BETA | VIRGIN GAMING
PULLING RANK
Above: Virgin Gaming’s cash-stuffed truck at E3, containing some of the bounty players will clash over
in the direction of competitive, skill-based gaming. It seemed natural for us; we were doing it, our friends were doing it, leagues were popping up all over the place – so we felt that the natural progression was to take game tournaments online.” Billy, who has known Zack since university, tells tales of the pair competing through gaming for everything from who was buying takeaways to who had to clean the dishes. The pair also spent a lot of money entering gaming tournaments – a fact that played a major part in inspiring them to create what has become the new Virgin Gaming service. PARALLEL LINES However, while personal enthusiasm and experience makes for a robust keystone for any business, it doesn’t guarantee a professional experience free from challenges. Fortunately for Levy and his colleagues, an open-minded approach has allowed them to pre-empt many of the hurdles that have become a stalling point for the few rival platforms that offer a parallel service. “We knew many of the challenges going in, but we discovered a lot of new ones as we progressed,” admits Levy. “We looked at all of the problems that existed on some of the other sites that were trying to offer online video game tournaments – that was when we realised that our technology needed to be really sound. We couldn’t rely on the
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individual players to accurately self-report wins and losses,” he adds. “We also needed to have a reputation system in place so that the community could police itself – similar to eBay. Finally, we knew that our customer service team had to be comprised of actual gamers that were familiar with the games we featured and that would be able to resolve any issues in a manner that would be fair and satisfactory to both parties involved.” Ultimately, Levy is confident about both the potential of the new Virgin Gaming business, and what it can offer to developers. Playing on the sporting nature that is innate to many players, and the inherent competitive mechanic that is at the core of many titles’ design, Virgin Gaming has every chance of success. “The fact that gamers can take something they are passionate about and be able to get more out of it than just bragging rights is huge,” concludes Levy. “Virgin Gaming is also an ideal place for gamers to just network and find quality competition. “Some of the best feedback we’ve had from our community has been about friends they’ve made and/or the quality of competition they’ve found on the site.” Developers interested in more information can contact the Virgin Gaming team at partners@virgingaming.com
VIRGIN GAMING’S NEW APPROACH to gaming is undeniably an intriguing one, but ultimately its success depends on one factor; consumers need to warm to the competitive structure. For many, the likes of Xbox Live have perpetuated the myth that playing against strangers means being annihilated by a youngster on the other side of the planet who has apparently innumerable hours to perfect their ability. “We want developers to understand that our goal is to take their great games and make them even better by allowing players from around the world to participate in massive tournaments for huge prizes,” explains Virgin Gaming’s cofounder and president Billy Levy. “We work together with our partners to help market their games and provide yet another avenue for their audience to engage and compete.” It’s at that point that the ranking system comes into play. Virgin Gaming is designed to make it possible for gamers of all skill levels to enter a tournament and feel confident that they have a real chance of walking away a winner. That considered, it looks very likely that the competitive tournament gaming model could work, meaning developers could quickly reap the benefits Levy and his team promise. The return of Virgin Gaming may well shake up the industry to exactly the same level it did a decade ago, when it made changes that can still be felt to this day.