Dear game developers and publishers,
This is an open letter from a gamer to call for reason so you can continue making enjoyable games, and that you don't continue and expand onerous policies and actions which we've seen in the last couple of years which hurt you and your customers more than they benefit you.
First my gaming "credentials." I'm 36-year-old male, and I've been a gamer since Pong. On the FPS side I started with Wolfenstein 3D, played all Dooms, all Quakes, and pretty much everything else from obscure mods (Natural Selection, Tactical Ops: Assault On Terror, True Combat: Elite) to AAA-rated blockbusters (UT, Tribes 2, BF2, TF2, KZ2, BF3). On non-FPS side I've played everything from Yie Ar Kung-Fu to Nethack to every Prince of Persia (original 2D included) to Populous to Lemmings to Worms to Marios to Diablos to Burnouts to WoW to Torchlight to GoW3 to Deus Ex to WH40k Space Marine. I'm mostly from a PC and PS3 background, but I've had a Wii and Nintendo DS, and have a PSP, and have played with most consoles ever made. I consider myself a hardcore player, although these days more casual due to work.
I have never worked in the gaming industry. Nevertheless, I'm a bean counter in a Fortune 50 IT company, so I can appreciate some of the financial challenges posed, and I understand why you think some of the activities you take will help the top and/or the bottom line. But many of those don't help with that, and even if it did, they will have a tangible and intangible negative impact in the medium and short term.
Below is the list for your consideration, in no particular order.
- USED GAMES. They ARE NOT a loss to you. The price of a used game is already factored into the buying decision of a new game. In other words, when I buy a game at x EUR, I expect to be able to sell it for x-y EUR in a month, x-z in two months, etc. Note I will never sell a game if it's good enough with good replayability. If you make used games unsellable (see also entry DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION) or less valuable (see also ONLINE PASSES), I WILL NOT pay x EUR for the same game. The people who buy a used game didn't and wouldn't buy the game at full price, and your pricing is off. It's YOUR failure, and the market is fixing it for you. Repeating: used game sales on eBay and game stores DOES NOT represent revenue and margin you are losing; you have already gained it when the game was first sold. Instead of trying to actively kill used game sales, you should concentrate the effort, man hours and monetary investment in making games which gamers will WANT to buy on day 0, and play until at least Kyle Reese is sent back in time.
- DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION. It's a fine way to distribute games as you can cut the middleman from the transaction, win-win for most gamers although I'm sure game stores provide value for some. But don't be an ass about it. I need to be secure in knowing that the game I bought will be playable in the future, and that I can back it up myself. Downloading from your server isn't backup, as I don't trust your ability and willingness to have that game on your servers ten years from now. Also do realize game collecting will be impossible. Also see entry USED GAMES, ONLINE PASSES, and BACK CATALOGUE and HOMEBREW.
- BACK CATALOGUE and HOMEBREW. Make sure your customers can always buy your old games and play them on current PCs and/or consoles. Otherwise make sure you don't kill homebrew. Homebrew is an answer to YOUR failure, don't blame them. Note that gamers playing homebrew are likely some of your best customers of current games. The guys developing homebrew are also your future employees and tech savvy people, so encouraging them is part of being a good corporate citizen. Also see HD REMAKES, DOWNLOADABLE DIGITAL CONTENT, DEDICATED SERVERS, MODDABILITY, and CLOSING GAME SERVERS.
- LOCALIZATION. Not everyone around the world wants to play the game in their language. Include the original text and audio, and don't make game portals default to whatever language my IP is from - I'm looking at you, Origin.
- REGIONAL OR COUNTRY LOCK-IN. Don't. You have to realize that many of your customers are mobile across countries. Within EU it's against the law. This is mostly to do with DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION, but could also be a factor with LOCALIZATION, DOWNLOADABLE DIGITAL CONTENT, ALWAYS-ON INTERNET FOR ANYTHING, DEDICATED SERVERS, and DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT.
- WORKERS RIGHTS. I don't know how bad it really is, but the publicity is making you look like ***** - which is a lot since you're competing against some pretty big ***** in the corporate world. Treat your employees well, and they will pay you and us back with good, inspired games. It will pay dividends in the medium- and long term for everyone involved. And workers, stop talking about unions, that toothless threat got old five years ago.
- ONLINE PASSES. If I sell the game on eBay and the person has to buy a stupid online pass, it lowers the value of a game for me. And make sure you implement it so that my upgrade to a new console works. And make sure I can still use the content "protected" by the pass 5, 10, 15 years from now. In other words, don't do it Also see entry on USED GAMES, DEDICATED SERVERS, and CLOSING GAME SERVERS.
- DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT (DRM). It hurts your paying customers, but doesn't stop the ones who pirate. Stop it, or at least implement it in a way which is reasonable to gamers - Valve's Steam is a decent example, although they have some bat***** crazy clauses in their policy. I've had games that I bought which I needed to crack to be able to pay for them, and that's YOUR failure. Also see ALWAYS-ON INTERNET FOR ANYTHING.
- STOP BOILING THE FROG. Every once in a while we get (usually EA or Activision) trying out some crazy idea which the MBAs, bean counters, marketing droids and/or lawyers think is THE GREATEST IDEA EVER, then when there's a backlash you back down. For example, always-on "copy protection" being threatened for an upcoming title for the nth time. We're not stupid, we see what you are really trying to do, it didn't work the first five tries, so stop doing it.
- ALWAYS-ON INTERNET FOR ANYTHING. Doesn't work. It won't work in 10 years, and it doesn't now. If your marketing department tells you that your target market segment has 90% broadband penetration and someone thinks that's a good case for launching with always-on, what it actually means that you are already losing 10% of your customer base BEFORE the game is even released. Not even an MBA could be stupid enough to make that call. Then out of those 90% some are traveling with poor or no broadband connection, some are stationed overseas on all kinds of assignments, and some have crappy broadband, router, etc. You need it for online multiplayer, but you're only hurting yourself if you require it for single-player or local co-op. Yes, this means games which have single player AND multi-player don't need always-on for the single player portion. Blizzard, I really want to like Diablo III, but such potential bull***** is grounds for avoiding the game altogether.
- EULAs. NOBODY HAS TIME TO READ A PAGE, LET ALONE 5 PAGES OF LEGALESE. Stop writing those. I WILL NOT read them. Courts in many (most?) jurisdictions don't honor them. They are useless, and laws and statutes in my jurisdiction nullify most of your lawyers' outrageous demands anyway. Class action suits and court cases and small claims are not worth the hassle, you are only subsidizing another industry - your lawyers, my lawyers, their lawyers - and paying for their useless posturing from YOUR bottom line. They also create an antagonistic relationship with your customers, as if we are out to come to your home and take your first born.
- DOWNLOADABLE DIGITAL CONTENT (DLC) - DO NOT release 0-day DLC for monies. It stinks. It makes you look like money-grabbing *****, and even if you are one, portraying yourself as one will hinder your money-grabbing efforts so it's a lose-lose. You had it ready when the game went gold, and even if you didn't, it should have been included with the game purchase. DLC should be a way to lengthen the longevity of a game, to encourage your existing players to continue playing your game, and to show potential buyers that your game is still being supported, and now would be a great time to buy that game. Look at how Criterion supported their magnificent Burnout: Paradise game. They released a large DLC expansion 16 months after the game was released, along with numerous smaller free and for-pay packages along the way. At the other end of the spectrum: Kane and Lynch. IO Interactive's Hitman series is one of the best game series of all time, and I was one of the three people on earth who actually liked Kane and Lynch. But I refused to buy Kane and Lynch 2 at launch due to 0-day for-pay DLC. And as much as I love Hitman, I will refuse to buy the upcoming title if they pull such shenanigans again.
- MANUALS. Do NOT outsource writing of game instructions and manuals to your customers. Gamers are so passionate about games that we are already game testing your games FOR FREE in betas for you, so don't push it. Relying on wikis and forums to give advice on tactics, walkthroughs, etc. is fine. But you need to provide a full manual to explain how to play the game, and what all features and functions are included, and how to use them. Example: the in-game manual in Battlefield 3 is about as useful as a toothpick in a knife fight, and the paper manual is essentially non-existent. Even if we assume everyone who plays BF3 is an experienced FPS player doesn't mean everything is clear. Figuring out how to spot enemies, how to get to Hardcore mode, how to sign up for Battlelog, etc. etc. etc. is all left to the players themselves to figure out, and to write their own manuals. Also see TECHNICAL SUPPORT.
- DIFFICULTY. Make easy easy, and hard hard. Many games get this, many don't. Some people want a challenge, some want relaxation. You can achieve this cheaply in the same game by having difficulty levels. Publicize just how easy it really is: "your girlfriend can finish it between texting sessions," and how hard hard can get: "you can't finish it even if you had brain implants and a third arm!"
- DEDICATED SERVERS. If you want to utilize the current buzzword of social networking, dedicated servers was there before the phrase was coined. People like to play with friends and acquaintances they meet online and on LAN meets, and having a dedicated server is a great place for that. And can you imagine that your customers will even pay for the bandwidth! It's win-win. Also see DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT and CLOSING GAME SERVERS.
