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Since we are technically less than a year from launch (fall 2018) what are the plans on marketing? Are there already discussions with who will be the publisher or is MWM developing AND publishing?
And please don't say NCSoft lol ;)
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/S3jl0lM.png[/IMG]
I guess I'm more curious about the publisher than anything else. Marketing will come in due time.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/S3jl0lM.png[/IMG]
We have talked to a few publishers, and the general consensus is to wait until the Alpha is completely assembled before proceeding any further. The later we get involved with them, the better our position. Last thing we want is a publisher ram-rodding design changes on us.
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
Good call. Waiting until you essentially just have polishing and fleshing out left gives them much less room for demanding changes.
Does MWM have to work with a publisher? Could the game not just be distributed online directly by MWM? Not sure if there are other things a publisher would do that I'm not thinking of at the moment, but I'm all for any model that minimises the amount of control any external organisation has over MWM's vision.
Spurn all ye kindle.
Steam could be a huge way to distribut CoT :)
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[color=red]PR - Europe[/color]
Steam has Valiant. Might be issues there.
[img]https://s15.postimg.cc/z9bk1znkb/Black_Falcon_Sig_in_Progess.jpg[/img]
Yes, there are self distribution options such as Steam, GoG and WePlay as well. No, we do not have to go with a publisher, but it would be remiss to ignore them entirely.
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
Fair enough. I always worry that an organisation that doesn't value what MWM is building here the way we do might force decisions that are not really in the best interest of the game or the community. But perhaps I worry too much. :-)
Spurn all ye kindle.
Steam has a bunch of games from a bunch of different publishers and developers. Of all genres. I don't see how there would be any issues there.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
I stand corrected. on the plus side steam is Mod friendly.
[img]https://s15.postimg.cc/z9bk1znkb/Black_Falcon_Sig_in_Progess.jpg[/img]
Valiant is hardly competition for CoT. It's a VR game and not even 'super'.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/344180/Valiant/
Be Well!
Fireheart
I think he meant Valiance Online. Another super hero MMO CoX spiritual successor in the works.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
So we compete.
Be Well!
Fireheart
What benefit does a publisher provide? other than making unpopular game decisions...
AND could a publisher go NCSOFT on us and pull the plug?
would it be better to go with Steam or other services like that?
[img]https://s15.postimg.cc/z9bk1znkb/Black_Falcon_Sig_in_Progess.jpg[/img]
Steam is just a distribution service. You can have a publisher and distribute the game on steam. Or you can self publish and distribute the game on steam.
I'm not 100% sure what a publisher does.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
I'd vote against having a publisher.
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[color=red]PR, Forum Moderator[/color]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/desvipers-creative-impulsivity]My Non-Canon Backstories[/url]
Avatar by MikeNovember
In basic terms a publisher provides capital for developing and marketing the game, and most often a distribution channel (especially in meatspace).
Since MWM has covered the capital for development and possibly marketing then that leaves distribution, and since they are going digital only there are good options for self-publishing in the form of Steam and GoG and possibly some others.
Publishers help reduce costs associated with running a game. Tech support, servers, many even manage GMs. Training all of them is an expensive part of MMOs, and I am not so proud as not to admit when it would be best to work with an expert. By not using a publisher for development, we can put self autonomy, and the ability to go elsewhere should they drop us, as non negotiable terms for any deal. In other words, to prevent another situation like CoH.
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
Remember, it wasn't because NCSoft was the publisher that they had "pull the plug" rights. Cryptic sold them the IP when they went to make the Marvel MMO (which was later dropped and then reconfigured into Champions Online). The developers at Paragon were the implementors, but NCSoft owned the property.
Here, we've got MWM being the IP owner, and a publisher could just be a publisher, helping with advertisement and other sundry issues. It could be a partnership, but it all depends on how the negotiations go.
Take, for instance, the relationship between Paradox and the various developer companies that work with them. Sure, Paradox gets their fingerprints on a game like Tyranny, but when the developer wants to go a certain route, Paradox just shrugs and goes "Have fun!" I liken them to the "Epitaph Records" of the videogame world. Actually, maybe better than Epitaph Records, because games that fall under Paradox tend to get a pretty hefty marketing push.
This - depending on the business relationship/terms of the contract, MWM may not have to give up any control over the IP or the game itself. This would be important as MWM has said in the past that they want to make the game available to players even if it closes/development ceases.
