Yes, You Too Can Fail at Multiplayer! Games 20 Easy Lessons By David Fox , VP Technology , iWin (dfox@iwin.com)

Multiplayer Games Are Like Restaurants

Not Launching Can’t Find Fun Running out of Budget Inability to Build Team Creative Tension

Can’t Find Fun

Running out of Budget

Inability to Build Team

Creative Tension

Flopping Location Pricing Quality Accessibility Appeal Timing More Effort than Worth

Location

Pricing

Quality

Accessibility

Appeal

Timing

More Effort than Worth

Most MP Games Don’t Launch Anecdotally, For Every MP Game you Play… 9 Never Go Live .

Anecdotally, For Every MP Game you Play… 9 Never Go Live .

Most That Launch, Fail Mplayer Won.net Big Network Imagination Network iGames Heat.net Etc.

Mplayer

Won.net

Big Network

Imagination Network

iGames

Heat.net

Etc.

What is Failure? Face it, everything fails

Face it, everything fails

Success Is Reaching a Critical Mass Return on Investment Over Reasonable Life Span

Reaching a Critical Mass

Return on Investment

Over Reasonable Life Span

MMOG Hype

$100,000,000 9You $50,000,000 Realtime Worlds $40,000,000 Turbine $15,000,000 Hidden City Games $12,000,000 Gaia Online $8,000,000 Grockit $7,800,000 Vivox $7,000,000 EveryScape $6,500,000 Gizmoz $6,000,000 iOpener $5,800,000 ROCKETON $4,500,000 IGG, Inc. $4,250,000 Sparkplay Media $4,000,000 C3L3B Digital $3,700,000 FlowPlay $3,200,000 Fluid Entertainment $3,000,000 Seasky $1,900,000 Akoha $1,500,000 GoFish $1,000,000 Rebel Monkey $1,000,000 PlayFish $1,000,000 Dizzywood $800,000 Handipoints $530,000 Chapatiz Funded Company

MMOG Fate Source: Mmogchart.com

Source: Mmogchart.com

My Own Career Lots of Failure More Failure Some Successes (Whew!) Some Failures Actually Avoidable

Lots of Failure

More Failure

Some Successes (Whew!)

Some Failures Actually Avoidable

Family Feud Online Party

Jewel Quest III Tournament

Cram In More Features. Good. Now More! 01 Lesson

Ah, PlayLink

Pogo

ClassicGames.com (Yahoo)

Features Matrix   Enhanced Profiles   Expressive Chat  Custom Avatars   Automatic Tournaments    Invite to Table    PlayLink  Play As Guest Saving / Resuming   Observing PlaySite Pogo ClassicGames

Pogo’s Fate 17 million Registered Members Acquired by Electronic Arts in 2001 for approximately $40 million

17 million Registered Members

Acquired by Electronic Arts in 2001 for approximately $40 million

ClassicGames’ Fate Acquired by Yahoo Became Yahoo Games

Acquired by Yahoo

Became Yahoo Games

PlaySite’s Fate Acquired by Go2Net Acquired by InfoSpace Acquired by iWin

Acquired by Go2Net

Acquired by InfoSpace

Acquired by iWin

PlayLink’s Fate Acquired by a Shady Gold Mining Concern Left to Rust

Acquired by a Shady Gold Mining Concern

Left to Rust

Any Audience Worth Its Salt Will Build Organically 02 Lesson

First One at the Party… Nobody Wants to Be the

Nobody Wants to Be the

Last One at the Party… Nobody Wants to Be the

Nobody Wants to Be the

Tips To Reel Them In Bootstrap your community with Ringers Avoid the “empty lobby” deathtrap Don’t be ashamed to buy your traffic Be sure you’re ready Virality Oh, and make a game worth playing

Bootstrap your community with Ringers

Avoid the “empty lobby” deathtrap

Don’t be ashamed to buy your traffic

Be sure you’re ready

Virality

Oh, and make a game worth playing

Tips To Keep Them Focus on happiness Watch your churn Oh, and make a game that scales

Focus on happiness

Watch your churn

Oh, and make a game that scales

Get Massively! 03 Lesson

Uneven Distribution

Shut Out

Mass is Critical Watch Out For: Lost in The Crowd Alone on Empty Planet

Watch Out For:

Lost in The Crowd

Alone on Empty Planet

Glitz Is All They Really Care About 04 Lesson

“ Classic” Games

NEW IMPROVED Games!

The Result? Old Checkers: 200-300 PSUs New Checkers “Beta”: 5 PSUs

Old Checkers: 200-300 PSUs

New Checkers “Beta”: 5 PSUs

Why Don’t They Like Me?! You hired a UI Expert… Paid a fortune to a top Usability house… Read every book on Internet marketing…

You hired a UI Expert…

Paid a fortune to a top Usability house…

Read every book on Internet marketing…

Now, Now. Polite People Take Turns 05 Lesson

Wordscape Conversion

Wordscape Online Party

Turn-Based Blues Wait for others to start Wait for others to move Dropouts ruin the experience One winner, many losers

Wait for others to start

Wait for others to move

Dropouts ruin the experience

One winner, many losers

Pogo’s Top Games

Panacea?

