Facebook MMO is the Warcraft killer, says EverQuest's lead developer
by Seraphina Brennan 
Jun 17th 2009 at 4:00PM
Filed under: Business models, Culture, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, Opinion, Casual, Virtual worlds
Barker's reasoning behind declaring a Facebook MMO as a champion is due to the ease of playing with your friends. Facebook has the power to remove many of an MMO's social blocks, such as a lack veteran players, ease of access, a lack of servers, and the ease of playing with your friends, and turn those stoppages into forward momentum for a game and its community.
"Facebook doesn't care how long you've been on Facebook," Barker said. "Things like that show us that there are a lot of people out there that are interested in being involved in an internet community, especially with all the apps on Facebook, in playing casual games. At some point someone's going to do an MMO that really caters to that group, and is going to have a billion subscribers or whatever. There's another ceiling somewhere that we haven't hit yet."
While we're not entirely sure about the billion subscribers, (McDonalds of MMOs, anyone?) we can't say we don't doubt Facebook as a platform. As long as the polish on the game is present, of course.
[Edit: As sourced in the article from The Escapist, this interview was actually done with VideoGamer.com, not The Escapist.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Keen said on 4:07PM 6-17-2009
No.
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Kaamos said on 4:19PM 6-17-2009
Believe it or not, this makes perfect sense.
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Digest said on 12:56AM 6-18-2009
I definitely agree on this. Because as an MMO gamer and Facebook member, and currently I'm not playing serious MMO right now. Just waiting for SW:KotOR and other third generation MMO coming out. I'm just playing casual games right now on Facebook which is really great actually. Atleast on Facebook I can play any game with my not so hardcore on gaming friends. Along with my girlfriend which is totally hook right now with Pet Society. It's refreshing to play with new social group that aren't really into gaming that seriously like us. lol
Mr Angry said on 4:26PM 6-17-2009
Why didn't he just say a Google MMO, as you don't even have an identity and less of a barrier to play....
This is the type of idea that a poster here would present, rather obvious, quite unrealistic and without any substance. Just placing the term in front of another doesn't make it a good idea.
I'm dissappointed that there is SO MUCH SOE could do to extend the life of the very game he's heading up for mobile play, web app play or even to update the engine for high end performance, that he's looked beyond what he's supposed to be doing to make money and presented an idea which probably features heavily in high school presentations in Computer Science classes....
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THAC0 said on 4:32PM 6-17-2009
because Google already has an mmo and its not a wow killer... it sucks. Checkout "Google Lively" /puke
Mr Angry said on 4:34PM 6-17-2009
Hehehe :) that's was my point, there is no good trying to shoehorn a game into nothing, an just because it's popular, expect it to be the next WoW killer...
I had hear they shut lively down, maybe it's still hanging in there?
UltimateQ said on 5:36PM 6-17-2009
Didn't they shut down lively?
Nadine Neddings said on 9:44PM 6-20-2009
Unless I am mistaken, Lively was shut down on January 1. Google cited it was because Lively was a "beta" but suspicions were that it simply proved unsuccessful as a competitor to the industry standard, Second Life.
Safe money is on Google giving it another try in the future, though. ;)
pogger said on 4:31PM 6-17-2009
I have yet to start using Facebook -- despite friends, employers, and employees promoting its use. I will NEVER use it (or its like) if I can help it -- even if they MMORPG it.
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max said on 4:47PM 6-17-2009
Oh, you're such a rebel!
tgagnon said on 4:48PM 6-17-2009
Are they saying Facebook MMO as in an MMO built off the Facebook platform (which would be...well...a stretch to say the least) or just a standard MMO with a Facebook API?
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Brendon said on 4:52PM 6-17-2009
The original story isn't talking about a Facebook MMO at all.
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http://www.videogamer.com/news/sony_warcraft_will_eventually_be_dwarfed.html
"Barker, who admits he is “constantly thinking” about what shape this all-conquering MMO might be, suggested social networking site Facebook as inspiration, saying “Facebook doesn’t care how long you’ve been on Facebook”.
