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Marketplace traction with the UGC model and the closure of Metaplace
As you read last night, the UGC (user-generated-content) virtual environment side of Metaplace is shuttering on New Year's Day, 2010, just a scant couple of weeks away. "The reason?" says company president Koster. "Well, it just hasn't gotten traction." Nor should it have at this stage, really. Metaplace only went into open beta in May this year, meaning that it is closing before it really launched. We believe that is several years too soon for traction with its (now canceled) model.
Metaplace announces January 1st shutdown
The Metaplace development team made the announcement today that no fan of a game likes to hear: "Today we have unfortunate news to share with the Metaplace community. We will be closing down our service on January 1, 2010 at 11:59pm Pacific." The bottom line to the reasoning behind the decision is that Metaplace simply is not making enough headway to be a viable (read: profitable) product. Fans will surely have a number of questions about this, and the community team has provided a FAQ to answer most of them. While it's sad news for both staff -- a significant number of whom have been laid off due to the closure -- and fans of Metaplace, the community team is holding their heads up and maintaining an optimistic outlook. The goodbye party on January first is being treated as a celebration of the fun that's been had, rather than a gathering to mourn the ending. Community Manager Tami Baribeau also shared some hopeful news in a blog post: "Metaplace, Inc. as a company (and as a tool) isn't going away. We have whole new shift of focus ahead of us and a smaller team set out to accomplish some big goals." Our sympathies are with the staff members affected by this, and with everyone who has invested their time, creativity, and effort in Metaplace. However, we join their team in looking forward to the good things anticipated by the company.
MMOrigins: Dissection of a gamer
The Misty Mountains You are on a steep rocky slope and just above lies the remnants of an ancient rock slide. Far below you can see the Redhorn pass through breaks in tree canopy as well as the winding Anduin River. The sky is overcast, with a strong northerly wind raining down icy lances. The air is thin, making it difficult to breathe. *Labero the Black Numenorean* is here riding a pack horse tending his wounds. o S W C Move: Tired> Backstab $target You begin to silently move behind your victim... Oh the memories! That text-based multi-user dungeon (MUD) experience may have been the most influential on my gaming career, but it certainly wasn't the first. No, for that we'd have to travel back in time several more years; the day I unwrapped my first gaming console. It was a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the year was 1989. Follow me as I take a trip down memory lane and recount the main influencers on my MMO timeline.
Watch "Another Perfect World" live in Metaplace at 3 PM ET here on Massively
"Another Perfect World", a documentary featuring some of our favorite MMO developers, is going to be shown today in Metaplace at 3 PM ET, 12 PM PT. Jump in with other virtual users and watch the video live via streaming connection, all from the comfort of your home computer.The documentary focuses on the creation of virtual utopias and how man strives to create the perfect world, even if it's only a virtual one. Speakers in the documentary include Raph Koster from Metaplace, Philip Rosedale from Second Life, Jae-Kyung Song from Lineage, and Hilmar Veigar Petursson from EVE Online, making this an interesting tale for many MMO users.The best part about all of this is that you don't even have to leave Massively to jump into Metaplace! We've embedded The Stage here after the break, so you can watch the movie and chat with fellow virtual world enthusiasts (and Massively readers) right from the comfort of this very post! It can't better than that! So make the leap and continue reading to log into Metaplace and watch "Another Perfect World" today at 3 PM!
15 Minutes of Fame: Alice in Warcraftland
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.Who's on your list of the proverbial 10 People to Invite to My Dream Dinner Party? Leave a spot for Alice Taylor. When it comes to gaming and geekery, there's nowhere you won't find traces of Alice and her self-mocking, good-natured humor. She's the face behind the popular social media and gaming blog Wonderland Blog. She commissions cross-platform education content for teens for Channel 4. As a gaming writer, she's been seen at BBC News, Kotaku, The Guardian and Paste. She was a semi-pro Quake player on the UK's first Quake team. She's an indie crafts maven. You may have heard of her husband, Cory Doctorow. Oh -- and of course, she's a WoW player.
Raph Koster speaks on Metaplace's new functionality and the state of virtual worlds
Metaplace introduced the world to a brand new technology two days ago -- the ability to embed a fully functional virtual world into any website or forum, anything that can handle HTML.This upgrade allows Metaplace to act like a more enhanced version of Google's old Lively service. All you need to do is make a world, take the embeddable HTML code from it, drop it into your website, and you now have a full virtual world running in flash right inside of your blog post or forum thread. The world can be edited to your whims through the Metaplace builder, letting you create whatever you want to create inside of your space. Think of it like Second Life Lite.We had more than a few questions for Raph Koster, the founder and creator of Metaplace, about this new upgrade for his virtual platform, so we caught up with him to pick his mind on Metaplace and virtual worlds at large.
