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MOUTH, MEET FOOT
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his week I was asked to cover the one year anniversary of the mobile platform game We Rule by ngmoco. My first reaction was, “I am absolutely the wrong guy for this.” Whereas I’ve worked for years in the real world to curb my judgmental nature, in the gaming world I’m the most judgmental bastard on any platform. Bottom line, I’m a console gamer who needs to feel, taste, see, smell and experience virtual bloodshed and adventure in games with compelling stories, incredible and immersive graphics and instinctual and innovative game-play. As far as I’ve seen, and I’ve really not been looking, mobile games meet none of the criteria for what gets my attention and interest. All this being said, I am trying to become nonjudgmental on all fronts, so I put a call in to Caryl Shaw, the Executive Producer on We Rule. “Before I came to ngmoco, I was at EA working on games like The Sims, Spore and Sin City.” Shaw tells me. “I came here because I wanted to make a different kind of game, one that was engaging while always being on and ready for me to play whenever, wherever” About this time in the interview, I started checking out We Rule, and then, to my surprise, signing up. “I’m totally with you about immersive environments and life-like experience,” she continues, “but the big platform games, for the most part, lack the kind of connectivity of the mobile platform and social network games offer. Plus, I just don’t have the time to invest in a big-budget console games these days, but I still need a Thoughts on the game industry by daily escape from reality, if even for a few minutes. I get Planet Illogica co-founder Ken Goldstein lost in We Rule for a moment, then I’m back to the real world” I’ve just started finished the sign up, and have been taken to an empty plot of land surrounding what is apparently my new castle. I’m being asked to plant and harvest corn. With each new crop, a new little avatar guy appears and my empire grows! “Social games are in their infancy, and we’re constantly developing new features” says Shaw. “From a developer’s stand point it’s an incredible experience to have instant analytics to see what’s working and what isn’t and to make changes that instantly improve the gamer’s experience. Social networks and mobile phone systems give you so many detailed analytics that we can see at any time how users are playing the game, what works and what doesn’t and make a change on the fly” I’m planting wheat now. Apparently soon I’ll be able to plant trees, build houses and towns, attract more people who’ll come and service my land and businesses, and then I can go visit other people’s kingdoms, and… damn it! Now I’m into this! We Rule. Come visit my Kingdom—“officialwizardworld” —we’ll stroll a troll bridge together!
STATE OF THE GAME
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