There are technical issues involved with going with a publisher. On the one hand, they can provide servers, GMs, etc. On the other hand, that means development time to get things going on those servers, and migrating to other servers later (if the contract were canceled) would be harder if we were dependent on their technologies. (Also, NDAs could gum up the works. They could claim we were disclosing their server tech to whomever we were moving to, and it'll be a tedious court case no matter how careful we are.)
So it's best to have our own thing first, which we can go back to if needed.
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
One thing to consider regarding GM support through another party is that the need for it can be greatly reduced by game design decisions, possibly reducing GM workload to the point of eliminating MWM's need for such a support contract (and its costs and troubles).
For example, if you give players a way to reset, repeat, bypass, and share missions, many mission bugs become less of a problem. Forgiving mission design can cushion both players and devs from accidental errors - "defeat most" instead of "defeat all" enemies, find X objects where the mission was designed to spawn at least X+2 of them, and so on. Giving players a way to invite high-level help into a mission gone wrong can overcome some of these situations too, especially when players have diverse tools (knocks and pulls, teleports, massive AoEs) that can overcome certain bugs or oddities in an instanced mission map.
Open world issues can be minimized too. Give players an absolute way to get unstuck and move to a safe place of their choosing - and don't let it whine about being "in combat" or "too busy" to execute the teleport. Give players the power to avoid griefing (via instancing of many missions, ability to switch zone instances, open world defeat quests that give credit as long as 1 point of damage was done by that player, open world collectible object instancing, turning off channels, ignore, hide self, hide others...). Give us tools (such as combat logs and ways to unhide our stats) so we can efficiently check for combat oddities and write more useful bug reports. Have a bugs forum, a global game chat channel and help channel(s) where the community can discuss possible support topics and share solutions.
None of these ideas are new - most were either in CoH or suggested at least once on the forums, and many have been used in games since then.
Scott Jackson, even with all hat implemented there can and will be a need for GMs. Some of those suggestions are planned for, some go against our designs. Yes, we can minimize need, but there will be a need.
Then there is the back end support of customer service handling account issues. Resolving and responding to complaints for both account and in game issues.
Now there is a lot on the back end that can be done to also minimize and streamline the work load. Look up the Blizzard 600, of how Blizzard optimized their back end systems for customer support hat lead to the lay off of 600 cs employees.
Even so, there will be a need for these services which we alone won’t be able to handle. A publisher would be able to provide these necessary services. We could hire our own cs and gms tonevrn work remotely, but it would require a lot of up front funds we currently don’t have and it could be quite some time before we can (if ever) handle on our own.
[hr]I don't use a nerf bat, I have a magic crowbar!
- Combat Mechanic -
[color=#ff0000]Tech Team. [/color]
An alternate source for GM's is through contracting firms. You might be surprised but there are several which do offer them. But they can be costly, so exploring all options first.
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
and what about asking volounteer players to help answering some simple issues ? like, there is backlog of simple questions which could be answer by "anyone". with our game account, we could help answering. if the answer does not resolve the issue, the player can send this "simple" question to the GM ? i know it's not as simple as it seems but with a chat bot system or this kind of systeme it could reduce the amount of tickets .
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[color=red]PR - Europe[/color]
Having an in-game NPC or info kiosk could potentially handle a number of the more basic and fundamental questions that could arise, should the players be made aware of them early on.
(insert pithy comment here)
I liked the idea of 'Helpers' and the Help channel, except it did get derailed and filled with 'stuff'.
Be Well!
Fireheart
Making players GM's is a risky endeavor. It's better to go with professionals.
I said before that there are a lot of service providers out there that work with start ups. One of the more affordable ones I found (granted did not search extensively) was [url=https://www.5ca.com/customer-support-expertise/video-game-support-services/] 5CA [/url]. I'm sure Tyche and gang have looked into this much more than I have and know their options well.
Good lord, yes. One thing that bothered me about CoH was the info kiosks that weren't info kiosks. Instead, they just had reams of information on players who had patrolled the most, won the most pvp victories, done the most damage, etc. until they suddenly weren't working anymore. While, yes, we would get a tutorial for all of the new mechanics in the game, I always thought that if players needed a refresher, or wanted to skip the tutorials, those kiosks could have been used to provide an in-game manual of sorts.
An info kiosk could also hold lore entries.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
This idea reminded me of the Booster Gold tours from DCUO:
[youtube]M27o1GGzD_4[/youtube]
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider