That’s not inherent realization isn’t the hard part -- the hard about Fallout’s combat: “It also showed of today’s gaming market, but I’ll admit part is living in the world with that how popular and fun turn-based combat it’s predominant, and it will have to terrible knowledge. True passion for Lovecraft and his powerful character is to bring down the themes shouldn’t be about adhering to game server, to make it unplayable. the letter of the Mythos, but rather the spirit. Dump the stuff that doesn’t work Now, to prevent the *server* from in games and drive home the core horror simply resetting once the game is over. of the human condition. It’ll make the You can’t, really, so you have to make tall guy proud. the initial state of the game as boring as possible. Given Game 3.0, I think that - Erik Robson this could be doable. A thin baseline of meta-rules would allow players to In response to “Cthulhu: Why So gradually build up a complex, rich, well- Difficult?” from The Escapist Forum: developed world, something really worth Just because no game has successfully keeping and missing; and eventually to awakened the Old Ones yet doesn’t unmake it forever. That is the apocalypse. mean it’s not going to happen. And, yes, I do expect a lot of players to With respect to the issue of the cerebral react to the realization that their lovingly path that the protagonist takes, hunting crafted world is doomed with something down clues and piecing together akin, if not to insanity, then at least to information, this describes the pure raw unreason and panic. Compare adventure game (Myst-style, not Zelda) Corrupted Blood: people react to perfectly. catastrophe as they would in real life. The Cthulhu game waiting to be made But to create the slow realization of the is a nomic with a tragic flaw. apocalypse ... You have to gradually realize that you, personally, are Just like real life. responsible for the end of the world. I think that means that it has to be an - Pavitra MMO (for persistence, can’t just restart into a new, undestroyed game world) where the final endgame for one very The page refreshes and I see a list of An MMOG is an amazingly complex names: Jimfun, Jimgun, Jimrun, Jimkun. entity. You might believe a gold farmer All elves, all level 1, each belonging to could easily hide among the millions of different accounts but all charged to the other characters on a server, like a same credit card. Every one of them has needle in a haystack. But farmers traded with the same high-level behave fundamentally differently than a character. I’m willing to bet dollars to normal player. The farmer isn’t trying to dimes that these guys are gold farmers. have fun. In fact, if you look at the act of But I send their names over to customer farming, it’s probably the most boring service anyway, to have a look. You can thing you can imagine. But it’s efficient, never be too sure. and efficiency is what the farmers are optimizing for. That efficient boredom But I know they’re farmers. It’s my job sticks out like a sore thumb. We can see to know. See, while you and your friends this stuff happen. So it’s like finding a are playing in our world, levels, needle in a haystack where the needle is looking for groups and ganking newbies, colored bright orange and we happen to our servers sit and collect data about know the density of each cubic what level you are, who you’re grouped centimeter of the haystack. with, and who you just wasted in player- vs.-player combat. All of that data, and Rooting out farmers is about finding much more, is piped into a database. patterns. Fortunately, the human mind is actually incredibly good at pattern I’m the keeper of that database. It grows recognition. One of my favorite tricks is by gigabytes per day, containing vast to take an incredible amount of data, say amounts of information about a given every trade that’s ever occurred between MMOG, all encoded numerically to save players in a game, and then just render space. Some days I feel like Cypher in the whole thing to the screen as nodes The Matrix, staring at a bunch of and edges in a graph. It’s an symbols on a screen: “All I see now is incomprehensible mess of spaghetti. And dwarf, elf, troll.” yet anyone, after just a split second of looking at the screen, will begin to spot from The Cave of P’tath. They were anomalies, patterns in the noise. Zoom grabbing Loki’s Amulet, an overpriced in on these fleeting anomalies, and, reward item, and selling it to NPC quite often, you’ll find there’s illegitimate vendors for a great profit. It turns out activity going on there. there was a typo in a spreadsheet. QA was not pleased. But of course, the real job of rooting out farmers is far less psychological and far So, I knew where the gold came from, more rooted in hard data. For example, but where was it going? That’s the tricky one morning I was scanning my part. First, I had to put the characters on dashboard of macro visualizations of the a watch list and send it over to customer world. Immediately, the graphs revealed service, who can monitor the players’ a potential hot spot. The Cave of P’tath behavior a little more closely. On my was being completed far too often end, I keep an eye on their trade in relation