Bountytaker

Don't want to spam the thread, but for those that were wondering why I pointed to Civilization Networks, here's an official description from Sid Meier himself:

"I’ve been looking at ways of expanding the Civ gameplay experience to include solo, competitive and cooperative play to take advantage of the uniqueness of social networks. We’re calling this project Civilization® Network™ and the full game will be available next year on Facebook."

If I'm right...can I get a cookie?

Reading that description, and with the failure of CXL on my mind, you suddenly have me extremely anxious about the possibility of a secret city-building mmo thats been in development.

Or....since its around time for the beta of Civilization Networks, and your description could easily fit that game, call me doubly excited.

Nice work on upping the excitement...i'll throw my hat in.

I gave folks hints that this was coming..even here. MC is in SERIOUSLY dire financial straights. I don't know that this will fix it. The two insulting things about their announcement, though, is the possibility that players will have to pay again for the FULL version when its renamed cxl2011...and, the ludicrous idea that they "tried everything" to make the P.O. work.

As I posted on another site:

Really, you guys "tried everything"?

Did you try any of the ideas about how to make the P.O. work that were talked about on the old forums for two years before release? Simple ideas, like creating "competition" or "cooperation", or limiting resources and citizens?

Did you implement ANY of the mmo suggestions presented from day one of open beta? Even the easier ones, like reordering the maps, creating regions/countries/nations, making changes to transportation rules, or expanding the number of resources?

Did you try to do anything with the Blueprint system that players suggested, like making them "rarer" to earn, harrder to build, unique to planets, or giving them importance?

Did you try ANYTHING new with the avatar system to make it unique from the chat window?

Did you regualrly patch the game with unique content? How about fixes for the MAJOR issues that were reported, like the memory bug that is STILL in the game.

Did the community events team ever get any "events" off the ground? If so, did it get mentioned to any sites?

Did you keep contact with players regularly after you closed the official forums? Did you make regular appearances to answer questions and promote the game on mmo forums?

Did you clamp down on the cheaters in a timely fashion? Did you delete unused cities according to the plan you had in place? Did you have a design document for content creation that you shared with players to give them an idea of when they may be able to make their own content, or even if they could, for the P.O.?

From everything I've read, the answers to all of that are "no"...so I wouldn't agree that MC tried "everything" to make the P.O. work. The fact that MC seems to have had no plan for "if" sub numbers were lower than expected after three months (something almost ALL MMO'S prepare for), and therefore must shut down, suggests that the company was little prepared to make this thing work.

They made the P.O. a "pay for the full version" feature, not an mmo. In doing so, they created a spectacular failure that MAY kill any chance of a city building mmo in the future. Ridiculous.

They may need the help. One financial tracking site I was looking predicts Monte Cristo Multimedia will LOSE about 2 million Euro (4 million USD) for the fiscal year ending in March of '10. According to the financial records on that site, that would make the FOURTH straight year the company failed to make a profit.

I'd say the game needs some subscriptions, and FAST!

Someone I know could probably use this. A late Christmas gift perhaps.

Averice: "When you use beta keys as a promotional tool instead of a serious process, the only feedback a company is looking for is an outlook on how consumers are going to feel about their product. I think there's a disconnect here between what a private closed beta is, and a public closed beta, they are very different."

Agree 100%, as well as with the comments here about the Cryptic rep. His "theme" of the players being at fault seems especially ridiculous right now considering they are "delaying" fans of STO entrance into beta while they make way for random contest winners.

Note to developers: If you want "professional" style testers, then use "professional" methods for selecting testers. Beta keys to the first 1000 posters on www.mmosareleet.com is NOT the way to do it.

Perhaps the biggest thing I noticed in the interviews was the movement away from "closed" betas. Heck, I don't even think that all four participants could come up with the same "definition" for a closed beta!!!!

That trend is what, IMO, has been the biggest development in the last few years. It once was the norm to invite players into the game nearly a year before release to help preparing the game. And, as someone pointed out earlier, one used to have to be an active member of the games community, with some testing experience, certain computer stats in order to test, and were required to sign a strict NDA. "Closed" betas were definitely NOT free trials of the game...they were WORK.

