It’s actually more of an opportunity than a problem. It’s rarely a problem. I’ve been a sort of creative person for a long time – in this business and then before that as a performer. And you always need some kind of boundary. Start with a blank canvas and say that you’re going to make stuff up in this big empty vac cum… it’s actually really hard to do. It’s good to have boundaries. The beauty of Tolkein is that he’s created these exquisitely detailed boundaries that have so much depth and richness inside them, and yet still have all kinds of things which are open for interpretation. I mean, we built Angmar basically from scratch, to our liking, based on very few clues… and yet it still feels as if it belongs in Middle Earth. There’s certain things – I can’t have flying cars or motorcycles or things like that. But I can have other things which are very exciting and it means, by definition, the world has a consistency, where it feels right. It all fits together. There’s not things which just don’t make sense.

Interesting interview with some great little tidbits, especially if you're interested in LOTRO specifically.

Jeffrey Steefel on LOTRO: Mines of Moria [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

The essential issue recognized by the "Avatar Rights" movement is that players ascribe substantial value to their game characters and virtual assets. The willful denial of this fact, in some sense, has helped enable the growth of gold farming and criminals who target online games.

Because developers don't consider the value that players put in their virtual "stuff", customer service is often not responsive to player complaints about lost items. Also, the game systems are not built to easily log, track, remove, and restore these items in case of loss or theft.

In some sense this is ironic, the same game companies that argue vigorously that the virtual items have no value, at the same time are extraordinarily reluctant to restore players characters or virtual items after alleged theft. The argument is typically made that the players are abusing the system by allowing their items to be stolen (or, actually, selling them) and then making a complaint to the game operator.

If the items have no value, then restore them.

Short, but interesting, musing — with references — on the 'avatar problem.'

The Quixotic Quest for Avatar Rights [PlayNoEvil]

Robert: F2P has a huge influence. But we have been based on subscriptions for years, with some games being around for 10+ years. Subscripitions hit a hardcore audience that is really embedded in those games. But as you expand your audience, they aren’t as hardcore anymore and F2P becomes more enticing as subs only wouldn’t appeal.

Nicolay: Both models work. Hardcore gamers are comfortable with sub model and most of the games with microtransactions have been casual games. But it is possible to have more than one biz model in a game.

Min: There is room in the market for both biz models. F2P in North America will make a large push as teenagers can’t commit to $15/month, so F2P will work well with them. Nexon saw lots of success when the market went beyond core to mass market.

Hilmar: Consumers are changing the business model of games - consumers making decisions. You can play Eve online through our trial program as a F2P program - users are able to “game” our trial system to play it as a F2P game. It’s a challenge for companies to adopt the needs of the market rather than keeping their head in sand. People will play the game how they want.

Min: We’re seeing in S Korea a lot of players have a subscription-based game that is their favourite, but have a secondary game that they play f2p with microtransactions.

I can't imagine the FTP model will ever overtake subscription models in the West, but there's no doubt that there are a lot of people playing FTPs — and spending way, way more than they would on a subscription — with an ever-increasing audience. I'm curious to see if we'll get any of the crazier FTP MMOs coming out of Asia in the coming years.

Evolving Business Models in MMOs - Panel [Free To Play]

At times it’s staggeringly beautiful. You’ll forgive the time it takes to travel between space stations as you watch the glowing nebulae glint off your ship’s hull. It’s impossibly slick.

Eve’s interface isn’t slick at all. It’s like falling down a waterfall of endless menus. Boxes of stuff will clutter up the screen as you play, and nothing is ever as simple as it should be. You’ll buy something in a space station, but buying it doesn’t actually give you the item, you have to open cargo hold, and then open your inventory and drag the item you’ve just bought into your ship. This is something we constantly forgot to do, which meant , once we had eventually figured out what was happening, that we had left a trail of forgotten ship upgrades in storage hangars in various space stations scattered across the galaxy. Much time was spent retrieving them. We upgraded our weapons to take on some tough space pirates, after much peering at tiny stat values trying to figure out what the difference was between a Laser Cannon and a Railgun, and whether or not our characters had the skill to use them or the money to buy them, we rolled into battle to find ourselves confused and really quite embarrassed when none of our weapons worked. My Laser Cannon had packed in because the energy grid on my ship couldn’t handle the new hardware, and Dante hadn’t bought any rockets for his rocket launcher. We warped the hell out of there to spend some more time menu-gazing at the nearest space station. All in all, it was a constantly frustrating experience with a near vertical difficulty curve.

