IGDA Perspectives Newsletter - October 2010

PERSPECTIVES NEWSLETTER ONLINE GAMES OCTOBER | 2010

IGDA PERSPECTIVES o cto b er I 2 0 1 0

NEWSLETTER Negotiation and Trade in Online Games | PAGE 3 |

IGDA News | PAGE 6 |

IGDA Membership Drive Update | PAGE 11 |

Ruminations on GDC Online, or the Emergence of a Sister Game Industry | PAGE 12 |

The Power of Free Maximizing Monetization for F2P Games | PAGE 15 |

SIG Spotlight: Online Games | PAGE 18 |

The Magic Bullet for Alternative Revenue Streams | PAGE 20 |

Studio Spotlight: Gas Powered Games

O

nce again, I find myself missing what is now GDC Online. To all of my Game Writing SIG friends out there, I miss you! I promised myself to have my dissertation complete soon so I can re-emerge from this self-inflicted anti-social prison (with something meaningful to talk about, of course).

For those of you who, like me, missed GDC Online, never fear! We have a jam-packed issue focused on online games for October. We have coverage of GDC Online itself from Doug Hill, as well as articles by some of the speakers.

So, what do we mean when we say online games? These days, it seems to be everything. Massively multiplayer online, mobile, social, console, you name it. With CD keys returning with implications for access to online play, we’re hitting the next world of distribution — wholly digital. Although these things are nothing new (downloadable content, exclusive online game play features, microtransactions), they’re certainly hitting seamless integration.

As someone who recently has been living on remote reservations in Canada and the United States without Internet access for projects, it has hurt not to be able to access full game play.

Here’s to being mindful of the digital divide in the age of online games.

Special thanks to our contributors in order of appearance: Matthew Weigel, Doug Hill, Chris Smutny, Erin Hoffman, Mary Kurek, Chris Taylor, Jen Bullard, Brian Green, Sonja Kangas and Pyry Lehdonvirta. And, of course, our copy editors Lisa Brunette and Sarah Woody. And especially Cat Wendt for her lovely design sense.

| PAGE 22 |

Chapter Spotlight: Austin | PAGE 24 |

Faking an Economy | PAGE 25 |

Beth Aileen Lameman Editor-in-Chief

International Spotlight: Finland | PAGE 26 |

Crowning Achievement: Marketing Lessons from Crown of Byzantus | PAGE 28 |

IGDA & AIAS Amicus Brief | PAGE 30 |

Event Calendar | PAGE 34 |

Our contributors include: Editor in Chief - Beth Aileen Lameman; Art Director - Cat Wendt; Authors -Matthew Weigel, Doug Hill, Chris Smutny, Erin Hoffman, Mary Kurek, Chris Taylor, Jen Bullard, Brian Green, Sonja Kangas and Pyry Lehdonvirta; Copy Editors - Lisa Brunette and Sarah Woody; and volunteers Erwin Chan, Arturo Vargas, Aly Flock, and Craig Ostrin.

Learn more about the International Game Developers Association at www.igda.org.

© Kheng Ho Toh/Veer

By Matthew Weigel

B

ack in the bad old days, online game developers didn’t really design for players sharing with each other. Trades evolved from two very simple rules: If something is on the ground, you can pick it up; if you’re holding something, you can drop it on the ground. Negotiation, similarly, was done through simple chat messages back and forth. This was the standard in a lot of multi-user dungeons, and it was even the model for Diablo and (pre-launch) Ultima Online.

The world has evolved a lot since.

Now we enjoy dedicated trade interfaces, in-chat links to items, customer service logs and some expectation that what you agreed to is actually what you get. As the player’s expectations get stronger, however, the burden on the developer also grows. Providing a trustworthy mechanism for players to exchange goods requires behaving more like a bank and less like a game developer, and it’s not something at which we’re

necessarily very good. Security is one concern, of course, but transparency and managing expectations are others. In the end, it’s still all about fun (or, at least, suppressing the unfun), but the process can be very different.

How do you go about it? Here are a few good rules of thumb.

1. Make every change explicit. Make sure each user, as well as the server, knows exactly what the trade is.

2. Trust, but verify. Never trust the client, and don’t ask clients to trust each other.

3. Protect the integrity of your data. Do nothing until everything is verified, and then do it all at once.

4. Provide a trail of accountability. You are going to make mistakes, and more to the point, players are still going to get tricked. Be prepared.

Make every change explicit. For the players, make each change distinctive.

Icons can pulse, but if you’re dealing with item stacks (e.g., 50 gold coins), numbers can pulse, too. You can prevent

players from accepting the trade until they’ve looked at everything (as, for instance, indicated by mousing over each change), or give them a span of time after each change before they can accept it, etc. The goal is to make the player completely understand the whole trade before accepting it.

Do this at the protocol level, too.

Mark each negotiated trade as different from every other one, and specify which trade, specifically, each user agreed to. If the details of the trade are implicit when a player accepts, it’s possible for those details to change without the player knowing. It’s difficult, but far from impossible, for other players to exploit this and try to time both an initial trade offer and a sudden reversal to take advantage of it. A serially increasing ID works fine to prevent this; set it to increase in increments each time the trade changes, and require the most recent ID for each continuation (and specifically acceptance of terms). This

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| REGISTER

KEYNOTE SPEAKER LAURA FRYER OF WB GAMES NOVEMBER 4-5, 2010, IN SAN FRANCISCO, CA * Affordable leadership training for you and your team * Customizable for all levels of management * Presented by a not-for-profit organization dedicated to professional development * Network with like-minded professionals * Topics include situational leadership, team motivation, software risk management, communications, company culture, and time management The 2010 IGDA Leadership Forum is just around the corner, but there's still time to register. This year, the Forum is focused on advancing the state of game production and management. The growing list of presenters includes speakers from Big Huge Games, Intel, and Disney Interactive, including keynote Laura Fyer, VP from Warner Bros. Interactive, who was named one of the most influential women in gaming by the Hollywood Reporter.

This event will be a valuable experience for anyone who wants to learn and share best practices for leading teams and studios in creating successful games in today’s market. Tracks are focused into three key areas: * Personal Leadership – leadership, communication, time management, and career development * Project Leadership – multi-platform development, pipeline optimization, certification processes, and development methodologies, including a Scrum Certification course * Tools Case Studies – case studies and demos of the latest production and development tools available.

Last year more than 330 participants from over 12 countries took part. Join in at the IGDA Leadership Forum.

For more information about the IGDA Leadership Forum, including updated speaker lists and topics, please visit, http://www.igda.org/leadership. Register at http://bit.ly/9FxAmY.

(Negotiation and Trade in Online Games Continued from page 3)

way, when players accept, they are declaring exactly to which trade they agreed.

If the negotiation procedure can be longer or isn’t exclusive (for example, in a game like Ikarium, you might be exchanging offers with multiple people at once), some changes might not be voluntary — what was offered was used up or lost before the trade was consummated.

These changes should still be caught (discussed in more detail below) and made apparent to all parties.

Trust, but verify. It’s easy and natural to verify the client so the user has quick feedback and can’t accidentally try to do something impossible. This is important, but equally important is to keep verifying. The server should verify everything and (going back to my first point) make it easy for the other player to also verify.

Don’t be afraid to verify multiple times before committing to it: when an offer is made, before sharing the offer with the other player and again after both players have accepted. This is particularly important with protracted trades in which the trade could be invalidated by other events before it takes place. An observer or notification system can track these events, but at a minimum, it requires the trade to be revalidated before progressing.

Before the actual trade, the careful dance of promises and requests that make up negotiation is just as important.

Make it easy for players to verify the promises and claims of someone talking about trading, even before the trade interface is present. If it’s easy, players will expect everyone to do it and suspect any “offer” that doesn’t provide proof of its validity. One good example of this is item-linking in chat.

Protect the integrity of your data. For the actual trade, finally executed, follow the database model for transactions: The trade should be atomic, consistent, isolated and durable[1]. The changes that affect both players in the trade should all happen or not; any bugs here can be exploited to duplicate items (that is, the player giving it away doesn’t lose it, but the player receiving it gains it) or

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to black hole an item (it is given away but not received; it ceases to be).

It’s common for online games to give up on a persistence model based around perfectly normalized databases that are trivially analysis console for intrusion databases; solving that problem is beyond the scope of this article, but as a starting point, consider making items moderately normalized so ownership changes are simple to execute. Otherwise, consider larger stored procedures to still do all the work in a single interaction with the database and within a single transaction.

There are other concerns with data

“Letting players trade with each other -- and be happy about it --

boils down to programming with security in mind. ” integrity, however. Following up on the previous example of linking to items in chat, a straightforward approach (and the one used on Dungeon Runners) was to use HTML-style tags with the properties of the linked object encoded by the client and sent to the server. The client, of course, prevented players from typing in the tags to generate an item link, but a cracked client or external program could insert any item link desired. A better approach would be for the client to request a unique ID for an item (or, if the item is a distinct database row with a surrogate primary key[2], use that key) and have the server generate the text and link.

