The "Icelandic model" of online games--the dilemma of online game development

Multi-Play network (compile/stream Maple) Overview of today's online gaming industry, most online games focus on the development of linear content, and "star Pre-war Night Online" (Eve Online) is a new alternative to a system based game design, to provide players with "sandbox" game content and experience. Recently, a foreign "star pre-war transmission online" master wrote an article, to Eve game based on the development of online games to explore the model, and proposed a new "Icelandic model" for domestic players and developers should have some reference significance. In view of the original text, the small series will be divided into three parts of the article to be sorted out, today will bring you the first part. In this part, the author first introduces the current situation of online game development and the problems faced by the mainstream development model. The following is the original translation: Since the first real graphics online game "Network Genesis" (Ultima online) Since the release, the online gaming industry has undergone tremendous changes. The rapid development of online games has become the mainstream form of the global entertainment industry, and the income of online game products is also showing a sharp upward trend.　　But now it's not enough to measure online games from a profit point of view, we need to analyze and compare them from all angles. Last time I gave a speech at GDC, I discussed the "Asian Game" of "Star Wars Online". Then I met a lot of developers at the scene and they were all worried about the "Big Mac" game development model that dominates the gaming industry.　　This development pattern often requires a large amount of capital investment, accompanied by high risk and high failure rate, and has led to the majority of online games are focused on the development of linear game content. But now there is another development model in the field of online game development that has been proven successful by the industry-"Iceland mode".　　While this development model is not yet popular and is not highly focused, the model is less risky and provides an opportunity to avoid losses for the ambitious online developers who do not have high start-up capital. "Masterpiece" and "Rich game content" to develop online games is not a simple thing. In the online gaming industry, a large number of subscription fees (such as monthly, point card, etc.) of the network games have failed.　　Such games at the beginning of the release is often playing "killer" epic The banner of the game to attract a large number of players, but at the end of the one-month free experience period after the number of slow growth of players or even large loss of the phenomenon. In the face of a sharp deterioration in operating conditions, gaming companies have to redistribute their resources and reduce their expense on loss-making games until they finally stop running the game completely.　　The game market is becoming more and more competitive, and the life cycle of online games is shortened. When we talk about the survival of a network game, in fact, the answer is very simple, that is, developers have to consider how to provide the player with a continuous game experience, rather than go linearThe way, otherwise there will eventually come to the end of the time.　　Some may say that this is obvious, but developers often overlook the problem when they decide to develop a web game. For those who only prepared a certain amount of game content, take the linear development path of the game, when players play customs, the role of the end of the game will have nothing to do, no new content to experience, they can only build new characters from scratch.　　In contrast, those games that have been fully planned from the outset and focused on the next phase of content development will ensure that players still have the incentive to stay and play after the first month of free experience. Now more and more companies are hoping to develop a game that is as successful as Blizzard's "World of Warcraft", so they tend to pursue a grand worldview and rich game content when designing games, because there are many games that fail because they do not provide enough game content for the player.　　BioWare's upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of the typical examples, according to developers, who have prepared thousands of-hour game plots for the game and are fully dubbed by a real person. Of course, this is a way to solve the problem that players get bored or even leave the game after the first month of free experience, but this model often requires huge development money and high up-front investment.　　Personally, I am looking forward to the Old Republic, but not all developers are as rich as BioWare, so it is not possible to copy its model completely. At the beginning of the game, online development companies often limit the amount of content they offer in their games. Players don't have to be surprised they do this for a reason, too, because the development of game content (typically including tasks, team raid, replicas, and so on) takes a lot of time and creativity, even in the seemingly boring content of the player, and consumes a great deal of work by professionals such as game scripting.　　It can't happen overnight. In this respect, developers have adopted a variety of stopgap measures to solve the lack of content, such as the use of task random generation system, but ultimately proved to be unsuccessful.　　Players ' complaints about such settings tend to focus on what is known as "random content", which eventually turns out to be repetitive and tedious.　　If you're trying to develop an online game, the biggest challenge you may face is how to create something that's appealing enough, and your worst nightmare may be when all the content is out and the player comes to the end of the game.　　In the next two sections, the author will give you a detailed description of the "Icelandic model" and an example of a game development company using this development model. To be Continued ...