Raph Koster speaks on Metaplace's new functionality and the state of virtual worlds pt. 2
Metaplace is quite large now, with well over 30,000 worlds created. How does Metaplace avoid spreading the population out too thinly, as, after all, these are social worlds? Is that a challenge for you guys? It is. It is a challenge. Many of our worlds are empty at any given time. Many of them are people's "apartments" or "personal spaces." Everyone gets a world when they start out in Metaplace, and a large majority of them are unimproved. What we've found out is that people really congregate in the well done worlds. Because of that, we've spent a lot of time on searching algorithms to find the worlds that people consider to be the best and the worlds that are the most populated at that point in time and then bring them up top to the user. We're also working on expanding our support for events, so when something interesting is going on in Metaplace all users will get a notification. This way they can click the link and go and check it out quickly. Yet, sometimes great worlds get lost for a time, but then they get rediscovered as people re-find them. "Virtual worlds need to make that jump to become "ordinary," in a way" We've also included a new feature, called the golden egg. This allows veteran users to market their worlds to others by purchasing this new item. The egg, which is 25,000 coins, can be placed in your virtual world for others to find. Once they find it and click on it, they get 500 coins as a present and are also given the location of another world that has a golden egg. Every world that has a golden egg in it is also listed in the golden egg world list. There's also a golden egg in Metaplace Central that "kicks off" the quest, so to speak. Where do you see virtual worlds going in the future? One of the big questions at the last convention I attended was, "What's next?" In some ways, we've already accomplished a lot of the dream. A lot of the things that people expected out of virtual worlds have come true. We have mass marketed virtual worlds that aren't extremely popular, but, you know, popular enough. We've reached a level of penetration in entertainment that's quite high. But they haven't jumped to total mainstream acceptance yet. I think that's the next step. Virtual worlds need to make that jump to become "ordinary," in a way. Having them become a key part of the web would be a key part of that. It's always been a mistake for us to think that virtual worlds will swallow the web. I don't think that's the way things are going. But I do think we'll be seeing a much tighter integration between virtual worlds and the rest of the Internet. I really think Metaplace is kicking the ball forward, in regards to that. So what's the future for Metaplace, specifically? We're always focusing on making it easier for users, in addition to hosting building classes so people can learn how to build new worlds. We also have a roadmap on our forums that contains a list of proposed features that anyone can check out, all of which is scheduled to come out in the next few months. We're still in the early days -- second month of open beta with a very soft launch -- and we're gonna keep building on what we got and make it easier for everyone to have a virtual world of their own!Thanks for your time, Raph!
A closer look at revenues in free-to-play MMOs
The free-to-play business model in the MMO industry is one that lets users play a game for free in hopes that a percentage of that userbase will opt to embrace microtransactions, allowing F2P game operators to potentially bring in more revenue per month than they would maintain through subscription fees. We periodically see announcements of yearly revenue from some of the larger companies, but these figures are typically announcements of average revenue per paying user (ARPPU), emphasis on 'paying'. But how much money are free-to-play MMOs really making? This is the subject of an article at Gamasutra written by Paul Hyman titled, 'What Are The Rewards Of 'Free-To-Play' MMOs?" Hyman catches up with Raph Koster (Metaplace), Daniel James from Three Rings Design (Puzzle Pirates), and Jeremy Liew from Lightspeed Venture Partners (a funding source for F2P MMOs) to discuss the microtransaction model.
Tokens matter
Recently there's been some talk about avatars in virtual environments and MMOGs as playing pieces or tokens. Tobold says that "Ultimately your avatar is just a playing piece", while Raph Koster takes the position that "Avatars aren't tokens". We hold a marginally more complex opinion. Avatars are tokens (or playing-pieces, if you will), but tokens matter. Avatars don't, as Tobold points out, intrinsically represent cultural, social or political viewpoints. What they do represent, we aver, is us: The users/players. If tokens didn't have that some sort of deep significance for us, there'd never be any arguing over who gets to be the race-car in Monopoly, or who gets a particular color playing piece. If how we were represented didn't matter very much, then arguing over the choice of Monopoly tokens wouldn't have reached anywhere near the sort of cultural entrenchment that it has.
GDC09: Raph Koster kicks off Worlds in Motion Summit
Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2009 has begun and Massively is in the trenches to report on all the big announcements for the massively multiplayer online gaming industry, plus we have some great interviews lined up all week as well. Our GDC 2009 coverage begins with today's Worlds in Motion Summit, kicked off by Raph Koster, MMO and virtual worlds luminary. Koster's speech is short, essentially a quick review of the virtual worlds trends he's observed over the past year. It's important to see things in perspective, Koster points out, mentioning that virtual worlds have recently turned 30, and are now a far cry from their MUD origins. Hardcore, geeky stuff Koster says, and we've come a long way since then. "We've kind of arrived, haven't we?" Koster asks. "One half of American adults are gamers today, which is an incredible step."
Ways of designing social into virtual spaces
One of the strongest glues between a person and their favorite MMO is friendship and community. However, those two things don't come without strong socialization, which in turn is something that doesn't happen in an MMO entirely by accident. A recent blog post by Raph Koster discusses the many ways of making virtual spaces more social by thoughtful design, a subject that we here at Massively take a lot of interest in, strangely enough.While the first two chunks of Raph's post are arguments for actionable design to encourage socialization, it's the last piece of the post where the fleshy part resides. While there are numerous good suggestions for designing better social opportunities, the ones that strike us as our most desirable for MMOs are gifting, mentors, looking for conversation tools and alternate advancement systems for social elements. Those four items are certainly something that more titles could use -- especially as more and more games integrate web tools similar to Facebook.It's hard to say whether or not we'll actually see any of these taken to heart in many MMOs, but it's nice to wish for things -- and maybe if we pester developers hard enough they'll figure it out sooner rather than later.
Metaplace offers new round of beta keys
Raph Koster and the Metaplace team are offering yet another round of beta keys for their web-based open platform virtual world. This is a limited use key, according to an announcement on their brand new Facebook page (which you should totally join). Simply visit www.metaplace.com, enter the code "MPWELCOME" into the "redeem your invite key" box, fill out a bit of info about yourself and you're in!If you're not sure what Metaplace is, you can head over to their website, our tag page, or a recent interview we did with Raph for more information. As Raph says on his own blog, "Quick, hurry!"
Is MMO terminology invading database programming?
Raph Koster couldn't help but wonder when he read the blog post entitled, "Lessons Learned: Sharding for startups," if he had a hand in creating that terminology. Sharding, as this blog post put it, was a method of running databases parallel to one another and making sure that the program could look in the right one for the information it needed. All of the older MMO users in the audience, however, know that this was not the first time the term "sharding" was used with parallel databases.Raph had coined the phrase "sharding" years before during the inception of Ultima Online. The story writers were looking for a way to tie in the concept of multiple servers running parallel copies of the same world into the lore of the Ultima universe. It was at that point where they got the idea that each server was the reflection in one of the many pieces of the shattered Gem of Immortality from Ultima I -- a shard world. So, is MMO terminology leaking into mainstream database programming? Raph has the whole story over at his blog, where he traces the origins of the term "shard," how it may have gotten used over at Flickr thanks to Game Neverending, and expanded into a term of it's own right. Check out the story, it certain brings back memories of the old days.
MUD history dissolving into the waters of time
While many modern MMO users may never have looked at a screen of white text on a black background and typed "go north," multi-user dungeons, or MUDs, were the forerunners to modern graphical MMOs. Without their appeal and gameplay concepts, we wouldn't be playing World of Warcraft or even EverQuest. So, logically, we should make sure to preserve the histories behind the many MUDs which began our conquest of the online playing field, right?Well, it appears Wikipedia does not think the same way we do on this matter. The online encyclopedia powered by user contributions has begun cracking down and removing articles on MUDs, citing inability to provide verification along with reliable sources. Currently on the chopping block is the entry for Threshold, one of the oldest MUDs still active to this day. This isn't the first time Wikipedia has put online games under fire -- already pulling out the entries for BYOND, LegendMUD, and even removing the article on dragon kill points (DKP) for a time. The removal for the entry of LegendMUD is particularly painful, as there are other articles on Wikipedia that reference the LegendMUD entry, yet are still apparently viable on their own.
Raph Koster on whether torture in videogames is evil
Debate over what is considered 'right' and 'wrong' in terms of behavior in a videogame has become commonplace in recent years. Virtually any mass media commentary on the myriad evils of Grand Theft Auto or the 'Debbie Does Dallas in Space' view of Mass Effect drives this point home -- everyone has a different mindset in terms of what's acceptable to them. While gamers easily dismiss many of these notions as being uninformed and taken out of context, now and again something comes to light within the gaming community itself that sparks debate. A good example has been the recent (and heated) discussion of torture in games, stemming from the views expressed by Dr. Richard Bartle. He argued his points on the questionable existence of torture in "The Art of Persuasion" quest in World of Warcraft, which set off a flurry of responses from gamers and peers. MMO industry luminary Raph Koster weighs in with his own views on the matter in a post titled "Are games about torture evil?". Specifically, Koster addresses this comment at his website: "... please explain to me again why killing NPCs in games is fine but sticking them with a cattle prod is evil." However, Koster seems less concerned with arbitrary notions of right and wrong as he is with the game design that leads us down this path in the first place. One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!