to similarly designed quests. I records. They have to move the gold at whipped up an SQL query and found out some point, and the only way to do that the quest’s completion rate was being in most MMOGs is by player-to-player skewed by a single group. Most people trading. (You lose too much gold buying that complete the quest move on to and selling items using NPC vendors to bigger and better things, but these guys launder things that way.) Abcde and banged through it 172 times in the last friends are pretty high-level, and they account than our four farmers, that four days. Their names: Abcde, Fghij, don’t want to risk having those account shared the same credit card with Klmnop, and Qrstuv. characters banned, since those Qrstuv. When we see that kind of characters took hours to level up. In behavior, it’s banning time, and this case I drilled into the characters’ recent most cases they’ll move their gold to a was no different. histories. They had an awful lot of gold low-level alternate character (alt) on a on hand, especially for characters of completely different account. Granted, maybe we’re only catching the their level: They were more than five really dumb farmers. It’s like that saying standard deviations away from the mean I got lucky this time. They made a about crime: the best criminals are the for gold. But where’d the gold come common mistake: In a 24-hour period, ones you never hear about. There are from? I looked at their gold acquisition they all traded gold to the same alt, and almost certainly farmers who are so records and found most of the gold came while the alt belonged to a different good at what they do I don’t notice sponsored by them. But if they’re that stealthy, they’re play a game are entering in an implicit world, or the pacing of combat. If probably not disrupting anyone else’s contract to not only play by the rules, developers set down some guidelines game, and they’re probably not but to play reasonably within the designer’s about farming early on as a core part of unbalancing the economy. And if they’re intent. I tend to side with the “tough luck” the experience, the designers can take not doing either of those things, I’m crowd, but I would add that if you’re going that into account during the personally fine with their continued to exploit a weak design, you’d better do it development process. At that point, the existence. I really don’t believe there is in a way that doesn’t undermine the developers will hopefully have a anything intrinsically wrong with selling enjoyment of other players. consistent and sensible set of policies virtual items second-hand on eBay or about farming the community wherever, despite the fact it cuts into a In the end, it comes down to a cost- understands, and then maybe we can go potential source of revenue for the game benefit analysis: Is banning a suspected about catching the right farmers for the developer. As long as it’s still a farmer worth the $15 per month right reasons. “potential” source, and the developer subscription fee you lose that the farmer isn’t making a concerted effort to is paying, and on the chance that it’s not Darius Kazemi runs Orbus Gameworks, a actually get involved in the market (see a farmer, is it worth the bad word of gameplay metrics middleware company. Sony’s Station Exchange for an example mouth to insinuate you don’t trust the He also has a blog about the game of a pretty good effort), I don’t think the people who play your game? It’s a industry, called Tiny Subversions. developer has the moral high ground to delicate balance that involves the strike down any secondary markets. marketing and customer service departments of a company every bit as Then there’s the question of the game much as it involves the designers. designers’ intent. Having worked with designers, I know they hate farmers The attitude a developer takes in regard more than a lot of players do, because to farmers should be consistent and the farmers are finding and exploiting should be integrated tightly with the design weaknesses in products they’ve game’s design. When we set out to worked on for years. Some people would design an MMOG, we should be as say, “Hey, tough luck. If your design is concerned with our policies and attitude weak, it’s your own fault.” Others would toward farmers and other exploiters as take the stance that people who agree to we are with the art style of our game Since the North American debut of Still, it’s doubtful the American NCsoft’s Lineage II in 2004, South Korean MapleStory will ever reach the Asian game publishers have launched, or are total: 50 million players. That Asian figure now launching, well over a dozen Korean includes 30 million in alone, massively multiplayer online games a nation of 49 million people. (MMOGs) translated into English for a Western audience. In Asia, some of these • The social networking site Cyworld, games are colossal hits. What response having engulfed about 20 million Korean have they gotten in ? With a users, launched here in July 2006. Has it few exceptions, not much: engulfed 40 percent of America’s population? Uh, not yet, though it’s • Lineage II did all right in North America pushing toward half a million members – well, barely OK – but disappointed and is about to launch a mobile Cyworld. those hoping to repeat its Korean success (1 million players), let alone • Acclaim, resurrected from bankruptcy match the firstLineage game’s in 2004 (in name only) as Acclaim spectacular 30 million. Games, is localizing several Korean MMOGs, including 9Dragons and 2Moons. • Nexon’s MapleStory is a solid hit here, BOTS recently reached 1 million having reached 3 million registered users American accounts. since its 2005 launch. Target superstores sell MapleStory game cards; game • Servers across Asia and Latin America security expert Steven B. Davis, whose host crowded GunBound combat games, PlayNoEvil blog extensively covers Korean but GunBound Revolution has only a MMOGs and other Asian games, calls the modest American following. The Target deal, in capital letters, “REALLY operator, game portal ijji, runs six IMPORTANT.” In February 2007, according Korean MMOG imports. Ever hear of to Business Week, “North American Soldier Front? KwonHo: Fist of Heroes? players spent $1.6 million on 600,000 Drift City? Pocket Masters, a pool-playing virtual products within MapleStory.” The MMOG? Didn’t think so. The ijji forums game shows another, darker sign of have about 12,000 active members. success: pervasive, uncontrolled hacking. • Albatross 18, anyone? War Rock? Webzen, once a mighty player, bled $3.4 but in Korea, “a million” relegates WoW IMPORTANT breakthrough!) that may Voyage Century? Shot-Online? Myth War? million in America. to a niche market, dwarfed by KartRider transform the entire MMOG industry. Tales of Pirates? Global MU? Fishing and other casual games. Champ? Come on, some of these games Why do mega-hit Korean games draw a In a November 2006 Gamasutra have hundreds of thousands of Asian response here politely described Korean publishers also struggled, early interview that plugged Pearl Research’s users. Someone here must be playing. as “lukewarm”? on, to introduce their business model “Games Market in Korea” report, Allison into a hostile American environment. Luong talked about the importance of By Western standards, some Korean For starters, the Western market for Virtual asset purchase (that is, in-game micropayments: “A critical success factor MMOGs have performed respectably online games is much smaller than Asia’s. item selling) makes up at least half of in growing the online games market is here. But they fall so far short of the The North American MMOG market is Korean MMOG revenue. People pay for having a reliable and inexpensive system Asian originals, we may ask why. variously estimated at $750 million to $1 them on their phone bills. These games to bill, make payments and collect billion annually; less than a third of Asia’s rack up millions, $0.25 at a time. micropayments. In Korea, the *** $3 billion. In fact, Korea earned $698 Micropayments are still new here, and development of a mobile billing system, million in 2006 simply from licensing its many payment systems either aren’t set capable of processing small payments of Partly, of course, because Asian games to other Asian countries. In Korea up for it or seem perversely user-hostile. less than $5 has been instrumental in companies count players differently. as here, World of Warcraft is a giant Target’s MapleStory game cards helping publishers monetize gameplay.” There, many players pay by the hour at success with around a million players – foreshadow a breakthrough (a REALLY net cafes – though that’s changing fast in Korea, where 90 percent of homes now have super-fast broadband. One cafe player might be counted multiple times. Yet no matter how you boil down 50 million accounts, you’re still talking lots of bodies.

The shortfall is not just players, but money. How far short? A GameStudy.org report by Jun Sok Huhh lists 2006 global revenues, or rather, lack of revenues for many major Korean companies in Japan, Europe and North America. Last year, sponsored by Even Korea isn’t leading the micropayment against other groups seems to be the because of an inner strength. ... And so trend. In Japan, you can buy a pack of main point of most [MMOGs]. So what’s when we create heroic characters and try gum with your cellphone. (This is a minority taste here is the majority to send them over to Asia, they’re completely different from your Nintendo interest in Korea, and vice versa.” saying, ‘Why are you making me play Wii controller “beaming money.”) these big, dumb brutes who are clearly NCsoft’s much-delayed Tabula Rasa evil?’ That’s a big disconnect.” More than market size and logistics, MMOG tried to bridge the American and Korean MMOGs in America face cultural Korean markets. In a March 2007 Next Still, whatever the culture divide, Korean obstacles. Every gamer knows, and most Generation interview with Colin MMOG publishers want to cross it. The roll their eyes at, the default Korean Campbell, TR designer Richard Garriott domestic Korean MMOG market is maturing look: big-eyed, underfed waifs in a low- said, “We started with a very – or, from another viewpoint, stagnating. end 2-D isometric view. The imports are international crew trying to make a also rife with dismaying “Engrish.” collaborative game design between the *** Among many examples, a recent IGG US and Asia. We wanted to make one press release announcing Godswar game that was going to solve all the In April 2007, the Korean newspaper Online asserts, “Every scene in game design and artistic issues for both Joong Ang Daily reported domestic presents a characteristic physiognomy.” territories.” After two years of wasted MMOGs were dwindling in popularity, work, the experiment failed. “because new games were not Far more important, though, is the innovative, having similar storylines and difference in play styles. Korean games “Asia has a whole set of unique game play characteristics to those in emphasize endless grinding, easy differences,” says Garriott. “Some of Lineage.” The article cites Ministry of rewards and heavy player-vs.-player these are subtle but important. But one Culture statistics showing domestic competition. The status ladder, the of the most obvious is what a heroic online game growth projections of only hierarchy, is all-important. In an character looks like. In the United States, (!) 18 percent this year, from $175 to interview on the Korean game blog Pig- a heroic character is often very buff, $211 million – evidently a tepid rate by Min, Manifesto Games CEO Greg broad-shouldered, square-chinned and Korean standards. Costikyan notes, “In the US, most barrel-chested. The dashing hero is a players prefer to avoid player-versus- very clear idea to us. In Asia, characters Publishers are springing to address this player combat, at least most of the time, who look like that are always the bad alleged crisis. They’re doing more so games are built primarily on character guys, always. The people who are the licensing in Western countries, such as advancement and quests. In Korea, good guys are young, nerdy, skinny little Vivendi’s May 2007 release (albeit as a grouping together and fighting battles kids who survive against those big people standalone retail game) of JCE’s casual MMOG Freestyle Street Basketball, which “Will Bobba for Furni” by Russ Pitts in The a name, hallyu (“Korean wave”). If has 32 million Asian players. Escapist issue 101.) Acclaim’s Dance hallyu takes hold here, expect much Online, now in beta, imitates Audition. name-checking in the future for the A few Korean companies have started insanely fast rapper Outsider, singers hiring American marketing firms, as *** Rain and BoA, films likeOldboy and The when Nexon allied with MTV Networks. Host, and a zillion soap operas. The real But much of this marketing has been In one important sense, Korean MMOGs Korean invasion may be just beginning. awkward. K2 Networks made a clueless have already succeeded here, just by big-money PR push in late 2006, proving the validity of the free-to-play complete with booth babes, at – no, not model. In a year or two, every new MMOG Allen Varney designed the PARANOIA E3, but the sedate Austin Game you play will use virtual asset purchase. paper-and-dice roleplaying game (2004 Conference, where attendees wouldn’t edition) and has contributed to computer look twice at a booth babe unless she Korea continues to be the scout, the lab games from Sony Online, Origin, flashed an MMOG development contract. rat for American companies. Its struggles Interplay and Looking Glass. with regulation of real-money trading The overlooked issue is, how about and net addiction foreshadow our own. improving the games? How about Korean companies experiment with showing America the really good stuff? original ways to foster community, such as Hanbit Soft’s age-segregated servers There are a couple of promising prospects. for Granado Espada (marketed here as KartRider claims 160 million players, Sword of the New World): age 18 and including one third of all South Koreans. At over, 25-plus, 30-plus and a “silver” its height in 2005, 200,000 Koreans server for seniors. logged in daily. In China, KartRider has reached 800,000 concurrent users. Here, Most important, no matter what Joong the game is currently in beta, with under Ang Daily thinks, Korea’s MMOGs are 20,000 forum members. And Audition often novel and imaginative by American Online (aka Dancing Paradise), the casual standards. They bring new ideas to our dancing MMOG from Korean publisher T3 market. It’s possible their MMOGs may Entertainment, has 50 million players in become the leading edge of a larger China. In June 2007, the Nexon America Korea-pop invasion that has already version hit 100,000 registered users. (See swept Asia; China gave this phenomenon Boasting an estimated 8.5 million The expected WoW refugee trickle-down subscribers, it’s impossible to ignore the has stubbornly refused to materialize. As influence ofWorld of Warcraft (WoW) on a conservative estimate, it is safe to the massively multiplayer online game assume that in any given month, 5 (MMOG) market. It’s the first MMOG to percent of WoW’s player base cancels flirt with the word “mainstream,” it their accounts. Where do these people redefined the way studios think about go? Some undoubtedly dive back into their development process, influenced the MMOG pool and spread out among designs and sent dozens of start-ups on the infinite titles floating around, but at a quest to get their slice of the 5 percent, that means there are