Continuing today’s theme of linking to blogs from people who know a hell of a lot more about MMOs than I do, Raph Koster has a post today about the growing amount of user-created browser-based content that is hitting the net.
At the very beginning he says that the gamer side is waiting for Warhammer, but that there may be a second population more interested in “user-created content, microworlds, web-embedding”. I can’t help but ask, what do people see in that stuff? Aside from bringing us CS, DoTA and Tower Defense (the 3rd is an arguable contribution), what user-created content is truly an advancement of a genre, something that was more than a very temporary distraction? And how many times have you tried something user-generated and been seriously disappointed?
Is the market really there for this type of stuff, on a massive and profitable basis? Something tells me there must be, with some many companies trying it, but the gamer in me says most won’t bother or accept it, especially not when a price is involved.
Of course if I was putting money on it, I would bet on Raph being right over my opinion, but yea…
Hardcore Casual 
“the 3nd” this is a special kind of leet language?
Huh? (edit button ftw)
It’s 1337 honestly.
From a gamer’s perspective, something like his meta-thingy project will be really cool as long as it’s free. I can imagine MMO groups like eve Corporations/Alliances using Raph’s Metaplace site to host their out-of-game information and collaboration site in stead of having a simple web page.
For example, how cool would it be to have a 3-D building (something like a monument or temple?) to display killboard information and have statues of the top performers lining the walls? From what I’ve heard about Metaplace, there could be built-in text chat features, voice chat features, etc…
If there is a free, and easily accessible way for the average user to create online content, then you’ll see all kinds of uses pop up. Look at how many people are willing to spend time creating elaborate mods for existing games, or create 3rd party software tools to enhance existing games. I think Raph is correct to assume that some of those people will create good content if given the chance.
I currently don’t have the budget to pay for games right now, so I’ve had to rely on either free trials to test out new games or check out these in browser ones. Right now I’m shopping for some type of Firefly-like space mmo. I don’t even care about graphics. I just want something to fill that sci-fi nitch I need that won’t cost anything. I did try EVE a second time, due to this very blog, but because I hit a bugged beginner mission about four hours in, that character was practically screwed. I lost momentum right there. But, back on topic, I can see the desire for free user-created content, as there just isn’t anything out there for those of us with limited budgets. I still have yet to find one that really keeps me intrigued for long.
They see what you may see in a game designed by professional, many of whom started out as users. They see a niche not covered. They feel a need to belong, a want to be entertained. Something new or different, that’s accessible. If the traffic is there you can monetize anything.
Provide a simple but yet powerful toolset and users become developers, look at wordpress. People love to express themselves. It will happen with web based games and it’s like the mud explosion all over again. Will there be some new revolutionary advancement? On the net but probably nothing in the traditional MMOG space. We may see some new stuff with tracking data or information from that space, or even mini-games using that information.
The end goal Raph’s talk of user related content in general, and MetaPlace in particular, is not the 90% crap output that it will no doubt generate, but to remove the barriers that limits game creation on the computer to those with a set of specific technical skills. Knowledge of C++ is not a prerequisite for vision in game design. Opening up game design to a broader spectrum of people, allowing people without the technical skills to create the game they want to play, hearkening back to a time before the computer age when creating your own game was a project involving office supplies and imagination. I used to make my own games way back then, the first being a translation of the Star Trek main frame game.
Will making these sorts of tools available to those not technically capable of creating computer based games otherwise lead to the gaming renascence that Raph envisions? That remains to be seen. But it is a step in the right direction, a step in the direction of turning computers from a “technology” to something that is just another piece of our lives.
weve had a decade plus of flash/ shockwave games that were user created… and again a decade ago PORTALS of these game’s top tier- even pro budgeted -efforts launched, and they never really created a mass economy for many. And Flash/ Shockwave apps HAD no complex impossible to sell/ PArtnership deals with the tools developers.- you just bought the tool and could make anything with it- for you or cleints…….. alas almost all the vr worlds tools makers funded and beta-ing today wont allow others to really “use” their technology. only to borrow it for a percentage deal thats not solid nor able to pass on to anyone since its all out of the developers control….. just read the TOS of all these VR worlds/social app tools ….
