MTV now also an MMO Importer

According to Gamasutra (by way of Raph), the MTV Networks division of Viacom is going to be the North American publisher for Nexon titles, including the following.

• Maplestory (comments)
• Kart Rider
• Audition

I really don't know anything about Audition beyond what Wikipedia had to say, but the first and second are huge.

Snatching these up for North America while pushing ahead with their alternate-demographic virtual lifestyley games shows a rather impressive degree of diversity for a company new to the game space. Whatever audience Viacom can attract to Laguna Beach, VMTV and LogoWorld will likely be additive to whoever they can attract to the above three, which are already very popular.

Designing for the past

People seem to be talking about Vanguard in the past tense, as if the game were already many years old. I haven't been an ardent follower of the game, as I do not feel I am their target player. However, having followed some of what Sigil Games is doing and saying, the game does feel as though it is looking to refine tradition.

And that got me thinking about designing for the past, or at least, designing an old idea during an age of change.

Continue reading Designing for the past…

The Future: Games to become Worlds?

Or will worlds become to games?

Basically, who will win the future?

Continue reading The Future: Games to become Worlds?…

Blue Ocean Thinking: Nintendo Wii

While I'm an MMORPG fanboi, I've also been following the seventh generation consoles on and off for awhile. This is not because I'm all enamored of the graphics. Rather, it is because each company is attempting something unique, something to both grow their market share beyond the core 18-34 male purchaser/player and, in some cases, beyond gamers themselves.

Throughout the year, my eye has been on the Nintendo Wii. This is likely the first console I'll actually buy since the Nintendo 32bit machine from the mid-1990s.

Today this decision was nailed home for me.

Continue reading Blue Ocean Thinking: Nintendo Wii…

Challenges Facing MMOGs: AGC 2006

At the Austin Game Conference this year, Jon Grande of Sigil Games and Rich Vogel of BioWare Austin hosted a session entitled "'New' Challenges Facing MMOG Development".

Overall, I felt they cast a blind eye to a number of emerging trends, but the stuff they covered about the "core" marketplace (basically as defined by diku-inspired games) was pretty good. And insightful.

Continue reading Challenges Facing MMOGs: AGC 2006…

I have seen a future future

Lum recently posted a report from the Leipzig Gaming Conference panel discussion on the 'Future of MMOs'.

On the one hand, I'm getting worried that I'm getting to the point where I've been around long enough to be seeing new people learn old lessons.

On the other, it was interesting to hear their take on my favorite topic. I think some of the talk was a bit single-minded though, particularly the focus on hardcore gamers.

Continue reading I have seen a future future…

From the mouths of babes…

While discussing the viability of Genesis, some have wondered about whether the guy behind the concept has actually not ever played an MMORPG as he has claimed. To some, having played these games is a rite of passage to designing them.

I don't agree.

Continue reading From the mouths of babes……

When to Innovate

In a recent thread over at F13, we've started discussing what to do with players who either are done with the Raiding endgame of a typical diku-inspired experience, or who just want more options than that. As part of this discussion, we've been talking about innovation in game play experiences and what features matter to the most players.

One of my favorite topics came up within this discussion. The question is: do you launch a game with a broad array of innovative features to try and capture a wide variety of players, or do you launch the game for an established audience and scale into the new variety of players by integrating innovation (or at least, broader) features later?

Continue reading When to Innovate…

Look beyond the diku

There's a certain core group of genre veterans that define the genre itself by extensions of EQ and UO. They therefore deem "success" as those who have extended upon EQ. Every so often someone in that core group reminds them that EQ itself was based on even older conventions. This core group is, in many ways, the web of sites and people that either extend directly from Lumthemad, or were inspired by the type of conversations that happened and therefore have a similar feel and tone.

Occasionally, games like Space Cowboy and Habbo Hotel will become know to this core group, and some will play them. But the core, I feel, looks for similarity and differences only at the experiential level, and by comparison to EQ and UO. 

But then there's the rest of the world.

Continue reading Look beyond the diku…

Are you a market?

In a pretty good abstract discussion at F13, evocative of old Waterthread days, we're talking about the state of the MMOG genre. 

Some of the folks within the thread are asking for stuff either they or others before them have been asking for years. In the face of so many recent events though, and being reminded of something that occured to me last June, I got to wondering:

Are they even a market anymore?

Continue reading Are you a market?…