Take Yer Winning Single-Player Mechanic Then “Drop In” More People! 06 Lesson

Take a Moment… “ Multi-player games are like ocean liners , but games developers are used to creating speedboats . Consequently, they tend to make their games multi-player by adding more seats. Not only does the resulting vessel fail to capture the magic of a cruise, it also loses a lot what's fun about speedboats.” - Richard Bartle

“ Multi-player games are like ocean liners , but games developers are used to creating speedboats . Consequently, they tend to make their games multi-player by adding more seats. Not only does the resulting vessel fail to capture the magic of a cruise, it also loses a lot what's fun about speedboats.”

- Richard Bartle

Leaderboards Are Not Multiplayer

Is Bingo Really Multiplayer?

Panacea?!?

Can’t Go Wrong With a Big Brand! 07 Lesson

Trivial Pursuit Online Party

Innovate in Design at All Costs! 08 Lesson

Who Here Has Innovated? Raise Those Hands High! No, I Mean Really Innovated

Raise Those Hands High!

No, I Mean Really Innovated

List of Innovations Citizen 01 Balls Poker Blackjack Wordscape Java Jewel Quest Java Wordscape Online Party Jewel Quest Tournament Mode Mah Jong Quest Tournament Boggle Tournament

Citizen 01

Balls

Poker Blackjack

Wordscape Java

Jewel Quest Java

Wordscape Online Party

Jewel Quest Tournament Mode

Mah Jong Quest Tournament

Boggle Tournament

Jewel Quest Java

Emulate First Then Improve

Then Improve

What’re Ya a Wuss?! Build It Yourself! 09 Lesson

So Many Servers / Systems Web Game E-Commerce Subscription Processing and Renewals Customer Service Community (Chat, Forums) Profiles Avatars Admin Tools Reporting Logging

Web

Game

E-Commerce

Subscription Processing and Renewals

Customer Service

Community (Chat, Forums)

Profiles

Avatars

Admin Tools

Reporting

Logging

Er, Right. I Meant… Buy All Your Tech! 10 Lesson

Out of the Box Nice: Start focusing on the game Release something superfast Not So Nice: No control over bugs Scaling limited Integration Pain to add features

Nice:

Start focusing on the game

Release something superfast

Not So Nice:

No control over bugs

Scaling limited

Integration

Pain to add features

Build on the Best For Goodness Sakes, use Standards! Use Best of Breed Just ‘cause Club Penguin used it doesn’t mean it’s right for you.

For Goodness Sakes, use Standards!

Use Best of Breed

Just ‘cause Club Penguin used it doesn’t mean it’s right for you.

My Kung Fu Has No Weakness! 11 Lesson

PlayLink’s Downtime Problem One crash a day isn’t that bad, is it?

One crash a day isn’t that bad, is it?

We’ll Worry About Scaling Later That’s a “success problem”, right?

That’s a “success problem”, right?

Disasters Happen

Reality-Based Game Design Network latency isn’t an urban legend

Network latency isn’t an urban legend

Tips Load test with bots acting like real players Real beta test More hardware than you think you need Population monitors and alerts Quick response times Reliable Auto-updater

Load test with bots acting like real players

Real beta test

More hardware than you think you need

Population monitors and alerts

Quick response times

Reliable Auto-updater

I’m Money with My AAA+++ Team 12 Lesson

Risk Online Party

Planned Network Design

Actual Network Design

Fire and Forget, Launch and Laugh, Gold Master and Go! 13 Lesson

Family Feud Flatness

Get Episodic!

Business Models Change Subscription plan Terms Payment Processors Trial length Distributed it on other sites Advertisements

Subscription plan

Terms

Payment Processors

Trial length

Distributed it on other sites

Advertisements

Audiences Have Minds Reskinned Added new awards Round status in lobby Removed bad questions Fixed tons of “why-the-f-not?” answers

Reskinned

Added new awards

Round status in lobby

Removed bad questions

Fixed tons of “why-the-f-not?” answers

Data Data Data Design metrics up front More is better Uh… but what to do with data once you get it?

Design metrics up front

More is better

Uh… but what to do with data once you get it?

