To be successful a new MMP game must grab the attention of players right away with
innovative graphics and play. It’s important that the game build a sense of community among
the players. The worlds in MMPs are always changing. The storyline keeps evolving, altered
by those players who have come and gone. Since the game doesn’t stop, it never goes back
to where it started. Games must be flexible enough to remain challenging to all players at
all levels, no matter how they choose to play. Game design must take into account what
happens when powerful players quit. Some game publishers are supporting fans as they
modify game characters, environments, and even game outcomes and share their efforts with
other fans. Publishers believe that this modification extends the life of their games. Many
MMPs have previously been based on mythology and legend. Newer games like The Sims
Online(a God Game) and Toontown Online(for kids and families) expanded into new areas.
MMPs are time-consuming to play, often taking up as much as twenty hours per week.
Because of that time investment, players are likely to subscribe to only one or two titles. A
game CD-ROM collects an initial retail fee plus a monthly subscription fee and can bring
in more than $100 million in revenue during its lifetime. Of course, the possibilities in
revenue with broader-appealing MMPs make them tempting to the large companies. The
players of most single-session or multiplayer online games are primarily males from age
thirteen to thirty-five.
Games are generally sold in three ways:
- The game company obtains a license from a well-known property (such as the World
Wrestling Federation). Properties from merchandised characters, real people like
sports figures, motion pictures, and television shows all can be licensed for game devel-
opment. Game companies have been licensing blockbuster motion pictures for some
time. And animated kid’s shows are also popular for games. However it’s only been
more recently that prime-time television shows like CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investiga-
tionhave been licensed for game development. Motion pictures are more risky because
a big-budget movie can flop and greatly lower the demand for a game in advance of the
game being released. A TV show may not be as popular internationally for a game, but
the show might be on the air for a long period of time, extending the life of the game
and the opportunity for serial games.Wireless devices promise the likelihood of gaming
subscriptions with a new episode of a game coming out each week, based on the episode
that’s being aired. There’s also the possibility of boxed sets of the episodes being sold
separately, attractive merchandising for shows with a cult following. Action adventure
and mystery shows are especially appealing for gaming. - A publisher comes up with an idea for an original game. The game publisher may hire
an experienced game developer to develop the idea or farm out the project on a
turnkey basis. - A professional game developer develops a game idea for a gaming company, and the
company sells the idea to a game publisher. The game company that developed the
idea will be creating the game in-house.
Games are now sometimes one element of a multimedia and merchandising blitz that
includes a movie, TV show, books, games, and so on. The game may be developed first, later,
or simultaneously with other media.
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