Launch dates matter. This is especially true if there is a behemoth in your launch date midst, ready to launch just before or just after your game or expansion. You should really do what you can to launch your game at least a month or two before or after the 800lb gorilla’s SKU hits the shelves, or else your game’s sales will suffer greatly (and possibly permanently).

Do not launch an unfinished product. There may be extenuating circumstances that somehow necessitate the launch of a buggy product from a business perspective, but the game will most likely fail in today’s market, especially if it’s not particularly unique. Do everything in your power to launch a high quality, polished product, because first impressions can make or break a game with the level of competition in the genre today.

Check out my first article in the Escapist, “How to Win Friends and Influence Gamers.” For those of you who read my site regularly, this won’t really be anything particularly new to you, but it turned out better than I expected it to. There’s a whole lot of stuff that I cut out of it (as in, about three times as much as is in there now), but I think I got the appropriate points across. Feel free to let me know what you think about the article!

One of those old game discussion lists, MUD-Dev, appears to have died out a while back (given that I stopped getting emails to the list a long time ago and can’t access the website). If this is the case, how many of you would be interested in an MMO-Dev discussion list? I picked up MMO-Dev.com just in case, and created the MMO-Dev Yahoo Group if I decide the discussion lists they offer on my server aren’t up to par. Continue Reading »

Many other places have given in-depth analyses of Rob Pardo’s (VP of Game Design, Blizzard) AGC keynote on WoW’s success. As such, I’ll try to summarize everything with bullet points to make it easier to digest. In short, I agree with pretty much everything he said. The success of WoW may very well usher in a series of highly polished MMOs for all of us gamers, because that’s the point I think he drove home with everyone. Continue Reading »

Guerilla marketing is a rather fancy term for an exceedingly simple idea. Loosely defined, guerilla marketing is an unconventional means of marketing for minimum budget and maximum impact. There are many derivative types of guerilla marketing, which I use as the blanket term for all of them. Continue Reading »

Before delving into the details of just what exactly this article is about, it?s probably worth noting where the title came from. It was a muggy day in New York City. While fighting a mild hangover, a few of my coworkers and I decided to grab some BBQ at a local joint. Continue Reading »

The “Trickledown Theory,” also called the “Contraposition to the Vocal Minority Theory… Theory,” is fairly simple: The mood and opinions of the vocal minority can have widespread impact on those of the voiceless majority. Continue Reading »

I often hear or read claims that graphics aren’t important. People who say that they would play a game no matter what it looks like visually as long as it has great mechanics, story, and so on. If you’re reading this, you’ll know that this is almost always not the case. I’ve claimed the same before, but what do I do any time I hear about a new game? First, I get an idea of what the game is about. The genre, the feature list, etc. Then, I search for the button that leads me to their screenshots or, failing that, any concept art they may have on the website. I think it’s safe to say that I’m not the only one who does that. Continue Reading »

I’ve always been an advocate for the importance of communities, especially when it comes to online games. That importance of a healthy community is compounded even further when dealing with massively multiplayer online games. It’s hard to grab something tangible to really make my point, so I’ll just come right out and say it: the most important retention tool for a massively multiplayer game is its community.

That might appear to be quite the audacious statement. But, if you have ever played any online game for a long period of time, I think you’ll realize that the statement is true (or if not true, not far off from the truth). In a now-ancient article, it was said quite well:

“Players don’t continue to play a game because it is cool; they continue to play because their buddies are there. Once they join some kind of guild or team organization, the emotional attachment to that group of friends, that band of brothers (to paraphrase Shakespeare and HBO), makes it very difficult for them to leave the game for a competing product.”

One game can only remain new and exciting for so long. There comes a point when you haven’t necessarily done everything the game has to offer (it’s almost impossible to do with the scale of current MMOGs), but there’s not really anything truly new for you to experience. That’s when the community becomes very important. Massively multiplayer games aren’t just games, they’re part of our lives. We make real friendships and become connected to the people within the games more than with the game itself.

I’m not just referring to a community as a game’s forum community. It is well-known that a fairly small percentage of players (generally 15-20%) actually participate on a game’s forums. One MMOG’s community spans across the game itself, forums, chat channels, instant messaging services, voice chat applications, and beyond. I just wanted to make it clear that I’m not referring to the forum trolls as a game’s community, because the forum community may not be the most important part of the whole.

I want to again clarify that I’m talking about community as a retention tool, not an acquisition tool. You don’t know how great (or abysmal) a game’s community is until you’re part of it and, chances are, you’re already playing the game or planning on doing so by the time you know what the community is like. Yes, knowing another game’s community is healthy and full of mature players can help draw people in, but it’s not nearly as important for acquisition as retention.

Time to contradict myself a little bit. I’ll allow myself to speak briefly about a term that I’m beginning to loathe (mostly due to its overuse. For you English majors out there, this term is the PR equivalent of “juxtapose.” If you don’t get it, move on). Viral Marketing. Ack, it hurts to type it, but the logic behind the term is undeniable. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to improve the perception of a product, game or otherwise.

When people hear how great a game is, they’ll probably try it out if it fits their style of play. And more people in means less people out (in addition to establishing meaningful relationships with other players, having a fresh influx of new citizens in a world really helps to keep the veterans around). Now this would really fall into the acquisition category, but by proxy it also increases retention.

A healthy community makes for a happy community, at least in terms of overall attitude. Yes, keeping players happy can only be achieved if you have a good game on your hands and don’t do terribly much to shake their confidence. But most games out there are good. One of the things that differs is a game’s community. The more healthy relationships exist within the community, the more players will stick around for longer than they normally would simply because they don’t want to leave their friends behind.

Most of us have played and quit a number of online games. What do I miss most about all the games I’ve quit after playing for a long period of time? The people. I quit the games because I got bored of them and my friends were either already gone or I just couldn’t let myself continue paying for the subscription.

When I think back to Ultima Online, what do I miss? Well, I do miss all of the crazy things I did in the game. The PKing, the house stealing, and all the great stuff I could do at launch that I couldn’t do when I finally quit. However, what I miss the most is the group of people I played with.

What about Shadowbane? Again, the people. I surely had a lot of fun playing the game on many occasions, but it is my guild that I miss the most. The people I created cities with, lost cities with, and took cities over with. The people who got fed up with our fortune and quit, which lead to my ultimate account cancellation.

Asheron’s Call 2, same thing, although I do keep in touch with some of my old guildmates from that game. AC, FFXI, DAoC, HZ, etc. In all of these games, I played for a much longer period of time because of the people I played with. I was done with what I wanted to do in each game long before I quit, and I miss the people much more than I miss the games.

What about the games I quit rather quickly? In every case I can think of, the game had a lack of community, an unhealthy community, or I simply never became part of that game’s community. Had I become part of a good community in any of the games I quit rather soon after starting, I would have stuck around for months longer (than the month or two I stuck around in the first place).

The importance of a healthy community should never be underestimated. Players live and breathe these worlds. They care about them as more than a mere hobby, and they want to share their experiences with friends. When players develop real, meaningful relationships with others in the game, they will always play the game longer.