We all know that UO has a great potential to be the best MMORPG on the market. But there are too many flaws that are preventing its success. These range from bug abuse over game mechanics to graphical flaws. The following example should show how involving the players can contribute to a game's success enormously:
The game called Eve Online kicked off in 2003 with 30,000 players, and has meanwhile grown to 245,000 players. Eve Online was, like UO, a game absolutisticly governed by its developers. At the beginning of 2007, CCP (the company running Eve Online) proclaimed a revolution and authorized the players to elect a democratic government. In May 2007, the players of Eve elected their government - a representation of seven players at the age between 17 and 52 years. This representation has been meeting with game developers ever since, discussing changes and enhancements to the game.
At first, the developers were afraid that this experiment would backfire. But now they are getting very valuable feedback cause the players often know specific parts of the game better than the developers and contributed a lot to the improvement of the game.
(Comment: I don't want to advertise Eve Online, I never played it. I just am using this as an example.)
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Now, we all know about the unfortunate incident that demolished the Counselor Program. Canceling this program caused a lot of damage to the game. A game of this size and complexity NEEDS the involvement of volonteers, of people actually playing the game. When other games have volonteer programs, then EA can do the same!
The players of UO have an enormous potential. Many are professionals in real life, with exceptional knowledge. I could even imagine that parts of the game (modules) can be provided by volonteers, in order to improve the game quality and reduce development cost. Especially when it comes to artwork. I have seen artwork suggestions from UO players that were extremely professional and beautiful. Players are running free shards, they even know how to modify the scripts. They could provide code suggestions. Players also run great and fantastic events, they WANT to spend their time doing that. Why does EA not encourage and cultivate those abilities?
PLAYERS CAN AND WANT TO HELP! Let them help!
Hawkeye Pike
The game called Eve Online kicked off in 2003 with 30,000 players, and has meanwhile grown to 245,000 players. Eve Online was, like UO, a game absolutisticly governed by its developers. At the beginning of 2007, CCP (the company running Eve Online) proclaimed a revolution and authorized the players to elect a democratic government. In May 2007, the players of Eve elected their government - a representation of seven players at the age between 17 and 52 years. This representation has been meeting with game developers ever since, discussing changes and enhancements to the game.
At first, the developers were afraid that this experiment would backfire. But now they are getting very valuable feedback cause the players often know specific parts of the game better than the developers and contributed a lot to the improvement of the game.
(Comment: I don't want to advertise Eve Online, I never played it. I just am using this as an example.)
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Now, we all know about the unfortunate incident that demolished the Counselor Program. Canceling this program caused a lot of damage to the game. A game of this size and complexity NEEDS the involvement of volonteers, of people actually playing the game. When other games have volonteer programs, then EA can do the same!
The players of UO have an enormous potential. Many are professionals in real life, with exceptional knowledge. I could even imagine that parts of the game (modules) can be provided by volonteers, in order to improve the game quality and reduce development cost. Especially when it comes to artwork. I have seen artwork suggestions from UO players that were extremely professional and beautiful. Players are running free shards, they even know how to modify the scripts. They could provide code suggestions. Players also run great and fantastic events, they WANT to spend their time doing that. Why does EA not encourage and cultivate those abilities?
PLAYERS CAN AND WANT TO HELP! Let them help!
Hawkeye Pike