Then it is simpler for the server to prevent incoming chat from having misleading links, maintaining the integrity of any links presented to the user. Even that can be subject to weird timing problems. The other clients, however, should be able to do a simple verification step here, at a minimum

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showing the current owner of the item, but better would be to clearly display that the item is not owned by the person chatting about it (a bold red overlay of “NOT THEIRS,” perhaps).

This prevents a player from holding onto a link to an item they previously owned or a link to an item they saw someone else link. Well, it should.

Provide a trail of accountability. At some point, you may make mistakes players can exploit to dupe items through trade or scam other players reliably. Even if that never happens, you (or someone in customer support who will come to you if they don’t have what they need) will have to investigate claims it has. You may even need to investigate cases in which nothing technically wrong happened, but someone felt cheated after the fact.

Log every step of every trade, as well as chat. Log item links that occur in chat, and include as much of the player-visible information as you can.

Log enough that you fully recreate the transaction. You are preparing for forensics, but you have the advantage of controlling the world you are later investigating; make use of it.

As negotiation and trade systems continue to evolve, and as more non-RPGs grow into online games, some of the specifics of this advice will become outdated or irrelevant; the most important aspects are the approach.

Letting players trade with each other — and be happy about it — boils down to programming with security in mind, and “security is a process, not a product.”[3] Look for failure conditions and opportunities for people to lie. Handle the failure conditions, and provide enough transparency that players can verify each other; don’t consider anything “transparent” until the user interface makes it obvious. And finally, keep enough logs around that when you do make mistakes, you can figure out what happened.

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Announcing New IGDA Sponsor | Hansoft We are pleased to extend a warm welcome to our new IGDA partner and annual sponsor, Hansoft. Join us for their moderated Hansoft Best Practice Roundtable from 1 – 2:30 p.m. at the IGDA Leadership Forum ( http://www. igda.org/leadership/ )! Details on Hansoft's project management tools can be found at http://www.hansoft.se/.

New IGDA Staff | Sheri Rubin & Ryan Arndt SHERI RUBIN (Acting Operations Manager) - Sheri Rubin has been volunteering with the IGDA for more than 10 years and has helped found two SIGs including the QA SIG (where she is chair) and the Sex In Games SIG. She has served on both the Chicago Chapter Executive Board and the Orange Country Chapter Board of Directors, was elected to the Chapters committee, served on the SIG Committee, and even spent time on the Marketing and Communications Committee.

Concurrently, she served on the WIG SIG Advisory Board and shortly after was elected to the steering committee for the SIG. She has worked as a mentor for students through the IGDA GDC Scholarship program and participated in the WIGI/WIG SIG GameMentor Online program. She is very active in the Quality of Life SIG, Writing SIG, and participates actively in over 15 other SIGs. Sheri is now serving as the Acting Operations Manager and clearly brings an amazing wealth of experience to her position. Say hi to Sheri at sheri@igda.org.

RYAN ARNDT (Acting Internal Community Manager) - Ryan Arndt has worked in the game industry for the past 5 years with experience varying from audio design and composition, to community management and social media content creation/management. He worked as Social Media manager for the Canadian Videogame Awards, Casual Connect, and was formerly the Director of Digital and Emerging Media at Genius Factor Games.

A former educator, Ryan uses his 10+ years in leadership to shape and encourage interaction in the IGDA community through direct communication between/with members, chapter heads and SIG leaders.

As Internal Community Manager for the IGDA, Ryan works to keep his ear to the ground in the IGDA community and is active in both gaming and social media with spare time spent with Vancouver Social Media Professionals, Women In Games Vancouver, hiking climbing and enjoying good food. Ryan can be reached at ryan@igda.org.

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New Member Benefit #1 | Gamesauce All IGDA members with updated mailing addresses will now recieve a complimentary hard copy of Gamesauce, the magazine "inspired by game developers to inspire game developers." The subscription will remain free as long as you retain your membership. If you have an active account and wish to opt out, you may do so at www.igda.org > My Account > Edit > Gamesauce Magazine Opt-Out. Thanks to Gamesauce for their support of the IGDA. Visit http://www.gamesauce.org/ for more information about their magazine or conference events.

New Member Benefit #2 | AudioLinkS Hello IGDA! As part of an effort to get the indie development community thinking more about their audio, we've negotiated a discount with AudioLinkS for IGDA members on some audio recording and monitoring equipment. If you're a wear-all-the-hats style lone-star developer, there are some really cool items to help get you get started recording original sound and music. I'm personally a big fan of Zoom's line of portable recorders. On the other hand, there's a good selection of higher-end gear for bigger teams and audio pros.

So if you have a minute, check it out! And keep your ears open for the Audio Development and Implementation SIG over the next couple of months. We're putting some exciting content together for a membership drive. If you'd like to get more involved, hit me up and we'll chat. We're looking for greater involvement from programmers, game designers, writers, and anyone else who wants to discuss how audio informs and is informed by the rest of the game development process.

-- Robin Arnott, Sound Designer IGDA Audio Dev. SIG, Chair

A message from AudiolinkS: Announcing a great new benefit for IGDA members!

Buy name brand, professional studio equipment at discounts up to 70% off retail prices!

Outfit your home studio and/or professional recording facility with: • Recorders • Headphones • Microphones • Equalizers • Amplifiers • Monitors • Mixdown decks • And even computer headsets made for gaming!

This equipment is first rate and comes to you from name brand manufacturers like Tascam, Shure, Samson, Zoom and Able Planet.

Learn more about this new IGDA member benefit by clicking here.

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These discounts are open to all IGDA members as a result of the special arrangement between Accredited Language Services, an IGDA corporate sponsor, and IGDA’s Audio SIG.

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The Global Game Jam | A Worldwide Event It’s Global Game Jam time again and it’s fast approaching! The 3rd incarnation of this highly successful worldwide event is coming January 28-30, 2011.

We invite you to take part in the largest game jam event in the industry.

Developers, artists and game designers gather at sites around the world on the same weekend. Given a theme and some basic boundaries, they work to develop a game, end to end, in just 48 hours. At the end of the weekend, the games are presented to their peers. (You can take a look at some of the games that were created last year.

PlayedOnline.com also has an article about the best flash games from GGJ 2010.)

The GGJ exists to foster innovative and often experimental game designs created by small, collaborative teams. Prototyping and iterating quickly helps to advance the level of the gaming industry by testing the boundaries of both game design and game production. This challenge is what the Global Game Jam is all about.

We have two exciting additions to Global Game Jam 2011: first, board game design. Modern board games have largely been a rich field for innovative game design (see Dominion and Agricola). Secondly, collaboration across hosting sites has been added to Global Game Jam 2011. We hope this will bring new levels of international collaboration to the GGJ 2011.

We are currently looking to increase the number of hosts for Global Game Jam 2011, surpassing the 139 locations we had in January 2010. If you are interested in hosting a Global Game Jam event, please find more details about the hosting process here. The GGJ leadership team will also be hosting a pair of Q&A sessions on Monday, Oct 25 at 10am and 10pm EST via IRC. More information about these Q&A sessions is found on the call for hosts page.

Registration to participate in the Global Game Jam will happen once the host sites are finalized. Global Game Jam 2011 promises to be the best so far and we hope you have are able to join us to push the creative boundaries for the good of yourself, and the industry.

The IGDA Leadership Forum | 2010 The 2010 IGDA Leadership Forum is just around the corner, but there's still time to register. This year, the Forum is focused on advancing the state of game production and management. The growing list of presenters includes speakers from Big Huge Games, Intel, and Disney Interactive, including a keynote speech from Warner Bros. Interactive VP, Laura Fryer, who was named one of the most influential women in gaming by the Hollywood Reporter.

This event will be a valuable experience for anyone who wants to learn and share best practices for leading teams and studios in creating successful games in today’s market. Tracks are focused into three key areas: • Personal Leadership – leadership, communication, time management, and career development • Project Leadership – multi-platform development, pipeline optimization, certification processes, and development methodologies, including a Scrum Certification course • Tools Case Studies – case studies and demos of the latest production and development tools available.

Last year more than 330 participants from over 12 countries took part. Join us at the IGDA Leadership Forum, November 4-5, 2010, in San Francisco, CA. For more information about the IGDA Leadership Forum, including updated speaker lists and topics, please visit, http://www.igda.org/leadership.

UPDATE! We are happy to announce that Trinigy, developers of the Vision Engine, will be sponsoring the Leadership Forum Reception. REGISTER TODAY @ http:// bit.ly/9FxAmY. I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

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IGDA Podcast | El Juego • 1 legendary game designer.

• 2 hosts.

• 3 random words.

15 minutes. 1 amazing new game. El Juego is a podcast presented by the IGDA. El Juego is IMPROV for game designers! We take 3 random words, a noun, adj & verb and come up with an entirely new game concept. The only rule is it can't be like anything already released! We've had some fantastic guests and killer ideas, so it's been a blast to do.

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: Frank O'Connor (343 Industries) did it. Adam "Atomic" Saltsman (Canabalt, GravityHook HD, Flixel) did it. Martin Hollis (Goldeneye 64, Zoonami) did it. Have your PR representative contact jack@igda.org if you're interested in doing the greatest game design podcast ever.

