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LifestreamWill Wright, the man behind Maxis games such as “SimCity” and “The Sims”, speaks about Controlling ‘The Sims’ over at News.com / CNet. Among other things he seems to have a very sound concept of online gaming:
What lessons have you learned from “The Sims Online” experience?
If you look at “The Sims Online” and “The Sims,” they look like very similar games. If you play them, though, they’re completely different. A lot of it has to do with having a persistent world–you can’t speed up time; you’ve only got one avatar. It’s a much less creative experience than “The Sims” offline.
If you look at “The Sims Online” and “The Sims,” they look like very similar games. If you play them, though, they’re completely different. A lot of it has to do with having a persistent world–you can’t speed up time; you’ve only got one avatar. It’s a much less creative experience than “The Sims” offline.
Probably the most important thing I’ve learned is that we need to find different business models for online games. I’m a pretty hard-core gamer, and I generally won’t spend $10 a month to subscribe to a game. Getting a casual player who’s played maybe one game in their life to spend $10 a month is incredibly hard. I think we need new models for online games that don’t require subscriptions and allow more freedom than persistent-state worlds do.
Ditto!
See also:
CNet: Game companies tweak online plans
