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GamerDNA shows their year in review graphically
In the spirit of the season, GamerDNA is giving the gift of insight to all its users in the form of a year in review column. Part one of this column describes several interesting metrics about the number of new titles tagged in user profiles by release month, platform, or specific game (no hard numbers given).Some interesting notes: The top title added by users was Age of Conan. It was released in May and correlated to a month of lower unique titles being added. No mention is made of how many users subsequently removed titles from their profiles... but maybe they're saving that for part two. There is a noticeable drop in game titles being added for the months of June and July, around the time of the re-branding effort and subsequent server issues. The largest uptick in titles added (by release date) was in September, presumably due to Warhammer Online. November is still creeping up on the September numbers with the Lord of the Rings Online expansion, Mines of Moria, and World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King still gaining traction. We are promised more phat numbers in the next few days so keep your eyes peeled... well, not literally.
PAX08: GamerDNA interview focuses on subscription numbers
During our time at PAX08 this year, we got together with Jon Radoff, Founder and CEO of GamerDNA, a company that focuses on the community aspect of today's online games. Radoff was kind enough to give us an overview of what the company is about and how it pertains to the ever-growing MMO market. Originally this rough audio was meant for notes only, but it came out fairly well, so we thought we'd go ahead and post it for all to hear themselves.So in this audio interview that you'll find enclosed below, Radoff explains something that we found quite peculiar. "Interestingly, a high percentage of those people who quit Age of Conan didn't go back to WoW, they actually just went off MMORPGs in general," he explains. This is the type of number-crunching that they do at GamerDNA to discover not only subscription numbers and box sales, but who is actually playing what, and how dedicated they are to their games. We encourage you to learn more about this truly unique company at their website, and be sure to listen to the complete interview below.
GamerDNA offers Frostmourne replica contest
GamerDNA, the GuildCafe offshoot, has opened up a new contest to World of Warcraft players. Send in a screenshot of your character -- armored, naked, alive, dead, it doesn't matter -- and you stand a chance to win a replica of Frostmourne, Arthas' evil runeblade from Epic Weapons. The sword itself is a $379 value, but of nearly equal worth to many players is the $20 game card that five players could win by entering a picture they've created themselves, either traditionally or digitally. These hand-done portraits are also eligible for the Frostmourne prize. To enter, simply register for GamerDNA through GuildCafe and send in your favorite character's picture. The deadline is June 30th, so get snapping![Thanks, Sam!]
GW 2008 RAWR Cup Tournament results
The results are in for the 2008 RAWR Cup Title Series Spring Tournament in Guild Wars. In this second tournament of the series, we are treated to some improvements over last December's contest. The members of the guild Rebel Rising [rawr] in conjunction with GuildCafe, decided to make this edition of the cup into more of a community run event by creating a special GuildCafe Tournament Committee.But more importantly, make sure you check out the in-depth article about this tournament written by Guild Wars Guru Senior Moderator "Billiard" over at the main Guild Wars website. He gives an extensive play-by-play report on many of the major events during the tournament, as well as some insight into effective and not-so-effective strategies that were used.
GuildCafe expands its horizons with GamerDNA
GuildCafe has been often called the Myspace or Facebook for MMO players, but not only is it much more than that, it's expanding even further. This summer, the mega-guild social site will be changing its focus onto a new venture (and company name) called GamerDNA. This new site will have much more than GuildCafe offers currently, and will cater to a larger audience of Xbox gamers, and eventually all platforms. This all stems from the fact that the site has recently received a $3 million Series A investment from Boston's Flybridge Capital Partners.According to GamerDNA's founder and CEO Jon Radoff, "the idea behind GamerDNA is to provide a means of identity-a place where players can record all the stories around all of the cool stuff they've done, be it achievements, accomplishments, or experiences they've had." So in essence, it will help broaden the players experiences in-game, as well as help other players experience games they may not play yet on a much more personalized level. All of this done in a larger scope, reaching a wider audience than GuildCafe alone could do targeted at the MMORPG market alone.[Thanks Sam!]
GuildCafe calls out for DIY event planners [UPDATED]
The true strength of any successful MMO is its player community -- they're the folks who create mods, organize events, cheer/protest loudly whenever something changes that they like/dislike. In that vein, GuildCafe has sent out a call for players who already are, or would like to create and run Guild Wars events events for any and all MMOs, like tournaments, contests, or even (most ambitiously) an ARG.GuildCafe promises to support this endeavor by providing experienced staffers to help plan and effect events, as well as to publicize and sponsor said events. This is a great way to both maintain and strengthen the GW community, and at the same time promote GuildCafe's brand recognition. Everybody wins![UPDATED: changed 'Guild Wars events' to reflect that this offer is open to any and all MMOs -- Thanks, Sam!]
