A few weeks ago at the Game Developer’s Conference (and every conference I’ve been to prior) I heard the usual guff about how games now need more innovation. I’ve honestly come to the conclusion that this isn’t actually true. Yes, innovation is nice. Innovation builds more innovation which leads to the next… innovative thing, but I don’t think it’s what will attract more people to gaming. What will? In my opinion, emotional content.

With innovation, people tend to get bored once they explore all facets of the new feature, and for the average clever player, this takes less than a week. Currently, when playing a game (specifically an MMO) the primary attachment is the time investment put into your character. This can branch out into different subsets, such as your l33t items, or level, but essentially they’re all a factor of the treadmill. Yes, there are other aspects that hold people to games, such as the ‘community aspect’ I mentioned in a previous post, but there’s no real emotional attachment to the game itself.

What this leads to is players who will, on a whim, cancel their accounts. No thought goes into the process; they’ve become bored with the game. The latest ‘innovation’ is now just another aspect that they’ve gamed to death. Creating an emotional aspect to the character or the game is what keeps people coming back. You see people playing Meridian 59 ten years after the fact because of the emotional impact that it’s had on their lives. This can manifest itself in a myriad of different ways, of course, whether they met some good friends in the game, or it was simply their first foray into the world of online gaming, or perhaps it inspired a career in game development.

Now that MMO’s are becoming old hat, the options for innovation are becoming fewer and fewer, so focusing on a different aspect could be the solution. There’s been a lot of chatter about the future, and a few comparisons between Second Life and WoW and this got me thinking why people where focusing so much on Second Life. With the option to buy your own land, build it from the ground up, create content that’s unique to only you, I think this is creating some of that emotional attachment. There’s a personal bond between player and game which is a lot harder for people to leave behind than a hollow game experience. So maybe all the latest rants are right. Maybe it’s time that developers stop waiting for the next innovation, and focus on another way to keep gamers interested.

Reading Psychochild’s recent blog post titled “Why games will still matter” he touched on the subject of the use of avatars. Brian claims that people “…tend to ignore the avatars while chatting because they aren’t important.” I’m going to disagree slightly with him on this point.

Being a bit younger than Brian, most of my online gaming and interaction is centered around the time of graphical MMOs as opposed to text based MUDs. In this context, I actually find myself, in games at least, searching for another person’s avatar, and focusing on that while having a conversation. Using City of Heroes as an example, I would widely ignore the chat box and instead read the bubbles attributed to the character speaking. This was just more comfortable for me.

As games progress more and more into the 3D realm I’ve noticed the use of visual emotes coming into play. Users will bow at each other, wave, dance, sit while waiting, or read the newspaper while AFK. With each new round of online games that comes out, the options for ‘emoting’ become more and more vast. Falling back a bit into earlier games, in Meridian 59 the use of simple emotes has always been an important part of conveying messages to other players.

This of course relies on the assumption that the communication is happening in-game, and Brian made several points about normal chat spaces. While I’ve only had limited experience with 3D virtual chat spaces (mainly Worlds Chat back when they consisted of a space station portal which led to some other less populated 3D areas, I think that as communication technology expands, and video chat becomes more the norm, those wanting to maintain their anonymity will come up with digital avatars for discussion. With the social networking of online, having a visual to focus on helps to personify the other person. Even with games like Meridian 59, I can spot a person based on what they look like, occasionally, without even seeing their name.

As for Brian’s question of:

Is there really a business model that makes sense for the avatar service providers?

I’m going to reply by asking, isn’t this essentially what Second Life is?

Well, I suppose if I actually have a blog, I should write in it. =) One of the topics that has recently caught my attention in the MMO world is that of the ‘community’. If we take a trip back ten years, to the world of the text-MUD and when Meridian 59 was first coming about, there’s a major difference that could be noted in the overall style of multi-user games. This, of course, is how the dynamics of the ‘community’ aspect has been altered as games get larger and more impersonal.

One of the major factors that drew me to Meridian 59 back in my golden years, aside from being the first of its kind that I’d played, was the other people. After joining with a couple friends it didn’t take me too long to branch off and make new acquaintances, people who I looked forward to seeing on a daily basis. These same people, when they left caused a feeling of disappointment. This was odd, primarily, because I had no idea who these people were. It was a certain creepy magic that I loved.
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I’ve finally evolved from the glorious world of written press and done my first podcast.  After what I can only describe as a week of trepidation, I got the call from Kwip over at NeenerNeener.Net and had a (surprisingly) really fun time doing the interview.  I’ll have to attribute this to his l33t interviewing skills, but he’s assured me that all he did was ‘turn on the “awesome” filter’. =)

This week’s interview is with Mike Emmons, the QA manager for Near Death Studios, the folks behind the classic MMORPG, Meridian 59.

If you’re not familiar with M59, you should give it a try. It’s the oldest graphical MOG out there, and a lot of fun. The game is perhaps one of the best-balanced games out there, and it’s a skill-based leveling system instead of class-based, something I’ve always liked.

Mike’s a super nice guy, and has a long history around M59. I enjoyed talking with him and picking his brain (especially the parts where he reveals his REAL title is “Company Bitch”). Listen for yourself and enjoy!

I’ve always enjoyed working with Kwip, and this time was no exception. =)

Recently I’ve had the privelage of working with a couple sites, conducting interviews about Meridian 59. I’m loathe to say it was 100% fun, as I’m still new to the whole interview process. I made it through in one peice though, and they didn’t come out half bad.

In Honor of M59’s achievements and to celebrate this landmark vision which has cleared the way for a massive industry boom, we contacted Near Death Studios’ QA Manager, Mike Emmons, to pick his brains about the project, the industry, the games and the minds of those dedicated to heart of what we here at GamerGod consider to be one of the greatest games to ever see the light of day.

See the GamerGod article here.

A short while later, I was contacted by MMORPG.com and talked to their Garrett Fuller, who had some more challenging questions, and some more ego-boosting for me.

Meridian 59 under the brand name Resurrection came back to life a few years ago and has run a small, but moderately successful operation ever since. We talked to QA Manager Mike Emmons of Near Death Studios, who currently manages the day-to-day operations ofthe title, about the game and its future.

Check out the MMORPG.com article here.

I, of course, was a bit anxious about the whole interview process, but after milling my way through, I’m beginning to enjoy it… as well as being able to google myself. That’s always a shot in the arm. =) I wasn’t expecting to be working with other people when I signed up to develop games, but now that I’ve been thrown in and learned to swim, I think it’s actually a valuable skill to learn. By no means am I saying I’m the next … erm… ‘Dear Abby’, but I think I’m getting better as I go along.