EL JUEGO LINKS: Site: www.crunchtimepodcast.com iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/crunch-time-ipod-iphone/id367775671 RSS: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/ctpipod PREVIOUS PODCASTS: El Juego #22: Captain Nervy's Curvy Scurvy Words: Cabin, Carnal, Imitate Title: Captain Nervy's Curvy Scurvy Special Guest: Frank O'Connor, Franchise Development Director at 343 Industries As a female captain moonlighting a male cabin boy, you must keep the ship afloat and operational as you set sail delivering tropical meat! Through your escapades to understand the lower deckhand's life, you're faced with situations of abuse and opportunity to quell mutiny. As the captain, you must guide the ship and handle quarrels between the upper and lower decks! Quickly switch between each character without being seen to handle problems as they stack up in this side scrolling adventure on the high seas!

El Juego #18: The Warren Words: Snout, Sadistic, Strut Title: The Warren Special Guest: Adam "Atomic" Saltsman, developer of Flixel, Canabalt, Gravity Hook HD, and many more!

Your Cruella-esque boss wields the power to destroy morale. It's time to fight back! Recruit your rag tag squad of officemates for an all out assault! As a class based, top down RPG, The Warren explores both sides of the equation. Choose to fight the establishment by selecting meeting places, developing secret codes, and formulating & executing plans during office hours, all while keeping off the radar of the higher ups! Or join the (wo)man, by weeding out the uprising using techniques like blocking out email, calling last minute meetings, etc!

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IGDA Advocacy | The Amicus Brief Check out the IGDA's latest project in game development advocacy on page 30.

WIN AN EVENT WITH WARREN SPECTOR!!!

igda | MEMBERSHIP DRIVE UPDATE I

t started September 1 and it ain’t over until Midnight, Friday November 19, so push your memberships ahead to win the prize of an exclusive chapter celebratory event with special VIP host Warren Spector!

Spector, a master storyteller and designer for one of the most highlyanticipated games of the year, Disney Epic Mickey, is known for his innovative views on game design.

Currently he is general manager and creative director at Disney Interactive Studios’ Junction Point. Prior to his work at Disney, Spector started the Ion Storm Studio in Austin and is best known for his work on blockbuster video game franchises such as Thief, System Shock, and Deus Ex. We’ll also shout it from the rooftops (a feature article in the IGDA newsletter, a mention on the IGDA blog and social network announcements). All 81 chapters worldwide are eligible to win and the race is tight! Where is your chapter on the mid-contest list?

Each new member earns your chapter points toward the grand prize. Point values are as follows: Lifetime Member: 10 Points (a limited number of Lifetime Memberships are available) 2 year Core Member: 5 Points 1 year Core Member: 2 Points Student Member: 1 Point

America’s Large Cities Top 10 New York City Silicon Valley Seattle Orange County Toronto

Montreal Los Angeles Orlando Boston San Francisco

America’s Small Cities Top 10

Phoenix Ottawa Quebec City Pittsburgh Portland

Champlain College North Carolina Triangle Wisconsin Baltimore Colorado

Europe and Africa Top 5 Denmark Switzerland Finland North East UK Bucharest

Asia and Oceania Top 5 Hyderabad Israel Shanghai Singapore Sydney

Member registration is available online and as a PDF. Send recruits to www.igda.org/join/online or print out the PDF membership application form here: www.igda.org/sites/default/files/ http://goo.gl/vYj9 IGDA_Membership_Application_0.pdf PDF forms can be submitted via email to Sheri Rubin, sheri@igda.org or faxed to (856) 423-3420 or (856) 423-3420.

The Winning Chapter will work with the headquarters of the International Game Developers Association to organize and promote the Grand Prize meeting.

Get your chapter moving and win!

Ruminations on GDC Online,

or the Emergence of a Sister Game Industry

By Doug Hill

Image from Official GDC on Flickr

F

or 2010, the Austin, Texas, edition of the Game Developer’s Conference was officially dubbed GDC Online to emphasize a focus on the online market. Although MMO games were definitely present, they took a back seat to the emerging sister industry: social games.

In his GDC Online Keynote, Brian Reynolds (Chief Game Designer, Zynga East) discussed the creation of premiere social game FrontierVille, the recently released social sim in which players strive to build a small town in the Wild West.

Brian discussed how the game is a hybrid of the most compelling pieces of two other Zynga hits — FarmVille and Mafia Wars — while also incorporating new features that would make the game more actively fun to play and more compelling to socialize with other players. He emphasized prototyping, experimentation and user testing as the most compelling ways to ensure the best content. In fact, they described their production process not as agile or waterfall, but as JSI-RSO: Jam “Stuff ” In/Rip “Stuff ” Out.

One of Brian’s statements in particular stuck out to me: He said that social games are our television industry. Although he focused more on the need for live support and episodic content, the analogy rings quite true. AAA games are our blockbuster, high-budget movies. Titles such as Braid and World of Goo are our indie films. Now, social games are our television industry — and as such, they truly act as their own industry and not just an extension of “traditional” video games.

Raph Koster (Vice President of Creative Design, Playdom) further pushed these points in his two talks. In AAA to Social Games — Making the Leap (a talk he inherited from his absent partner, John Donham), Koster presented a series of facts about social games, including: • There were 219 Facebook games with at least 1 million users in August.

• More than 50 percent of social gamers play longer than 30 minutes per session, and 10 percent play more than three hours per session.

• On average, social gamers play more

than one session per day and also play more than one game.

Raph went on to discuss the business side of social games, emphasizing areas such as virality, acquisition rate per user and metrics are the responsibility of everyone on the team. Specialization is no longer encouraged unless you are large enough to work across a multitude of titles.

In his second talk, Classic Social Mechanics: The Engines Behind Everything Multiplayer, Raph literally mapped out 40 multiplayer mechanics, some of which were standalone core mechanics (helping someone else), while some were combinations of many of the blocks he had discussed previously (guilds, for example).

This was a massive talk with lots of great information (160 slides!) Raph will be posting on his website.

Not everyone is completely sold with the social games movement, especially in its current form. Ian Bogost (associate producer, Georgia Institute of Technology) talked about his social game experiment

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Image from Official GDC on Flickr

Cow Clicker. The game, which was made based on a friendly challenge from Raph, was his attempt to break down the core of many social games into their base functionality. Much to his chagrin, the game actually became popular despite the only gameplay element being to click on a cow and (if the player chooses) post about it. Ian had many concerns about the lack of depth in many social games, that they may prey on human addiction and that their makers are not being honest about their emphasis of monetization.

GDC Online also hosted several summits, including the Game Narrative Summit. Many of the industry’s most well known and respected writers gathered to share their knowledge with colleagues and a multitude of students eager to break in to this newer discipline.

Tobias Heussner (designer/producer, Bigpoint Berlin) discussed the importance of crafting deep characters, while Jeff Spock (freelance game writer) discussed the importance of thorough world-building.

Both are necessary elements for game writers to determine what their characters will say and how they will act and react to the scenarios you place them in. They

were also both fun sessions, as Tobias had the room do group character creation exercises, while Jeff had a well-crafted slide show that helped emphasize his points.

In another session, Dennis Mathews, Carl Varnado and Rhianna Pratchett discussed the importance of adding diverse characters to game narratives.

They state the industry is getting better, there are still far more male than female characters and most characters are Caucasian. They also noted a disturbing trend in stereotypes for minority characters and emphasized diversity also should be added where it will have meaning and not haphazardly to a game in which it does not belong.

The Game Narrative Summit Keynote was by Joseph Staten (creative director, Bungie), who discussed what it was like to craft the Halo universe over the span of a decade. Staten noted they did not start with plot or characters, but instead focused on creating a world that, when players saw it, they would want to go there and explore. He noted that working on plot early could actually be detrimental to the long-term development

process, as potential rewrites would have a ripple effect on the rest of the game’s development.

This article does not do true justice to any of these sessions, and sadly, there were many other sessions I was unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts.

Luckily, many of the sessions were covered in detail by Gamasutra and a multitude of live bloggers. Most also will be available in the GDC Vault in the near future.

The best way to experience a Game Developers Conference is by being here, and I feel fortunate I was able to attend. It was incredible to see so much discussion on the ins and outs of social games, especially by members of the larger companies who easily could have kept this information to themselves. I look forward to a bright future for this new sister industry, which is definitely in good hands. I look forward to hearing about the steps social games have taken when I attend next year. 

Images from Official GDC on Flickr I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

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The Power of

FREE Maximizing Monetization for F2P Games

By Chris Smutny

O

ver the past three years, the rise of free-to-play games and the use of virtual currency as a monetization engine have been staggering. This business model has swept both casual games, like the majority of those on Facebook, and content-rich games, like most MMOs. Games on Facebook have reached 80 million-plus monthly active users and achieved spectacular financial results. The largest Facebook developer, Zynga, has a speculated valuation of $3-5 billion.

Another large player, Playdom, was bought

by Disney for $563 million, and Electronic Arts bought PlayFish for approximately $300 million. Beyond Facebook, games like Dungeons and Dragons Online have shifted from a subscription model to F2P, breathing new life into the title.