GuildCafe announces Guild Wars tourney
The folks at GuildCafe dropped us a note about the announcement of their upcoming Guild Wars tournament -- starting on April 5th, the next neck of the 2008 RAWR Cup will kick off, offering up events in three divisions with lots of cool prizes for each (the best they could come up with is network cards and mice? Cash, anyone?). There's more information on the FAQ page, but I can't seem to find anywhere that explains just what's happening; being that it's Guild Wars, however, my guess is that they just toss a bunch of folks in an area and whoever's left standing gets to walk away with the prizes. Sounds simple (and fun) enough.Only a couple of teams have signed up so far, so the field is wide open at this point. If your guild rocks the GW (don't call it that), then maybe you too can own some noobs and pick up some extra gear for your trouble.
Don't hate the class, hate the playas
Yesterday we told you about Sanya Weathers (aka "Tweety"), who is the absolute bombdiggity when it comes to dishing out insightful, acerbic, honest and intelligent commentary on the MMO industry via her blog, Eating Bees. Her rant on why players quit playing games was aimed directly at the companies who make the games. Today, she takes aim at the players of those games. In her new post Q&A (surely created from an amalgamation of actual questions) she gets the players in her sights and mows them down with a Gatling gun. Or staff of magical awesomeness. Or alien death ray. Depending on your particular gaming penchant. And oh what a laugh fest it is!See, I've been gaming since the dawn of time (let's just say I'm above the target age range) , but I've never considered myself a prototypical gamer. I played college football. I was a private investigator for 10 years. I've been a gym rat for over 20 years. I love sports, craft beer, fast cars, and action flicks. Thus, I don't think or act like a typical (or at least what used to be considered "typical" back in the day) gamer. However, I've personally known several folks during that time who wore the abysmal badge of basement dwelling "know it all" geek, and done so with some warped sense of pride. Apparently so has Sanya. Here is but one example of why she is my hero: Q: Why do you hate answering real questions instead of this fluff about crafters and aggro management? A: Are you high? Do you look around the basement and think that because no one else is there with you, only your questions are real? Is this some kind of existential crisis? Because I don't want to be involved if it is. For the entire hilarious Q&A, check out the full linguistic lashing. She is the Lawgiver!
Why do people quit?
If you're a gamer and haven't read Sanya Weathers' blog Eating Bees then you're missing out on one of the best reads in the gaming biz today. Why? Sanya is a professional writer who was the Director of Community for Mythic Entertainment for six years and currently holds the same position for GuildCafe. She knows what drives players. Her blog reflects her industry experience, and isn't filled with the fanatical ravings of Fanboy (or girl) A or Forum Troll B whose closest experience with the gaming industry stops at flipping the switch on their gaming rig (or k0nz013) - yet still somehow (truly) believes they "know it all."I've been a "game journalist" (and I use that term very lightly since most of us in the field aren't "journalists" in any way, shape or form) for over four years, and I'm continually amazed at how Sanya is able to explain (in layman's terms no less) the machinations of this sometimes freakish industry. Her latest diatribe, Obvious Truth: Why People Quit, lists reasons why people quit playing games (or anything for that matter). The article is aimed squarely at game companies (and their PR people), and it's stunning. But not for the content. As she puts it, if these reasons are shocking... kittens will be killed, drowned by the tears of the baby Jesus. It's stunning because of her answers to what should be "obvious truths." Stunning because everyone with half a cro-magnon's brain (and having been involved with the industry myself, there are a lot more "cavemen" walking around then you might expect) should innately know all this. Sadly, in this day and age of Responsibility Avoidance, the truth isn't so obvious anymore.Check out Eating Bees, and be sure to subscribe to the Bee feed.
The winners of the Guild Wars RAWR Cup
Last month we discussed the first GuildCafe / Guild Wars joint event: the RAWR Cup PvP Tournament. Things apparently went quite well, and the official Guild Wars site has a rundown on the big winners for each division. In all, 72 guilds registered online for the RAWR Cup. This included 18 teams in the Dragon Division, 21 teams in Phoenix, and 33 teams in Titan. Competing teams ranged from the number one team on the guild ladder, Delta Formation [DF], to several teams outside the 10,000 rank level ... The Dragon Division featured two European guilds, Esoteric Warriors [EW] and Whats Going On [sup] fighting on Imperial Isle ... Nearly the entire match was fought at the flag stand, with occasional pushes on flag runners as they came down their respective ramps to capture the stand ... [sup] took several deaths after VoD but eventually recovered, only to give up the first morale boost of the game just after 23 minutes. At this point [sup] could no longer withstand the pressure and eventually succumbed, making [EW] the Dragon Division winner.Most exciting to me personally is the fact that the event had fascinating play-by-play commentary on the Uberguilds network.Scotty of [rawr] and Roxianna from GuildCafe hosted a live show on the day of the tournament, with several others helping out. During the Swiss Qualifying Rounds, Scotty and Roxianna watched matches as they came up on Observer Mode, addressing comments posted by players in IRC and observer chat, while also providing commentary on the match being observed.This kind of collaborative experience is fascinating, and if the inclusion of third parties into official tournaments will result in more events like this it's hard to see the downside.
