Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming

Upcoming Gamebryo titles

2008-06-25T21:14:00.003-04:00

I mentioned I work for Emergent Game Technologies, the company behind the Gamebryo game engine.

I'm pretty proud of our tech being foundational in somewhere around 200 titles. There are also 100 or so additional titles in development.

Which got me to thinking: Which titles built on Gamebryo are coming out soon?

The trick is finding titles I can actually mention. We're very protective of our licensees (people in our own office often don't know what titles are being worked on, since we keep that info need-to-know).

So, with the help of Reid at work (a top-notch Technical Account Manager at EGT), I've got a list of Gamebryo titles that have shipped or are coming out in 2008. These titles have been mentioned in some form or fashion in the media. If they haven't crossed a press barrier of some sort, they aren't here.

And EGT doesn't make games -- so these are other folks' properties, and they retain all the rights, licenses, etc.

And this is list isn't a commitment for shipping in 2008. Production schedules can and do change, blah blah blah.

Here are a buncha titles that have licensed Gamebryo, and have shipped or should be shipping in 2008:

Animal Garden Online
Blood Bowl
Chiquititas
Cragsgirl
The Creeping Dark
Defense Grid: The Awakening
Disney Magicboard Online
Dungeon Party
ePGA Golf
Fallout 3
Freaky Ceatures
G-Town
Jeopardy
Kickoff
Lazeska
Live Show
Mary King's Riding School
Mr. Okatami's Winning Post
Rat Race
Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization
Wizard101
WorldShift
X-UP Table Tennis

GLN: Breaking 4000

2008-06-24T18:01:00.002-04:00

All right, this installment of Gaming Last Night (GLN) recaps me, playing Dragonball Z: Burst Limit, and ...

(... wait for it ...)

... breaking 4000 on my Xbox 360 Gamercard.

Which is ... dunno ...

Well, it's something, isn't it?

Might be more impressive if I hadn't bought my first 360 on launch night. Or if I still had my first 360 (sniff, I'll miss you, One-eyed Pete; HAL is so pissy). Or if I was a Gamerscore Whore (luv ya, Ryu!), and my numbers were cresting seventy thousand.

As it is, it's an excuse to post and get snarky.

Like I need an excuse.

The Game industry needs to step up

2008-06-22T10:54:00.008-04:00

I'm writing this post, knowing it's going to piss people off.

I'm writing it for at least a couple of reasons.

The first is to generate discussion -- about what I think are pretty important topics.

The second is because I've written (here and here, and plan to write) several topics that have needed to point back to a post like this; by writing this post, in the future I can link to here from "the game industry could learn from" type statements, and not derail future discussions.

To be fair, I'm relatively new to the game industry -- six months after a 3-year directed effort to get into this market (I'll write about that some other time), and since I'm on the middleware side, I'm a bit distanced from "core" game development and publishing. I'm also arguably not yet Part of the Club -- but I think that puts me in a unique space to comment on these topics.

And I'm a fan. I'm a consumer, I fought to get into this space, and I recognize the huge potential for this market.

Also, I'm wicked impressed with the creativity, innovation, and intelligence in the games industry. I just think the industry needs to recognize its relatively small size, vertical market maturity, and learn lessons from other vertical markets.

These are generalities, of course -- it doesn't apply to everyone, and companies like Microsoft, for example -- who have enterprise, consumer, and brand maturity -- are arguably going to be more mature in the games space.

Relative size:

The game industry is pretty small. Numbers put it between 6-8,000. Dell, as one company, has more than that. Now, think Cisco, IBM, Boeing, 3M, etc.

That makes for a very small talent and experience pool. On the upside, that should make for a more accessible group of folks -- if you're in the club (see above); but on the downside, it can make for an insular, elitist culture, too. I'm not saying it is; saying it could be. On second thought, I've experienced it quite a bit, so let's say it is.

