| Set On Stun |

Via ClicheQuest.com:

This is just way too good.  One more comic added to my ever-growing list.

One of the games that I’ve noticed has had a lot of good press, not only from the enthusiast media, but from their community is Fallen Earth, from Icarus Studios.  It’s a niche MMORPG that enters the unique and often overlooked genre of the post-apocalyptic/ sci-fi genre in MMOs.  One of the many reasons it caught my eye is that unlike most MMOs on the market now, it’s a classless game, similar to SWG, that uses a skill based system to level up characters.  I’ve seen the trailers and it’s one of the few MMOs that’s come out lately that I’m really excited to try out.

However, in the midst of some positive reviews from the gaming media and players themselves, the general consensus is that the game is fun, challenging, unique and not for everyone.  It’s been simplistically described as “Fallout 3 Online” because of the setting, the look and feel and, of course, the proximity to Fallout 3’s overall success.

However, an article yesterday on Massively titled “Fallen Earth fan: “Don’t Play Fallen Earth”” points to an article by Syp at Bio Break, titled “Why You Shouldn’t Play Fallen Earth“.  Massively’s Elliot Lefebvre says:

“Syp outlines all of the reasons that most players, even if they’ve been enamoured of the game’s press, might want to use extreme caution stepping into Fallen Earth for the first time.”

Syp gives potential players six reasons why they “should not play Fallen Earth”.

1. Like Its Frontier Setting, Fallen Earth’s Stability Is Rough And Wild
2. The Economy Is A Foggy Crystal Ball
3. End Game?  Who Knows!
4. It’s Complex
5. You Can Gimp Yourself
6. Greed Rules The Wild, Wild West

As a marketing guy, I’ve worked on the marketing campaigns of hundreds of clients, ranging from video game clients like Tecmo and most recently Spark Plug Games, to Fortune 500 clients like Lowe’s Home Improvement and Motorola.  Part of working on their marketing is reputation management.  Sometimes, it’s as simple as setting up a Google Alert with the right keywords and, as Google sees those keywords pop up on the web, they send you the link via email.  Yet when a professional marketer sees a title as potentially incendiary as “Don’t Play Fallen Earth”, I can absolutely relate to the sinking feeling as you click on the link to read the article.  You just don’t know what to expect as you read the article.

In this case, Syp plays Fallen Earth and is a fan of the game.  While his article has a good critique of the game, he makes sure to let his readers know that while there are issues and questions about the game, there are two things he wants to leave the readers with.

1. In a year, it will improve
2. If the points he brings up are deal-killers for you, then you will be disappointed.

Now that there’s some context behind the article, this brings up two very important concepts in marketing that I want to expand upon in the competitive and community dependent world of marketing MMOs.

The Reaction to Negativity as Marketing:

Firstly, it’s incumbent upon the developer/ publisher to set the right expectations.  This has been something that Fallen Earth has done very well.  Anyone who’s done any research on the game will know that Fallen Earth is from a smaller, indie company that’s putting out a game that has no thematic equal in the MMO space.  Gamers immediately know that they’re not dealing with a monolithic Blizzard/ EA and for the most part, can forgive the details if they’re having fun.  Gamers will know that they’re playing in a niche game, and if the article from Syp reinforces anything, it’s that Fallen Earth is not for everyone.  The media that Fallen Earth has produced has been complex and interesting, from the faction interaction wheel to the crafting system descriptions to the numerous point allocation guides, players should know that they’re entering a complex game in a brutal world that requires them to plan ahead.

Just as I’ve dived into building an Ikea entertainment center without the instructions, some gamers will enter an online world that’s at least twice as complex as an Ikea cabinet, suddenly realize that the game mechanics that they’re used to in other, more mature games, aren’t there, they can be turned off.  Some gamers will enter the forums and start their own researching, others will turn to the nearest blog post and immediately start comparing a brand new game from an indie company to a nearly decade old game that’s had multiple expansions and countless patches.

What does a game company do to address these complaints?  Do they send their army of loyal players to go and counter the argument?  Do they draft a press release to reassure people that there’s a new patch coming that could address the issues?  Do they stay silent, take the feedback and use that to modify their existing plans?  Do they insult their players and issue a non-apology like EA did after their whole Comic Con #EAfail incident?

The challenge for gaming companies, and specifically companies that are running a MMO is that the plans change.  Most often, negative statements are absorbed but not responded to because if you give a group of gamers a deadline, they’ll hold you to it.  Failing to comply with those statements will just make you look even worse.  Other times, companies acknowledge the issues, make vague statements about “overall improvements, stability and features” but they give no timeline.  There has to be a response between responding and not responding.  There is.

One solution is to build an alpha-testing team out of players who’ve shown a capacity to give constructive and brutally honest feedback.  The company can create a dedicated team of volunteer community managers who can organize community feedback and report it to the team on the overall state of the players.  These are good ways to reinforce within the community you’ve already built that their concerns are being heard and worked on.

The most important part of any MMO is the community, these are the people who will go to their friends and convince them to play.  These are the people who will do hilarious mashups and machinima for YouTube.  These are the people who will, by their own enthusiasm, become the greatest marketing force you could hope to employ.  By selectively engaging with the community and leveraging their feedback, companies can not only turn negative press into a positive, it could ultimately lead to the game becoming a stronger experience for everyone.

Test, Launch, Measure, Relaunch, Repeat:

Taking a look at the core critiques of Syp’s article, there is a way for the marketing and technology teams to work together in tandem.

I’ll take the game economy as a test example.  The current critique is that Fallen Earth’s economy is facing some challenges of item scarcity and commoditization.  Without analyzing the problem of item saturation, artificial scarcity, decay and market glut, the way that a marketer can work with the technology team is to first, determine what the successful markers are for an in-game economy.

I’m not going to pretend to be an economist or an expert in MMO economy, I’ll leave that to people like Tobold (and his excellent article about MMO economies).

However, once we’ve agreed upon what the key performance indicators are for stimulating the in-game economy, experiments can be run, data can be collected, data can be adjusted in-game and the experiments re-run.  Part of the experimentation would be to look at the raw numbers as well as the qualitative feedback from the community.

I’d take a baseline number of “There are X negative economy posts” per month.  Then as the tests are being run and data collected, do the same analysis.  If I find that there are less people complaining about the economy, if there are constructive ideas about how to fix the it, then we’re addressing two issues at once.  We’re addressing the quantitative aspect of measuring the KPIs as well as the qualitative aspect of community feedback.  If the data supports growth and the community is happier, then we’ve simultaneously addressed a technological problem and a marketing problem.

The happier the community is kept, the more likely they are to recruit other players and generate more media themselves, giving the game an additional “marketing team”.

Ultimately, in terms of MMOs, the players are the most important resource.  It’s critical to listen to them and address their concerns.  Understanding that there will be trolls, there will be those who’ll bash the game, those people can be quickly identified by the marketing team and the community, the ultimate goal is to be able to understand the community, build their trust in the game, manage their expectations and overall, provide them with a game that they cannot wait to play.

Just recently, I was sent an invitation to try out the new Google Wave.  What it is, is a community and contact based communication and collaboration hub.  Google’s attempting to create a multi-use platform for people to connect, optimize workflow, share information, create documents in real-time and have fun.

After playing with Google Wave for less than 24 hours now, I’m seeing some incredible potential to view this as a powerful social gaming portal and platform.  Firstly, to give a little bit of background, I’m going to categorize some of the current social gaming platforms and then give my thoughts on how Google Wave can change the game, in a very literal sense.

• Tabletop Games: (RPG’s like D&D, Board games like Risk, Card games like Poker)
• Embedded Browser Games: These are games like PopCap’s Plants vs. Zombies game.
• Full Browser Games: Browser based MMORPGs like Runescape.
• PC/ Console Ports: Online FPS games like Rasterwerks Phosphor.

Traditional Table Top Gaming

I’ve been known to engage in the occasional D&D or Call of Cthulhu RPG, part of that experience comes from being around the table, with your friends, huddled around a cheeto-stained map with your intricately designed figurines in a strategic formation.  While there have been several attempts to recreate that experience online, using proprietary programs or the browser, none of them have really replaced the essential table top experience.  However, for smaller adventures, I can easily see Wizards of the Coast developing an extension for Google Wave that allows for customizable maps, figurine placements and even automated rolling, saves, damage, spell casting and other critical components of the game.  While this would not replace the face to face game, we see apps on Facebook like D&D Tiny Adventures.  Entering that same principal on a more social level into Google Wave could be very cool, more addictive and more fun.

Embedded Browser Games

I bring up PopCap’s Plants vs. Zombies for the simple reason is that it’s inherently multiplayer.  You can be either the plants or the zombies, utilizing critical resources and materials to defeat the other player.  The good news is that the game is already browser based and very popular, it can be as short or as long as you want it to be and it’d be very cool for a quick lunch time pickup game.