There’s no mistaking the power “free” has in engaging consumers. For example, in his book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, Chris Anderson tells the story of a professor selling Swiss truffles for $0.15 and Hershey’s Kisses for $0.01. Students rightly recognized the value of the discounted truffles, and 73 percent of students choose the truffles. The professor then dropped the price by one cent for each candy. This price reduction had the effect of maintaining the 14-cent price differential but made the Hershey’s Kisses free. Classical

economics would expect the students to behave in the same way they did before.

In fact, the students’ behavior shifted dramatically, and 69 percent of the students chose the free Hershey’s Kisses.

In this example, it’s clear to see that “free” bends the demand curve. This powerful effect on gaming is difficult to overstate. F2P games are able to attract far larger audiences than that of other pricing mechanisms. But monetizing this audience requires a careful balance of art and science.

Adknowledge’s SuperRewards (http:// www.srpoints.com) has been in the virtual currency space since day one, and for the past three years, we have worked with several thousand game developers across every social platform as well as the open Web to monetize their games and grow their user bases. During that time, we’ve seen first-hand the challenges that come with game development and monetization. We’ve learned several important lessons that can help developers maximize their F2P opportunity:

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Lesson 1: Make Virtual Currency Core to the Game Itself Successful F2P games have one or more virtual currencies at the very heart of the game’s mechanics. The players’ actions revolve around increasing their game stats;

virtual currencies are the key stats users are grinding and growing every time they play these games.

As a developer, you must build your main virtual currency as one players can earn for free by playing the game. This currency should be at the core of users’ ability to purchase virtual goods in your game, and those virtual goods should be central to the game play itself. You can monetize this currency directly as a means for players to zoom ahead faster in the game. But don’t stop there. Add a secondary currency that is harder to earn by grinding on the game. Perhaps you sprinkle a few free credits on that secondary currency as players hit major milestones, but do it mainly as a way to remind players this secondary currency exists. Use the secondary currency as a method to unlock special features, limited time items, special powers — anything that is exclusive and special that really enhances the game play for those players who get it. Then allow your hardcore users to purchase or earn this currency with real money. This secondary currency is the one that will really drive heavy revenue for your game.

Lesson 2: Carefully Balance the Economy Managing your virtual economy is critical to both the enjoyment of users as well as pa g e 1 5

|JOIN Why join the IGDA? The International Game Developers Association works to enhance and advance the lives and careers of game developers around the world. We are a volunteer-driven organization of game developers helping game developers.

By joining the IGDA you help support the leading industry group representing game developers and help to shape policies and best practices for the game industry as a whole.

The IGDA also offers numerous benefits including:

COMMUNITY

Local chapters - From South Africa to Finland to Shanghai, over 80 chapters worldwide!

Special interest groups (SIGs) - Focusing on topics as diverse as Sex in Games to Artificial Intelligence to Quality of Life Game industry events - Gain access and discounts to industry events, roundtables, workshops and receptions Voting rights and leadership - Shape the organization, or run for leadership and affect change even more!

KNOWLEDGE

Online webinar series - member only webinars featuring industry experts that cater to a wide range of interests Leadership Form - our annual event that brings the best of our global speakers together to share their challenges, solutions and ideas for the future White papers & publications - publications on a variety of topics and core industry positions

RESOURCES

Healthcare program (available to most US residents) Members-only discounts on books, numerous conferences, classes and then some Online profile - create a professional profile on IGDA.org to showcase your work and connect with other industry professionals

Learn, connect, share, and represent the video game industry: join the IGDA.

Get involved! | Stay current! | Expand your network! | Be heard!

Learn more here: http://www.igda.org/join

(The Power of Free - Continued from page 15)

the monetary performance of a game. One of the first areas of focus is to measure and control the “sources” and “sinks” for currency in your economy. Sources are the ways users gain currency. These include purchases (Buy) and awards for accomplishments like leveling up, completing a minigame or the passage of time (Earn). Sinks are ways users spend the currency (Spend), such as virtual goods or gifts. Both sources and sinks need to be balanced and provide an incentive for users to spend money. If a gamer is able to earn sufficient currency for all the sinks without spending real money, your game design is too generous in giving away currency.

Ideally, Buy + Earn = Spend. If Buy + Earn > Spend, users will reduce the amount of currency they Buy, and you will make less money.

Lesson 3: Monetize 100 Percent of Your User Base So you’ve built a game, and you’re monetizing some of the users. Why not monetize all of them? Many games bury the opportunity to buy virtual currency.

This is a big mistake and is analogous to a Las Vegas hotel without neon signs.

There’s a reason casinos build large, flashing neon signs to draw attention.

In the same way, do not bury the ability for users to buy currency. Make it an easy, frictionless experience, and you will convert a larger percentage of gamers into paying gamers. There are a handful of ways to accomplish this, including the use of payment banners that can be placed in prominent locations within the game or one-click checkouts.

Lesson 4: Build Discovery Into All You Do Our experience shows only a small portion of users will actually pay to play the game.

This means you need a larger number of users relative to a subscription-based game.

Discovery refers to the ways new users can find your game. One mechanic to drive discovery is the use of “group builds.” If your game requires the construction of a structure, weapon or virtual good, make it mandatory for the user to rely upon three to five other players to finish the construction.

This dynamic incentivizes the user to bring in additional users to play the game. If done well, this creates a powerful positive feedback loop.

Lesson 5: Include Advertising Offers As an Alternative Payment Method Referring back to the truffle/Hershey’s Kiss story, offers take advantage of free’s ability to bend the demand curve. With offers, users are able to interact with an advertiser in return for earning virtual currency. These can range from the ubiquitous Netflix trial offer in which a user will earn the equivalent of $20 of virtual currency or the viewing of a movie trailer in which a user will earn a dollar’s worth of virtual currency. At Super Rewards, we are focused on bringing the actions users take every day (e.g., shopping online, subscribing to a magazine, watching videos) into games to allow them to earn virtual currency. This concept follows the same model credit card companies use when they offer rewards for making purchases.

The best offer providers give controls to game developers to allow them to fine-tune the types of offers exposed to users. This

level of control should be a requirement for working with such a provider.

Lesson 6: Frequently Release New Content Fresh content gives users a reason to come back and another reason to spend.

Content releases should be on a frequent schedule. For games on social networks, we like to see significant updates that would affect users made every two weeks. Content can take many forms, such as decorative items, functional tools, new maps and much more.

Although there are a number of other ways to effectively monetize a game, following these techniques will have a significant impact on the success of a F2P game. Since the virtual currency industry continues to change rapidly, understanding the nuances of how to monetize can make or break a F2P game’s success.

Chris Smutny (csmutny@adknowledge.com) is vice president of Virtual Currency & Online Gaming at Adknowledge, a leading online advertising technology company. Chris has helped lead the company’s growth in becoming the largest privately held ad network in the United States. Adknowledge has been recognized as a Red Herring Top 100 and AlwaysOn Media Top 100 award winner. For more information or solutions to your monetization needs, visit http://www.srpoints.com/inquire. To sign up and start monetizing your game or app, visit http://www.srpoints.com/signup.

NEXT MONTH’STHEME IS:

career paths

Email ideas, articles & press releases to newsletter@igda.org

SIG SPOTLIGHT: ONLINE GAMES Interview With Erin Hoffman What is the focus of the Online Games SIG? The Online Games SIG is one of the oldest SIGs in the IGDA, founded in 2000. Back then, the focus was to bring together developers in this still coalescing but unique branch of game development.

While various MUDs and online games were brewing in the ’80s and ’90s, it wasn’t until the late ’90s that they really started to break into the greater game consciousness with games like Ultima Online and Everquest. “MMORPG” as a term wasn’t even used until 1999. Today, it’s harder to find a video game that doesn’t have some kind of online component than it is to find one that does — so the SIG’s mission has mutated, and it’s even spawned subgenre SIGs like the very healthy Casual Games SIG. In its current incarnation, OGSIG is rallying to connect developers in what is now a very established and highly desired expertise set and build a knowledge base of topics developed through the history of online games in order to inform the development of online games’ many growing new subgenres — most notably lately online games for kids and social games.

What are the SIG’s current initiatives and activities?

Our steering committee meets monthly via phone to plan events (we hold roundtables at the major gatherings that serve online game developers — LOGIN Conference, Game Developers Conference and the recently rebranded GDC Austin/Online GDC). This summer, we launched a blog (http://archives.igda.org/online/ wordpress/) currently awaiting a more permanent home on our new site servers, I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

and we’re working on what we’re calling a “Living Whitepaper” as an update to the 2004 Online Games Whitepaper, this one with a wiki format and crowd-sourced to bring in expertise from those many online game branches. We’re actively recruiting for a mailing list “topic of the week” moderator and would love to hear from anyone interested in online games and developing more SIG initiatives.

More recently, we’ve also been consulting on optimizing the IGDA website.

How do members of the SIG feel about the future of online games?

This is a very open-ended question! :) For us and an ever-increasing portion of game developers, the sky really is the limit when it comes to online games.