Gotsta Get Creative with Your Business Plan 14 Lesson

iWin’s Skill-Based Games Difficult to gain audience trust Heavy cheating Scales slowly

Difficult to gain audience trust

Heavy cheating

Scales slowly

The Truth about Micro-Trans Design game around MT from ground-up Not a panacea Requires huge scale

Design game around MT from ground-up

Not a panacea

Requires huge scale

The Truth about Advertising Requires education Requires finesse Requires mondo impressions

Requires education

Requires finesse

Requires mondo impressions

Go With What You Know Yahoo Advertises Now in download games too! Club Membership Subs at Pogo Discounted Club Subs at Real/BigFish

Yahoo Advertises

Now in download games too!

Club Membership Subs at Pogo

Discounted Club Subs at Real/BigFish

Designers Design, Marketers Sell 15 Lesson

Game Is Marketing And Marketing is Game Audience is Lifeblood of MP Games

And Marketing is Game

Audience is Lifeblood of MP Games

Business Models Matter Pass the basket around after the fiery sermon Pay inextricably linked with play

Pass the basket around after the fiery sermon

Pay inextricably linked with play

Free To Play is The Only Way 16 Lesson

People Want to Be Free But they will eventually pay, right? How? Remember, ads ain’t easy.

But they will eventually pay, right?

How?

Remember, ads ain’t easy.

The Balance of Free Fun Enough To… Build up core audience “ Earn the right” to charge But Painful Enough… Feeling that something’s missing Need more and more

Fun Enough To…

Build up core audience

“ Earn the right” to charge

But Painful Enough…

Feeling that something’s missing

Need more and more

I’m on , I Can’t Lose! 17 Lesson

Facebook Doesn’t equal viral Harder than ever for apps to get noticed Can’t spam anymore Too asynchronous is just a single-player experience

Doesn’t equal viral

Harder than ever for apps to get noticed

Can’t spam anymore

Too asynchronous is just a single-player experience

Oh, And… No viable business model yet

No viable business model yet

Free Community Volunteers Can Do All the Dirty Work 18 Lesson

Watch Out Your biggest fan…

Your biggest fan…

Volunteers Aren’t Employees Bad Bad Bad… Potential for Lawsuits

Bad Bad Bad…

Potential for Lawsuits

Tips Arm Community leaders With admin tools Be active in your own forums and lists Read your customer service e-mails Pick the right leaders Keep your community leaders very happy

Arm Community leaders

With admin tools

Be active in your own forums and lists

Read your customer service e-mails

Pick the right leaders

Keep your community leaders very happy

Cheaters Never Win in the End 19 Lesson

Cheating Takes Many Forms

Tips Server-Based Logic Simple Cheat Prevention Staff must analyze Admin Tools Staff (can be volunteer) to police Reasonable Response Plan on it!

Server-Based Logic

Simple Cheat Prevention

Staff must analyze

Admin Tools

Staff (can be volunteer) to police

Reasonable Response

Plan on it!

Give Up! 20 Lesson

Money Money Money Hits are HITS Long, long income stream

Hits are HITS

Long, long income stream

Social Potential Change Society Connect People In New Ways

Change Society

Connect People In New Ways

Do It! Deep pockets Realistic expectations Intestinal fortitude

Deep pockets

Realistic expectations

Intestinal fortitude

Hungry for More?

This Isn’t New Stuff… 1997: Dani Bunten Berry , Imaginary Playmates in Real-time or Why Online Games Suck http://www.anticlockwise.com/dani/personal/biz/online2.htm 1970s: Richard Bartle, Assorted Writings http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/ http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/

1997: Dani Bunten Berry , Imaginary Playmates in Real-time or Why Online Games Suck http://www.anticlockwise.com/dani/personal/biz/online2.htm

1970s: Richard Bartle, Assorted Writings http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/

http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/

Also… Check out Kenny Rosenblatt’s Talk: All Games Want To Be Great - Great Games Want To Be Multiplayer! Tomorrow, 3pm

Check out Kenny Rosenblatt’s Talk:

All Games Want To Be Great - Great Games Want To Be Multiplayer!

Tomorrow, 3pm

Let’s Discuss! 20. Give Up! 10. Er, Right. I Meant… Buy All Your Tech! 19. Cheaters Never Win in the End 9. What’re Ya, a Wuss? Build It Yourself! 18. Free Community Volunteers Can Do All the Dirty Work 8. Innovate in Design at All Costs! 17. I’m on Facebook, I Can’t Lose! 7. Can’t Go Wrong With a Big Brand! 16. Free to Play Is the Only Way 6. Take Yer Winning Single-Player Mechanic Then “Drop In” More People! 15. Designers Design, Marketers Sell 5. Now, Now. Polite People Take Turns 14. Gotsta Get Creative with Your Business Plan 4. Glitz Is All They Really Care About 13. Fire and Forget, Launch and Laugh, Gold Master and Go! 3. Get Massively 12. I’m Money with My AAA+++ Team 2. Any Audience Worth Its Salt Will Build Organically 11. My Kung Fu Has No Weakness! 1. Cram In More Features. Good. Now More!