Daniel Pargman

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2D1651 - Datorspelsdesign - 21 nov 2005
Daniel Pargman Massiva multispelarespel
massively multiplayer online games - MMOG
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051121 - 2D1651

• Me
• SvenskMUD (moderately multiplayer
  online games)
• MMOG (massively multiplayer
  online games)
• Money economy
• Roundup

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Daniel Pargman

• University of Skövde, School of Humanities and
  Informatics, Media/Computer game development
• Senior Lecturer 2005-
• Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), School of
  Computer Science and Communication, Media
  Technology
• Senior Lecturer 2002-
• HCI consultant
• CRT
• Department of Communication studies, Linköping
  university
• Ph.D. thesis Code begets community On social
  and technical aspects of managing a virtual
  community (2000)
• Computer and systems sciences, Uppsala university

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My interests
Social sciences
Computer sciences
Human-Computer Interaction Design Systems
development ...
Sociology Anthropology Psychology ...
CMC CSCW Communities Onlinespel
Society
Technology
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Aarseth, Playing research http//hypertext.rmit.
edu.au/dac/papers/Aarseth.pdf

• Three dimensions characterize every computer
  game
• Gameplay (players, playing, motives)
• Game structure (game rules)
• Game world (content, design, artwork)
• Leads to three research perspectives
• Gameplay (psychology, ethnology, sociology...)
• Game rules (computer game design - CS/AI...)
• Game world (art, aesthetics, history, cultural
  studies, media studies)

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SvenskMud
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Perspectives on SvenskMud

• SvenskMud (SwedishMud) is
• A game (adventure mud)
• A computer program (systems development project)
• A hobby

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SvenskMud as a game/computer program

• Takes place in a Tolkien-inspired fantasy world
  and in a Sweden of the 19th century
• Contains 6000 distinct spaces (rooms) full of
  monsters, treasures etc.
• Access limited to 100 simultaneous users at peak
  hours
• Is officially a project at Lysator - the academic
  computer club at Linköping University
• Developed for 13 years by 100 persons
• Consists of 3 million lines of code
• Developed as an open source project

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(No Transcript)
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SvenskMud
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(No Transcript)
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TDZK

• Browser-based MMORPG
• Persistent online world
• 4000-5000 registered players
• Space adventure game
• Gather resources, trading goods, upgrading your
  ship, fighting your enemies
• Semi-synchronous
• Symbolic interface
• Very complicated, knowledge intensive game
• Played in 4-month rounds

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Vad är detta?
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(No Transcript)
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SvenskMud
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A window into a virtual world...
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MMOG
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From MUDs to MMOG

• Graphical interface more accessible
• Three of four magnitudes larger larger breadth
  of player base
• Lineage, World of Warcraft
• Commercial enterprises big business (?
  hobby any more)
• But - same social interaction and same
  social phenomena

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Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG)

• Persistent worlds (PW)
• Thousands of simultaneos players
• Lineage 4.000.000 players in Asia (Korea, Taiwan)
• Everquest 500.000 players in USA and Europe
• Complex social interaction/sociala phenomena
• Can be very captivating
• Subscription model (10-15 / month for unlimited
  online access)

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Star Wars Galaxies

• Sony Online Entertainment
• Released in the US in June 2003 and in Europa in
  November
• 125.000 subscribers the first week, 300.000 after
  the summer
• gt 3.000.000 posted messages on the official
  discussion forum on the web (spring 2004)!
• Costs 15 / month
• Suffer from the same problems as other games
  (released too early many bugs bad press)

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Exempel
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Money and economy
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Masters thesis on MMOG money

• Nine Masters students at KTH, Stockholm
• All looking at money and economy in and around
  online games
• In Star Wars Galaxies, Eve Online, Dark Age of
  Camelot, Ultima Online, Ragnarök Online...
• Masters thesis 20 weeks of full-time work
• 10 weeks reading, preparation, analysis, writing
• 10 weeks full-time study
• Results will be published (on the web) during
  2005
• Five finished this far

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Perspectives on MMOG money

• Money and economy in online games
• The real-world/game industry economy
• The in-game economy
• The interface (E-bay) between in-game and
  real-world economies

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MMOG economy (perspective 1) (Mulligan
Patrovsky 2003)

• Costs (USD) for running a popular MMOG for three
  months. (100-150.000 subscribers, 30.000
  simultaneous players.)
• Server clusters 80.000 10
• Player relations 4.000 12
• Community relations 4.000 3
• Live development team 6.000 12
• Management 8.000 4
• Account mgm billing 4.000 5
• Office space, furniture, PCs etc. 250.000
• Bandwidth 20 of previous costs
• Network operations personnel 5.000 5
• Overhead costs 80.000
• Total gt 2.000.000 USD