Relative accomplishment:

I've talked about what film accomplished in its first 20 years, versus what video games accomplished in nearly twice that -- and video games had a more mature technology base from which to start. Not pretty.

There's a lifetime video game vet in Austin I keep encouraging to publish his verbal rant about the elevation of film versus his frustration with his industry's "myopic, uninformed braggadocio". It is a brilliant, informed, very articulate call to arms (and call to accountability) for the games industry.

And, because he's a respected lifetime vet, he could say say the same things I'm saying, but people might actually listen. Maybe.

Relative Professionalism:

OK, maybe. Because brass tacks, the downside of a very small, insular professional pool can be a lack of professionalism.

(This may sting; I hope it does.)

This exhibits itself in different ways. On the upside, I think the games industry is less constrained and more gutsy than a lot of other technical markets. Because of the nature of the deliverables, political correctness and "appropriateness" (as a generality) don't have the same gating powers as they would for say, Cisco or IBM. That leads to some hilarious, open fare (a la Battlefield: Bad Company or Red v. Blue).

But I have been treated with less regard in the games industry than any other part of the technology sector.

I've mentioned I spent a focused 3-year effort to get into the games industry. That's because I got great, focused advice from vets in the industry located with me in Austin who told me because of "the arrogance of the industry", I would need to take longer and additional steps to get closer to a parity title in the games industry.

I was an enterprise technical director in the financial services market. When I went to leave, I turned down executive-level positions in that market and other tech markets.

For video game companies, I was literally offered unpaid internships and associate producer positions at a fifth of my salary -- from people who knew my background and then-current compensation.

As I was getting coached by some top-tier folks to get into the industry, they had concerns about how I would get in and how I would do -- not about me, but about the industry "not acknowledging the skills and process maturity you bring that we so desperately need."

I had one interviewer tell me, "I'm not worried about you being able to do the job -- I'm concerned you'll run screaming when you see how f***ed up we are as an industry" (verbatim, I still have it written down from the interview).

I had a recruiter (one of the people on that side of the house I respect most in the game industry) who was beyond frustrated with the lack of response he would get on my behalf: "Don't they get that if they don't get people like you, they will fail?" (not me -- "people like" me -- I'm confident in my abilities, but I'm no Neo for the games industry; there is no Neo for the industry).

Another example would be on the biz dev front. While that's not part of my current job, per se, it is a part of how I'm wired as a person. I get far fewer responses from within the games industry when I tickle people about potential, exciting unthought-of business opps than I did before joining the games industry (as a matter of fact, I just realized the responsiveness I've had has been from companies outside of the game industry).

Hell, I'm also a professional actor, and I find that market more open, accessible, and collaborative (even on the stereotypical LA in-club side) than the games industry.

Learning from Other Industries:

I have not arrived. Neither has any industry. But the games industry could learn a lot from other industries -- and even more if it would acknowledge it could.

Going back to that guy's "run screaming" concern -- if I hear "enterprise" in the context of gaming any more, I am going to run rampant with NERF weaponry, shattering monitors left and right (as an aside, I want this when it launches this year).

I lived, breathed, and managed enterprise (where "n-tier" is not "2") for years: with its defined business and development processes and certifications; data wharehousing; business intelligence software; solutions that have thin and thick clients--> load balancing --> Web server --> application server --> database server --> distributed across 4 data centers on 4 continents.

Think you know clients and servers? Are you able to get mainframe / assembly-level responsiveness equivalent to an authentication check assess available funds do a business rules decision tree do fraud detection tolerance in a worldwide round trip in under 2 seconds? With 6,000 round trips running concurrently each second?

Think you know .NET and MS-SQL? Does Microsoft come to you to figure out how you got that kind of performance from their products? I'm pretty sure that's at least a bar -- and it's being met in other markets.

Think the games industry knows how to eke the most out of a license? No, but the toy industry does (think Hasbro, and their brilliance of growing addressable market through increased IP "expressions".)

