user-generated-content posts

As you read last night, the UGC (user-generated-content) virtual environment side of Metaplace is shuttering on New Year's Day, 2010, just a scant couple of weeks away.

"The reason?" says company president Koster. "Well, it just hasn't gotten traction."

Nor should it have at this stage, really. Metaplace only went into open beta in May this year, meaning that it is closing before it really launched. We believe that is several years too soon for traction with its (now canceled) model.

When we're logged into Second Life and discussing various products, items, goods and clothing, we'll often refer to owning something that we've purchased. It's a very natural sort of metaphor. We're not, however, under any actual illusion that we own the items in question.

We read the Second Life Terms of Service when we signed up, and we're well-aware that we haven't been given ownership of the virtual goods we paid for, nor has any purchase taken place in the legal sense.

User-generated content is a contentious topic that puts developers, publishers, investors and ultimately users at odds with each-other. Investors and publishers often react with frank disbelief at the idea of allowing users to create their own content, but setups like Facebook and Second Life enjoy considerable commercial success.

Facebook's 2008 revenue was estimated to be somewhat in excess of US$200 million for 2008, while Second Life is estimated to have achieved somewhere between 100-200 million USD in the same period. User-generated content (UGC) can be highly profitable, but whether getting into those profitable situations, and moreover sustaining them is a whole other issue.

Sony Online Entertainment Fan Faire 2009 is happening in Las Vegas, and of course they've had a number of things to unveil so far. SOE president John Smedley gave his community address last evening, and other speakers made an appearance as well. We've got a few highlights from SOE Fan Faire 2009 for you:


Smedley jumped right in by talking about the state of the SOE game lineup and some of the new directions they've explored with them in this past year. One of those new directions has been the introduction of Station Cash, and he talked about the growing adoption of Station Cash among SOE game subscribers in EverQuest and EverQuest II, as well as how it will soon be tied into new services and customization options. He announced a partnership with Hewlett-Packard which will allow players to purchase matte print images of art from the games using Station Cash. You'll be able to have your own character rendered in a high-quality art print, or even have your entire guild depicted and sent to you as a hardcopy art book.


On the topic of EverQuest, remember that mention we had of SOE trademarking new EQ properties? It turns out these are the new expansions: EverQuest: Underfoot and EverQuest II: Sentinel's Fate. Smedley kicked off the EQ announcements by reflecting back on 10 years of EverQuest and looking to where the IP is headed in the future. EverQuest II producer Alan "Brenlo" Crosby discussed the game's sixth expansion, Sentinel's Fate, where players will travel to the land of Odus and see what's happened there since The Shattering.

He dropped a few details about this next expansion, slated for a February 2010 launch, and the updates they plan to release between now and Sentinel's Fate. These updates will include the ability to downtier characters, allowing you to go back and replay older content, plus achievements are coming to EverQuest II. In addition, the EQ II level cap will increase by ten levels.

SOE hasn't forgotten about their long-term fans either, those who have stuck with the original EverQuest through the years. EverQuest producer Thomas Terrazas announced the sixteenth EQ expansion, Underfoot, which will launch in November 2009. Underfoot will feature 12-15 zones at launch, with bonus zones and additional content to release in April of 2010. Underfoot will have twice as many weapons as any of the previous 15 expansions, a new focus targeting window (allowing you to add specific targets to your list, monitor health of friends and foes), and achievement tracking that will help players remain aware of the objectives to be completed in their progression path. "In other words," Terrazas said, "you won't have to go looking online on somebody else's website so see what you need. It'll be in-game."

Fan Faire 2009 attendees will get both expansions for free.

Are you fond of world or story building? Maybe you're thrilled about trying your hand at creating items. Do you have an idea for a great game, but no place - or way - to design it? Are you fascinated by the concept of in-browser-only (not browser/spawn another app like FusionFall or Free Realms) games. Or maybe you're just the type of person who loves to check out new and interesting things created by other people. If any of the above sounds interesting to you then you'll likely want to pop over to the MetaPlace site and check out their shiny new open beta test!

MetaPlace, designed to be a place full of infinite possibility where players can meet, game together, and socialize, has been in closed beta for quite some time. We're curious to see how this world evolves, considering Raph Koster's view on avatar rights to their own created property versus other virtual world platforms like Linden Lab's Second Life. Between that and the basic concept for MetaPlace, we suspect virtual world and MMO afficinados alike will be keeping an eye on this.

