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It used to be simpler 8 to 10 odd years or so ago, the online gaming market wasn’t as cramped, cutthroat and saturated like what it is today. In today’s unforgiving industry, a LOT of games get designed, put on the proverbial closed beta axe and (around 80% to 90%) will never get to see the light of day. This may be due to the fact that most games are just rehashes or old gimmicks or, sadly, clones of more popular AAA titles. There toooo much fantasy titles out there. The teams that tried to stay away from them are also having a hard time.
Only the innovative designs strike a big chance of seeing their titles go past the betas and earn money in the “commercial” stage. A like-the-rest-of-em game may be a modest hit but if another similar title comes up with better graphics, it’s difficult to start all over again and retain players.
Here’s my unsolicited advice for the design/developer talents out there… some ideas off the top of my head on how to make things work…
Online Game Design Notes For The Future
- 1. Make It Easy For Users To Recruit their friends – There’s nothing wrong with a kick-ass marketing plan or a deep marketing pockets. I’d take that any day of the week. But the most overlooked (and sometimes biggest) acquisition tool would be the users themselves. An online game is a social activity. That’s the key to its success. In the future, I’d want to see games that make it easy for players to invite their friends with a single mouse click. I’m seeing it now in Social Games especially by Zynga and other Facebook games. If the designers can integrate this into their designs, publishing and making profit on a game will be simpler.
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- 2. The Itch For Chance – Games of chance such as lotteries are a big hit. In the future, games should offer daily lotteries which can be bought by either in-game cash or item mall currency. Players like games of chance. Who doesn’t want to be a millionaire for just pennies invested? One of the hurdles of the gaming industry is to keep within the boundaries of the laws on the areas/countries where they operate. Sometimes a simple lottery may be legal in an area but it may be a crime in some.
- 3. Rewards and Recognition – a simple way to rank players’ achievements. This can be as simple as what Sony’s PSN is doing… putting your trophies online and announcing it to your Facebook friends – automatically! If you unlock an achievement and it isn’t shared, it’s pretty much useless, dontcha think? Design teams should integrate it into their games as a standard. The game should seamlessly connect with online platforms like websites or social media to give more value to these rankings, rewards and recognition. Players always love it when they’re on the top of the pack (and have bragging rights to prove it)!
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- 4. Social Media is your friend – With Facebook’s Connect app and widgets, companies (and games too) should see the true value of this. It’s become sort of like a UNIVERSAL LOG IN worldwide. Got facebook? Then, why register? Games of the future should allow new players to instantly connect and play in no time using their Facebook account. It’s happening now and I predict that this will be the wave of the future.
- 5. Business Model Before Eye Candy - Most of the games I tried were obviously designed with the graphics, gameplay and what-have-you BEFORE the business model was ever integrated. More often than not, the item mall was designed as an afterthought. Designers should see the fallacies of this “mode of thinking”. Hey! All online games should be treated as businesses and the business model should be among the TOP CONSIDERATIONS for game design. A paradigm shift among the top dev companies will do wonders for the industry.
There are other great and new ideas out there. Developers who harness the power of feedback from the users will lead the fray. Doing research and looking at trends will also be “musts” in this industry.
The idle will be left behind.
Cheers!