Maybe players just didn't want to do them anymore. Maybe developers can't take the time to work the "closed" beta test due to the money constraints of modern mmo development. Or maybe devs just don't want players interfering with their "babies" that much. Whatever the reason, I think THAT change is KILLING the development process.

The fact that core fanbases, found in forums and on fan-created sites, are not being utilized, and instead, public playtests are not the ONLY "definition" of beta(and companies like Cryptic truly believe they "can't do anything about it), will KILL this industry. Mark my words.

Yep...all still true. The addition of the high school just NOW fixed the education bug in the game. There is still no ambient city noises. Buildings don't change based on economics. There are still plenty of trade bugs. Plus, there's still no competative or cooperative reasons to play online....just chatting and iffy trading.

The blueprint system that they just turned back on (Alcatraz, Tokyo palace, etc) is the same exact system that was complained about in beta. They made no changes to it despite testers informing them that it was boring and useless. Heck, after the initial rush(about two or three weeks), most testers didn't even care about earning "blueprints". When they turrned them off, the hope was major changes were coming.....nope.

Also, before you get too excited about the European content, remember that it consists of only a few buildings, can only be used online, and you must REMAIN a subscriber to keep it. Cancel your sub to play solo only, and kiss your European plaza goodbye.

And there are STILL no mass transit options, and the Multi-lane tool promised at the beginning of development is MIA.

I'd avoid this, still, until at least '10...maybe longer if you're an MMO fan as opposed to a city building fan.

"designed a fully modular and customizable system of player throne rooms they can outfit with items they win or buy in the game"

Throne rooms?!?!?! That's pure Civ II! I'd say the theory that they were working on a Civ MMO, and that it got killed by the Civ Facebook game announced last week, are strong.

Shame...I'd pay a ton for a Civ mmo......Facebook...not so much.

After two years following the game, posting on the forums, etc....I'm reduced to fishing outside sites for a key. sigh. I hope they get the official forums up again soon...this "search" is getting boring.

Great article. And it doesn't just apply to EVE. As mmo's become more repetitive, and continue to focus on giving players a "solo game" with others merely watching, the role of "events" is becoming even greater. Every mmo I've associated myself with, I've pushed for the inclusion of events, even trying to design a bunch myself. As we speak, I've got a thread in the CXL forums dedicated entirely to event creation.

Over the last few years, I've put together a "10 Commandments" for event creation in mmo's. You hit on most of it, with only a few exceptions:

1) Participation is open to everybody in the game, even new players.

2) Events can be associated with certain holidays, or real life events, but are not required to be.

3) The length of time of the event is important. Too short, and players don’t get enough time to fully enjoy it. Too long, and it becomes more of a chore, losing its uniqueness. Two to four weeks, real time, is often ideal.

4) Events should help add to the “history” of the game world. Their goal is to help make the game world feel individualized for each player. Giving out event rewards for free, later, takes away from the "history" of the game.

5) Reusing assets is a good way to speed up the process of creating and coding events. Also, if some art or design assets can be kept in the game (solo and multiplayer) after the event, that’s just a good use of resources.

6) The repeating of events should be rare. If an event is going to be repeated, some small tweaks or changes, representing the changes in the game world, should be made. Events should never be permanent.

7) Rewards should vary. All players should receive some sort of reward for simply participating. However, there can, and often should, be a scaling of rewards, with some rarer rewards going to “winners” of the event/contest. This helps foster healthy competition in the game world.

8) Rewards should not be game breaking. They can either offer small/minor bonuses to the player, or, should have one small negative effect for every two positive bonuses.

9) Events should have a story associated with them, and that story should be presented to the community using whatever resources possible. Using websites, forums, chat rooms, etc. to hype an event is a good thing.

10) Besides helping to create a history for the game world, the other main purpose of events and contests should be to encourage social interaction between members of the game’s community. Whether through healthy competition, cooperative work, the sharing of mementos (screenshots, pics, etc), or the fostering of player run events, the GM’s and developers of the game should constantly strive to make their games community fun, active, and united.


If all mmo's put the effort into events that, say, MxO did, or WAR does, I think we'd hear a lot less about how "cookie cutter" these games are.

Again, nice article.