Think you know how to be niche vertical player, come back from the business dead, and become a brand powerhouse to rival a media conglomerate like Warner Bros.? No, but Marvel does (they also know how to genuinely do community implementations).

Conclusion:

Obviously, I haven't arrived (and this post may set me back a bit), there's a lot of growth to be had, and I'm looking forward to working with folks who get that.

It sounds high-horse, but I genuinely want to enable creative brilliance to see the light of day, and block the stupid stuff -- from every direction -- that gets in the way of that.

Mheh. I expect tomorrow to be interesting for me.

Video game criticism that matters

2008-06-07T14:50:00.002-04:00

Here's a decent article (and part of a series) on more mature video game criticism: "Zarathustran Analytics in Video Games, Part 9: Flaws in Criticism Today".

You should read the article (and the series), but -- in essence -- it's a call for the importance of meaningful critical review of games as genuine feedback to the teams that make them, as opposed to the "this is fun" / "this sucks" or review scores model that is endemic to the review world today.

(As an aside, does anyone else find it ironic that versions of numerical scores are used to grade non-numerical, creative experiences)?

I do think a model that creates -- in essence -- post mortem input to creative teams is far more useful for driving the games industry forward in a meaningful way than the aggregate Metacritic scores currently used by publishers, and (unfortunately) sometimes used to penalize creativity.

I think there's probably some middle(ish) ground between the prevailing system, and ivory tower(ish) critiques like "Repressed Homoeroticism in R-Type" (no disrespect meant, but I'm looking for a subset of enabling criticism that helps development teams, as opposed to "just" cultural implication assessments).

I do have a pet peeve, though: historical pop culture memory gaps.

While I appreciate references to Lester Bangs and Alan Moore, why reference Enders Game, as opposed to Kobayashi Maru? Or perhaps more appropriately (given this particular article), why use Mirrors Edge, rather than precursor (and dead-on candidate for the particular point being made) Breakdown? (Admittedly, I'm perhaps overly a fan of Breakdown, and think that team did something gutsy and innovative and didn't get its due props.)

But those are nits compared to my overall appreciation of this article and its sentiment.

Check it out for yourself.

Gamebryo 2.5 ships!

2008-06-06T17:47:00.002-04:00

Gamebryo 2.5 has shipped -- the newest version of Emergent Game Technologies's game engine and tools (check out the new Terrain System), and my first release since joining the company as Senior Product Manager for the product.

I'm very impressed with the people who made this happen, proud of this release, and wicked stoked for the technology and culture foundation it's built for even bigger stuff coming down the pipe. And I'm a little bruised from the all-out NERF-fueled real-world celebratory team deathmatch that may or may not have involved an alcohol haze for some or many of the participants.

I'm in the throws of physical and digital shipping, forum announcements, and related activities, but expect to see more noise out and about if you're in the industry.

Insomniac Games moving to NC

2008-06-04T21:40:00.003-04:00

Insomniac Games, geniui behind things like Ratchet & Clank and Resistance: Fall of Man, are moving to Raleigh-Durham Studio by January 2009.

Why am I excited? I'm now in the Triangle, and this brings and will attract top-tier gaming talent to the Triangle.

Sony adds subscription

2008-06-03T21:08:00.003-04:00

Remember how Sony said the difference between them and Microsoft was Microsoft charges for Xbox Live, but Sony would be free?

Sony just introduced Qore, a "a highly interactive, monthly lifestyle gaming program covering the world inside PLAYSTATION", and "will feature exclusive news, developer interviews, in-depth game previews and behind-the-scenes looks at PlayStation games and special access to game demos, special beta invitations, game add-ons and other downloadable game-related content."

Qore is either $2.99 per monthly episode, or $24.99 for a yearly subscription of 13 episodes (Que?).

So, to review: For half the price of an Xbox Live Gold subscription, you can get once-a-month episodes.

But remember, PS3 online is still free!

(For what it's worth, the content does sound cool.)