roughly apparently expanded MMOG pie. There’s 425,000 WoW refugees milling about just one problem: In North America, every month. But 425,000 people aren’t there is no evidence that there are playing new games each month. WoW significantly more MMOG fans than there just doesn’t grow the genre. were in the days before WoW swept the world off its feet. When developers talk about those 8.5 million subscribers, they’re presenting MMOG fans are the few hundred that data in a way North American thousand North Americans who have consumers aren’t used to hearing. played every MMOG before and after Traditionally, when gamers read about WoW. Studios look at WoW, which is an subscriber numbers, they’re getting MMOG, and assume that because it has regionally focused numbers. For those sexy subscriber numbers, there example, Turbine licenses The Lord of are more people running around willing the Rings Online and Dungeons & to fling money at them. That’s just not Dragons Online to Codemasters, who the case. Just like not every whiskey is a handles distribution and subscriptions in scotch, MMOG fans may be WoW fans, Europe. This means most estimates but WoW fans are not necessarily MMOG evaluate the two pools (Codemasters fans. There is little evidence to suggest and Turbine) separately. WoW, however, the average WoW fan knows what MMOG is all under one banner, and this inflates stands for, let alone what the heck a the numbers. In reality, only roughly Tabula Rasa is. 2.25 million players subscribe to WoW in North America. To hit the full 8.5 million, WoW appeals to MMOG fans, but it Blizzard counts 3.75 million in China, 1.6 transcends the genre in a way other million in Europe and additional few companies have failed to grasp. hundred thousand in South Korea, and Asia. MMOG companies continue to channel their message through a select group of Outside of WoW, the numbers are publications that focus on the MMOG tragically anemic, near an all-time low. genre exclusively. While each game gets The genre used to have echelons, but the occasional day in the sun on a larger now there is only WoW. Everyone else, outlet like GameSpot, they rarely stay in by comparison, is non-existent. the limelight for long. Blizzard doesn’t ignore MMOG sites, but they hardly covet City of Heroes/Villains, NCsoft’s most them, because they have the distinct successful subscription-based game, has advantage of being the elephant in the 143,127 subscribers in North America and room. Smaller sites have to cover WoW Europe. Star Wars Galaxies and Vanguard if they’re covering the genre. It’s too big are each at approximately 100,000. And, to ignore. despite widespread media attention, as of March only had 57,702 When game companies focus their paying subscribers across the globe. message on MMOG players, they fight with each other over a small, stagnant group. While developers learned a lot from WoW, they missed one very important lesson: This phenomenon explains how in It’s a videogame and was marketed as MMORPG.com’s annual Reader’s Choice such, whereas MMOGs are thought of as Awards, was able to sweep being their own unique snowflake and are WoW. EVE has 180,000 subscribers promoted differently. Industry insiders worldwide, just over 2 percent of WoW’s talk about how WoW’s success is good for subscriber base. The average WoW the genre as a whole, but none of them player just doesn’t care about what the have stopped and truly taken advantage typical MMOG fan does. of it. For years, MMOGs have existed in their own little segregated world. Sure, Since MMOG fans and WoW fans travel in Turbine leveraged their mainstream marketing and generally top notch success, studios must reach beyond different circles, it is up to MMOG studios license and attracted attention outside reviews, no one expects The Lord of the hardcore MMOG fans, through WoW fans to figure out not only how to appeal to the traditional routes. Their studio name Rings Online to compete with WoW and out to people who still look confused WoW fans, but where they came from in doesn’t carry the weight of Blizzard’s, anytime soon. when they hear the word MMOG. the first place. but many more people know the works of J.R.R. Tolkien than know Warcraft. It would be naive to think no MMOG will The biggest advantage Blizzard had Turbine still evangelized on fansites and ever top WoW. It will happen - it always Dana “Lepidus” Massey is the Senior coming in was a built-in fan base no one gaming portals, but they also had does - but it definitely won’t happen until Editor for WarCry.com and former Co- – with the possible exception of BioWare placement in major newspapers and game companies wake up and stop Lead Game Designer for Wish. – can rival. Then, they marketed other mainstream outlets. If Steefel’s fighting over the same hardcore group themselves beyond the established quote is accurate, the strategy paid off. that’s played every MMOG since MMOG circles; they even ran TV ads. But they still have a long way to go. EverQuest. WoW appealed to a wider And if their initial success wasn’t enough, Despite its epic license, improved audience, and to achieve that level of they were immortalized in a South Park episode poking fun at the game’s addictive qualities.

