The Future of Indie MMOGs 69
Karen Hertzberg writes "Ask any 10 gamers what constitutes an 'indie MMO' and you'll probably get 10 different answers. But one definition that most can agree on is that an indie game lacks the financial support of a well-funded publisher. But do smaller budgets mean greater freedom? Ten Ton Hammer asked Nathan Richardsson, Executive Producer for CCP (developers of EVE Online), and Todd Harris, Executive Producer of Global Agenda, to share their thoughts on the bright future of independent MMOG development. 'By definition a niche market is a segment that is currently underserved by the mainstream providers. So, to serve that audience a developer typically needs to deliver something really different and innovative vs. just more of the same thing available elsewhere,' says Harris. 'With a big budget there could be a temptation to cover up stale gameplay by shoveling out more content or simply pumping up the marketing hype. However, for an indie developer such as Hi-Rez Studios, the game must stand on its own merits and we find that liberating.'"
Re:Quality (Score:5, Informative)
The real problem is that people judge a game based on its production quality. Having a diverse amount of play environments (zones or levels or instances or whatever you're using), having a decent amount of different ways of playing the game (classes, skills, what have you) and pretty graphics to show them off, etc. All of this means resources, and while you can use things like procedural content generation and randomizers to help pack as much fun as you can into the game, it is still hard to compete with something like WOW that has a brazillion dollars thrown at it on a daily basis.
Of course, you can always pick a genre that doesn't require a huge amount of art assets and can be expanded and supported by a small team, like EVE, and do great. Trying to compete in the fantasy genre is going to be really hard, and sadly thats what people like.
Re:Let's Keep It Mediocre, People!! (Score:3, Informative)
The new USA modo.
I think you meant motto.