$100 when you buy a PS3

2008-06-01T13:20:00.002-04:00

Best new deal this week may be the $100 Blu-ray gift card you get if you buy a PS3 at Wal-Mart. It's the 40Gb version, but someone let me know if get this if you buy an 80Gb Motorstorm backwards-compatible bundle -- that would be doubly (quantuply?) sweet.

For value-add schwag when buying new releases Tuesday or Wednesday, looks like Circuit City is the place -- Incredible Hulk ($10 gift card), Ninja Gaiden II (RYU Wall Graphix), Kung Fu Panda (plush toy, and the game only at $50), The Bourne Conspiracy (Bourne Identity DVD), and LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (unlockable Belloq character, a T-Shirt, and the game only at $50).

Check out Cheap Ass Gamer for more of this week's deals.

Character creation randomizer

2008-05-29T22:19:00.002-04:00

I like character creation mechanics in games.

I like having a unique character, and the option to customize the way I want to, if I have the time and / or inclination.

What I don't like is having to take the time when I want to jump in and play, but not be stuck with the canned Space Marine 2099.

So, Devs? Can you please add a character randomizer? I've been able to roll random characteristics in table-top gaming for ages. Please grant me the virtual equivalent.

Thank you.

Dipity Timelines

2008-05-28T18:04:00.004-04:00

I discovered Dipity.com's (you gotta love 2.0 naming) timeline generation tool.

Here are my game-related timelines:

Gaming -- Includes posts from my (this) gaming blog, and from my "I'm Playing" mini-review blog
Emergent Game Technologies -- Posts from EGT employees (including me), and EGT press releases and news items -- including those from partners and licensees
Game Releases -- For years, I've wanted a timeline of the games I care about; this is a down-and-dirty version of something I hope gets much, much bigger.

The timeline implementation is a bit rough, but it's around 70% of the timeline mashup I was building myself, so I'm all for someone else building and maintaining it. And I've made requests for things like reverse chronological sorting, color-coding different feeds, a hierarchy model for promoting / minimizing timeline entries, "timeline includes", tag sorting / viewing, and so on; here's hoping.

Interesting. This post itself will show up in the first two timelines. Clicking on it will open the post. Clicking on the links will open the timeline. Ad nauseam.

PS3 vs. Xbox 360 graphics leg wrestling tourney

2008-05-26T22:23:00.002-04:00

GameSpot.com has a feature comparing the graphics of the PS3 and Xbox 360 through specific games (Assassin's Creed, Half-Life 2, Grand Theft Auto 4, Call Of Duty 4, Burnout Paradise, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Need For Speed Pro Street, Madden NFL 08).

Console fanboys are going to say their console won regardless of the comparisons, and the upshot is, really, you should go with the console(s) that have the platform-only game(s) or deepest library that meets your needs.

Games are coming, color me stoked ...

2008-05-14T00:06:00.007-04:00

The Microsoft Xbox 360 Spring Showcase Round Up and Electronic Arts's Spring Break Games Day are overlapping, and those two events plus some other announcements have me excited. (And thank you, kotaku.com, for giving me an all-in-one link source.)

There's a rumored Xbox 360 Dashboard spring update that may support motion controllers.
The footage for Too Human (August) and Ninja Gaiden II (June) has me stoked; (and while the NGII trailer is slick, I'm ticked TH has downgraded co-op from 4 to 2).
EA's moving away from quarterly guidance (take that, non-logical knee-jerk market), and talked its 3-year growth plan.
EA recognizes the PC growth opportunity, and CEO John Riccitiello correctly said the PC market has "been growing for several years... it's categorized wrongly by looking simply at the box side of the equation."
The free Battlefield Heroes is looking slick.
Battleforge, that collectible / RTS(ish) thing, has me interested.
Left 4 Dead, more zombie-killing (and being) love, is still leading me on.
I want Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts to resurrect Rare; lotta people working their tales of on middling received titles, so let's knock one out of the park.
Atlus announces great concepts, and I'm waiting for one to pay out for me. Zoids may be it (I dig the IP).
Fable II? It may end up being my third anticipated game (after Too Human and Ninja Gaiden II)
Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is coming May 21. I will buy it for its lengthy title (eat it, Peter Jackson's King Kong the Official Game of the Movie!); I will buy it to support snarky indie devs everywhere.

Parkour for the People!

2008-05-06T23:11:00.002-04:00

I'm so looking forward to Mirror's Edge, EA Dice's parkour- (and I think, Breakdown-) inspired first-person ... thing.

Speed Racer for the Wii is out

2008-05-06T22:42:00.002-04:00

Speed Racer for the Wii is out now, and it's built on my company's Gamebryo engine.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

GTAIV deals and side bennies

2008-04-27T11:38:00.005-04:00

Grand Theft Auto IV hits this week, and the deals are a-flying -- particularly for Xbox 360 new owner wannabes.

You can get $50 gift cards from Best Buy (Xbox 360 only) or KMart (360 or PS3, and the latter by mail) if you buy a console and any version of that console's GTAIV. At Circuit City, you get a wireless controller & Gamer's Savings Club membership for buying a 360 and GTAIV, or $10 gift card with just the game.

The Special Edition feels about right, at $89.99, it's $40 over the price for the standard* edition, but it comes with the game, a safety deposit box, art book, CD soundtrack, Rockstar keychain & duffle bag. A safety deposit box -- now that I'm in the game industry, I'm thinking of getting the special edition just to store employee reviews in this bad boy.

The soundtrack is allegedly new material, and not a subset of the 200 in-game songs (Updated: Full 16-song list at Kotaku.com).

But don't miss the competitive offers, too -- saving you cash on other big games, as all of the big boys do what they can to move units in the face of one of the biggest releases last year through next.

On the Circuit City front, try $30 BioShock (360 -- why have you not played it? Why?); $45 Frontlines: Fuel Of War (360); $35 Bully: Scholarship Edition (360, which uses the Gamebryo engine, and Wii); $40 Condemned 2 : Bloodshot (360 and PS3) and Gran Turismo 5: Prologue (PS3).

At Best Buy, it's $30 Assassin’s Creed (360, PS3); $50 Viking: Battle For Asgard (360 and PS3); $50 Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Game Of The Year Edition (360, limited, and includes a token for free maps, and they're selling the PC version for only $40).

These are just the games / deals I care about. For a more comprehensive, consolidated list across platforms and stores, check out Cheap Ass Gamer (more Wii titles, newish titles like Dark Sector, Army of Two, and Turok, etc.).

* Yeah, I know list price for console SKUs is $60, so some would say it's "only" $30 over the standard edition. But I think this generation's console software price bump is artificial, and PS3 and 360 owners are subsidizing PC and Wii development and sales when we pay this price. There, I said it. Again.

Odd choice for a PlayStation3 loading screen

2008-04-09T15:19:00.002-04:00

I found this a wee bit (painfully) funny.

Check out the Flash loading logo for the SCEA PlayStation Website:

Look similar to anything else in the game space? ;-)

Stop-motion Neon Genesis Evangelion

2008-04-03T14:55:00.002-04:00

OK, it's arguably vaguely gaming related (except for the stereotypical gamer / otaku overlap being like 97.8%).

But it's (A) Neon Genesis Evangelion, (B) Revoltech toys, and (C) stop-motion.

So, if you're jonesing for stop-motion as much as me (my stuff's still in storage), dig Evangelion or Revoltech, or just need a new Napoleon Dynamite fix, here you go.

(Oh, and if you are an Evangelion fan, you should know you can get the complete Platinum boxed set at Best Buy this week for 50% off -- $28.99; but know it's not the 10th Anniversary Edition.)

Gaming April Fools tomfoolery

2008-04-01T14:00:00.005-04:00

Ah, it's my national holiday.

