It really boils down to something simple, for me:

1. In any field, there’s craftsmanship, and art. High-quality craftsmanship and art are expensive. They lead the way. They set the standard. When they end up both spectacular and popular, they clean up like nothing else out there.

2. And then there’s business: make the most crap for the cheapest price possible, that’s good enough to look shiny enough to attract the average Joe who doesn’t know the difference between Gallo and Chateau Neuf du Papes. Why make and sell expensive wine when you can make cheap knockoffs that 90% of the market will never be able to distinguish as different from the originals?!

Raph and Eric and the rmt/micro folks are in the second category. Blizzard and “the dinosaur” MMO makers are in the first.

We do, admittedly, live primarily in a junk culture these days. The commies are winning, according to Raph & Co., and cheap goods for the masses matter more, I guess, than any further interest in high craft.

So I guess the industry mantra is, the sooner we can mechanize the mass production process for games, the better.

I believe I am in the ring with Loredena in terms of what real customers are wanting. I think one of the reasons that MMO’s are mimicking each other is due to the fact that some of us like comfort and we like being able to pick up a new game and not having to spend time perfecting it. As a woman, I agree that the housing system in SWG and EQ2 was outstanding. I think that is the next phase of game development to be explored. Give players places to create within the game. Not completely unlimited like in Secondlife where it gets completely abusive to other players. Rather, within the context of the game. I know when some of the boss mobs in EQ2 started dropping house pets that would move around your house, I was out there trying to get in on raids I wouldn’t have even considered as a casual player.

I think it gives players an acceptable place to go if they don’t want to or can’t handle hanging out in the social gathering places like Stormwind in WoW (one place guaranteed to crash my dial-up arse). Additionally, it can actually make the player feel real ownership of the game world. I would never sell my EQ2 account due to my apartment. I had too much invested emotionally into creating that environment that I would never want someone to dismantle it. I think also it gives us real things to spend our money on once we have gotten every piece of kickass armor and weapons that we can.

In terms of the argument of microtransactions, I for one hate the idea. However, after actually attending the Nexon session, I have to say I understand why people want to explore the ideas behind it. It was very financially convincing. As a player, would I like it…probably not. However, he had some great points about the youth of today being trained to do it through the practices of Itunes and buying things for their cellphones. Maybe we are just peering into the face of gaming practices of tomorrow?? Maybe the next generation of players is emotionally prepared to make the commitments that we are not.

It was my first AGDC and honestly I loved it through the starry eyes of a newcomer. Yes we need to fix the space issue but its not going to stop me from signing up for next year. I met so many great people and can’t wait to see everyone again!

MMOs and social networking destinations are both online services that seek financial profit from their user bases.

Western-model MMOs monetize users with box sales and subscription fees, Asian-model MMOs monetize users with free client/gameplay and the direct cash sale of virtual items.

This is a product of the nature of the industry in both geographies and the cultures that have evolved around them. 3 of the key points in Asian territories: is a 15 year history of a microtransaction economy (with supporting infrastructure) that began with cellphone internet access and per character text messaging; an additional layer in the games ‘retail’ industry known as ‘Game Operator’; and third, pc baangs. We don’t have this in North ‘All-You-Can-Eat-For-$2.99′ America.

The palpable tension you see between both camps is due to the fact that both are facing increased competition in their respective markets and as a result, must look to other means to compete for marketshare.

The MMO crowd gazes enviously at the sheer number of people playing massively multiparticipant online social spaces, while the MMOSS operators covet MMORPG ARPU.

MMOSS operators mock the dev cost of building and maintaining MMOs as well as the quaint old-school business model; the MMO operators look down their noses at the nickle and diming model used by the ‘FOTM’ MMOSS.

The reality of the future of the industry is somewhere in the middle, it is believed. Just how we’re supposed to get there, together, is the question at hand.

1. I won’t play any game which seeks to get revenue from advertising to me. I think the popularity of TIVO pretty well demonstrates that a lot of people are already oversaturated and will only resent you if you pile more advertisments in their field of vision.

2. I probably woudn’t play a game where spending on micro-transactions or RMT of some sort beyond what I would normally pay for a subscription would give some one an edge. I think a lot of people feel this way on principle, and I would go further to say that these people ( the principled ones ) are actually the people you want playing your games. They are the ones who treat eachother well, and help out newbs, and generally make a community welcoming enough that someone just starting out might decide to stay from having run across them. If you drive them off of your game so that you can make more money, you will be left with a less principled player base. Perhaps I think too highly of myself, but I believe it’s a mistake to actively select for people with lower ethical standards. I think you will pay for it with more headaches in the long run, even if that just adds up to not really liking the people you’re running the game for.

3. On a completely different tack, I for once ( it is very likely a first ) agreed with Abalieno on something. Player housing if done incorrectly in a game will make communities much less open and much more insular. In DAoC it pretty much depopulated all of the places people used to gather when everyone retreated to their own little Ivory towers. It made the capital citys ghost towns, which was just another nail in the coffin of replacing player losses with new players. I suspect you could probably design it with incentives to keep meeting in public places but that would have to be done carefully and integrally to the whole system of what housing does and doesn’t offer, or most of your player base will only see their friends and guildmates from that point on. CoH did a good job of this, bases didn’t really change how most people played much other than making travel a little easier ( it’s already very easy to get around ).

Last week at the Austin conference, I gave a presentation with Jessica Mulligan entitled, “Emerging Business Models”. We talked about business models in different market, past, present, and future. Here are the slides, a PowerPoint presentation in …

I have no righteous pretenses, and you would know it if you read what I wrote.

I consider them two different markets with different goals and rules. Both can live and prosper on their own path.

Who’s “righteous” is the one saying that one has to take over the other and talking about “evolution”.

IT IS NOT ME.

And I fear nothing about this because I’m not an hypocrite and never hide what I think.

Instead I feel annoyed when the discussion on games I’m interested about has to drift toward these moot points. When they want to teach this side of the industry how to design games. In the same way many of us are annoyed seeing Second Life named everywhere. It’s not hate toward Second life or web games, it’s just annoying noise.

Which is why I would separate them. Close the madmen in their room, while I hang out in mine, discussing my games.

It’s Raph claiming that big budget games are dinosaurs. It’s him claiming who’s the king. “

@Abalieno: Uh wow. Did Web 2.0 steal your pony? I mean really…wow.
So you are the defender of the righteous MMO games? The ones who dare not try to appeal to more people than guys who like to pretend to be Elf women in chain mail bikinis? The ones that us the same business model from 10 years ago? I mean give it a rest. Games constantly evolve – this is another evolution for online games. Which will bring MORE people into playing online games which is good for every one making online games.

You obviously have some kind of axe to grind…but only the gods know why. ( I am still thinking stolen pony) I work mostly in the traditional MMO market. I do not feel threatened by Raph or anyone making any kind of game for that matter – why the heck do you?

If any kind of game gets more people playing games then I am freaking happy. Its another person one step closer to being a possible future subscriber to my next game.

Also – Tetris is a game full of immersion. I almost missed a flight once due to being immersed “in the game”. I did not need to be immersed in story. I did not need to believe I was “one of the blocks”. It sucked me in and blotted out the outside world – that IS immersion.