Full Browser Games

While I’m not sure if the full browser experience will be a part of Google Wave, there are hundreds of browser based games that can be developed as an extension to Google Wave.  The difference between the full browser game and the embedded browser game is that games like Runescape are persistent, you can log in, play your avatar, log off and continue on.  The group functions of Wave can provide for easy guild management, chat and discussion for MMOs like this.  You’ll be able to meet other Google Wave users, add them to your contact list and have an experience not unlike the traditional browser MMO.

PC/ Console Ports

I’m a huge fan of Rasterwerk’s Phosphor.  With graphics better than some of the older engines, quick pick-up action and well designed maps, I can forgive some of the latency hiccups and invisible walls I find when playing in Chrome, it’s a fantastic game.  This kind of technology can easily find its home in Wave.  If there’s a way to adjust the size of the playable window, players and contacts can hop in, fight a quick deathmatch or two and then go back to being productive.

I’m very optimistic about the potential for Google Wave, with social gaming, web gaming and other non-console based games start getting better, more involving, more integrated with other networks, Google Wave can provide an extra level of interactivity, social connection and fun to the gaming experience.

Lastly, with OnLive getting funding from AT&T, this type of cloud based gaming technology cannot be too far away from entering into platforms like Google Wave.  In fact, I would not be surprised at all to see Wave extensions being developed from traditional games, new games and even for marketing purposes.  Would it be possible to play a demo for a game in Wave?  Would it be possible for a game like Fallen Earth create minigames that would be attached to the user account and give people a chance to play games that would actually be attributed to the main avatar when they log into the PC?

When the bigger discussions around the marketing meeting is to “get through the clutter”, can a creative exploitation of Wave’s inherent social, sharing and gaming capability be a way to capture a loyal audience?  Can Wave’s group functions enhance the viral spread of a game?

Time will tell, but the more that I play with Google Wave, the more I’m excited to see the evolution of this product into the gaming arena.

This is nothing short of brilliant. Please, watch The Guild (and buy their DVDs)

I’ll be the first person to admit it.  I love my iPhone games.  I play them during lunch breaks, at home and anytime I’ve got a few minutes to burn.  My 3 year son loves them too.  He’s addicted to Jelly Car, Lightbike and the Fast & Furious racing game.  It’s a testament to their design and intuitive nature that a 3 year old boy (admittedly already pretty tech savvy) can play and enjoy them.

However, one of the things I’m eagerly expecting is the expansion and upgrade of the mobile network to handle more bandwidth, a better data transfer efficiency and of course more speed from that network.  Advances in that technology could make it possible to develop real MMO games for mobile platforms.

A friend of mine who works at Verizon in Massachussets, sent me a link to a Boston.com article about Boston and Seattle being the test beds for the new 4g/ LTE Network (not to be confused with WiMax) technology that could boost speeds from 5-10 times faster than that of the iPhone 3G network.

The article focuses more on business applications of the new network, but unmentioned in the article is that the Boston and Seattle areas are some of the hottest video game markets in the US.  Along with LA, Austin and the RDU area, Boston and Seattle are very tech centric, diversified in terms of population statistics, business, entertainment and other industries.  It makes perfect sense that Verizon’s development of the new technology absolutely has mobile gaming in mind as they test these markets out with the new technology.

If this technology holds up, I can easily see the expansion of real-time, persistent online worlds emerging on mobile devices.  With the upgraded data transfer speeds, with the upgrade of mobile processing devices and with the absolute and excited rush to develop new games for mobile platforms, how long will it be before we see something like this?

Could this be the first steps to actually making a fully functional, fully engaging MMMOG? (Massively Moblie Multiplayer Online Game) or could it be M3OG?  Despite what these games are going to be called, I fully expect that this tech upgrade could herald more and more games on phones, more penetration of mobile gaming and huge business opportunities for game developers as they mobilize *cough* (sorry about the pun) to exploit and expand this new technology.

Of course, the article gives us Comcast’s response:

Cable TV and Internet giant Comcast Corp. said it does not believe that 4G poses much of a threat. Spokeswoman Mary Nell Westbrook noted that the nation’s first 4G service, offered in several cities by Clearwire Corp. of Kirkland, Wash., can’t measure up to Comcast’s higher-speed Internet products. “Our services are so much faster than that today,’’ Westbrook said.

I love my iPhone, but if Verizon can pull this off, there’d be no real reason to keep me tethered to that phone… especially if someone can do it better.