The four-part series includes an entry for each game, plus a concluding section; go forth and conquer.

MMO Showdown [Man vs. Horse via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

... there's something we can call "polyheroism" in the Iliad. It's pretty much like a five-man group in WoW, or a six-man fellowship in LOTRO: Achilles is the DPS guy, Ajax is the tank, Odysseus is the rogue, etc. To enact a story about the meaning of excellence, you need to be able to compare heroes. Everyone loved Achilles, just like everyone loves a good, well specced champion. But some people like Odysseus better than Diomedes, just as some people would rather have a burglar in their party than a second DPS class.

I'm not saying that RPG classes have the depth of epic characters (though you'd be surprised by how little depth epic characters actually have). I'm saying that one important function of characters in the Iliad and in MMOGs is to get us to think about how different versions of excellence relate to one another.

Gear isn't quite the fundamental, all-pervasive mechanic in the Iliad as it is in MMOGs. But in its own way, it's actually much more important in epic tradition.

I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that the epic tradition is still going strong, but it's always fun to see Homer juxtaposed with more modern, interactive counterparts. Everyone loves a good, epic tale — so much the better if you're in it, I guess.

Achilles' Phat Lewtz [The Escapist]

He explains that a large portion of the Asian MMO-playing public spend their days in crowded internet cafes, cigarette in one hand, mouse in the other, chain-smoking while they are chain-killing mobs...and I suppose technically their fellow patrons as well. And here I was, trying to use gaming as a reason not to smoke.

The Surprising Reason Asian MMOs Are Mouse-Based [MTV Multiplayer]

If anti-gold farming initiatives were effective, gold prices should go up as the cost of business increases for gold farmers. (NOTE: This assumes that demand is fairly constant. If game companies could actually convince their players not to buy gold, than prices would drop with a glut of gold on the market and no one to buy it. I've not been able to get volume data from any gold sellers, but my sense is that their customers are not going away.)

The Gold Farming War - Who's winning? [PlayNoEvil]

BRIGHTON, England (10th April 2008) - NCsoft®, the world-leading, publisher of massively multiplayer online games such as Guild Wars®, Lineage® II and City of Heroes®, today announced that it was stepping up its fight against the growing menace of intellectual property theft. This action comes as a direct response to the rise of illegal online game servers throughout Eastern Europe, particularly in Greece and Russia where NCsoft's fantasy-based online role playing game, Lineage II, is extremely popular.

The fraudulent servers in question are being used by players playing at home and in internet cafes, but such unauthorised servers often feature - or require users to download - illegally modified and potentially harmful game data, thereby changing the intended online experience.

NCsoft's European office has identified several prominent illegal servers across Europe and is in the process of taking action against individuals and corporations deemed to be in breach of international copyright laws. In a lawsuit that was commenced last year in Greece, NCsoft successfully obtained a court order against Internet Cafe business, 'e-GLOBAL' following which four of its cafes were raided and illegal software was seized. This led to the shutting down of illegal servers on which pirate copies of Lineage II software was loaded. Georgios Katostaris - Chairman of the Board and Managing Director, Constantinos Zygouras - Vice-Chairman of the Board and Managing Director, Athanassios Dobros - Deputy Managing Director and Dimitrios Koutsoukos - Administrator of the company under the name 'INTERNET DYNAMICS LLC' have all been made personal defendants to the proceedings that are continuing in the Greek Courts in which NCsoft is seeking damages as well as criminal remedies.

"Illegal game servers, such as those operating from e-GLOBAL, have a hugely negative impact on both NCsoft Europe and its customers," commented Max Brown, NCsoft Europe's Sales & Operations Director. "They seriously affect the player's experience of our products and rob the company of potential revenue that is used to further enhance the player experience on official servers. NCsoft's loss in revenue from e-GLOBAL's operation is estimated in excess of six million Euros. We are defiant in our resolve to stamp out theft of NCsoft's intellectual properties and are prepared to take the strongest measures to do so."

NCsoft has a proven track record in combating illegal servers, having worked with the FBI in November 2006 to shut down a substantial unofficial Lineage II server run by US-based website, L2Extreme.com. Following multiple raids across cities throughout the US, L2Extreme's fraudulent servers - which claimed to support 50,000 active users - were taken offline, as was the L2Extreme.com website.

We have a lot of investors, because our company has all been privately funded with a range of investors, and of course our job is to make sure that they make a lot of money out of this process.

