The evolution of online gaming: sci-fi and mobile
The Korean company NCSoft, which recently celebrated its tenth anniversary, is one of the pioneers in the MMOG market. Over the years, the company has created a number of classic games, including Lineage and Ultima Online. About the history of NCSoft, as well as plans for the future, says the director of the North American division of the company Robert Garriott (Robert Garriott).
The company released its first game in 1997, while no one believed in the Internet. Online games were some exotic. Everyone was very impressed when the number of UO players reached 15,000, the figure seemed unrealistically large. It was absolutely impossible to imagine how the market would grow in ten years. Nowadays, only Lineage plays 67 million people. Every fifth Korean has an account in this game - who could imagine such a thing?
If we talk about the evolution of MMOG for ten years, then the main innovation is the graphics. Ten years ago, it was possible to determine by one appearance, this is a console / desktop game or MMOG. Now it’s absolutely impossible to determine by eye. Virtually all modern MMOGs require powerful graphics cards and the latest versions of DirectX to work. If you run on the screen Lineage II or World of Warcraft next to the console game, the quality of the graphics will be almost indistinguishable. In the scenarios of all new games, a quick involvement is required. In the first 15–20 minutes, the player must be offered some kind of easy quest where he cannot die, and in the end receives a bonus. If this is not the case, the game developers are considered to have performed their work poorly. Ten years ago, it was normal that the player had to wade through twenty levels, feeding on pasture before he reached the necessary development after a few weeks and began to play at his own pleasure. A normal American would not tolerate such a thing: he would rather pay $ 50 to the Chinese in order to immediately get a pumped character at level 20. Now such 20-level torment is rare. The difference between console games and MMOGs is becoming less and less. This mutual convergence: console games also partially acquire some properties of multiplayer games.
There are many genres in the MMOG world. People gradually get tired of classic fantasy (in general, this is a separate story, why the development of MMOG began with fantasy), but new sci-fi games remain quite difficult for the average player. But science fiction is the future of MMOG. NCSoft is now actively working in this direction, studying the experience of console games. Currently there are about a dozen projects under development: half in Korea, half in the USA. Special hopes are placed on the success of the science fiction game Tabula Rasa .
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Robert Garriott looks at Sony's virtual economy experiments with interest. NCSoft also sets the stage for gaming transactions with real money. For example, they have an NC Coin system that supports micropayments, and in a month or two Exteel will enter the market, where micropayments are part of the gameplay process. They also have the game Dungeon Runners, where you can play for free or for $ 5 immediately go to a higher level. Integration of real money into the virtual world is a perfectly acceptable option.
Another important trend is the emergence of online gaming on mobile phones. Garriott is carefully studying this issue and believes that the biggest problem is the heterogeneity of the mobile platform. There are about 600 phone models / graphic standards / other differences on the market. While this “zoo” is not standardized, maybe around Windows CE, with graphics, drivers, interfaces, game publishers will not be able to achieve normal profitability of their developments. When a single standard appears, then the most interesting will begin.
The company released its first game in 1997, while no one believed in the Internet. Online games were some exotic. Everyone was very impressed when the number of UO players reached 15,000, the figure seemed unrealistically large. It was absolutely impossible to imagine how the market would grow in ten years. Nowadays, only Lineage plays 67 million people. Every fifth Korean has an account in this game - who could imagine such a thing?
If we talk about the evolution of MMOG for ten years, then the main innovation is the graphics. Ten years ago, it was possible to determine by one appearance, this is a console / desktop game or MMOG. Now it’s absolutely impossible to determine by eye. Virtually all modern MMOGs require powerful graphics cards and the latest versions of DirectX to work. If you run on the screen Lineage II or World of Warcraft next to the console game, the quality of the graphics will be almost indistinguishable. In the scenarios of all new games, a quick involvement is required. In the first 15–20 minutes, the player must be offered some kind of easy quest where he cannot die, and in the end receives a bonus. If this is not the case, the game developers are considered to have performed their work poorly. Ten years ago, it was normal that the player had to wade through twenty levels, feeding on pasture before he reached the necessary development after a few weeks and began to play at his own pleasure. A normal American would not tolerate such a thing: he would rather pay $ 50 to the Chinese in order to immediately get a pumped character at level 20. Now such 20-level torment is rare. The difference between console games and MMOGs is becoming less and less. This mutual convergence: console games also partially acquire some properties of multiplayer games.
There are many genres in the MMOG world. People gradually get tired of classic fantasy (in general, this is a separate story, why the development of MMOG began with fantasy), but new sci-fi games remain quite difficult for the average player. But science fiction is the future of MMOG. NCSoft is now actively working in this direction, studying the experience of console games. Currently there are about a dozen projects under development: half in Korea, half in the USA. Special hopes are placed on the success of the science fiction game Tabula Rasa .
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Robert Garriott looks at Sony's virtual economy experiments with interest. NCSoft also sets the stage for gaming transactions with real money. For example, they have an NC Coin system that supports micropayments, and in a month or two Exteel will enter the market, where micropayments are part of the gameplay process. They also have the game Dungeon Runners, where you can play for free or for $ 5 immediately go to a higher level. Integration of real money into the virtual world is a perfectly acceptable option.
Another important trend is the emergence of online gaming on mobile phones. Garriott is carefully studying this issue and believes that the biggest problem is the heterogeneity of the mobile platform. There are about 600 phone models / graphic standards / other differences on the market. While this “zoo” is not standardized, maybe around Windows CE, with graphics, drivers, interfaces, game publishers will not be able to achieve normal profitability of their developments. When a single standard appears, then the most interesting will begin.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/5068/
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