Gamerzines doesn't want to sound arrogant, but they're pretty sure they can design the perfect WoW-killer and because they're such nice folks, they're going to spill the beans in a series of blog posts. There are five parts so far that include their must-have elements for the next best MMO since [insert your favorite MMO title here].

• Part 1 - User generated content that passes through a quality filter
• Part 2 - Persistent world and good story
• Part 3 - Crafting and economy 2.0 (see EVE Online's industry)
  
• Part 4 - Old school RPG customization system (stats, appearance, gear, etc.)
• Part 5 - Real world simulation
  

This is obviously a pretty bold series if it aims to change the MMO landscape, but the ideas do seem interesting even though none of them are exactly novel so far. That said, they are starting to fit together nicely as newer parts of the series come out.

For instance, allowing players to have a visible and lasting impact on the game and then mixing it with the concept of a more real world simulation could produce interesting outcomes; e.g., too much hunting of one particular species could throw the ecosystem and biodiversity of the surrounding area out of balance.

[Via: Warcry]

American McGee, during a recent Geek.com interview, made a comment about user-generated content in games that made us stop and think. The snip in question was: "...I think if game products or publishers are relying on "outside the box" content created by users to drive interest in their titles – then they should find ways of compensating those users for developing added value." While he may have been talking about Little Big Planet at the time, we thought immediately of City of Heroes Issue 14, and other systems like Myst Online: URU Live, which will be depending on player-created content for future growth when it comes back up.

You could argue that at this point players who create and run Mission Architect content are largely already rewarded; there are several badges available that way, and it's a nice break from the regular missions when you've already run them eleventy-billion times since launch. Of course, as anyone who has actually built a mission arc can tell you, writing one can suck away some serious time from you very easily. So this morning, we thought we'd take it to you, the Massively community - do you think players should be rewarded in some fashion for creating content in MMOs? Should it be something simple like badges, or should it be more involved? Should Paragon Studios and NCsoft look at giving players who create quality arcs more space to create in? Free game time? Or is the ability to create fun content and get recognized by the community for writing good arcs enough reward in itself?

A four day weekend spent largely in the new City of Heroes Mission Architect suite has been something of a startling eye opener for me. Like a great many people, I was always of the opinion that when it comes to User Generated Content, there was basically nothing an MMO could do wrong; the more options the better! Liberate the means of production! We can ALL be game designers, if only we have the tools!

I certainly thought it would be well-received, but less than a week since launch there are at time of writing, a staggering 18,000 new story arcs in the game, and Sente at A Ding World has some fascinating breakdown of the figures so far. I have no idea how many missions were actually in the game prior to Issue 14 but it is a fair bet that the players have created more content in five days than NCSoft have in the last five years. And yet far from feeling liberated by the new system, I'm increasingly finding it confusing and not a bit daunting.

So far, it seems, NCsoft's City of Heroes/Villains Issue 14 Mission Architect feature has been a cracking success. The zones containing Architect Enterprises have been stuffed to overflowing with users learning the system, creating missions and trying missions out.

The Mission Architect system isn't exactly all-singing and all-dancing, as it has to work within the constraints of the existing engine, but it does the job quite nicely, and doesn't have a gigantic learning curve. Users have created and published literally hundreds of missions since Issue 14 went live a few days ago.

Much of our recent coverage of City of Heroes has focused on the Mission Architect, and with good reason. Issue 14 brings player-created content into the superhero MMO, placing the tools the developers have used to create missions in the hands of the players. Essentially, players can create their own playable content and tailor these missions to their liking, right down to the characters and the story itself. In some respects, it takes the UI of the character creation tool and applies it to the creation of actual game content.

We had a good look at the potential for user-generated content with the Mission Architect at GDC 2009, while it was still in beta testing. Mission Architect is clearly ready for primetime though; NCsoft has announced that Issue 14: Architect is now live, giving City of Heroes players more control over their gameplay than ever before. The Issue 14: Architect release notes are up and detail the many features the update brings to City of Heroes and City of Villains.