So, Stargate is actually, of course, our first product, and it's the one that's the most visible product, but if you look at what it takes to be a real player in our industry, part of what's made the better companies successful is the fact that they have scale.

Y Control: Joe Ybarra On Cheyenne Mountain's Massive Plans [Gamasutra]

Terra Nova has mirrors of the summary judgment motions, as well as a quick little wrap-up; Rock, Paper, Shotgun gets to the nitty gritty and also has a poll (question: 'Should Blizzard crush Glider?' options: 'Aye! Bots = cheating,' 'Nay! Grinding = misery,' 'Ayenay! Blizzard should provide a levelling service themselves' - thus far, 'Aye!' is winning), and PlayNoEvil has some analysis up from a security standpoint.

Blizzard v WoW Glider: Interesting, no? [Terra Nova]; Democracy Inaction: Blizzard vs Bots [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]; World of Warcraft Warden vs. Glider - Which is the Lesser Evil? Who owns my computer? {PlayNoEvil]

Now we have a problem. And it is not gold farmers.

Banks don't like chargebacks. High risk/ high fraud markets (the adult industry and gambling) pay a substantial premium for payment processing. If fraud gets too bad, payment processors will simply refuse to service companies. The also will impose additional procedures to combat fraud - all of which cost money.

The first consequence for the entire game industry will be a broad increase in payment processing fees. New game providers will face difficulty entering the market as most payment processors will refuse to work with them.

Subscription gaming is in trouble. While the free-to-play business model has been pitched by many as a good strategy, it is going to become necessary in a higher payment processing world.

Eep. Will there be more fallout à la the Halifax bank incident? Time will tell.

You hate Gold Farmers? Here come the Gold Frauders

"Maybe they hit the wrong button on the calculator," said a source close to Shanda regarding small and medium size gaming companies overshooting their values.

Ye Youzhong, CEO of Kaixin Investments, said that online game companies had recently overvalued themselves by over tenfold, making investments in them unprofitable when considering that the current price-to-earnings ratio of listed Chinese gaming companies is around 30. He said that if bought for a price of 12-15 times their real value, it would take a full three years—including the market listing process—before the investing company saw any profit. Moreover, he added, a lot of these companies had no chance to be listed in the first place.

I'm sure everything will balance out in the long run, and I can't imagine this will have a huge impact on the speed with which the industry in general is growing. Still, it's interesting to look at the inner workings of some of these big companies and what they're worrying about.

Online Game Industry Deals Paralyzed [EEO]

Internet cafes have been repeatedly targeted for breeding juvenile crime and promoting truancy, despite widely ignored rules barring anyone under 18 from admission. Located in towns and small cities throughout China, internet cafes mainly offer online games that are popular among young people. Authorities have blamed the cafes for Internet addiction and for encouraging juvenile crime as a way to earn money to play online games.

First the problem was that kids were so busy playing WoW and other MMORPGs that they didn't have time for anything else; now the problem is that WoW's keeping them too busy ... with crime? Does this mean we'll see a related drop off in suspect addiction 'treatment' methods?

China Targets Internet in Crime Sweep [AP]

"Zero sum" is bad. Games where I win and you lose are bad. Worse still is "I win and all the rest of you lose". Notwithstanding the current cultural obsession with endzone strutting by winners, losers do not enjoy themselves and if you can help take the sting out of it, you should. Alliances, cooperative play, ranked "winners" rather than "A winner" with a bunch of losers are all options. Pacing needs variety. Slow periods should follow intense ones and forced "time-outs" can offer opportunities to socialize, catch your breath and anticipate things to come. Remember, the players no longer have a "pause key" as they did in a solo-game. Strategies need "wiggle room". People have different personal styles and when playing against each other it's great to let them "do it their own way" rather than a single approach that all must follow. If possible you should balance the game such that a strategic planner for instance might not always beat the joystick jockey or the detailed tactical type. A game that allows for diverse people to play diverse ways is always best.

There's much, much more, but it is interesting to see what we're still talking about in regards to multiplayer game design. We'll find out shortly what gems this year's GDC will produce.

GDC: Social lessons of years past [Lost Garden]

From Maple Story to Silkroad Online, there is no shortage of MMOs in the free to play space. In the same vein, there is an abundance of virtual worlds such as Second Life or Kaneva. It seems as though the vast majority of new free to play game since 2005 have been virtual worlds or MMOs.

Perhaps it's the very reason that these games have proliferated in the free to play market; MMOs and virtual worlds are inherently more inclusive than an FPS. Still, it would be a shame to see the free to play space flounder due to constant reiteration of the same genres and themes, turning away players seeking a different experience.

