Riddle me this…

Quick what do Donkeys, people and multiplayer games all have in common? Give up?

They all have a**holes

Next one – this one’s easier.

What do Tabula Rasa, The Matrix Online, Auto Assault,  Asheron’s Call 2, Earth and Beyond,  Motor City Online (let’s hope Need for Speed by the same publisher does better), Hellgate London,  Fury,  Face of Mankind,  Independence Day Online, Legends of Kesmai, Sims Online, Saga of Ryzom…

And the Unions of Soviet Socialists Republic (U.S.S.R.) all have in common?

That’s right. That one’s easy. They all shut down. Yet at the beginning no one ever thought they would.  Sure, people tell themselves something like “Motor City Online” is likely to shut down one day.  But a country, for crying out loud who expects an entire country to shut down? Back in 1922 the U.S.S.R. must have seemed like a great idea. Likewise, nobody, and I mean nobody – be it developer, publisher, or investor, wakes up in the morning and says “Hey I know! Let’s make an mmo that nobody will play, lets flush our money and effort down the toilet and I mean flush hard.”

But occasionally cold hard reality slaps your plans in the face. Or as Robert Burns once put it, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, gang aft agley”.

But why?

As Mythic (or the artists formerly known as mythic I am not sure) found out you can build it, and they will come  – but they won’t necessarily stay. Now mind you Warhammer  Online certainly hasn’t failed yet, and as we have seen with Age of Conan, it is possible for the gaming community to consider you down and out for the count, yet come back fighting much later.

We could speculate endlessly why this game or that failed, citing reasons, and giving opinions.  And opinions, as well all know, are much like the same thing that donkeys and people in the riddle above have in common – and yes everyone has one (and we don’t mean a donkey).  We could consider game mechanics, the presence or absence of an end game, the creativity (or lack thereof) of quests, and much more.  However, the one thing all these factors have in common is the players. The players are the one factor you can’t program; and that’s why we have things like emergent gameplay.

The Horseshoe Nail

There is a rhyme, quite ancient, that is often said to refer to the death of Richard III of England at the Battle of Bosworth Field:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

What has this got to do with games? Everything.  As everyone in business knows (and game developers and journalists should not but it doesn’t always seem to dawn on them) when you lose a customer you haven’t just lost a customer – you’ve gained a detractor.  And that detractor tells a friend, who tells another friend, who in turn tell still others. The whole thing continues on exponentially until it becomes an avalanche of players leaving a game like the proverbial lemmings jumping into the sea.

But it has to start somewhere.

A few nights ago I was playing Eve Online when I noticed the local chat channel flashing.  What this means, to those of you who don’t play Eve, is that the channel is active. The reason it works that way is because most players have several channels open at once.  I opened the channel to find one player berating another:

“And while you are at it, why don’t you just hire someone to read it for you.”

For those who don’t already know, Eve Online is a skill based game (which by the way immediately refutes the foolish notion that such a thing spells doom for any game that uses said system). Since Eve Online has such a wide scope (sort of like an ocean that is 6 inches deep) there are A LOT of skills.  I followed the conversation and it turns out that the experienced player was berating the new player for not finding out the answer for himself, doing his best to belittle him.

The odd part of all this was that the experienced player could have simply directed the new player to the help channel where all his questions could be answered in depth. Maybe the experienced player thought his mamma didn’t love him, maybe his dinner settled wrong on him; maybe he was simply a big fan of displaced hostility. Whatever the reason, had that been the new players first experience it might have also been his last. Fortunately another voice chimed in:

Not everyone is an ignorant sh*t.  If you have questions there is a help channel where you can get all the advice you need. Simply click the chat balloon in the up right hand corner of your chat window to find it.

The source of said voice then sent the new player a million isk for starter money. I know because I was the source of the voice. Later on it turned out that the “new player” was simply an experienced combat pilot that wanted to learn about mining and industry, and had a few questions about it. Shortly thereafter the “new player” opened a chat window, and we spoke for awhile.

“You know, I’ve never seen a nun call someone an ignorant sh*t before”

“Did I say ‘sh*t’? I meant ‘git’ of course.”

There are, of course, myriad factors at play in the success or failure of any given game, including external market conditions of which the publisher/developer has no control. The remainder of the factors, however, will begin with the players, and their reactions.  And while it may certainly be true that player “ignorant sh*t” above is but one player, collectively those like him create an atmosphere of hostility that can easily drive new players away from games. Fortunately, Eve Online doesn’t have a need for an “end game” if only because it is doubtful that anyone has ever mastered all of the skills in the game. But in games that are level driven there is a definite need to find a way to continue to interest players.

Rob Pardo once did an interview where he discussed player turn around, pointing out that there is a constant influx of players into WoW, the player base continually rotating. Now it is unlikely that anything will ever kill the 800 pound Blizzard zombie gorilla. But a game with a smaller player base is a different story (as it is with any smaller company). They can either find a carrot to tie on a stick and dangle in front of older players/customers or they can find a way to attract new players.  While new players logging on to an atmosphere of hostility is not likely to be the sole reason a game closes down, it will certainly be a contributing factor.

So let’s turn aside for a moment from you experienced players who care about your favorite game.  No, in this case I address the few a**holes present in every game.  The next time you find ranks of players thinning in your favorite game, and the future of your virtual world looks gloomy, think back on those new players you abused, look in a mirror and say to yourselves…

Pucker up Butter Cup – you caused part of the problem yourself.