Since happenings beyond my control have removed me from creating the brilliant events that could have been, instead I'm going to point to gaming related shenanigans that made me chuckle. Or chortle. Perhaps even guffaw.

Microsoft / Xbox pranks -- Including a "Wireless Helmet" (with "Flex-plasma In-sight Display" and looking like it belongs to Red 5); "Xbox LIVE The Board Game" ("simply attach the USB adapter right to your console and sign on to Xbox LIVE"); "Xbox 360: Recon Edition (with "Built-in passive sonar"); and "Xbox 360 Vintage Edition" (my favorite -- a wood-paneled Xbox form factor that looks like it was birthed from the loins of a floor-standing 1950s radio).
Blizzard / Activision -- "Introduction" of a new Hero Class -- the Bard -- which can use their "magical axes" in a WoW / Guitar Hero crossover (unfortunately, just "available" for the "Wrath of the Lich King" expansion); a Tauren class "added" to Starcraft II ("an anthropomorphic bovine genotype with super-human stamina, overpowered racial combat abilities, and bizarrely well-developed horticultural skills"); the "announcement" of World of Warcraft: The Molten Core coming to ... the Atari 2600 (!); and my favorite, the "Diablo Loot Piñata" (which "provides the same fun and excitement as traditional piñatas while also letting longtime Diablo players relive their epic battles with the Prime Evil").
Kotaku.com -- All of the cake crap is a joke. All of it.

Tell me about the games I'm missing

2008-04-01T12:57:00.004-04:00

Major life happenings have derailed my gaming fixations.

Though I don't know when I'll get back in the interactive saddle, I need your help figuring out where to spend my gaming time once I get there.

Games I've been anticipating (Dark Sector, Army of Two, Condemned 2: Bloodshot, Frontlines: Fuel of War, Overclocked and Viking: Battle for Asgard) all released while I was out of pocket.

Are they good? Suck? Buyers? Renters?

Tell me.

Target has your indie games / Tees

2008-03-22T12:03:00.002-04:00

Indie games in the mainstream!

I'm wicked impressed, and want to file this under "little guys with great marketing concept make good".

2D Boy -- "a brave new indie game studio based in San Francisco, making games the old fashioned way - a team of two, no money, and a whole lot of 'love'" -- has struck a deal with retailers (Target stores being possibly first out of the gate).

You can buy independent game game T-shirts, which come with a demo or full version of the game, for like $12.

A bunch of the titles are a la the Experimental Gameplay Project (clothing company egp apparel looks to be an offshoot of the effort), and this is a slick way to get indie cred mainstream recognition (the tags talk quite a bit about the games and creators).

More info at the 2D Boy Website, and (interestingly) waaay more info at Kevin Allen's blog.

Gary Gygax, dead at 69

2008-03-04T22:53:00.003-05:00

Gary Gygex, Co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, died in his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, at 69 years old.

There's probably a hit points joke in there somewhere, but I'm just too saddened by our loss of another creative entrepreneur.

Whatever your feeling about D&D, fellow creative Warren Spector maybe sums it up best (for me):

"what most folks don't appreciate is how special, how ground-breaking it was as the first medium of expression to turn anyone who played into a storyteller, into an author, into a creator. Not a bad legacy for a pioneering game guy..."

Download XBLA Creator games before Tuesday!

2008-02-24T23:58:00.000-05:00

I don't normally just post a press release, but I haven't had a chance to jot down my GDC thoughts, and this thing's time-sensitive.

If you want to download, play, and review XBLA Creator Club games, you need to download them before midnight Monday (12 am Tuesday), and play them before March 9th.

Press-release below:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/events/gdc2008/xna/howtoxna.htm

Play and Review Community Arcade Games

Want to check out some of the fun and exciting community-created games announced at the Game Developers Conference? Here's how to download and play the XNA Community Arcade games.

The games are available until midnight Pacific Time on February 26, 2008. The games will expire on March 9 at midnight Pacific, so get them while they're hot and play them before they're gone!