- MODDABILITY. Mods are cool. They are the breeding ground for your future star creative directors, map designers, coders, etc. They can bring actual financial benefit if you do it right, just witness Counter Strike. And embracing them as a company is part of being a good corporate and gaming citizen.
- CATERING TO THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR. Stop that. DON'T try to make BF3 into CoD, every MMO into WoW, every RTS into Starcraft. You will fail, you will not do better than the original, and your wife will not have sex with you when you go back home and tell her you're making a ripoff of [generic title]. You will excel by differentiating your game, making it play, look and sound different than the competition. Also see DON'T LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS.
- IN-GAME ADS. Use your head. They are expected in sports games, not so much anywhere else. But most importantly, if I paid for a game, I WILL NOT look at ads, I WILL NOT click on them, I WILL NOT give you ad revenue. Not just because I'm an ass, but also because there is a social contract that if I pay for it, I don't get ads.
- CLOSING GAME SERVERS stinks. Don't do it. If you must do it, release the server code with a free license for non-profit use. If you plan to design your game so that you can't release the code because of some imaginary threat, re-design it so it can be released. Also see DEDICATED SERVERS.
- HD REMAKES. Everybody loves HD remakes, an old game re-released with new graphics and sounds. They are cheap for you to develop, usually a market already exists for them, and gamers love the nostalgia - which is pretty impressive in an industry only 30 or so years old. But when you do, don't go all Lucas on it by making changes to the game which will alienate those who loved the original. It hasn't happened AFAIK, but let this be a fair warning. Also see BACK CATALOGUE and HOMEBREW.
- RELEASE DATES. Blizzard can release games when they are ready and stay profitable, so should you. Just because you can patch even console games these days IS NOT an excuse to release junk with bugs, crappy netcode or game-breaking balancing issues. If the bean counters tell you you absolutely positively MUST release for the holiday season (formerly known as Christmas season), tell them what needs to happen - that you need to cut co-op, but it's likely to cut into sales. Tell them that netcode is not ready, so you'll launch with weeks of tweaking and patching to fix it, with game media and forums reporting your every hilarious misstep, further cutting into sales. Everybody in the chain needs to understand the risks and repercussions of releasing a game early, and it is your job and duty to ensure that bean counters appreciate them fully. Put it into monetary terms if you can - this goes for everything on this list.
- SINGLE/MULTIPLAYER AND CO-OP. You have limited resources, use them wisely. Just because you can do single, multiplayer, and co-op, doesn't mean you have to. Do one or two well, rather than half-ass two or three of them. I'm sure it's tempting to have yet another bullet point at the back of the box, but the game will be better with a solid one game mode, rather than ***** off everyone. The word that the half-assed mode(s) fully stink will get out quickly. Make a DLC of the mode(s) you don't ship with if sales are good, and charge money for it unless you promised it for free.
- TECHNICAL SUPPORT. Your customers are not your technical support. You need to provide a level of technical support and customer service to fix issues with your game. Forums are not a solution to everything
- TIME VS. MONEY, meaning how to balance a game where some people are students who have plenty of time but no money, and some are working people with disposable income but no time. It's about time developers acknowledge this and start taking action. I'm looking forward to Diablo III's auction system. You should be, also, and so should all gamers. It's a new concept at least for a AAA title, so learn from their mistakes and successes. The forum whining will reach epic proportions, but the industry and gaming will get better when balancing those very disparate groups becomes reality - if it ever will.
- DON'T LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS. That's right. People on forums are idiots. People are idiots. YOU are the professionals with the creative urge, technical know-how, and financial means. Make the game YOU want to make, not what the lowest common denominator demands - the audience will come. Sometimes you will fail, and sometimes you will succeed, but that's how business is. This is especially important in the early ideas phase: if you listened to your customers for ideas you'd get a thousand CoD clones, hundreds of GoW copies, several Starcraft derivatives, and couple of big WoW ripoffs. We need more innovative games which explore new grounds, like Portal, Mirror's Edge, Echochrome, or the upcoming Sound Shapes for Vita. New ideas can be cheap to develop, but they can develop into a franchise worth Big Bucks - think Angy Birds. Make the investment, take the risk, you will eventually find one that resonates with your customers. Just don't half-ass it so your idea has an actual fighting chance to succeed. Also see CATERING TO THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR.
Kind regards,
TehPhilosopher
please distribute widely, but keep the entire message intact
