I just wanted to wade into the MMORPG talk that floats around these forums.
A lots of game players play a few MMORGPs, become blinded by their scope and design and think that they will find a game development package, like Unity3D, to create one of their own.
The reality of MMORPGs is that they are an absolutely HUGE undertaking to develop, require a huge team to create, cost a lot of money to build and host AND the market is incredibly competition and intense - many MMORPGS fail!!! The only successful one-person MMORPG developer I am aware of is Gene Endrody who created Sherwood http://maidmarian.com/. And even then Sherwood is limited in scope and is essentially just a series of chat rooms - and a procedural dungeon! And according to Google Trends, his site has slumped in hits, meaning that even he has trouble maintaining an interested audience.
To me, MMORPGs are like “public space” - places where hundred of users roam, meet, play etc - like a park, city streets.
But what has been overlooked is “private spaces” - that is - peer-to-peer games - where a small group of people play - something that Unity3D and an indie game developer can achieve AMAZING results in!!
These “private spaces” are the houses that sit along a street - what happens behind the walls, you are not privy too - and not inclusive of - and as such these spaces become tantalizing and intriguing.
So if you are a new game developer who wants to create a HUGE MMORPG, maybe reconsider, before you waste too much time. Creating smaller, more manageable peer-to-peer RPGs is not a waste of time, they allow friends to set off on “private” adventures together - adventures that are more focused and fun and not noisy and cumbersome like a lot of the MMORPGs out there.
The surest sign that someone new to independent game development isn’t really serious is the phrase “I was thinking I’d make something like World of Warcraft…”
You’re dead right that the cost of undertaking that kind of project is massive, but it’s easy to forget if most of your experience comes from the end user side. You’re not meant to know how many artists had to work however many months or years to render all of the terrain you’re stomping through with your +10 Boots of Stompiness, you’re supposed to be having fun.
It’s kind of like with indie filmmakers, there are always those who remember Massive Hollywood Blockbuster 13 - Revenge of the Gaffers and think, hey, I can think of a better idea than that, I’ll make my OWN movie! All the while, blissfully unaware of just how many people’s blood, sweat and tears (not to mention investment capital) went into making it, or how skilled each of them had to be to bring anything useful to the project to begin with.
The result when their illusion is shattered and they learn just how much work is involved is one of either two things: either they knuckle down, learn the skills and work, or two, they decide that the work part isn’t for them and they’ll just be the ‘idea guy’.
And, the most successful one is the one who makes awkward amounts of eye contact, talks with far too much energy and goes and sells the idea to anyone who’ll listen, find himself someone (or a few people) willing to sink a few mil into it…
And viola, an MMO is made
This is also how movies are made
The first rule of making movies - NEVER spend your own money
I second reset on that, I can see too many talented people starting to create their own World of Warcraft, or their own crysis, and of course never finish. Or worse, they are forced to dumb down the overall quality a lot, just because they realize, midway, that it’s clearly impossible for one person to achieve such a project.
One thing is positive in these impulses, though : to make a great game, you gotta be inspired. And inspiration is so much a pleasure to work with …
But it is easy to fall into too much inspiration, being overwhelmed by phantasms and dreams, leaving reality behind.
Yes, but that kind of detail is something any gamedev should have taken information about. I consider blindness to be a mistake, not a consequence.
I gotta tell you, I come at this from a much older perspective. Remember that the MMORPG has its roots in a much older program called a MUD. (See also The Mud Connector | TMC Mudlist, Muds, Text-Games and Reviews) The pattern is exactly the same: create character, roam wilderness, stomp the everloving crap out of any creature unfortunate enough to cross your path, loot the body, eat the corpse, lather, rinse, repeat. (On some systems, yes, you needed subsistence and recent kills were an excellent source of negative hunger numbers. Really.)
The presentation, of course, is different, and that’s where the problem comes in.
The MUD was only created in prose. Its cost of entry was a little server space (processing demands were pretty minimal) some server software (which can be had for free), and a sink of time to write all the pretty text. All the client needed was some form of telnet, which was dead common.
The software to serve an MMORPG may or may not be simple. But the time spent in creating and animating images is enormous. And depending how much work the client had to do, it could range from large to a beast.
The public space for playing games is a very powerful thing, which is why they were popular before they were infused with all the pretty pictures. This is why some people would like to build them: to have a place where they can have an adventure with friends, and anyone else who happens along. This is the noble goal, and should be encouraged even despite the costs of entry and how hackneyed and contrived the plot may be.
Others are just in it for the cash; they see what people lay out to play and want a piece of that score instead. Screw 'em.
I agree reset, during the many years I have been moderating forums and wiki’s on various game development sites, I have witnessed many MMORPG (and any other MMO variant) projects show up, and dissappear. The same for community projects.
Creating an MMORPG is just like putting too much hay on your fork ;).
That said, I have been that 14-15 year old as well with the same ideas. I do think that starting such a project is actually a good lesson though, learning that there is a lot more involved in game development than many think, and not something like UT99 ut = new UT99() ;).
Unity provides the ability to get going on the gameplay/graphics immediatly. No need to setup devices for graphics, input, sound, etc. And Unity gives me enough flexibility to do the things I like. Yet, I do sometimes miss the challenges of getting your own 3D engine going. But if the time I spent on my 3D engine, was used on Unity instead, my other games would have atleast likely finished.
That said, I think it’s easier to make more complex games now (including some simple MMORPG’s?) for people just getting started with game development. It just takes a lot of will power to find your way through all the problems the project provides you with ;).
But like Clint said in Dirty Harry… “Man’s got to know his limitations” ;).
I disagree. Making something of WoW’s scale is obviously unrealistic. The problem with MMORPG is the first M. Prune out the “Massive” and you’ve got a project for a small team - small experienced team that is.
I agree with amputating the first ‘M’. Honestly, I think there would be a nice market for a good CMORPG where the C is “community”. Like persistent Neverwinter Nights sessions.
The whole idea of an indie/amateur/hobbyist MMORPG brings to mind a popular saying which I will mangle anyway, so there is no reason to go ahead and change the context as well. “The worst game ever made is worth more than the best game only imagined.” I have spent several years working on indie/hobbyist/amateur projects and regret to say, the only one which will reach completion is the one I am doing now… by myself.
As hard as it is to get people together to finish a project without pay, the larger projects are much harder to convince people to finish. That is not to say that all indie games should be about matching three icons, rather it seems that indie game makers should consider the capabilities of their team when scoping a project. The more I thought about, the more it seemed that one key to success would be to build your core team then go about the realistic design for your project based upon your capabilities and fill in the gaps with outside support paid in cash instead of improbable promises of profit and fame.
I’m not sure what the moralizing is about here. I mean … we’re talking about making computer games. Thats not exactly a noble or mature pursuit. Making games is fun. And thats it really. There isn’t anything particularly good or bad about it, but it certainly isn’t important work that the good of society depends upon. So what does it matter how anyone approaches it?
If something excites your creativity, then pursue it. And I think that goes for everyone that wants to make a MMORPG. If they get in over their head what does it matter to you?
And while we are at it - Go ahead and make peer to peer multiplayer games. I think its a great idea, and I’ve sketched out a few games like that on paper myself. I think its a good model. But what does this have to do with someone else’s project or whether their parents supported their desire to make games in the first place?
The problems arise when you recruit team mates who may be fooled into thinking that they will be part of an awesome game development project of grandeur dimensions, which will, despite the team’s total lack of experience, result in an excellent product.
Bitter relations ensue.
Don’t lie to people and don’t play with high stakes… unless you have solid financial backing, which can turn those potential lies into realities.