Before you download and play, first you need to download the launcher.
To download the XNA Creators Club Game Launcher:

1.    Go to the Marketplace Blade in the Xbox 360 Dashboard

2.    Go to Games Store/All Games

3.    Scroll down to XNA Creators Club Game Launcher

To download the Community Arcade Games:

1.    Go to the Games Blade in the Xbox 360 Dashboard

2.    Select Games Library

3.    Select My Games

4.    Select XNA Creators Club from the top "twist" menu

5.    Hit the Y Button to see the Community Arcade games

To see this process in action, check out Major Nelson's video interview with XNA Program Manager Michael Klucher on the XNA page of our GDC coverage.

Reviewing Community Arcade Games

Once you've tried them out, we want to hear how you like them. Submit your mini-reviews (no longer than 100 words) to xlmail@microsoft.com with the subject: Community Arcade Review. Make sure to include your gamertag and your hometown. The best reviews could be featured on Xbox.com and Inside Xbox!
You can also discuss Community Arcade Games in the forums.

Come see Emergent at GDC!

2008-02-19T04:42:00.000-05:00

I'm in the final throes of getting ready for my first Game Developers Conference. And though I'm new to the game industry (at least on the non - voice - acting - and - blogging - professional side of it), I'm not new to trade shows, biz dev, meeting great new folks, and making something happen through all of that.

I think Emergent's going to make a really strong showing, and I'm stoked to be a part of it.

I probably won't be liveblogging that much. Between me being booked with meeting licensees, prospects, partners, and biz folks throughout the day -- and the HTC Touch not being as great as my Treo at liveblogging (or maybe I'm not used to it) -- you're probably better off with catching updates at Kotaku.com or Joystiq.com.

I will probably be Twittering, though, so catch updates there.

If you are going to be GDC, swing by and check us out Emergent's booth (Booth # 5716 in the North Hall). I'll be previewing stuff and doing joint presentations with one of our amazing licensees.

See me presenting Wednesday (10:30am, 1pm, and 1:30pm), Thursday (12:30pm and 4pm), and Fri. 1pm and 1:30 p.m.).

Of course, feel free to come by our booth and talk to folks any time, and shoot me an Email, IM, text, or call if you want to meet up and talk middleware, game engines, and the future of gaming.

Um, the dark, blurry pict below? Some talented guys burning the midnight oil to put some additional polish on a finished GDC demo -- something with which I think you're going to be pretty impressed -- even if my last-minute voice over hadn't make it in.

Oh, and Sony PLAYSTATION®3 developers? We have something for you.

New models for MMOs

2008-02-16T21:53:00.006-05:00

So, I'm bummed Microsoft and Marvel pulled the plug on the Marvel Universe MMO.

And I'm not just upset because I've Made Mine Marvel for more than two decades. It's not just because I'd like to see a quality, heavy backed version of City of Heroes with 50 years of backstory.

Naw, I'm bummed because the MMO space needs some innovation, and this franchise was a chance to see that happen.

But let's back up -- why cancel the game?

From Microsoft's Shane Kim:

For us we look at our priorities and all of the things we have to do. It’s a tough space. It’s a very competitive space. And it’s a space that’s changing quite a bit. …When we first entered into the development and agreement of the development of ‘Marvel Universe Online,’ we thought we would create another subscription-based MMO. And if you really look at the data there’s basically one that’s successful and everything else wouldn’t meet our level or definition of commercial success. And then you have to look [and say]: ‘Can we change the business model for that? Is that really viable given how far we are in development? And so forth. Does Marvel want to do that?’ There’s a whole bunch of factors.”

Blergh.

Wait -- "there’s basically one that’s successful"? Seriously?

And whether Kim's saying there's one successful financial model or one successful MMO in the
form of World of Warcraft (the interview is a bit vague), both assertions are a crock.

And it shows short-sightedness counter to the "Can we change the business model for that" question.

