Comments on: Oversimplifying Your Audience: A Real-Life Example http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/oversimplifying-your-audience-a-real-life-example/ MMO game development Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:51:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Sandra http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/oversimplifying-your-audience-a-real-life-example/comment-page-1/#comment-55 Sandra Fri, 26 Oct 2007 05:46:17 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/12/oversimplifying-your-audience-a-real-life-example/#comment-55 You have a very good point, Jesse, about the kind of playing behavior that MMO designers should ideally want to foster -- and I am particularly glad that you mentioned that playing daily helps keep the game foremost in the players' minds, because I personally think that that has a very large impact. This is one reason I believe that out-of-game community (i.e. fansites and blogs) are so important. However, I doubt that Blizzard deliberately designed Brewfest around an every-12-hour playing cycle in an attempt to shape the playing habits of what they are calling casual players in this context. (Notice me being very careful with my terms here! How awkward.) And if they did, I still think they missed the mark -- the people that they say they are trying to target with their seasonal events are not, in my experience, terribly amenable to that kind of influence. On the other hand, I do believe that daily quests are a great way to influence the playing habits of the so-called middle-core, who often self-identify as casual even though their habits are in no way casual. And that's actually a topic I had been planning to post about. :> You have a very good point, Jesse, about the kind of playing behavior that MMO designers should ideally want to foster — and I am particularly glad that you mentioned that playing daily helps keep the game foremost in the players’ minds, because I personally think that that has a very large impact. This is one reason I believe that out-of-game community (i.e. fansites and blogs) are so important.

However, I doubt that Blizzard deliberately designed Brewfest around an every-12-hour playing cycle in an attempt to shape the playing habits of what they are calling casual players in this context. (Notice me being very careful with my terms here! How awkward.) And if they did, I still think they missed the mark — the people that they say they are trying to target with their seasonal events are not, in my experience, terribly amenable to that kind of influence.

On the other hand, I do believe that daily quests are a great way to influence the playing habits of the so-called middle-core, who often self-identify as casual even though their habits are in no way casual. And that’s actually a topic I had been planning to post about. :>

]]> By: Jesse King http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/oversimplifying-your-audience-a-real-life-example/comment-page-1/#comment-49 Jesse King Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:52:26 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/12/oversimplifying-your-audience-a-real-life-example/#comment-49 As far as defining casual as 15 Minutes/day, as opposed to 6 hours per weekend as you suggest, Blizzard (and any MMO developer) has a vested interest in fostering the former behavior and preventing the latter - and you see a great deal of this in WoW recent developments, such as daily quests. Why is this? Easy - server load and bandwidth. MMO's don't want players playing 40 hours a week, or 8 hours at a stretch. They want them playing an hour or so a day, spread out as smoothly as they can across their entire bandwidth horizon. They want players playing FREQUENTLY, to keep the game formost in their players minds to aid retention, but not OBSESSIVELY, which damages both their personal lives (harming retention), as well as racking up excess bandwidth and server overhead costs. So, if you believe as a designer that you have some hand in actually shaping what your 'casual' market is, then you develop for the 15 minute play experience, and make a number of different ones available to your players - rather than the server-pounding 'weekend warriors'. It's probably a similar reason that WoW's raid locks flip over on tuesday, rather than say right before, after or during the weekend. Players will tend to play just before or after raid locks flip, but they also tend to play on weekends - so even though it might be more convenient for your overall player base, you don't really want the two factors coinciding or you just spike your weekend load even worse and increase your server costs across the board. As far as defining casual as 15 Minutes/day, as opposed to 6 hours per weekend as you suggest, Blizzard (and any MMO developer) has a vested interest in fostering the former behavior and preventing the latter – and you see a great deal of this in WoW recent developments, such as daily quests.

Why is this? Easy – server load and bandwidth. MMO’s don’t want players playing 40 hours a week, or 8 hours at a stretch. They want them playing an hour or so a day, spread out as smoothly as they can across their entire bandwidth horizon.

They want players playing FREQUENTLY, to keep the game formost in their players minds to aid retention, but not OBSESSIVELY, which damages both their personal lives (harming retention), as well as racking up excess bandwidth and server overhead costs.

So, if you believe as a designer that you have some hand in actually shaping what your ‘casual’ market is, then you develop for the 15 minute play experience, and make a number of different ones available to your players – rather than the server-pounding ‘weekend warriors’.

It’s probably a similar reason that WoW’s raid locks flip over on tuesday, rather than say right before, after or during the weekend. Players will tend to play just before or after raid locks flip, but they also tend to play on weekends – so even though it might be more convenient for your overall player base, you don’t really want the two factors coinciding or you just spike your weekend load even worse and increase your server costs across the board.

]]> By: Sandra http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/oversimplifying-your-audience-a-real-life-example/comment-page-1/#comment-46 Sandra Fri, 19 Oct 2007 04:10:52 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/12/oversimplifying-your-audience-a-real-life-example/#comment-46 Tholal: I think that's what bothers me the most about the entire subject. Everyone agrees that we can't agree on what a casual player is, and yet we go right on using the term as a baseline for design. Tholal: I think that’s what bothers me the most about the entire subject. Everyone agrees that we can’t agree on what a casual player is, and yet we go right on using the term as a baseline for design.

]]> By: Brian 'Psychochild' Green http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/oversimplifying-your-audience-a-real-life-example/comment-page-1/#comment-32 Brian 'Psychochild' Green Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:50:48 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/12/oversimplifying-your-audience-a-real-life-example/#comment-32 This is also why I was arguing that you can't really understand your audience until you actually have it. In the case of Brewfest, I think that the designers did misunderstand their audience and what "casual" play really means. They could have looked at historical data and found out what players expect. Although, I suspect that they did rely on some data, because the high level daily quests have been a rather popular feature in the game, so they thought it would make sense to apply it to a case like this. Unfortunately, I think the mistake was that the people doing the daily Brewfest quests aren't the same people doing the level 70 daily quests, that is: it's a different audience. But, when you're designing a game initially, you have to kind of guess what your audience will be like. And, also adjust if your audience is different than you expect. But, sometimes even the most educated guesses don't live up to expectations. :) This is also why I was arguing that you can’t really understand your audience until you actually have it. In the case of Brewfest, I think that the designers did misunderstand their audience and what “casual” play really means. They could have looked at historical data and found out what players expect. Although, I suspect that they did rely on some data, because the high level daily quests have been a rather popular feature in the game, so they thought it would make sense to apply it to a case like this. Unfortunately, I think the mistake was that the people doing the daily Brewfest quests aren’t the same people doing the level 70 daily quests, that is: it’s a different audience.

But, when you’re designing a game initially, you have to kind of guess what your audience will be like. And, also adjust if your audience is different than you expect. But, sometimes even the most educated guesses don’t live up to expectations. :)

]]> By: Tholal http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/oversimplifying-your-audience-a-real-life-example/comment-page-1/#comment-30 Tholal Fri, 12 Oct 2007 18:56:23 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/12/oversimplifying-your-audience-a-real-life-example/#comment-30 Good post! And I definitely agree that tying together 'casual player' with 'logging in once a day' just proves that the poster doesn't really understand the concept of casual player! Not to mention the fact that attempting to separate any group of people into only two defined factions is pretty much impossible. Good post! And I definitely agree that tying together ‘casual player’ with ‘logging in once a day’ just proves that the poster doesn’t really understand the concept of casual player! Not to mention the fact that attempting to separate any group of people into only two defined factions is pretty much impossible.

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