One BIG bandwagon
Social games (read Facebook applications if you must ) are one of those aspects of life of which no one seems to have no opinion. Many in the mmo community, like myself, would rather crawl a mile over broken glass and hot coals than spend any appreciable time with them. When Scott Hartsman was on the No Prisoners, No Mercy s Show we were interested… then we let it pass like thoughts of last week’s dinner. When Richard Garriott announced his Portalarium Company with the umpteenth iteration of virtual poker many of us rolled our eyes. When Brad McQuaid announced his intention to start down the same path we were all sure he was simply hopping on the Zynga Bandwagon as it faded into the distance. Now we here at NPNM find ourselves taking another good hard look at the words of Richard Garriott we quoted in our article And I shall call it the wheel .
Recently Steve Jobs announced a future bereft of PCs and cast upon a sea of mobile applications (and he is in a position to “make it so”) – and the Wall Street Journal took him seriously.
“So, I believe the casual gamer and the social gaming platform represent the largest ever yet seen emergence or change within the gaming industry. And all of us in the development community have a choice to either participate and lead in this journey or get left behind.” – Richard Garriott
While I was pondering those words, and the fact that even one of my favorite pastimes, The Sims, has gone mobile, word crossed our news feed, via Techcrunch that Disney is set to acquire Playdom.
Playdom has been acquiring social gaming developers like they were giving them away free -Metaplace, Green Patch and Trippert labs , Three Melons , Acclaim, Hive7.com , and Offbeat Creations . Now Playdom is on the verge of being acquired by The Walt Disney Company who in turn owns, Miramax Films, ABC, DiC entertainment, Fox, Saban Entertainment, Pixar Animation, New Horizon Interactive, Marvel Entertainment, ESPN, Tapulous, and Club Penguin.
My initial hope was that someone at Playdom knew a guy who knows a guy with lots of money who really, really hates Facebook games and wants to corner the market in order to rid the world of these canker sores on the butt of the universe. In a move that epitomizes the concept of “there is always a bigger fish”, the mighty mouse is set to become The Godfather of Facebook games. And while the ownership of Facebook is in dispute in the New York State Supreme Court, the number of users aren’t – that figure just hit 500 million users. So if all these people are indeed “hopping on the band wagon” that is one hell of a big bandwagon. And now we know who will be driving that wagon. None other than the mouse that roared, that mighty Disney Marvel who is set to make Playdom an offer they can’t refuse.
This doesn’t, of course, mean that anyone here at No Prisoners, No Mercy has to be happy with the prevalence of social games that are usually so sickly sweet that playing one game is enough to give a glucose overload to population of a major city. Yes, we have played them (so we know whereof we speak) but not of our own accord. In my case my Facebook page (long since abandoned) was shanghaied by a friend who introduced me to The Sims and Farmville. I owe her a debt for the former, and I still speak to her despite the latter.
So it seems that Facebook games are, sadly, here to stay – I guess I need to find a new hobby.
See you online,
Julie Whitefeather
[posted for Julie Whitefeather by The Webmaster]
Sister Julie,
I have spent a long time huffing and puffing about this issue to my friends, and more often than not I am disregarded because I’m an old-school gamer who talks about EverQuest like it was “the one that got away.” To me, an MMO is something to be experienced and savored slowly, like a freshly-bagged twinkie or newly-poured glass of red wine. You don’t just cram the twinkie into your mouth as fast as you can, or gulp down the wine in one sip, although doing so every now and then would surely make for an interesting experience. No, you take in the scenery, interact with other players, and do whatever seems like the most fun at any given time.
Now you see, because MMOs mean that much to me, I see these Facebook games as a threat. In some strange way, they represent the very worst of where I could imagine the genre going. They’re like the Cold War Commies, coming to invade my life. No longer is it about building an intriguing story, a deep rich world, or fun encounters; Now it is about their way, with quick game sessions, quantifiable achievements and instant gratification.
To my friends, they think I’m being overly concerned about nothing. Most of them are into Mafia Wars or Petting Zoo Hair Salon as a side distraction to their normal internet browsing routines. They believe this particular breed of games is just filling out the gaming market as more people take interest in MMOs. Ultimately they made me feel weird for NOT wanting to play these games.
Their reasoning made sense, until Richard Garriott announced he was going to be making an Online Poker Game. Geez oh man, the last time I saw a career switch that crazy, Michael Jordan was trying to snag fly balls out in center field. And sure enough, one by one, my old MMO heroes have switched over to the dark side. I feel like I’m missing something.
Is it no longer just about making great games? Isn’t that supposed to be what its all about? I realize traditional MMOs take boat loads of money and countless hours to make, but at the end of the day, wouldn’t Richard Garriott be better off designing a rich world like Ultima Online than rehashing Ultimate Poker? Does he really believe this is the exciting future he was destined for?
Along those lines, do you think Disney makes this genre viable in the long term? If so, how would it impact your passion and/or interest for the genre? I apologize for the tidal wave of text, but this topic is something I’ve wanted to speak with others about for quite some time and as a long time listener of you and Sister Frances, I felt like it would be a great opportunity to introduce myself. Thanks for reading!
Yours Truly,
Vercarrion
[...] by a reader (and perhaps listener) who goes by the name Vercarrion. You can read the entire letter here which was posted as a response to our article One Big Bandwagon. Vercarrion, it seems, has been [...]