“Things like that show us that there are a lot of people out there that are interested in being involved in an internet community, especially with all the apps on Facebook, in playing casual games. At some point someone’s going to do an MMO that really caters to that group, and is going to have a billion subscribers or whatever. There’s another ceiling somewhere that we haven’t hit yet.”
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Basically, he's talking about an MMO that caters to the casual gamers who play games with friends on Facebook. (Things like Mafia Wars.)
Nollind Whachell said on 11:50AM 6-23-2009
Brendon's correct. Ryan Barker indicated he'd like to see a "Facebook-like" MMO, not an MMO built on Facebook.
Take note though, that removing a lot of these barriers, can raise as many issues as they remove. For example, while things like having a single server and ease of play/access to get started are definitely attainable, the removal of the need for veterans could possible upset people, as people like something to stand out to "show off" their skill or status. So you could make an MMO based on the players own skill, rather than their characters, so as to allow for instant familiarity but then that might upset certain people who aren't good with twitch games (i.e. FPS and console games). Potentially the trick might be to incorporate different game styles within the game (i.e. FPS, RTS, etc) so that each person can gravitate to the appropriate play style and "career" of their choosing.
I'm all for it though. For example, with regards to status, I'd rather see in-game community standings based upon the natural leadership ability of a player, rather than an in-game skill or ability that they just pay to learn. The reason being of course that not everyone who is skilled at something is also skilled at being a teacher or leader. So by being voted or assigned a leadership role due to your innate abilities, you're given special abilities. Yes, kind of like a guild leader in WoW but taken to whole other level (i.e. strategic combat abilities, etc).
At the same time, the ability for a game to utilize other innate abilities of a person is really the missing link for me, as it allows a person coming into a game to use talents and knowledge that they are already familiar with and thus they get to show off their existing abilities. WoW raiding is a good example of this whereby I read one guild had a head nurse as a raid leader and she was amazing, keeping people calm and cool under a lot of stress. That's the type of things you need to help people carry over into the game and utilize but of course the game has to be built that way from the ground up to do so.
Brendon said on 4:49PM 6-17-2009
Come on, Colin, you gots to read better!
The interview was with videogamer.com; Escapist was doing the time honored tradition of taking someone else's story and trying to make it look like your own story by taking what they wrote and changing a few words around to make it pass copyscape!
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Colin Brennan said on 8:16PM 6-17-2009
My apologies. Usually I catch stuff like that and walk back to the original article and use the secondary source as a simple [Via X] credit.
Well, I guess there's a first time for all mistakes. However, I still don't like to make them. My apologies.
crsh said on 4:49PM 6-17-2009
Wrong crowd, wrong platform, user base that cannot invest a lot of time into games that are more complex than a vampire/zombie/werewolf contest; FB is for wasting time in very small chunks throughout the day, it's more like simple mobile games than anything (and even then..).
Just because it has a large user base, it doesn't make it a potentially successful MMO platform.
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Goronmon said on 4:52PM 6-17-2009
...
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Goronmon said on 4:56PM 6-17-2009
Wow, the account system on this site is messed up, haha.
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JP said on 4:56PM 6-17-2009
Stupid.
My wife plays a few browser apps on FB. Farm Town, Yoville, Reasteraunt (something), etc. They're similar to our standard MMOs as they have multiple people playing at once, you level, there is progression for item availability and you can customize the look of your (2d mostly) avatar...
but it's something she and her friends use to ignore their work day. It's certainly nothing like WoW, nor close to a WoW killer. Further, they wouldn't pay dime fucking one to play it. If those are the casuals his write up would play to, he's got no real sense of what the vast majority of people on social networking sites want. Here's a clue: They don't give a shit about video games.
Additionally, a (sub based b/c that’s what WoW is) FB MMO is absurd and to even THINK it could rival WoW makes one such person a complete and utter moron, or very very very bored blogger.
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Happyfish said on 4:09PM 6-21-2009
I've noticed this too. Many of my anti-gaming friends who wouldnt touch an MMO to save their life spend several hours a day on facebook, or play ridiculous games like Snood, simply to waste time. I'm not sure if the MMO crowd and the facebook crowd overlap eachother enough to be the next WoW killer. The novelty of facebook is that its a free diversion, once you charge even a dollar for something I'm pretty sure people will look for something else.