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General: Debate: Developers, Big Vs. Small
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
Today, MMORPG.com preents another of our Saturday debates. This time around, Garrett Fuller and Dan Mann take on the question of game companies, their sizes, and which is better for MMORPGs:
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Dan Mann: A lot has been made of the MMO industry being given over to the big time, ultra-rich, power hungry studios that care more for the almighty dollar then daring to stray from the mold of its predecessors and providing a game that provides more than a level treadmill. Can small companies compete with giants like EA and Sony who can throw dozens of devs and millions of dollars at a project? Of course they can and have been doing so for quite some time. Sure the road is not as hazardous for an established company who doesnt have to stare bankruptcy in face every waking moment, but many small studios with a vision and skill have come from humble beginnings to create some world class products. The margin for error is much smaller but of course it can be done. Using small budgets as an excuse for shoddy work is laughable at best. |
Read the article, here.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
By that I mean they cut out the content, so they can turn a faster buck to keep shareholders happy. SOE is the perfect example of a company that comes out with an average product even though they belong to a multibillion dollar company. With those kinds of resources they need to come out with the best. There is no reason why they should not. Its sad, and SOE should be embarassed when a small company like Mythic creates better content than them, and Mythic listens to their customer base. Or some newcomer, in terms of MMO market share, Blizzard comes along and blows the MMO industry clean off their stagnant buttocks.
I am a firm believer that small companies are better at making content, because they are gamers before profiteers. By they I am refeering to the lead designers and the bosses. Unlike SOE whose president probably wouldn't know a good game if it landed right smack between his greedy little eyes. He probably sits in his office all day trying to figure out which mansion he will host a social party at.
It's hard for inde game developers keep their ideas together when some big company buys you out. You are no longer in control of your game!
Something about money...big companies like EA and Sony...their money comes from their stock holders and not themselves. They need to be loyal to their shareholders and not the gamers. Some inde developers however, their financial backing comes from their own pocket and a very few from other sponsers.
After awhile space just seems like a bunch of dots to me. The people in my guild tried to get me to play Eve online when they all left Star wars galaxies, but I refused as I am sick of Space games. But you are right they do have a big following. BUt the rest of the small companies IMHO try to much for the funds they have to work with.
I hear the adult MMO spend the night even suspended development due to lack of funds.
Large companies have the ability to make great games easier due to the fact they have great sums of money. The problem though with large companies is in the end the all mighty dollar is even more important to them then to the smaller companies. In my experience larger companies will cut corners any way they can to make more money, from hiring less able personel to decreasing developement time, and listening to surveys and others in marketing and advertising who really have no concept of gaming or the communities they form.
A small company can blunder just as much as a large company but they have more incentive to get it done right the first time as they do not have bottomless pockets or other products to absorb money to support or cover their failures. A small company will focus less on the overall get gain from profits such as the large ones do and will work much better with the gaming communities. While the money the gamers bring in is needed even more so for the "mom and pop" companies, they will not get that through mass marketing, or name brand knowledge. The small business has to win the players over and support them to keep them from the flash and glam of the big name corperations. This is the defining aspect of their success of why a small company is better then a large. Small companies value the player more so and as such will listen to them and respond positively to those gamers much more often then a large business would. Large companies don't respond to the comminuty, they only respond to the end effect of the gamers and that is their money.
Lack of exsperience is a far larger problem for smaller companies than money. Without that lack of exsperience smaller companies wouldn't get a problem with money because before you make a game you make a business plan where you calculate time, resources and money that is need. Because of their lack of exsperience their calculation often don't fit with problems that need more time and more man power and than they ran out of money. Not because they have to less money but to less exsperience.
/agree with above poster, Lemar.
Just look at DNL for a perfect example of incompetence and ineptness (other than the hype area- masters at that)
Well, my perspective is from a small company standpoint. We formed up our little group a little over a year and a half ago. Most of us disgruntled gamers upset with current space games (aka swg). From there, we started to work on a business plan, form a company, and look at feasabilty within the business model. Then when we figured we had that down pat, we started searching for an engine. Many products have been used before but many are so overly expensive as to keep indie devs from actually being able to make their product. Big world for example, you mentioned above costs an arm and a leg at roughly a half million dollars plus support price tag.
Looking at the insight from DNL we chose not to go that route because everything there looked/looks subpar even a month post-launch. We then looked into pseudo-publishers like Kaneva and eventually settled on one. Which is still in a beta itself. We as indie gamers have experience with games for sure, most of us have a great group of developers who are commited. We just do not have the large funds to throw at an engine and all of the liittle costs that creep into projects (aka models) that we didn't think about when it first started. All in all, our game/company is self-funded. We have no name when it comes to branding so we're attempting to follow along a similar lines of mythic. We have a very stable combat system so game play should turn out well. What we lack is quality modelers and artists (although recently got a couple onboard). We intend to put out a fun, working free/to cheap game at first so that we can build up our own reputation in the industry as quality gamer devs.