Massively interviews Raph Koster on the State of Metaplace
We've spoken before about the Metaplace property – an ambitious project to make everyone an online game designer. As we just announced earlier today, the company is now moving into a new phase of development! They've got a new name, are inviting in hundreds of users to try out their in-development product, and (as we learned) have a whole new round of funding to see them through! In honor of the occasion we were thrilling to sit down with Mr. Raph Koster, one of the founders of the company. Raph has been a friend of Massively since we launched and, indeed, is well known to MMO gamers for his work on a number of high profile titles. Mr. Koster and the folks at Metaplace are working to put you in the developer's seat now, though, and it was an interesting experience being able to explore the outline of their ambitious project. Read along with us as we talk about the challenges of even 2D, a bit about the Metaplace marketplace, and discuss some of the amazing projects that average folks decide they want to do in their own virtual spaces!
Raph Koster on Metaplace part 2
Obviously what that product offers up is ease of use. From the sounds of things Metaplace is going to offer more powerful tools, though still you're striving for an easy experience. Can you give people who are interested in the project how heavily they're going to need to invest in learning languages or scripting in order to make Metaplace worlds? Metaplace is designed to be both easy and powerful. The goal is to expose the power gradually as people are ready for it. At the low end using it is a lot like using The Sims. You have stuff you can put down, purchase from a marketplace – it's primarily map building. If you're someone that isn't really technically savvy, you can get going in a pretty straightforward way that's a lot of fun. And of course, it's a multiplayer world. Your friends can come visit you. As you start exploring stuff you can obtain, these things come with functionality out of the box. Spawners are something you can buy and place. Even at that low level you can get interactivity right away. Some of the things you buy are systems. You can buy the 'shoot fireballs' system, and now every player can shoot fireballs. We actually had a user buy that, buy some zombies, and in about three hours had snapped together an undead version of the game Robotron.
Massively is giving away 100 Metaplace invitations!
We've got all sorts of great news today about the upstart startup Metaplace! They've got a new round of funding, a brand-new name, and company founder Raph Koster sat down for us for an in-depth conversation about their plans. They've offered us the unique opportunity to get you involved in the fun, and as a result we have 100 invites to pass out to participate in the grand expiment of Metaplace.Just like any of our giveaways, entering couldn't be easier. This time entering is just crazy easy; all you have to do is head over to the Metaplace.com website and enter this code into the input box there: MPMASSIVELY Once your invite code is in, you'll be able to avail yourself of the really excellent Metaplace experience. You'll be able to test the service and start your own world in the next iteration of the virtual space concept! But hurry! There are only 100 codes available for Massively readers, and first come first serve! Head over there, get signed up, and make sure to tell us how it goes! We'll check back with you in a month or so to see how it's going.For full details on the new round of Metaplace funding, read on below the cut.Update: From comments it looks like we're all out folks. Try again next time!
Today the MUD and the MMO turn 30
Today marks the 30th birthday of the original MUD, created at Essex University by Roy Trubshaw in 1978. We recommend you check out what Richard Bartle -- who worked on later iterations of the project -- has to say about this event, as well as Raph Koster's words on the subject. The question at hand, as presented by Bartle, seems to be: does this matter?While he is skeptical, we would like to posit that it does matter a great deal -- or at least that it should. Graphics alone shouldn't lead to a strong distinction when the fundamentals are the same, so let's consider the modern MMO to be part of the same tradition as the MUD -- let's say that this is the MMO's 30th birthday too.
Metaplace: Now accepting beta applications
If you missed the first round of beta applications being accepted last year, now's your second chance for an early look at Raph Koster's Metaplace. According to an announcement today, their brand new temporary website is up to promote an expanded beta and their mailing list, both of which you can sign up for quite easily.To sign up, simply go to the main webpage and click on the "Apply Now" button on the upper left-hand side. From there, you just enter your name and email address, and they will contact you when they're ready. It's as easy as that! Also, look for their newly-designed website to launch soon, as they prepare for what might just be the long-awaited final stages of Metaplace's development.