A dozen web3d tools platforms from only 7 years ago failed to ever really make money for anyone but their founders( after sold off) with the same business plans.. i still wait to see how this can be different this time around:)
Facebook “apps” are the flash cartoons of the moment, the Second Life corporate isalnd, already the SKIP INTRO joke of the current vr worlds lovefest. Web2.0 really is just web1.0 in terms of all factors….just re-memed by the valley folk.
i suspect the only winners of this “user gen game tool ” meme will be the few startups whose tech is bought based on the faux users they will claim in “player downloads”- you tube for example– and geez… they use flash didnt they…. will you try to sell a “video gaming social net” based on metaplace or another to google…Im not sure that is allowed. with their TOS..
so are these just platforms for play? or testing concepts that the developers MUST make SURE they continue to OWN- control after UPLOADING…..maybe.,
wild tangent….ring some bells.>?
garage games.. ring some bells?
i do believe virtual objects and worlds to use them are the future of entertianment– networked and immmersive… but to create a new sci fi world game, and be unable to find a business plan that sustains it online– a shame and now again, the gatekeepers of the tools, not the creators of the content seem to be the only ones lined up to profit from this current “user gen” meme bubble.
Show me 1000 youtube stars, paying rent and life costs via the you tube platform.
Show me the 1000 bloggers, able to make it a profitable living
Show me 1000 myspace bands doing the same…..
Only 1000 SL content makers “earn” more than 500 usd a month… and they have no control over that income, as Linden can cut them out/ delete them for almost no cause at anytime- even after taking their subscription fees that can be 100 a month to make that 500…..:)
Show me 1000 indie game products reaching the 1000 fans at 100 dollars a year that kevin Kelly at Technium talks about?
1000 at 100 a year? is this the future? i actually hope it is… but twice in 15 years the only ones cashing out are the few at the top…like any good pyramid scheme..?)
tools that allow for new types of interactive content- great…..
not selling them for “others” to use freely for the creation of business they can control? horrible.
check out “IMVU goes out of BETA” at http://www.virtualworldsnews.com thread..
thoughts to digest.
dougg
There are certainly more than 1000 bloggers making a living off their blogs. I would check technorati if you want to see a list. Also another recent example is bloggers getting book deals. The author of what stuff white people like raked in a cool 300k advance for their book deal. Now, not everyone is getting a book deal from blogging, but I can easily name a dozen or so that have.
The point of UG content is not that each item must be brilliantly executed and something a pro designer would be proud of but that it is something that you have created. The market for UG content is not other users but the person who created it in the first place and their friends.
Yes, widening the field of talent working on a game is always a good thing but this is merely a side effect from the publisher’s point of view. Finding ‘the next cliffyb’ is nowhere near as beneficial to the bottom line as getting people playing and keeping them playing.
whoops, forgot to close the em tag, if you would be so kind syncaine :)
Here is the difference the way I see it. Blizzard tossed in the WC3 map editor as a bonus to sell WC3, which people then took and made some great games with (along with millions of trash maps). The fact that DoTA is now more popular than actual WC3 says a lot.
But metaplace and the WC3 editor are very different in terms of a business model. Blizzard already made their money on WC3, DoTA or not. To me it sounds like the only way metaplace makes its money is if they get a DoTA-like blockbuster and then feed off that. If you make something small and pass it along to your small circle of friends, how is that going to make a full company enough money to keep going? That’s that part were you lose me.
I’d imagine that metaplace will have a couple of ‘pre-packaged’ games, to show off what it can do and how it was done. Also that it’d use social marketing techniques to get the word out, I also think that metaplace has the potential to be quite different from anything we’ve seen before.
The idea of giving everyone a box of crayons and bunch of newsprint to doodle on is a great idea in theory. Of course 99% of it will be complete crap. So be it. I loved creating tabletop game worlds and building levels in game level editors.
What galls me about this great populist user-generated content claptrap is the fact that the business model is no longer about selling a game, or selling software tools to develop games but about selling users.
At the risk of sounding too much like the now late Chuck Heston in Soylent Green, “USER GENERATED CONTENT IS PEOPLE!”
With Web 2.0, the valley figured out that its simply too expensive to produce content profitably. Instead, lets just create a system where the USERS generate their own content and then we sell that community to sponsors who want to jam their products and services in the faces of those users…. Brilliant!! Roll file footage of “reality TV” as well. And the cheap bastards (aka lowering barriers to participation = free to play, etc.) will show up in droves to watch themselves. Democracy in the MMOGosphere? Hardly.
MMO 2.0 is the same story. This is exactly NOT like the WC3 editor (or any other editors for that matter) which provided users as part of their software purchase tools to create their own content (granted for that game only) and which did not rely on monetizing users’ content generation efforts as the core of their business model.
Believe me, I hope I’m wrong, but no one is doing this for free. Like the old adage, “if you’re playing poker and you don’t know who the sucker in the room is, its you.”
If its free for the user, then the user is the product and that means it will always be less about what the user is doing than keeping the user doing SOMEthing.
Pingback: It has been a while « Mightydar’s Weblog