MMOG companies need to get creative if they hope to duplicate WoW’s mainstream success. Most recently, Turbine seems to have learned that lesson. Since its launch in late April, The Lord of the Rings Online has dominated NPD sales numbers, and in a recent interview, Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel was quoted as saying their game was the second most popular MMOG ever, but it remains too early to guess how many subscribers they might actually have. Everyone knew how worlds were playable races, skills weren’t bound to designed: They were basically a series of specific classes, and it featured a new “zones,” sometimes interlocked, technology: dynamic load balancing, sometimes completely detached, which made for wide open spaces. Contrary accessible only by very special means, to popular belief, this wasn’t a reaction sometimes migrating connections from to market forces; Turbine designed AC room to room to simulate settings like a that way from the very beginning. sailing ship. You came up with a number of zones, mapped them out, populated “People always seemed to think that EQ, them with some monsters and divided AC and UO were all trying to differentiate them among the servers according to from each other, when in fact most of their load. Players would quickly learn the major decisions had been made long the necessary routes – which zones before we even knew of each other,” says connected, where there were shortcuts, Jason Booth, Turbine’s original Lead the quickest paths through zones. Technical Artist and one of the earliest members of the team. “We were all just And then, Asheron’s Call launched in late doing our own thing and sort of bumped 1999 and introduced a radical concept: no into each other at E3 one year.” zones in a three-dimensional world – just one, big continuous continent. Seamless. Their “own thing” included a scalable server-side architecture. It worked by It Keeps Going and Going and Going dividing the game world between Asheron’s Call took place on the world of available servers (in this case, individual Dereth, a roughly square continent about computers networked together locally), 24 miles on each side. Created by based on population density in certain Turbine and released in November 1999, areas and the server’s available AC broke with the well-established processor capacity. Depending on how norms of its competitors, Ultima Online players spread out in the world, the and EverQuest, in a number of ways. It servers would shift processing between was set in an original fantasy world that themselves, sharing the load. What’s lacked “stereotypical” creatures and interesting is how different play styles affected the technology, and how the In Asheron’s Call, when you worked your technology reacted to solve the problem. way across the continent, it really felt like exploring. You weren’t looking for “On [player-vs.-player] servers, people walls, you were looking for passes spread out a lot more, causing more of through the mountains, and those the world to be loaded and increasing passes sported all the dangers of their memory usage,” Jason explains. real-world counterparts. “Whereas on [non-PvP] servers, people cluster more, causing network and Finding shortcuts across mountains or processing load to be the limiting factor.” through particularly treacherous areas was an endless quest in itself. It wasn’t The players experienced those imposed just the terrain you were fighting limits by way of “portal storms,” an in- against; a large population of foul- game term for “too many players in one tempered nasties awaited you behind spot.” When a number of players gathered every brush, tree and hill. This made the in any one location, the game instituted radar on the user interface a welcome, a portal storm, which randomly teleported but not always reliable, tool. people out of high-traffic areas. The radar showed the position of nearby Crossing The Great Divide players and monsters, but relying on the The seamless world was incredibly radar was dangerous; some of the immersive. When you’re crossing a nastiest monsters in the game didn’t mountain range for mile after snow- show up on your radar until you had covered mile, a five-second load screen already stumbled into their effective can still kill the illusion, especially when attacking range. By the time you knew something incongruous to the real world they were there, you were dead. happens, like the weather changing from partly sunny to mostly terrible in an In an area full of high-level, radar- instant, or the position of the sun in the resistant monsters, the radar was sky not matching from area to area. practically useless. You had to actively watch where you were going and would sometimes be so intent in their small. But after nearly 10 years and two constantly adjust your course to avoid pursuit, they might jump off the cliff expansions, Dereth remains a diverse, deadly groups of monsters, lest you be right after you. If they landed on you, fully-explorable world full of adventure drawn into an epic struggle with no hope you could expect to take damage (more on a truly massive scale. for survival. than from the fall anyway). It was a sorry adventurer who, having survived a Shawn “Kwip” Williams is the founder of In other MMOGs, one need only run away desperate jump from a great height, N3 (NeenerNeener.Net), where he toils to the nearest zone border; players pass believed he was safe only to suffer death away documenting his adventures as the through, monsters do not. This is called from above in the form of a monster worst MMOG and pen-and-paper RPG “training”; fleeing aggressive monsters, bouncing off his skull. player in recorded history. who then follow behind you, forming what looks like a train. A train of death. Sea To Shining Sea A continuous, seamless world is more In AC there were no zone borders to than just a hook. It gives players in AC a train to; you couldn’t count on an easy truly unique experience, with a great escape. Monsters would break off pursuit sense of a massive world that wasn’t after a certain distance, but with enough present in games before Dereth was monsters – especially the more lethal introduced. AC isn’t perfect, and it’s monsters – the odds were good you certainly gone through its share of would die before your train even left the problems, but it still stands out as the station. As you fled, you would invariably first real “massive” game, due in no flee intomore monsters, coupling even small part to the ingenious design of its more critters to your train. server architecture.