From there we hope we see our vision come true, with the first step a success, investors and even players would/should jump at the chance to see our final project come to fruition. Gone are the days of SOE just making crap games, or Bliz making huge kiddie games. Gamer markets change, people get older. They like more complexity, new gamers enter the market. We know our customer for sure, we want those older gamers. We want a niche market and NOT the masses. That why I think we will succeed, as we are gamers first and developers 2nd as some of you have mentioned. We want to make a quality working game that is fun to play and that players will want to play. So hold out for us you space/mech fans....we're coming.......and if we build it ...they will come.
http://www.forceofarms.com/index.php
Large corporations will always have the resources available to create a "great" game. In the business world however, most of these corporations are beholden to stockholders, so we never this come to fruition.
Small companies can produce nice games for what they are, but they will always be very limited in scope and will most likely never have mass appeal - This refers to PTP games, not FTP games.
Most FTP games are horrible, but you get what you pay for and in this case, paying nothing pretty much gets yoiu nothing.
I am on the small developers side. I have a tale to tell, and some of you will know what I am talking about. 2 years ago, I played a space MMO called Earth and Beyond, created and developed by a small company called Westwood Studios. Westwood is responsiblefor such awsome game series as the Command and Conquer games. I played C&C all the time, and Westwood announced that they were developing their first MMO called Earth and Beyond. That MMO was in a class of its own. You can do battle, you can do trade missions, you can do exploration missions, you can loot items, dissmantle them, and get the specs to build them yourself. There was epic missions that required many players to complete .. there were 3 races to play, each with 2 classes, and 3 more classes were to be introduced. It was an awsome game. The creators were great at what they did. The customer service with Westwood was also next to none. They really cared for their customers, they really wanted to be the best, and one of the best they were.
But, enter Electronic Arts, that bought Westwood Studios. Then Earth and Beyond suddenly went very low on the priority list, no advertising, no major updates, terrible customer service (I had my account hacked, items stolen, and EA did nothing to help me). But it wasn't only EnB that got buchered, ever play C&C Generals? I bought that and I gotta say, it does not even compare to the previous C&C games .. it totally sucked. EA totaly destroyed what Westwood Studios was all about.
I believe that Westwood was on the side of the gamers, most likely alot of the employees were gamers themselves. They were a young, proud bunch. They knew if they spent the money, if they cared for their customers, they would have a loyal fan base, people like me, that appreciated the care we got from them, and continued to support them as much as we could. Electronic Arts .... what can I say, they have executives that probably never played games themselves. Its all about the allmighty dollar. How much can they milk out of their titles.
I think that EA is the perfect example. In the past two years, they have outsourced alot of their customer service to overseas, they have released sport titles with music they hadn't gotten the rights for (so I heard), they have ruined the best space MMO ever created (Earth and Beyond), they have the worst MMO ever (The Sims Online, that is a terrible MMO but they continue to sink money into it), they have ruined the good name of the Ultima seried by Origin (Thats my opinion), and their stock has dropped 20% over the last two years.
There is alot more to the success of a game that just money. World of Warcraft saw 3 series of games before the MMO. Ultima Online, as bad as it is, has more than 11 titles behind it (I remember playing Ultima I written in Basic LOL), City of Heroes/Villains can capture the mind of every person that reads comic books, Final Fantasy is the same as the Ultima series, Star Wars Galaxies has generations of fans to feed from, Dungeons & Dragons Online has decades of fans behind it, The Matrix Online has an extremely successful movie series behind it, these titles are almost guarenteed successes .. just wait until Star Trek Online gets released ... I say the MMOs that deserve all the applause are the small titles, like Vendeta Online, or EVe.
In conclusion, I have used 2 examples, one small company, and one large company. The small company, Westwood, cared for customers, and enjoyed success. Electronic Arts didn't care, and now are going south. To have success with an MMO, you have to be small, you have to care, you have to be there for your customers. I believe that the larger company should leave the MMO the the small ones .. they are unable to and are unwilling to deal with the massive demands made by their customers. Sure, there are exceptions, well, I think only one exception, which is Sony Online Entertainment. They rock!! Oh, another example of an awsome small company, is NCSoft!!
Well, I am rambling .. I stop now
They have totally ruined Star wars galaxies which was my favorite game.but alas I shall be quitting that game thanks to SOE's incomptetance.
In short, what do you want outa your mmo...do you want a mmo that has the best support, bugs fixed daily, TONS of personalitys pulling the game in diffrent directions...meaning more nerfs for you? Or do you want a mmo that dosent really have that great of support, but was made with the same passion and love for the game as the people who are playing it.