GuildCafe seeking nominations for Espresso Awards
Sam from Uberguilds sent us word of nominations opening up for GuildCafe's Espresso awards (they're the same company now, remember?). They're looking for your ideas on choosing the best of the year in a number of different categories, including everything from "best gaming blog" to "best user-interface mod" and "best player-written guide."Unfortunately, there's two problems here-- despite coming from GuildCafe, the awards don't seem to be aimed just at MMOs. They have a "player-created map" category, and unless they're talking about Second Life sims, that's not really MMO-centric. And they have strange qualifications for the fansite and gaming blog categories-- in my mind, getting fairly compensated for writing about games doesn't make your work meaningless. (Disclaimer: everyone who writes for Massively gets paid for their work by Weblogs, Inc, which is a division of AOL.)But hey, it's their awards, their rules. You readers are smart folks-- go put some good nominations in there and we'll see what GuildCafe comes up with.
Guildcafe merges with Uberguilds
Guild site hosting is an interesting business-- on the one hand, it's really an ISP function, where you've got to keep the site up and running and make sure it has enough power to take on all that traffic. But on the other hand, it's also a community building venture-- it's your job to put the tools in place to keep guilds together and progressing in game. I have no idea what kind of money is going through it (from my experience, it's mostly an ad-based business-- you provide free hosting in exchange for ad views), but as online games get more and more popular, there's bound to be larger and larger companies coming out of the mix.And here's two now-- Guildcafe has announced on their blog that they've acquired Uberguilds. Guildcafe, from the press release, is apparently going to handle that technical side of things, and Uberguilds, with their broad reach of the community, is going to act as the "Guildcafe Alliance," and use Guildcafe's application to connect guilds and players together.I don't have a lot of experience with either (my WoW guild uses Guildportal, and while it's super ugly, it gets the job done connecting us out of game), but this could be the start of something big-- an ISP/application site combining with known community builders might be just what this "guild hosting" industry needs to become even more widespread.[Via Virgin Worlds]
GuildCafe opens 2008 Rawr Cup to Guild Wars players
GuildCafe, a social network site for online gamers, has announced a competition for members. Called the 2008 Rawr Cup, this first contest of player skill pits gamers against each other in the world of Guild Wars. There are three different divisions, so players of all skill levels can participate. And, of course, there are prizes! The eight members of the winning team in the Dragon division will be awarded "Eight Acer AL2216Wbd Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitors with HDCP support". The winning team in the Phoenix division will snag "Eight Logitech G9 Black 5 Buttons Tilt Wheel USB Wired Laser Gaming Mice", and the Titan division winners will net themselves "Eight special edition Rawr Cup Titan Division winner t-shirts". If you're interested, the tournament rules will probably be of interest, and if you don't currently have a guild to work with the team recruitment page will help you out with that.And, of course, if you've never played Guild Wars before that's something we can set you straight on too. This week FilePlanet is offering a 14-day trial for the game that unlocks all three expansions. These things cost money in stores, you know, so get it for free while the getting's good.
Test your WoW quotient
tehkittyboy over on the WoW LJ passes along this WoW Purity Test. I'm not usually one for taking these online tests, but considering it had to do with WoW, I went ahead and filled it out. Just like all of these quizzes (in the great tradition of Cosmo quizzes), it's silly, but you end up with a number that you can feel good (or bad?) about. In my case: 35%. Which sounds low, but then again, maybe it's a good thing that I don't have 60 days /played on one character.And if you're after something a little more serious, Curse points us to this slightly more academic gamer psychology test on GuildCafe. It's based on the Bartle Test, a famous test about 10 years old meant to categorize online game players into four different groups: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers, and Killers. The test was originally created for players of MUDs (if you remember those), but it's now been updated for MMORPG players. According to this test, I am an SAEK, which means I'm more interested in socializing and achieving than finding new places ingame and killing other players. Is that why my WoW Purity score is so low? Who knows.
