Do you have a stake in your game?

This is the “Stake in the Game” issue…

First, the issue embodied by the graphic for today:

Here is a quote from a recent post over at Heartless Gamers Blog, available here: 

“It constantly amazes me the things that Publishers and Developers push off on piracy. Pirates don’t buy games. Stopping them does not generate any revenue. There is not a single developer that has proven that piracy hurts their game sales. In some cases it has proven to help sales just as a free copy of a ebook often spurs sales of the hard copy!”– Heartless Gamer

Now it’s important at the outset to note Heartless Gamers Note, “I do not pirate games or endorse piracy.”  Having read his blog there is little doubt in my mind that the statement is true.  Where I take exception is citing his statement as a proven fact because it appeared on “Smells like a Donkey.”   Here is another quote on the subject for you. This one comes from the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Asia:

“Yasuda said that the loss of sales due to software piracy has affected employees at almost every level of development, from the producer who hasn’t been able to receive royalties to the youth that dream of being a game developer. For producers, Yasuda says these royalties contribute ‘to the healthy development of the software business,’ but warned that, in the long run, students aspiring to be developers will ‘suffer the most’ when they eventually release their first game and feel the pain of lost sales”.- Tetsuhiko Yasuda, president of Sony Comp0uter Entertainment Asia, quoted on joystick available here: 

From a business standpoint it is difficult (to say the least) to quantify loss of business to external influences. If nothing else, it is simply because you are trying to estimate something that never occurred. At best it will always be an “educated guess.”  In these economic times not every company has the bottom line of Activision/Blizzard. As we discussed briefly yesterday, the profit line in the gaming industry is already so slim enough that this particular ice should be trod upon with great care.

Yet another type of stake in the game:

Currently we (and that is the “royal” we) are editing show number 48.   On the show we had the extreme pleasure of the appearance of Mr. Colin Dwan, Project Manager for Fallen Earth.  One of the things that we discussed with Mr. Dwan was how we (and in this case it is the “my co-host and I” we) feel that Fallen Earth adds a bit of “virtual World” into a “game world.”  The difference between the two basically is that a virtual world is a world in which you live and a game world is a place where you go through a particular linear scenario.  It’s like the difference between a career and a job.

As Fran, my co-host pointed out, if there is one thing that will draw a player into a game it is player housing.  Even in a single player game it gives a player more of a stake in the game. With player house, the player has a part of the virtual world that is theirs.  “Back in the day” when I was active in Everquest 2, much of my activities surrounded my house – working up to ever bigger homes, crafting for the homes, and simply visiting with friends.

Obviously there is more to involving a player in a game than housing.  Even with player housing if the rest of the game is so boring that you would readily chew your own leg off just to get away from it well…Then to put it bluntly, an old whore with a pound of makeup is still an old whore.  There are many other things that can give a player a stake in a game. Sometimes it can be something as simple as the promise for a brighter future for the game (at least in cases where the promises can be believed).  No doubt there are many accounts that are simply parking fees in World of Warcraft (WoW) as they all wait for Cataclysm to come out.  Some times what keeps us in the game can be something as simple as an achievement that can no longer be earned. Such is the case with my main character in WoW who bears the title “Blood Guard”.   This harkens back to the day when those who participated in PvP earned honor and used to keep your rank; when your score was measured against all the other players on the server. Now, of course, honor earned in WoW is simply another form of currency. Still, even though my character who bears the title Blood Guard is also a hunter – a class who has been nerfed down to the ground and buried under a ton of dung, I still keep the character.

And that’s my stake in the game.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather