[MUD-Dev] When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original with the gameplay?

[Brian 'Psychochild' Green]

I'll answer the original question before I get into a specific reply.

You'll see more original games when the companies developing
original games have enough money to advertise widely.  There are
plenty of original games (or even classic games with original
gameplay) out there. But, these games rarely have the advertising
budget or means to advertise as well as the larger games do.  The
companies with the resources to handle large advertising campaigns
(read: large publishers) tend to be risk-adverse, as other people
have pointed out.  They are not going to take a risk on an original
game, preferring evolutionary games rather than revolutionary games.

A case study: Meridian 59 was the first retail graphical online RPG
("MMORPG").  It used a very unique set of game mechanics obviously
inspired by older MUD games, but it was not (and still is not) a
clone of other games.  However, it was published by 3DO, a company
that had very little experience advertising online games and had
plans to exploit the technology behind the game more than the game
itself.  Ergo, the game had some of the most embarassing
advertisements in the sad, sad history of computer gaming
advertising.

Examples:

  http://www.psychochild.org/m59ads/m59ad.gif
  http://www.psychochild.org/m59ads/m59ad2.gif
  http://www.psychochild.org/m59ads/m59ad3.gif

  (Note: Yes, these are real ads.  No, they are NOT spoofs.)

Ultima Online, on the other hand, came out about a year later.
Using more primitive technology than the already dated M59, it was
based on a game world with a built-in fanbase.  This made it much
easier to appeal to an existing group of players and get them
excited.  The company knew how to appeal to Ultima fans in
advertising, and exploited online resources much more effectively.
(Note, this is not intended to belittle the innovative work that UO
developers like Raph did.  There are several innovative things in UO
that should be recognized.)  The game with better advertising is
widely recognized, while another game released a year before is
mostly considered an interesting historical footnote.

Full disclosure: I worked on M59 at 3DO, and bought the rights to
the game in 2001.  The game is currently up and running, with
information found at http://www.meridian59.com/.

In the years since M59/UO, things have changed, of course.  A lot of
advertising has focused on more superficial differences between
games, such as technology used.  Now a game like M59 is ignored
because it is not as pretty or technologically advanced as other
games.  Many people do not give the game even a second glance,
realizing the unique character advancement system or great
communicaiton options such as in-game mail and bulletin board
systems that are just now becoming a "standard" part of other games.

To respond to one thread that developed:

Byron Ellacott wrote:

> So the issue is tied quite strongly to the huge cost of
> development?  If so, attempting to lower the cost of development
> would be a good way to reduce risk and thus increase diversity.

[...]

> Ignoring management, the trouble I see with code and content is
> that every game starts from scratch.  With little or no sharing of
> code and content development costs, each MMO is a standalone
> behemoth of cost and complexity.  Compare this to Half Life, Team
> Fortress II and Counter Strike, or look at the similarities
> between Diablo II and Warcraft III. While an MMO is, granted, a
> more complex beast than these games, the same principles apply.

The biggest expense for graphical games (and, let's face it, the
"massive" market wants graphical games) is art, not code.  Art is
expensive, and players have demanding standards, so seeing
an_orc_model_01 in several different games isn't going to be
acceptable to most of the discriminating hard-core gamers,
especially if one of those games is Sci-Fi!

Let's take a look at M59.  There are about 14,300 bitmaps in the
game, including world textures, objects, monsters (with different
frames of animation), etc.  Let's assume we have dedicated artists
that could crank out an average of 3 bitmaps per day (an aggressive
figure, but we'll be generous here).  Assuming we have about 250
workdays per year (52 weeks/year x 5 workdays/week - 10 holidays),
that means we have about 19 man-years of art in M59 alone!  And M59
isn't a cutting-edge graphical game, nor does it have the plethora
of graphical options that other games claim.

Now, let's assume you were trying to build M59 today and wanted to
stick to a 2 year development cycle.  This means you have about 1.5
years for art development.  To complete 19 man-years of art, you
need 13 artists cranking out bitmaps.  Let's assume we can get away
with paying them $35k/year while working them to the bone.  This
means you've spent $680k on art alone, just on salaries.  Add on
things like payroll taxes, software to support 13 artists,
management, etc, and you have a figure safely over $1M just to get
to the art quality level of M59.  Now figure we have to include
level layout people to use the textures, too, and that you might
want a technical artist or two to coordinate with programmers to
integrate art into the game. This adds up.

Scared yet?  You will be.

Now, consider that a madern game will require full 3D to grab the
market's attention instead of the 2.5D of M59's current engine.
This will require more specialized artists, such as modellers,
skinners, animators, asset coordinators, etc.  Level layout is not
completely different and the programming requirements went up a
significant amount. Oh, yeah, M59 is a comparatively "tiny" world,
so you want about 10x the content I mentioned above.

This is the biggest problem facing independent developers these
days. Art is expensive.  Players will turn their nose up at anything
that doesn't look pretty enough, even if you have original gameplay.

Coding is not the "hard part" of making an online game.  Open source
tools are nice, and definitely a help, but it does not eliminate the
need for art, which is damned expensive.

Some things to consider,

--
"And I now wait / to shake the hand of fate...."  -"Defender", Manowar
          Brian Green, brian at psychochild.org  aka  Psychochild
         |\      _,,,---,,_      *=* Morpheus, my kitten, says "Hi!" *=*
   ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_               Meridian 59
        |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-'        http://www.meridian59.com/
       '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)            An online RPG with character
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev