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Reaching far beyond the familiar PC and console game realm, today’s Interactive Entertainment industry has a hand in everything from cell phones and cars, to Las Vegas casinos and global currency fluctuation simulation. Today, you can find interactive technology used to simulate everything from battle situations to auction markets, from microbiology to entire societies. In spite of all its diversification and cross-market saturation, the primary goal has remained largely intact and unscathed. What it boils down to is the ability to leverage technology as a means to provide compelling entertainment and socialization products to the general public.
As a human endeavor, Interactive Entertainment is, in essence, a collaborative art form nearly as complicated as the games it produces. The typical modern game is a combination of 2-D graphic arts, 3-D computer-generated graphics, scripting, voicing, sound effects and music. And while many production elements are in parallel with the movie-making process, the essential layer of active audience participation brings an added dimension of complexity. As an entertainment medium, as an art form and as a game, each new level of complexity is made possible only by the maturation of computer technology.
As a matter of fact, it typically takes a non-trivial amount of sophisticated hardware and software to build a modern game. As a result, providing services and solutions to this industry can be quite daunting to the uninitiated. This paper intends to provide anyone with an interest in the industry to start from very little knowledge, and gain enough experience to be able to understand the language of multiplayer online games, learn how they operate, and understand the important factors to consider when building a multiplayer online game. Moreover, those intrepid literary adventurers who dare trek through the entire paper will be rewarded with an excellent understanding of multiplayer online games.
Anatomy of an industry
It is widely unknown and sometimes difficult to comprehend, but massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are one of the most technologically complex projects currently undertaken by mankind. Games like the popular EverQuest and World of Warcraft easily have as many parts and components as a space shuttle. As such, a game launch in the marketplace can be as spectacular as a Space Shuttle launch. It takes hundreds of people to develop a multiplayer online game, dozens of people to manufacture, advertise, market, distribute, and stock games in retail establishments, and hundreds more around the world to configure, install, maintain, and support it. Not only does it take an enormous amount of people to launch a game, but it also requires several distinct business models to be in play at any given time.
Publishers
This business model consists of those who actually make a game happen. Publishers produce the CDs, assemble and print collateral, assemble and box the game, manage relationships with retailers and various methods of distribution, and above all collect and distribute revenue from game sales. In the tradition of Hollywood movie studios, publishers control the sales channels, along with the means of getting the game out to consumers. In this role, publishers play a large part in the economics of the industry, funding most of the games that are produced. The online game industry was an early adopter of non-traditional means of publishing. For example, ID software is widely hailed as popularizing the (pre-existing) shareware software distribution mechanism with releases of Castle Wolfenstein and Doom. And today companies like Game Tap are trying to do the same thing with the software rental model.
Developers
When it comes to who actually creates the games, developers focus on the creative and technological aspects of games. Sometimes referred to as studios, developers have gained a reputation of actively shunning the economic side of the industry (often only referred to using the derogatory term “the suits”). Nonetheless, developer organizations are tasked with making all of the critical decisions regarding what technology will go into the development of a game, as well as the infrastructure on which the multiplayer online game will run.
Operators
If a multiplayer online game is developed in Korea, who will run it and collect revenue in Germany, or any other country, for that matter? This is the job of the game operator.
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