Speaking about Text Games at the Independent MMO Game Developers Conference
 

The is this weekend in Las Vegas, and my wife and I have been invited to be speakers. We chose a topic that is near and dear to all of us, and I wanted to post about it here and give anyone interested a chance to give us some feedback before we head off to the conference.

The topic of our roundtable discussion is:



The brief session description:

We'd love to hear from you all. Are there any particular points we should make regarding the strength and viability of text games in the modern marketplace?

Re: Speaking about Text Games at the Independent MMO Game Developers Conference
 

Good for you guys! :)

And, yeah, maybe focus on the value text games place on imagination and language skills - the prospects of storytelling and lore building - that many of the major graphical MMORPGs lack.

Re: Speaking about Text Games at the Independent MMO Game Developers Conference
 

I would say marketing to the visually impaired is one valid point.

Things you could research:

Re: Speaking about Text Games at the Independent MMO Game Developers Conference
 

One big advantage text games have is that both development and overhead costs are much lower when compared to graphical titles. You have tools which are more mature, mostly freely available and can be used to produce content far far more quickly and cheaply than with a graphical game.

Because they are cheaper to create and operate you can make commercially viable text games with a much narrower appeal than you ever could with a graphical game. It also means you can produce content much more easily, allowing your game world to change in response to character actions, run frequent special events, etc.

I also think if people are interested in MMOG design then they should seriously consider text games, after all issues of game design, balance, customer service etc. are much the same as in a graphical game, just on a smaller scale.

Re: Speaking about Text Games at the Independent MMO Game Developers Conference
 

I was reading about the differences in the marketing of e-books and print books the other day, and it seemed to offer an interesting perspective on the differences between text and graphical muds.

In print books you have huge costs in production but the marketing is somewhat easier (as you have well-established means of distribution). With e-books the production costs are much lower, raising your margins, but the marketing challenge is much greater. With e-books your customers tend to be very loyal, and interestingly, expect things for free. And with e-books, your time to shipping a product is much, much less than it is with print books.

Re: Speaking about Text Games at the Independent MMO Game Developers Conference
 

That's some great points. Thanks!

It's been going well, and it's good to know that MUDs are still on the radar for many of the people at this conference.

Re: Speaking about Text Games at the Independent MMO Game Developers Conference
 

So how did it go.. transcripts.. youtube videos of the speech please.. and how many times did you mention Threshold ;-P

Re: Speaking about Text Games at the Independent MMO Game Developers Conference
 

It went great actually! The interest in text games was surprisingly HUGE. Our round table was one of the most heavily attended, and people were so excited about discussing our questions and topics that it ran way over. The conference organizers said they received a lot of positive feedback about our round table, they invited us back next year, and want to give us more time!

There is still a lot of interest and love for text games. Our topic title turned out to be almost prophetic: "Text Games: We Aren't Dead Yet!"

Obviously the thing most people were surprised to learn was that text games are still commercially viable as well. But we didn't dwell on that part. We talked about the things text muds HAVE TO DO WELL in order to be viable, and how those are things all types of games should make sure they do well: UI design, descriptions, chat interface, community management, etc.

To answer your second question, we mentioned a few times (and as well), but only for the purpose of making an example or when someone asked us about them directly.

I also mentioned TopMudSites a few times and encouraged people to come here and see how vibrant the text gaming space continues to be.

I would highly recommend that anyone interested in the gaming industry attend the next year. I learned a ton about many aspects of the industry and business. I also got to meet Dr. Bartle and many other interesting people. As far as conferences go, it is very inexpensive for attendees and it is a lot of fun.

Re: Speaking about Text Games at the Independent MMO Game Developers Conference
 

Excellent job Threshold!

I just caught wind of this post and am so happy to know you went and spoke for the genre. How cool is that? I will try to attend next years (or at least have one of my staff members attend). Perhaps with enough interest we could have a MUD convention for players from several MUDs? Food for thought.

A key point here that has been made time and time again is that we really need to band together to gain back a larger percentage of the players of online games. I like what Prof1515 is doing with RPI's and grouping games, genre's, and players. I think more of this type of combined effort can only be productive for us.

Alot of us have numerous players on our games already, but I for one wouldn't mind a few hundred more.