In the next few years, we’ll increasingly be seeing location-based games and augmented-reality interfaces. Games on mobile devices become more sophisticated every month; it’s easier than it’s ever been (not that it’s easy!) to launch your own online game company. Technological barriers are falling, platform capabilities are rising and more people than ever are playing online games. Social games, for a time considered a new kind of animal in games generally, are increasingly aware of how they can benefit from the expertise of veteran online world developers. Life is good. :)

What are your hopes for the SIG in the future?

game development community back together after a period of pretty wild diffusion. Online game developers have always been a bit more renegade-like and independent, partly because the worldmaking medium encourages you to craft your own ship and sail it, but there is still so much pain we can avoid by learning from each other. As the tools for making online games grow increasingly sophisticated, our sheer brainpower becomes more important in taming the future of online games, and we’d like to bring together the best and brightest in wrangling that discussion. Mostly we’re happy if we can bring folks together once in a while to have a good talk about the field in the rush of keeping up with such a fast-moving and intense market space.

Is there anything the greater IGDA chapter community should know about the Online Games SIG? There’s probably more that we as a SIG should know about chapters! We know that geographically, online game development is centered at major nodes in San Francisco and Austin in the U.S., with very interesting developments taking place in the Netherlands and Germany (as well as our reliable leading edges in Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo).

And those are just the big hubs that we’ve historically known about. If you’re a member of a chapter that wants to discuss online games, we should partner up! 

We hope to create a connection point for a new generation of online game developers, to genuinely deepen our discussion of what it means to connect players online, and to bring the online October | 2010

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Y U

yes you!

HAVE 48 HOURS TO CHANGE THE WORLD. No budget, no demands.

It’s just you, your team, and all the creative might you can muster in the span of one weekend. You don’t need experience, but you do need passion.

Come with friends or come alone, as long as you bring your heart. Gaming is an enormous creative space, but there are still vast lands that lie beyond our vision—pristine, untouched, ripe. The Global Game Jam is your gate to that vast gaming frontier. We’ll point you in the right direction, but your path is your own.

Whether you’re a pro looking for some creative freedom, an indie developer, or a student, there’s room for you to experiment, innovate, and learn.

Your size and speed are strengths. You’re going to have to innovate and take risks that professional developers can’t. You’ll make mistakes, but that’s the point. Last year, more than 4,300 pioneers from over 39 countries created more than 900 finished games.

One Utrecht-based team released their 2009 Game Jam prototype on the iPhone App Store this year, and a 2010 participant will have his brainchild published on Xbox Live Indie by award-winning UK publisher Mobile Pie. The third annual Global Game Jam takes place January 28 – 30, 2011. Find your local waypoint at www.globalgamejam.org. We can’t wait to see what you discover!

Where will your Game Jam lead you? sponsored by the

gl

bal game jam

© Darren Brode/Veer

THE MAGIC BULLET FOR ALTERNATIVE REVENUE STREAMS

By Mary Kurek

W

ith the summer’s unimpressive U.S. retail figures for the games industry, more publishers are looking hard for new and creative ways to maximize their income. The obvious first method for many would be to create alternative revenue streams through incorporating ads on the company site. But, what if ad revenue doesn’t do the job you expected? Are there other sources that work?

According to Rohan Crawford, media finance and strategy consultant, the answer is yes, if you are a smart risk-taker.

“I tend to compare the efforts of the game industry with that of the film industry,” Crawford says. “Both sectors are under a financial crunch, not only in terms

of generating revenue from consumers, but also in getting funding for development.

The one thing I suspect could have greater potential for games is product placement.

Back in the day, product placement in films was more subtle, but today they are far more obvious. The top-grossing film, Wall Street 2, used product placement to the max. The brand list includes Moët, Ducati, Lay’s, Bed Bath and Beyond, Toyota, Jack Daniels, Dunkin’ Donuts, Blackberry, Johnnie Walker, Cracker Jacks, Patrón, Dell, Red Bull, Apple, and more who received commercial value from the liaison.”

Crawford also advises new game developers looking for ways to generate financing to consider local product placement. He gives the example of

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a beverage company who may be interested in brand recognition beyond the regional market.

“A colleague of mine in Atlanta represents local brands and is actively looking to connect with game developers for just that reason,” Crawford says.

Zynga is one company that has figured out how to successfully partner with brands for mutual benefit. Its Mafia Wars Facebook game included a directive to make purchases at a local 7-Eleven to access special codes for enhanced play. The company also has partnered with the convenience store giant on marketing events for other games. Zynga’s pretty good at developing ARS. So good, in fact, that it even helps charities beef up their budgets, pa g e 2 0

such as providing in-game opportunities for players to purchase virtual social goods to help Haitian relief efforts.

The business of creating additional revenue streams has become practically a year-round effort for some publishers. One publisher cranks out a new ARS or two every quarter ... often just before market reports are released.

They’re keeping their number crunchers busy checking stats on everything from virtual pets and goods to premium services, special character features, character transfers, name changes and mobile add-ons. Some of these items are easy for even small publishers to pull off, but what if you have a bigger vision?

Now we’re talking accessories — or the more industry-appropriate term, “peripherals.”

Amna Nadim is the marketing consultant for CTA Digital, a New York company that produces video game accessories.

“Peripherals are good when they complete or extend the experience of playing a game,” Nadim says. “The value that gamers get from using an accessory has to surpass the effort of setting it up.”

CTA Digital has produced a series of sports and fitness peripherals, as well as a sniper rifle

and other weapon accessories that take game play (and game success) to a heightened level.

“What games sell are fantasies, dreams and entertainment,” Nadim says.”If a peripheral can help make those experiences more immersive, then it becomes an important part of the package. As an example, to feel like you’re actually playing music in Guitar Hero or Rock Band, you need to hold a guitar.

Similarly, holding a ping pong paddle can add functionality to a PlayStation Move table tennis game, allowing gamers to hit at angles and add spins more instinctively. The same can be said about pointing and pulling the trigger rather than using analog sticks to shoot in an FPS. By focusing on functionality over form, accessories can increase the overall value that game publishers can ultimately pitch to their audiences.”

If your game platform is mobile and more physically limiting, then creating ARS may take on more of a management focus.

Tim Woitkun, business development manager for Mobile First, a mobile billing and text message delivery platform company, talks about centering attention on the payment process.

“Integrating purchase opportunities into online or mobile content and creating options that tie to phone bills or prepaid balances is an impressive sales booster,” Woitkun says.

Saving money while creating ARS isn’t a bad deal, either. Social Ingot is a provider of virtual currency monetization and a client of Mobile First. Social Ingot President Paul Capriolo says that prior to using Mobile First, they were being handcuffed by high costs, unreliable settlement schedules, consumer fraud and limited support. With Mobile First, Social Ingot has seen its transaction fee payments decrease by as much as 10 percent, managing its risk and cash flow by receiving the funds 50 percent faster and allowing its publishers to offer a branded payment experience to build brand equity and increase conversions.

There appear to be lots of answers to the question of ARS options. But, what seems important for any publisher is to continuously build and manage a strong community into the asset you need. That asset is your ticket to good partnerships, great advertisers, interesting media opportunities and more alternative revenue streams. 

NEXT MONTH’S THEME IS:

career paths

Email newsletter@igda.org for more information

STUDIO SPOTLIGHT: GAS POWERED GAMES Interview With Chris Taylor How does Gas Powered Games generate game ideas?

In the old days, ideas were much more random and usually came from an inspiration, a book, a movie or even another game. These days, we are much more into evolving ideas from games we’ve already developed. At Gas Powered Games, we’re very much an RTS company, so we are really focusing on how we can bring new and innovative game play to the genre.

How many people work for Gas Powered Games, and what’s your breakdown?

We have about 40 full-time people and usually have teams ranging anywhere from 20-25 people. We often have one game in full production while one is in pre-production, so we can keep the total headcount down.

We’ve found that over the years, it’s more fun to makes games with a smaller team ... more team spirit and overall camaraderie.

I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

What makes your studio different from any other?

Well, first off, we are very much a “PC games” studio, which means most of our games have been for Windows PCs. We’ve also got a history of making original games, but we do like the idea of working on established franchises if the opportunity arises.

Where does Kings and Castles fit in online games development?

Kings and Castles is an opportunity to explore a new business model ... first we release the core game, and then each month, we release new content, or monarchs. It’s taking the downloadable content model to whole new levels, but we might also bring some aspects of microtransactions to it as well.

What more can you tell me about what you’re working on currently?

Kings and Castles is released, and anyone can watch the weekly video blogs at

October | 2010

www.kingsandcastles.com, but we’ve also got some other projects in the works.

Like many developers, we’re under NDA and can’t talk about those projects publicly just yet. I can say that we are paying close attention to what’s happening in the industry, and the many changes that are taking place. We’re not going to just sit on the sidelines!

What’s the best part of working in online games?

Since we’re very new to this area, I can’t speak with much authority on it just yet, but from what we can tell, the best part is that our customers can get updates often; we can have a much closer relationship with them and collect feedback on the experience they are having and make quick changes to see if the experience improves or not.

Digital distribution can keep our costs low and, for lack of a better way to say

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it, keep the spirit of the game alive for much longer than traditional distribution.

What challenges does Gas Powered Games face?

Like many independent developers, the biggest challenge that we face is launching a new IP. It takes time and effort to get the word out and to get mindshare in a world that is overloaded and has a million things going on all over the world — all stuff that competes for the attention of our audience. But more than that right now, the economy has had the biggest impact on us and getting the momentum behind a new title.

Where do you see Gas Powered Games heading in the future?