Considering the quiet inroads a number of free to play options have made in the American market, I would be surprised if the market didn't continue to grow - and I'm not convinced flying under the radar is such a bad thing.

Top 10 Free To Play Growth Killers [Free To Play]

Under the new regulation, the [GAPP] will postpone the examination, approval and licensing of foreign company products if the companies are sued or targeted for arbitration actions by Chinese online game companies.

It sounds to me like this is dealing with new products and WoW is safe from frivolous lawsuits for the time being - but this is still rife with potential problems, since many domestic games are introduced to China via partnership between foreign companies and domestic operators. The potential negative impacts on domestic companies if games are unfairly held up is huge; and some of the most recent lawsuits involving Chinese and foreign game companies have involved disputes over licenses and operations. Considering Chinese companies have proved they have absolutely no compunction about illegally operating foreign games outside set corporate agreements, I'm not at all convinced this will actually do anything in the long run other than encourage domestic companies to commit IP theft.

China Adopts New Regulations to Keep Out Foreign Online Game Companies [Virtually Blind]

In a sweep designed to "clean up young people's online environment," police in the southern Chinese border city of Shenzhen uncovered 563 illegal Internet cafes, Xinhua said. The crackdown netted 1,407 computers, while 7 people were arrested and nearly 5,000 Internet accounts closed.

Shenzhen police in one case discovered 30 computers crammed into a 40-square meter room.

Other unregistered establishments were tucked in the upper floors of otherwise empty buildings. "This shows the difficulties the law enforcers face," Xinhua noted.

Promising more crackdowns and more laws, the Chinese government is attempting to bite back. I'm just unconvinced it's actually going to do anything other than flush out some illegal businesses and further bloat the bureaucracy.

China flags crackdown on "undesirable" online games [Reuters]

... We all played games, to a point where I needed acupuncture for my wrist! And we played games, from MMORPGs, to first-person shooters, to racing games ....

But, in a sense, we were really looking for games that everybody can play, even the thirty-five year old women, without a lot of complications. But there are certain specific criteria we also look for in the game developers: 1. They believe in the North American, Western market. 2. They have the capacity to work with us, because — as you guys know — these games, once they're launched, that's the beginning of your work, not the end, unlike the console games.

It's an interesting look at one company who is trying to bring over some fresh blood while still appealing to a wide audience (and has the funding to back up their effort) - well worth a read through if you have the time.

Q&A - Outspark Gets $11 M Funding, Talks 'Virtual Playground' [Worlds In Motion]

When an audience member sat down to listen to an oral epic poet in ancient Greece, he knew he was going to hear about Jason and Achilles and Medea and Atalanta beforehand, in the same way an MMOG player knows he's going to get Fighters and Warriors and Clerics and Rogues. Furthermore, our ancient poetry lover also knew he would hear about "swift-footed Achilles" or "resourceful Odysseus," in the same way our MMOG fan can expect to hear about wolves that need slaying and mushrooms that need collecting.

Such formulas - whether in epic poetry or MMOGs - are not just for the convenience of the artist; they're ultimately for the benefit of the audience, eliminating guesswork and confusion and giving people what it is they expect - a new toy with familiar packaging.

However, no matter how formulaic Vergil might have been in structure and use of epithets, his language itself is a pleasure to read in the original - even formulaic structure becomes a masterpiece when it's dressed up appropriately. Formula serves a purpose, but it's no fun when it's bland.

Rhapsody: Quest Formulas in MMORPGs [The Escapist]

The main Southern Weekly article on ZT Online follows a gamer as she first becomes interested in the game, through her rise to power, and her eventual disillusionment with the money-sink it had become.

Woven into the narrative are descriptions of the often shockingly brazen tactics ZT Online uses to soak the "RMB gamers" who would rather spend money than grind out levels. The picture resolves into that of an online casino dressed in the trappings of an adventure game, and Shi Yuzhu [the brain behind ZT] ends up looking a lot like a shady used-car salesman.

It's a really, really great (if somewhat lengthy) article from a number of perspectives - it's one of the better mainstream media articles I've read on gaming, though not without its flaws. But as the PNE commentary points out, the fascinating thing is how it turns a lot of ideas about 'good' MMORPGs upside down ... and is reaping major rewards. From the sounds of it, I doubt we'll be seeing it Stateside, but one never knows.

Gamble your life away in ZT Online [Danwei via PlayNoEvil]