Developing Online Games: An Insiders Guide (Nrg-Programming)

Chapter 11. Managing a Game Post-Launch

"Probably the most frequent mistake I've seen live teams make is that they don't listen to their player base when deciding what new features they want to add. Live teams are under the delusion that the game is theirs, as opposed to that of the player base, and often they will try to muck with systems that are just fine, thank you very much."

” Damion Schubert

KEY TOPICS

• Barbarians, Tribesmen, and Citizens

• Transitioning from the Development Team to the Live Team

• Managing the Expectations of the Players

• Player Relations: The In-Game GMs

• The Service Philosophy: Acquiring and Retaining Subscribers

• Security: Keeping Honest People Honest

• Community Relations: Processes

Now the real work begins.

Okay, you've launched; now what? It may surprise you to learn that, if you're to be a success, 90% of the work to be done on this game is still ahead of you. Anyone can build a persistent world (PW); maintaining technical stability and managing it effectively are the hard tasks . Just ask any developer who has launched a game since 1996 which was harder ”development or post-launch management.

If you ask most developers with experience on an online game about launch and game management scenarios, you're likely to hear about a scenario similar to the following:

• Millions of dollars of development money have been flowing out of the company coffers for two, three, or four years .

• The announced launch date has come and gone between one and three times, meaning the game is already six months to a year overdue.

• The people who write the checks and would like to see a return on their money are putting pressure on the development team to get the damn thing out the door already.

• The developers decide to cut a bunch of features that have been promised to the players, including features already listed on the back or inside cover of the retail box.

• Even by cutting a bunch of features, there are hundreds of bugs still to be fixed, but the money guys order the box shipped and the game launched.

• The game is hugely unstable, the servers and client crash constantly, features are missing or don't work as promised, and the team is working 20- hour days to try to catch up.

• The players are up in arms and ready to hang the developers in effigy.

• Bad word of mouth circulates about the game, killing subscriptions and sales.

• The development team members start printing r sum s on the company printers and faxing them to the competition on the company fax machines.

Refer to the section in Chapter 10, "Launch Day," titled "The Importance of a Technically Stable Launch" for an overview of what makes a good launch. Sadly, the industry hasn't seen very many of them in the past five years.

Once the launch period has come and gone, it is time to settle in for the long haul of managing the game. That starts with understanding the players.