We’re seeing new customers emerge, people who haven’t played games in a very long time; we’re getting our old customers back that were chased away by games that were too serious or hardcore.

We’re acutely aware of how our business needs to change to meet the needs of our customers. In some respects, it’s like someone rolled back the clock 20 years, but instead, we have incredibly powerful computers, the Internet and a much better understanding of how games are made.

It’s an exciting time to be in the business.

Why is it important to be part of the greater game community, and how does IGDA help you connect?

As you can imagine, we’re looking at the online space, and more than just developing online games, we’re looking at our customer with a fresh perspective.

I think it’s important to be part of a community because we can share ideas, both in the art and the science of game making. It’s a tough economy, but if we deliver an outstanding experience to our customers, we’ll attract their dollars, and

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we’ll keep thriving, and that’s really the No. 1 goal. The IGDA makes the connecting part easy, and that’s fundamental to keeping our community strong.

What advice do you have for other developers interested in online games development?

I think it’s the same advice I give myself: Play lots of games, and fearlessly go exploring, anywhere, everywhere. It’s easy to try to ignore it all, but there’s a huge world out there, and there’s a lot going on. I think it’s also key that you have to experiment with new ideas, prototype them and test them out. Don’t worry about the pretty graphics; just get a prototype built. That will tell you more about the idea than anything else. 

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CHAPTER SPOTLIGHT AUSTIN Interview With Jen Bullard How did your chapter get started?

Ellen Beeman started the Austin Game Developers group in the mid-1990s. It was taken over by Peter Freese after she moved away in the early 2000s, which eventually incorporated as an IGDA chapter. In its early phases, Austin IGDA was primarily a meetup group for local developers and eventually opened its doors to more and more people. The organization has gone through several phases, with different ways of supporting the developer community as the leadership changed hands. These days, Austin IGDA is ramping up to support studios, students and game developers with a variety of events and communication tools.

Who are your chapter leaders?

I am the chairwoman, Billy Cain is the vice chairman, Amy Goldenburg is the chapter coordinator and Mike McShaffry is the treasurer.

How do you recruit new members into your chapter?

check us out. During these events, we ask people to see the IGDA representative if they are interested in joining. When we have volunteer meetings, it is posted on the Austin IGDA Facebook page. Austin IGDA can do more if there are more people who are actively interested in coordinating events or pitching in at the events.

How often does the chapter meet?

What was your most recent event as a chapter?

We held Microtalks at Mister Tramps on Sept. 17. It was a great success, turning into standing room only! We had nearly 100 people attend and 10 speakers, who were all fantastic. Our goal is to hold more of these in the future because they are so popular.

We have been pretty irregular about meetings. Right now, there is an effort to meet monthly, but with everyone’s crazy schedules, it is really hard to find a good time for everyone. If you are an active volunteer, we have an e-mail list by which you can chat back and forth with the other active volunteers, the advisory board and the officers. We also use Facebook and our website as communication tools with the general members.

What has your chapter done to support online games?

Does the chapter have a favorite place to meet, or does that change?

Find us on Facebook or visit us on our website.

Most of our events are open to the public, so people will frequently come by just to

Right now, we are using Opal Divine’s north, but other locations have been used in the past.

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Austin IGDA focuses more on supporting studios and developers than it does any particular type of game genre.

Our intentions are to support businesses, established and start-up, so they stay in business or grow their companies wisely. This leads to developers having better opportunities in job choices and uninterrupted employment.

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By Brian Green

sst. Hey, do you fake it? It’s okay; you can confide in me. I won’t tell them.

I’ll admit, I prefer to fake it when I can; it’s just a lot more fun that way.

Get your head out of the gutter. I’m talking about multiplayer economies — not THAT. In a multiplayer game, there are actually two different economies: The economy of the game, which determines how money enters and leaves the system, and the player-to-player economy that determines the prices that players will pay each other for goods and services. These two economies are separate but related. I’ll focus first on the game economy because that is what designers have the most control over.

The main problem with economics is that few sane people would consider it fun, especially in the context of a game. Who

likes balancing a checkbook? I bet many of you have been guilty of only checking your bank balance on occasion, hoping for the best when a big expense (or party) occurs.

So, why should designers make players balance virtual checkbooks to manage their gold pieces? It’s just not much fun.

Some people will say that they prefer a simulation of an economy in a game over real-life economies. A designer really needs to consider whether a “realistic” economy really does benefit the game. I think that most simulations end up being terribly unrealistic because people generally don’t treat in-game currency like offline money.

You also have all sorts of bugs that don’t turn up in the offline world; one of my favorite bugs from Meridian 59 was when a non-player character gem seller would buy back gems for more than he sold them for under certain circumstances. The NPC was programmed to accept this unfair deal with no reservations, whereas a human businessperson would probably have stopped even the first transaction from taking place.

What does it mean to make the economy fun? From an economic point of view, players have fun in a few ways. Gaining power is fun because it shows mastery of the game; this is usually the point of most multiplayer games with economies in them.

Similarly, just getting new items can be fun if they give you new options to play with.

Helping other people, particularly your friends, can be enjoyable for people who want to be a positive influence on others.

In all these situations, players will want more than enough money to accomplish these things: getting more power (which includes accumulating more money), getting new options (usually in the form of items) and helping others out.

However, if everyone is making money, and the money supply continually increases, then you have inflation. Everyone has more money to offer to acquire goods or services they want from other players, driving up the prices for items without a fixed cost.

This can have some negative impacts on the game. Most notably, it becomes harder for new players to participate in the player-toplayer economy since they will usually earn less money than experienced players.

Increasing prices also means that players might become interested in acquiring money with less effort, such as from gold sellers that can affect MMOs. A discussion of the morality of gold selling is beyond the scope of this post, but let’s agree that it causes issues the designer needs to address.

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The following article first appeared on the community blog Game Design Aspect of the Month (http://gamedesignaspect.blogspot.com), also known as GDAM, under the topic of Multiplayer Economies. Each month, game designers and other industry professionals offer their views on a particular game design issue.

In Part I of this article, MMO developer Brian Green points out that a realistic economic simulation in a MMO may not actually be possible or even fun for the players.

Please participate in October 2010’s topic, Puzzles, by submitting an article or comment.

GDAM is currently edited by Sande Chen and Altug Isigan, founding members of the IGDA Game Design SIG.

P

Brian Green, known by the pseudonym Psychochild, is an experienced MMO developer. He’s best known as the former developer of the classic online MMO Meridian 59 and as the writer for his professional blog.

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT FINLAND Interview With Sonja Kangas How did IGDA Finland get started?

Who are IGDA Finland’s leaders?

IGDA Finland started in 2005 when a few Finnish game developers (Mika Tammenkoski, Lasse Seppänen and Jouni Mannonen) came up with an idea of organizing a pub night for game developers.

The word-of-mouth method worked well, and to their surprise, the pub was packed with game developers interested in networking. At that time, there were only a few bigger game studios and a number of small ones — especially focusing on mobile games, thanks to the impact of Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia. But back then, there weren’t really any events where game developers could meet each other. It seemed silly to travel to GDC or such events in order to meet other people working in the same country.

I am the lead coordinator of IGDA Finland, and I have a team of seven helping me with coordination tasks. IGDA Finland is a very active chapter. The coordinator team is responsible for organizing monthly gatherings, the IGDA Finland presentation series and special events, such as movie-theater gaming sessions.

delivering quality networking and lessons learned from other developers. The mission of IGDA Finland is to promote the development of careers and professional skills of individual game developers based in Finland and to further develop the international recognition of the Finnish game developer community. That is also a very good reason to join IGDA Finland events and networking.

How do you recruit new members into IGDA Finland?

How often does IGDA Finland meet?

We are far from IGDA headquarters; thus, we have to think about what would generate value for Finnish game developers who might not have the benefit of GDC discounts or would not have an opportunity to join other U.S. events. We are focusing on

We organize monthly pub nights with a phenomenal turnout of about 150 people each month. In addition, we also organize an IGDA Finland presentations series three to four times per year. Presentations are streamed live, and the recordings can (The

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be found on the igda.fi website. This is our way to give something to other IGDA communities in different countries as well — a lot of good lessons learned and practical issues discussed, from tools to game startups and funding to project management.

To put the 150-average turnout into perspective, Neogames, the Finnish Centre of Game Business, Research and Development, estimates that the game industry employs some 1,500 people in Finland. If we manage to attract 150 each month in just one city, that shows that there certainly is a place for IGDA - type of networking.

focused on game startups. We had six startups sharing their stories, and as a special treat, Trip Hawkins from Digital Chocolate was visiting Finland and also shared his story with a room full of game developers.

Our pub nights started rolling again in September after the summer holidays.

What has IGDA Finland done to support online games?

We had a very successful IGDA Finland presentations session just before the summer holidays. The session

We want to bring out Finnish game studios and developers through pub nights and IGDA Finland presentations events. We also encourage developers to share their successes and challenges through the IGDA Finland website, our discussion forum and the Facebook page. We want to make working in the local industry more fun by creating a strong sense of community. Our monthly gatherings are one example. It doesn’t really matter if you are working with social, mobile, console, PC, online or indie games.

