Losing Ourselves... er, Myself in Social Media, Part 1
One of the projects I've been working on is a social media game. The title and platform have to be left out for the moment because so much of the content is unannounced, but I definitely have things to talk about.
I started to write this post because I was thinking I had learned (and re-learned) a lot about developing online games during the project.
By the time I finished this two-part post I realized I had also learned a lot about myself working on the project.
As part of preparing the new project I've been building the Facebook, Web and Twitter presence for the title and starting to build a relationship with the potential audience. This is a routine step for online games, but it reminded me of a lesson I learned long ago.
In the late 1980's we were building the first round of online games for a set of Commodore 64 and Apple online services called QuantumLink and AppleLink respectively. PC-Link came along about a year later, and in 1991 the company grew exponentially and was given a more familiar name: AOL.
Many nights I'd hang around in the chat rooms, getting to know the people online. This is before the Internet was invented, and a few hundred core users on each platform were the primary audience who paid $6 an hour just to access the service. (No, that's not a typo... and $6 an hour then is $10.75 adjusted for inflation now!)
After two years of doing this and designing a succession of online games I knew the system and the audience well enough that I was able to do the design for the original version of Neverwinter Nights for AOL.
A lot has been written about NWN on AOL being the first MMORPG that used graphics instead of text for game play.
But as the game designer I know that understanding the player was as important to the game's success as understanding the technology.
The bigger our industry gets, the more diverse our audience becomes.
As an audience becomes more diverse, they become less like each other. And the "average" player becomes less similar to any individual game designer.
Whether you're working on an online game, a downloadable title or a packaged console game, what have you done in the last month to interact with your potential audience?
A focus group where you can watch people play an early version of your game? (And realize to your horror that the UI has issues you have to address.)
A chance to spend time talking with people who play our games, don't work in the industry and aren't the 1% leaving snarky one-line comments on industry websites?
A chance to watch everyday people playing competitors' games without them realizing you're in the industry and interested in them?
Some of these things can be accomplished by accident when you go into a Best Buy and the competitor's title is on the end-cap demo station. Most often you'll need to make your own opportunities to interact with the full spectrum of your potential players, not just that core of opinion leaders.
Inside big publishers more and more of these opportunities are being offered to creative teams. indie developers need to find ways to do the same kinds of research, even though it's time consuming and the thing you have the least of is time.
I wonder what's playing on the Best Buy demo stations today?
Copyright (c) 2009, Don Daglow. All Rights Reserved.
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