One particularly existential solution to Asheron’s Call never came close to this dilemma was the act of jumping off dethroning then-leader EverQuest, and a cliff, which, while perhaps a bit insane, today, compared to the millions of would actually occasionally save your subscribers boasted by World of life. Unfortunately, the train of death Warcraft, its subscriber base is pitiably The massively multiplayer online game Participating in and creating (MMOG) podcasting community is subcommunities is the chief reason incredibly rich. Taken together as a massive podcasters get behind the mic. group, MMOG number in the GuildCast creator Shawn was upfront dozens and feature some of the most about his goals: “When I started dedicated gamers in the world. These GuildCast ... I wanted to create more of players, and the medium of podcasting, a community. Even after I started have been playing a larger and larger playing Guild Wars, I found myself still role in the communities they serve. playing by myself. It just wasn’t cutting Whether they’re bringing people together it for me. ... I wanted to create via forums or offering high-level players something where people would have a unique strategies, the massive podcaster common point of reference.” makes the game more fun for everyone. Brent of the VirginWorlds podcast feels I had the chance to speak with the hosts the podcasters themselves are ultimately of several well-known podcasts about their the tie that binds. “I believe that medium and its potential. The creators of podcasting builds community and trust VirginWorlds, World of Warcast, GuildCast, better than any other medium online EQ2 Daily and The Official SOE Podcast right now because of the personality were kind enough to share thoughts on involved. ... Before the podcasting at Ziff their time behind the mic. [Davis] launched, most people wouldn’t have cared one lick if one of those The first question most everyone asks is, people left . Now, though, if Jeff why bother? “I think it has to do with the Green were to leave the magazine, commitment the community has, and people would be like, ‘Ahh!’ ... It would the passion,” says Alan “Brenlo” Crosby, be very disconcerting to the VirginWorlds one of the minds behind The Official SOE listeners and browsers if Brent were not Podcast. “They have a great deal of here tomorrow. There’s no replacement passion, these huge investments into for that.” these games, and they want to do more. They want to feel more a part of it, they But it does go beyond making a name want to contribute.” for yourself. When “Starman” started World of Warcast, he had a very specific up their hub and put up screenshots, and not to burn out,” says Starman. model to build on: “I wanted to do a then a review, but then after that you Cyanbane agrees: “We wanted every [The] Screen Savers for [World of don’t get much in the way of content.” show to have lots of content; no regular Warcraft]. That was essentially it. I schedule allows us the freedom to wanted it to be fun, I wanted it to be The hosts of Warcast feel this was the address news as it’s released.” informative, I wanted to bring a bunch of result of the way traditional gaming things to the table. I basically wanted it media thinks about MMOGs. Says It’s this interest in keeping the podcast to be the place people would go to, to “Renata,” “[MMOGs] are meant to be content fresh that prevents hosts from learn about the game, just like I would played in different ways by different committing to the idea of a podcast-for- watch every day at people. In an [MMOG], you’ve got tons pay. Shawn would need to expand 7:00 to learn about technology. ... I of different ways you can take the game. beyond his current setup to feel think, over the last two years, it’s really You can get into crafting, you can get challenged by podcasting for a living. “If become exactly what I wanted it to be.” into raiding, you can be a more casual I had the opportunity to do podcasting, player, you can do tons of alts [alternate let’s just say podcasting in general as a A mix of community and information characters], you can log in just every career, I would not only do GuildCast seems to be a winning combination for once in a while. There are so many ways more often. ... I have so many ideas for podcast subscribers, and speaks to the to play the game - we don’t struggle other podcasts in my head right now, it’s power of coverage by dedicated fans with finding content. Bigger sites don’t not even funny.” versus that of traditional gaming media. live the game the way that we do.” EQ2 Daily’s “Cyanbane” pointed out that, While there may not be money