There are plenty of issues common to game developers, no matter the platform. One good way to support online games would be to organize an IGDA Finland presentations event around that or have online games as a special topic at a monthly gathering.

We have good AV equipment at the bar as well, but instead of presentations, the focus would be more on demos and short introductions.

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Does IGDA Finland have a favorite place to meet, or does that change?

We always have our pub nights at Cuba Cafe in the Helsinki city center, which is easy to get to from various locations. Throughout the history of IGDA Finland, we have been to three places but had to move to a bigger one when the event grew bigger. IGDA Finland presentations are organized in association with Sulake, the company behind the Habbo Hotel, at its premises at the city center as well.

What was your most recent event as IGDA Finland?

IGDA Finland has help to offer: 1. If there are other large chapters missing a good system for tracking people joining the gatherings, consider drawing on the experience of our coordinators, who have developed a really fast sign-up system, which gives automatically the number of attendees per gathering and other relevant data. We also have attendance history chart at igda.fi, where people can see how many people have attended IGDA Finland gatherings throughout the years.

2. Igda.fi has a section for the IGDA Finland presentations (video archive). All the presentations are in English. If you want to learn from other game developers, this archive might be just for you.

3. One of the most popular topics at the IGDA Finland forum is job advertisements.

We are just about to set up a separate job board system and would gladly share the tool with other IGDA chapters.

All the best, and thanks for your interest toward IGDA Finland! We are very proud and excited of our chapter and hope to share our enthusiasm with other IGDA members as well. 

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Crowning Achievement: Marketing Lessons from Crown of Byzantus

By Pyry Lehdonvirta

A

ll too often, small game studios plan new game productions based on emotion. As the games industry is producing broad audience entertainment, it also attracts enthusiastic game consumers to work for it. The very same people end up managing and even founding new game studios. This leads to a lot of ventures being steered by personal intuition in which developers make fun games for themselves but neglect the markets entirely. They should remember the markets! The markets!

Or so I claimed a year ago in my master’s thesis, “Marketing Management in New-Product Development in the Finnish Online Game Industry.” I happen to run a small game studio called Casual Continent. Naturally, the company started planning its next browser MMO title, Crown of Byzantus — a market-based decision, of course.

Was it a success beyond measure or an epic failure, forcing me to eat my words?

Hold your horses!

I was committed to adapting Michael Porter’s famous Five Forces model to the online games industry to keep from making decisions based on emotion. The new model’s goal was to act as a tool for

reminding game developers about the markets and competition. In short, it covers the current market environment from five perspectives: industry competition, potential entrants, buyers, suppliers and, finally, the possible substitutes.

I live as I preach so we — I say “we” since I’m not the only one sinking with this ship — evaluated the markets carefully based on the model when planning our new game. Bear with me as I go through the list of our top-10 takeaways.

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1. Study competitors carefully and ruthlessly, and steal all their good ideas.

2. Require top quality to stand out from the cheap bulk crowd (hobbyists, small studios, etc.).

3. Tackle the dotcom competition by aiming at each specific local market separately, as opposed to the “one-size-fits-the-wholeworld” thinking.

4. Differentiate in theme, and stand out as a second-generation browser MMO game.

5. Follow competitors and market changes, especially the role of social networks in browser gaming.

6. Base the distribution on marketing partners to tap into high traffic sources.

7. Carefully plan the game to fulfill one pa g e 2 8

entertainment need, time and space, instead of competing with World of Warcraft, TV and so forth.

8. Outsource non-critical work to optimize for the best quality and lowest cost from the endless amount of alternatives.

9. Innovate small scale and fast.

10. Focus on user experience, spend time on user flows and execute iterative “how does this feel” evaluations.

So, what happened? How did it go?

We stole all the good things from our competitors; for example, the best game mechanics, the earning logic and even the development processes. However, we were careful to leave enough space for our own creativity to avoid mediocrity. As a result, we got an extremely well-working monetization out of the box. After endless user experience iteration, we were also able to come up with golden game play.

The game play is differentiated. We even went as far as to use “no farming” as our banner slogan, in which “farming” refers to the very common game mechanic in MMO games. Our game became unintentionally very content-rich. Building on top of content is a huge time-waster, but on the other hand, it’s a good ally in the clone wars.

Post-launch, and in line with the stolen development processes, we kept working small and fast, with need-based innovation.

We followed relentlessly both the competing products and the Facebook trends.

Illustrations were outsourced, and they turned out really nice. All in all, we feel we managed to deliver great quality. As a sort of proof, we managed to catch the attention of each of the four market-dominating German MMOG giants.

So much for the good news.

We underestimated the time and skill required for actual marketing. We thought that once we prove the product with numbers, we couldn’t stop money coming in.

Needless to say, this didn’t happen.

We haven’t been able to get the self-generating content through social interaction working well enough. It has required a lot of tweaking and still doesn’t keep people addicted as long as we hoped for. That’s also the root cause of why we built so much content as mentioned before.

Some of the design patterns we stole weren’t necessarily so optimized. We used a lot of multivariate testing and iteration

in trying to improve our visitor-to-user conversion. In the end, we realized there’s just no arguable reason to confront the new visitor immediately with all the nasty registration stuff, especially with the cumbersome e-mail confirmation process.

So ultimately, was it a failure?

The market-based approach did help us to avoid risks and reduced the time spent learning things the hard way. Above all, it ensured we landed softly on potential markets with the competition we had prepared for. The Five Forces of the Finnish Online Game Industry model kept us from falling too deeply in love with our initial plan. It made us see the forest for the trees.

So ultimately, we didn’t fail. We came up with an extremely well-performing game.

Ultimately, we didn’t succeed either — yet — because of the marketing. Do you see the irony? I do.

So, what next?

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Crown of Byzantus is being launched with various marketing partners, and we are constantly looking for new ones. We are evaluating different online marketing channels and looking for a hole to pour marketing money into. Some people say to go with Google Adsense, but for us, the matter remains open.

As for Casual Continent, its portfolio business and new titles are being developed. Nevertheless, we are holding our breath to see how we fare with Crown of Byzantus. 

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The IGDA AMICUS BRIEF C

ounsel for the International Game Developers and and Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences filed a friend of the court, Amicus Brief, in the U.S Supreme Court in support of the Entertainment Merchants Association and the Entertainment Software Association in the SCHWARZENEGGER vs EMA. This case addresses efforts by the State of California to limit the sales of violent games to minors, a position opposed by the IGDA. The case is scheduled for oral argument on November 2nd and an opinion should issue a month or so afterwards.

This is not an obscure issue. As markets

are forced to adapt, the games you make/ play would be forced to change. Across the industry, censorship is recognized as a detractor from both freedom of expression and creativity. From the Amicus Brief, it is important to remember that video games are an important medium of artistic expression protected by the first amendment. An analysis of individual video games illustrates that games, like literature and film, are a serious medium of expression exploring complex moral and social issues. All this framed around a vague understanding of what entails a violent game. There is a great deal of support from both industry and

academia that censorship is never in anyone's best interest. The IGDA is joining forces with the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), Video Game Voters Network (VGVN) and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) in the fight against game censorship Industry Luminary Warren Spector is calling all video game players, makers, supporters and first amendment advocates to take a stand against California's proposed video game censorship law. See below for an open letter from Spector. 

Dear Friends, Computer and video games are art, a form of artistic expression deserving of and, currently, protected by the First Amendment.

That hasn’t stopped states though from trying to restrict the rights of our medium’s artists, storytellers, and technical innovators. On November 2, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of a California law that would restrict the sale of video games. This is a case of great significance to you and me -- to all people who play or create games and believe in the First Amendment.

Let's not beat around the bush -- if the Court’s ruling goes against us, this law could lead to the future censorship of games, could irrevocably harm developers and would validate the absurd notion that video games are somehow a lesser form of creative expression.

We must act now. On October 19, I'm asking you to join me in urging all of your friends and co-workers, real-world or virtual, to stand up for video games by joining the Video Game Voters Network, an advocacy group fighting for their First Amendment protection.

Many people, including some of my personal heroes, like Stan Lee, have already encouraged us to take a stand. Now is the time for gamers to come together and spread the word through our social networks. Now is the time to ask every gamer we can reach to stand up with us and protect our First Amendment rights.

Here's the link: http://www.videogamevoters.org/nocensorship On October 19 please tweet this: Games=Free Speech. Stand w/ @VideoGameVoters on 11/2 as #SCOTUS decides future of games http://vgvn.org/act #GamersUnite Post it on Facebook and on your blog. Talk about it in interviews, on podcasts and with your colleagues. Encourage everyone you can to do the same. It’s time for all of us who are tired of games being treated unfairly to band together and let our collective voice be heard. Thank you for considering this call to action.

-

Warren Spector

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In addition to the supporting the VGVN's call to action with Warren Spector, the IGDA-AIAS Amicus Brief was a huge part of our advocacy work on this matter. Tom Buscaglia, an attorney and an IGDA Board of Director had this to say about the brief:

The issues presented in the Schwarzenegger v. EMA/Entertainment Software Association case are of tremendous importance to everyone in the game industry. I was very pleased to see the IGDA take a stand in support of our industry on behalf of game developers and honored to assist in the preparation of the IGDA Amicus Brief on behalf of all IGDA members.