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MMOG balance sheet (2002)

• Development costs 7 (average) and 10-12
  (typical) million USD for AAA title
• Launch costs - 3-5 million USD (and rising)
• Can bring in millions of dollars for 5-10 years
• - 40-60 of revenue spent on running the game
• A major hit (200.000 subscribers in 6 months)
  can pay for development/launch costs in lt 1 year

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Game market players

• Hard-core market (10)
• Will do anything to play games. 15 million
  worldwide (2002)
• Moderate market (20)
• Money (equipment, fees) time concerns
• Mass market (70)
• Play short, easy-to-learn games. 140-200 million
  worldwide (2002)
• Xbox 360

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In-game economy (perspective 2)

• Economic systems emerge spontaneously
• Resources are limited
• Nothing is free
• ? People need to barter/trade with each other in
  the game (e.g.the emergence of markets)
• Faucet - drain
• Tax vs service
• Virtual inflation, cartels, rares, crafting/trade
  vs battle

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In-game vs real-world economy (perspective 3)

• Norrath (in Everquest) is the 77th richest
  country in the world! (Castronova 2001)
• GNP per capita 2226 USD, hourly wage 3,42 USD
  (319 PP).
• Hourly wage lt 3,42 USD in China, India (Mexico?)
• Black Snow Interactive set up a sweatshop in
  Tijuana to capitalize on trade between Mexico,
  USA and Norrath.
• How can this be? ...because of E-bay
• Norrath has production, labor supply, income,
  inflation, foreign trade and currency exchange (1
  platinium piece 1 cent)

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In-game vs real-world economy II

• To whom does the fruits of the labor belong when
  someone develops virtual resources (works?)
  within a game?
• The company that produce the game/owns the
  server?
• The player (who produces the economy)?
• Mythic entertainment vs Black Snow Interactive
• Infringement on intellectual property rights
• Unfair business practices
• The online game There hired an economist to
  work full-time on in-game fiscal policy

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Dark Age of Camelot commerce on E-bay

• Data from mid-Nov to mid-Dec 2004 (4 weeks)
• Info through Hammertaps Deep analysis
• 2350 sales - US 210.000 changed hands
• Virtual currency (67)
• Accounts (31)
• Virtual objects (2)
• DAoC costs US 15/month - 30 servers ( 3
  realms)
• Trade in virtual currencey - three actors account
  for 85 of all commerce
• Large scale advantages accept all major credit
  cards, trust, customer service, E-bay
  powersellers
• Homework Volume of E-bay trade in relation to
  the total subscription fee?

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Example of an E-bay ad

• Blade Of The Righteous - 210. Well its really
  the best weapon... Makes HUGE DAMAGE... So its a
  Super Slayer

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In-game vs real-world economy III

• In-game market place
• E-bay
• Trader
• Employer (small scale) Black Snow
• Company ltwww.ige.comgt IGE is the world's leading
  provider of value-added services to the players
  and publishers of multiplayer online games

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Exempel
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Roundup
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A short reading list about MMOGs and money

• Thomson (2005), Game theories
• http//www.walrusmagazine.com/article.pl?sid04/05
  /06/1929205tid1
• Hunter Lastowka (2003), Virtual property
• http//www.nyls.edu/pdfs/hunter_lastowka.pdf
• Burke (2001), Rubicite breastplate priced to
  move, cheap
• http//www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/tburke1/Rubicite
  20Breastplate.pdf
• Castronova (2001), Virtual worlds A first-hand
  account of market and society on the cybrarian
  frontier
• http//ssrn.com/abstract294828

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Next thesis subject - Groups and guilds in
online games
Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft - Tönnies 1887

• Small (The village), rural, slowness, tradition
• Friends and enemies
• Group (projects), belonging, commitment
• Natural, unplanned organism
• Relationships as mutual, significant, long-term,
  informal, personal

• Big (The city), urban, speed, variation, fashion,
  fance
• Strangers and competitors
• Individual (projects), alienation, convenience
• Constructed, artficial mechanism
• Relationships as instrumental, convenient,
  transient, anonymous

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Onlinespel, spelcommunities och reklamspel, 5p
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www.dsv.su.se/utbildning/su/sp5.html 23 jan - 24
feb 2006
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Contact
Daniel Pargman pargman_at_kth.se 46 8 790 82
80 KTH/Media Technology 100 44
Stockholm www.nada.kth.se/pargman/thesis