in “Pre-WoW, I think that there was a So, podcasters are playing these games independent podcasting, the medium is disjoint between your bigger sites and for hours on end, pouring their heart into becoming very popular with interests who players. You had the people who played their shows; you’d think they’d have have already made a sale. SOE’s Crosby, EverQuest, and the playerbase that their minds on their pocketbook. when asked if he’d be podcasting even if it played [MMOGs], and then you had the Instead, passion for the subject matter wasn’t a part of his job description, just people that played every other seems to be the primary motivation for laughed. “Actually, when we created the videogame. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re the most successful podcasters. If community department, there were no [a big site], you’re going to cater to the anything, getting money involved would plans for a podcast. It came about because bigger market. And now that WoW has make it less fun. As soon as money two of my community managers decided hit, you’ve started to see an upswing in comes into the picture, so do schedules they wanted to try it. So they put together coverage. Even still, it’s more looking for and forced production windows. “We the first one, which we [called] podcast the press release kind of stuff. They’ll set work to a schedule that suits our need beta, and it grew from there. So this was never something that was mandated, we you’re going to see the start of user- at people sitting down at their computers be on the forefront, helping players just did it because we love what we do, we generated channels, like a consortium of instead of their TVs.” better enjoy their games. love the communities. ” Beyond SOE’s [MMOG]-related video feeds. I don’t walls, companies like EA Mythic are turning think it will be like your standard TV, but Whatever form the medium takes, the Michael “Zonk” Zenke is Editor of Slashdot to expensive podcasts to excite gamers I think that people will really want to sit outgrowth of MMOG communities will Games, a subsite of the technology about their upcoming products. down and watch that. I think there will continue in new directions in the coming community Slashdot.org . He comments be a lot more user-generated content. I years. Be it videos or podcasting, media- regularly on massive games at the sites With that trend in mind, it was interesting don’t want to say it will change the savvy community leaders will ensure the MMOG Nation and 1up.com. He lives in to hear what the hosts had to say about world, but over the next 10-15 years I player base never lacks for something Madison, WI with his wife Katharine. the future. Brent and the VirginWorlds think we’re going to see a ridiculous shift interesting to talk about in a pick-up site are already paving the way, banding to micro-advertisements from Google group. As the genre widens, and titles together with several other shows to form and the like, attaching itself to user- other than World of Warcraft begin to the VirginWorlds Collective. “There are generated content. I think we’re looking attract attention, these communities will people who guided me along the path to figure out what this whole podcast thing was. … Now that VirginWorlds is pushing 70 shows, there are several new waves of podcasters coming up behind me, pointing at me as an example. People ask me all the time, ‘How do I get started?’ and I got the idea to start this co-op or collective of podcasts. The podcasters would own everything; I’m not trying to sell ads, I’m just trying to build a community. That’s what VirginWorlds is about.” As established shows reach back to aid up and coming hosts, it’s easy to see the hosts’ dedication to the community isn’t one-way.

While everyone is hopeful for future, Cyanbane was especially prosaic. “I think EDITORIAL PRODUCTION BUSINESS Executive Editor Producer Publisher Julianne Greer Jonathan Hayter Alexander Macris

Content Editors Lead Artist Account Executive Joseph Blancato Jessica Fielhauer Rebecca Sanders Russ Pitts Layout Artist Chairman of Themis Group Contributing Editors Jason Haile Thomas S. Kurz JR Sutich Shannon Drake Lead Web Developer Whitney Butts Research Manager Nova Barlow Web Developers Erik Jacobson Contributors Tim Turner Darius Kazemi Dana Massey IT Director Allen Varney Jason Smith Shawn Williams Michael Zenke

Issue 103 © 2007. The Escapist is published weekly by Themis Group, Inc. Produced in the United States of America. To contact the editors please email [email protected]. For a free subscription to The Escapist in PDF format please view www.escapistmagazine.com