Companies need to leverage licensed IP to create innovation and revenue streams from the existing fan base, and create a cross-over hit with non-fans. Not just milk it shoddily when a movie based on the franchise launches.

So, how could you leverage a licensed IP -- aside from doing it non-craptastically?

Play to the limitations.

I'm guessing there are a lot of folks that all want to be the Hulk, or Wolverine, or the Punisher, or Spider-Man. But they can't all be Spider-Man (unless you want to do a Clone Saga thing -- and if you tell me you want to, I will find you and rip out your fingernails).

Same problem exists for my proposed Transformers MMORPG (still waiting for that call, Activision). Or the recently announced Hasbro / Electronic Arts G.I. Joe (which, really, you could take all of my Transformers ideas, and reskin them with the Joe equivalent -- with factions galore (COBRA divide among Cobra Commander, Serpentor, Dr. Mindbender, Tomax / Xamot, and Destro).

What if these limitations are a good thing? What if that's how you divide up your worlds? What if servers /farms are load-balanced across a geography (or even worlds) limited to one of each character (that's what, two thousand with Marvel? Rolled out over the course of years?), and you get your friends together and pick who wants to be what in your little click, and it's more accessible for folks who don't want to do massive WoW raids, but it also panders to the MMO hoard whores.

You could do the same with any of the big franchises (Marvel, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Sony's upcoming DC MMO, etc.) -- and this could actually increase your user base.

Say I want to jump into the Marvel MMO and play as Captain America. What, Captain America's taken on existing world servers? Well then, I'll take my shield and go start up my own instance with my friends who lost bets with me and get to tag along as anything from Rick Jones to D-Man.

But here's the big opportunity for IP holders -- Hasbro (and Warner Brothers and Marvel and everyone else who owns large-cast IPs) should be begging to do these games. Not in the craptastic - minimal - dollar - game - budgets - to - create - a - mediocre - game - across - a - billion - platforms - so - they - - can - milk - a - few - more - dollars - from - the - franchise - during - the - movie - tie-in kind of way. But in a market research kind of way.

Do people not get the goldmine a focused online game could bring? Does Marvel not see how they could mine surprising data as to how many people are playing as Frenchie, and how few are playing as Ben Riley? Don't toy manufacturers think -- in much the same way Hasbro in the 80s could introduce a G.I. Joe character as a toy or in the Marvel comic book or on the TV series -- they could now do so as a new playable character (or NPC) in the game, and find out if it floats or sinks with the fanbase? That they could allow for some "character customization" (that is really only a version of the remaining options available from their focus group efforts as they try to figure out whether the Buzzer redesign should be more Mad Max or more Village People)?

Marketing gold people. Marketing. Gold.

I've got other ideas for MMO mechanics, too. Like say you've got a level 35 Hulk, and you jump on a server and Hulk's already taken -- but you can jump into an unused character of the same class (bruiser, say, the ever lovin' blue-eyed Thing), and take a slight "penalty" (say, to level 30), which let's you play as another character, incents you play more (rather than not at all, because your character's not available), and doesn't make you redo the grinding for the class you've chosen.

I personally think there's a lot more to mine from MMOs. We just need to tweak the models and memes -- like adding bits of this and that from other genres, vertical markets, and geographies (take a nod from Korea, for example, with their casual massive online games, or hard-core, constrained worlds games).

Marvel -- bring back Marvel Universe Online -- I know you must be itching to get into the game publisher biz.

Hey, how about a Captain Britain MMO? You could populate that solely with Captain Britains. I bet Alan Moore would love that.

Going to GDC?

2008-02-06T22:54:00.001-05:00

Going to the Game Developers Conference in a couple of weeks?

I am, and I'd like to chat.

I'm booked pretty solid with meeting licensees, partner meetings, IHV hookups, and doing presentations.

But if you want to hang out or talk with other folks at Emergent Game Technologies, let me know. Or let us know.