IGDA Community Attorneys have the following to say about the importance of the court case:

Why Schwarzenegger v EMA is important for all of us.

- Tom Buscaglia

As members of the video game world, we have been blessed with a unique opportunity to be part of the birth, growth, and maturing of this wonderful industry.

Games have gone through childhood and adolescence, and are now entering adulthood. Along the way, our work has gained the respect and admiration of colleagues who work in related creative fields.

But games do not yet share the broad constitutional protections under the First Amendment that are enjoyed by sister media like movies, music, literature, and fine art.

The California statute that is the subject of Schwarzenegger v EMA attempts to criminalize sales of certain types of games to minors.

The statute has been found unconstitutional at the trial and appeals court levels.

Now, the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case.

By standing up for equal constitutional protections for games, IGDA together with AIAS is saying that games are a fully equal form of artistic expression, entitled to full constitutional protection.

Any other determination by the United States Supreme Court will relegate games to second class status as a medium in which to express ideas and tell stories.

That's why everyone in the industry should support this effort, and why IGDA was proud to participate in the preparation of its Amicus brief with AIAS. - Jim Charne

As members of the game development community, you are a part of the future of entertainment. Our industry has seen phenomenal growth over the past few years, and all signs point to that continuing into the future. However, the present Schwarzenegger v. EMA case pending before the Supreme Court stands to not only potentially stifle that growth, but re-classify games as “second class” entertainment, subject to regulations that are not imposed on other entertainment industries. It would, in essence, put games on the same tier as pornography.

Most people are anecdotally familiar with media history, and know that in the past television, movies, music, and even comic books have all been demonized much in the way the loudest detractors demonize video games.

While the free speech and artistic expression of other media has never been the subject of government regulation, the California law in question wishes to make games the first. This will potentially impact not only your career, but also what media you can enjoy as a consumer.

Everyone in the industry should support the EMA’s position, as the IGDA has done with its Amicus brief. Victory in this case would help the continued growth of the industry and allow games to flourish as art. A loss, on the other hand, would not only be harmful to gaming, but would be bad precedent for the entertainment industry as a whole.

- Mark Methenitis

Continued statements from IGDA Community Attorneys:

Supporters of censorship in video games often talk about the "slippery slope" of what MIGHT happen without regulation.

In the case of Schwarzenegger v. EMA/Entertainment Software Association, the State of California makes the case that protecting its citizens against violent video games is a core public policy concern.

But I have not seen any recognition regarding the opposite slippery slope. Let's put aside the 1st Amendment issues for the moment (that's really a subject all to its own). Have we given enough thought about the business impact of this law if it is ruled to be constitutional?

First and foremost, let's start with the clear fact that there will be less "M"-rated video games. It's unlikely that all of these "M" titles will be replaced with lesser-rated titles (although some presumably would).

A reduced number of games will have an impact all levels of game development and related services, including employment figures.

According to the Entertainment Software Association ("ESA"), in 2009, over 120,000 people in the United States are employed in a job which depends on game software. Odds are that if you're reading this post, you or someone you know make a living due to this vibrant industry.

Admittedly, exactly how many people might lose their jobs is impossible to say, but it surely will have a large negative impact.

In addition, many creative minds in the games business may take that creativity to other, less regulated mediums, further reducing the number of games created.

I would expect that original titles will be the first to be affected. Publishers will not want to take a chance that an unproven commodity might ultimately be deemed too violent and criminal.

Independent developers will suffer the most. Publishers will likely put the responsibility on the development community to create "legally" acceptable content. This risk may prove to be too much to bear on that segment of the industry, forcing more development projects away from the independent studios.

The result would be that most games would be non-innovative and contain un-original content. Much of it will be developed internally by publishers that have significant legal exposure if they were to create "illegal" content, so their incentive will be to avoid pushing the envelope.

As retail sales necessarily suffer from the lack of available "hard-core" game, consumers will likely find the more violent games via the internet...at least in the shortterm. Logically, the next step will be similar regulation of the internet.

Obviously, the exact financial impact is virtually impossible to estimate thoroughly, but it's conceivable that it will be in the BILLIONS of dollars, considering the fact that the video game software and hardware industry generates revenues in excess of $20 billion per year.

I don't believe that Governor Schwarzenegger fully considered this economic impact when he assessed his purported policy concern.

If he did, he would have recognized that over 50,000 California citizens are employed in the game/software business.

I would expect that our government to view this industry as a model for growth in a challenging environment. Instead, some look to stifle it.

There are a host of reasons to support the ESA's position against censorship. Upholding freedom of speech is a worthy reason all on its own.

In addition, the direct economic interest needs to be considered relative to the tenuous and flawed public policy concern espoused by the censorship proponents.

The slope is too slippery to anyone's livelihood that depends on the video game industry.

Please show your support for the Entertainment Software Association's fight against censorship.

-Patrick Sweeney

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Continued statements from IGDA Community Attorneys:

Time and again, the interactive entertainment industry has been the target of those seeking to limit the freedom of speech, artistic expression and right of consumers to make reasonable decisions for themselves. These individuals refuse to recognize that interactive entertainment is a vibrant form of art and expression and it has become woven into the mainstream of our society. The artists of our industry are using a medium that is under greater attack than the traditional forms of entertainment that we all grew up with and have been inspired by, such as books, music, film and television. Anyone who makes a living in our industry and everyone who enjoys experiencing the fruits of those labors ought to consider the gravity of this case and its issues very carefully. I think the briefs here provide an excellent forum for the discussion at the center of these issues and I encourage all those who support the creativity and artistry of interactive entertainment industry to take the time to read the papers and further educate themselves.

-Seth Krauss

GET INVOLVED! The Game Education Special Interest Group creates a community resource that strengthens the academic membership of the International Game Developers Association while enhancing the education of future and current game developers.

Join industry professionals working together to nurture a community of game educators, promote game education and share resources at igda.org/game-education.

EVENTCALENDAR October 18

IGDA Colorado Meetup Fort Collins, Colorado, United States Demo of Unity 3. Feel free to demo or come up with a discussion topic. http://goo.gl/32Oy

October 20

Philadelphia IGDA Student Meet-up Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States IGDA Philadelphia is pleased to announce that it will be holding its first Student Workshop on October 20th from 7-9pm. The focus of this workshop will be preparing students for beginning their job hunt and working at their first jobs in the game industry. This is not replacing any normal IGDA functions so we ask that you be a current student in order to attend this workshop. http://goo.gl/u7Yj

Oct 21

November 3-6

ImMediaTe Mobile Gaming Summit St. Julian’s, Malta, Malta The ImMediaTe Mobile Gaming Summit will combine training and coaching sessions, workshops with EU authorities and global experts and showcase and matchmaking sessions focusing on three main areas: Interactive gaming, Videogames & Serious games. www.filasinternational.eu/immediate

November 4-5

IGDA Leadership Forum 2010 San Francisco, California, United States The IGDA, in coordination with its Production SIG, is hosting the fourth annual IGDA Leadership Forum. This event will focus on advancing the state of the art in game production & management. http://www.igda.org/leadership

November 4-7

IGDA NOLA New Orleans, Louisiana, United States With the official launch of the IGDA-NOLA and IGDA-BR chapters on September 23, we are ready to start holding meetings. The NOLA chapter will meet on the Third Thursday of each month (barring any hardcore holidays). http://goo.gl/lOM8

Project Horseshoe Burnet, Texas, United States Project Horseshoe is a think-tank style conference addressing the industry-wide challenges of modern game design. Its mission is to positively influence the art, science, and business of game design. http://www.projecthorseshoe.com

October 20-22

IGDA Foundation Charity Dinner San Francisco, California, United States This year following the close of the IGDA Leadership Forum, we're proud to present the IGDA Foundation's Charity Dinner featuring industry legends John Romero and Will Wright. You can learn all about this exciting event and register for the dinner at http://goo.gl/g9Cw.

Casual Connect Kyiv 2010 Kyiv, Ukraine http://kyiv.casualconnect.org

October 23

IGDA NJ Game Education Summit Piscataway, New Jersey, United States Whether you're interested in obtaining higher education in game development, teaching it, or just understanding issues around it, come hear about how these NJ schools are growing the next generation of game developers right here in the Garden State! Panelists and moderator to be revealed soon. Please RSVP @ igda-nj-coordinators@googlegroups.com http://goo.gl/2ofp P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

and tech. http://goo.gl/60fb

November 10-12

Unity Developer Conference Montreal, Quebec, Canada Get ready for the 4th annual Unity developer conference! Unite 2010 will bring artists, programmers, designers, researchers, publishers, and other Unity enthusiasts from around the world together. http://goo.gl/pMzN

November 12-13

NASSCOM Game Developer Summit 2010 Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India NASSCOM Game Developer Summit focuses on development of games on various platforms like console, mobile, online and PC. Last year’s summit was India’s first of its kind Game Developer Summit organized to nurture and encourages the community to network and share knowledge. http://goo.gl/cMwv

November 5

November 8-9

Montreal International Game Summit Montreal, Quebec, Canada The MIGS, organized by Alliance Numérique, offers high level conferences presented by renowned experts in business, arts and visual effects, design, production October | 2010

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