At GDC recently, Joe Morrissey, Senior Designer at NCsoft and Lead Designer for Mission Architect talked to an audience about the challenges of implementing a user generated content system in a 5-year old MMO. Afterwards, we had a chance to sit him down and ask a few questions of our own. But to start with, the basics, for those of you who haven't been following Mission Architect's development: it's a system that allows any City of Heroes or City of Villains player to create their own missions, complete with their own characters and stories. (If the idea of user generated content sounds strange and foreign to you, let Captain Dynamic explain the idea to you.) Currently in beta, this content Godzilla will be released upon the live realms in Issue 14. (For people who haven't yet dived into the City of franchise, there will also be a new game box coming out for Mission Architect: the aptly named Architect Edition.)

Star Trek gaming podcast Hailing Frequency interviewed Cryptic Studios Chief Creative Officer Jack Emmert in the wake of the big Las Vegas unveiling of Star Trek Online. The two part interview is available in both audio and video, and it's one of the best sources of details beyond the unveiling video itself at this point.

There are a lot of reveals and hints in the interview. Some examples of interview topics: post-launch plans for user-generated content, an economy without a monetary currency, and details about starship combat. Emmert speculates that cross-platform play and non-region-specific servers are possible, but that no final determinations have been made. Listen to the interview for more!

Hailing Frequency also spoke with STO's new community manager, JR Sutich, who is better known to folks in the MMO community as Razor. He was a regular writer at WarCry before he started with Cryptic. That interview, also available in both audio and video, deals exclusively with the game's community and forums.

There's a lot of Champions Online information swirling about the internet right now, if you hadn't noticed. So it can be easy to miss some of the better articles on the game, unless you look very carefully. Not only does Rock, Paper Shotgun have a great article about Champions Online up but they also plan to release more throughout the week. As if that weren't enough they managed to pull an interesting piece of information out of Cryptic CEO John Needham, too. According to Needham, Cryptic has a dynamic content system in the works that will allow the developer to spawn unique zones on the fly. While this is all very interesting, you're probably wondering how this factors into Champions Online. Well, it doesn't. At least not right now it doesn't.

This dynamic content system is actually for other upcoming MMOs being developed by Cryptic. Oh, how we wonder what sort of MMO would benefit from such a system. However, removing our tinfoil hats reveals that there's something else even cooler about all of this. These tools are being polished up so that they can be given to future players who will then be able to create their own content within Cryptic games. Unfortunately, Needham didn't go into exactly what kind of content players will be creating but the fact that such a thing is even being worked on is entirely cool beans.

Ok buccaneers, it is now time for us to offer our own new and improved Caribbean flavor to Pirates of the Burning Sea! User Content 2.0, the new review and submission process, officially became seaworthy on the 15th of May. So what exactly does this mean and how does it make cannon balls fly faster? Ktatroe logged onto the PotBS website and explained what exactly the new system entails.

Pirates of the Burning Sea has a creative user content system that allows the lawful and lawless to design their own sails, flags, and even submit designs for vessels. Registered sailors can then vote on the content for inclusion in the game. The PotBS team has streamlined the process for an approval or a broadside by reviewers for all content submissions. The primary motivation has been speed and, so far, over 1,300 new pieces of user generated content have been reviewed. Make sure your trusty pirate flag is up to speed, complete with bullet holes, by viewing this handy 2D content guide, before submitting it for review.

One might rightfully acuse the term "user generated content" of being a rather dry way to describe what is really a fascinating trend in media: the opportunity for "users" to contribute their own creations and have them incorporated into traditionally heavily produced "content." By nature interactive, the games industry is taking notice of the power of UGC, and in a panel yesterday at ION 08 we had the chance to listen to Flying Lab's Troy Hewitt and Linden Lab's Rob Lanphier talk about how user content has been working in Pirates of the Burning Sea and Second Life. Attorney Eric Goldman of Santa Clara University School of Law was on hand to discuss some of the legal issues surrounding UGC, and the panel was moderated by Scott Warner, owner and leader of the intellectual property and technology group at firm Garvey Schubert Barer.

Scott: Troy, do you want to start us off by talking about how user content has been working in Pirates?

Troy: Sure. As some of you may know, we just launched PotBS earlier this year. We have a system in the game where players can create flags and sails for their ships. There's a mechanism to distribute your work and they can actually create and sell their designs as well. Players can also create and model their own ships, and other people in game will be able to use those ships. We have 30 ships now in the game made by players, and these were actually done by only 13 people; so it's a small group of dedicated people creating these ships. With the flags and sails, about 20% of our player base is creating them and a much larger percentage actually use them.