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Stradden  5/14/07 9:18:35 AM

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The first ever Online Game Developers Conference was held on may 10th and 11th. Carolyn Koh attended the event and today writes the first in her series of reports from the show, a summary of five different MMORPG-related panels.

The Online Gamers Developers Conference 2007 held on May 10 and 11th, 2007 is put on by EverGreen Events and as the first of the series, fielded many interesting panels and drawing excellent speakers from across the industry. This is a summary report of the panels I attended on the first day.

Building Games for the Mass Market

Mike Goslin, Vice President of Reality Studios, Disney Online present the paradox of designing for the mass audience. Since the mass audience is extremely diverse, he discussed several crucial points:

Low barrier to entry - this can be achieved by making games with low minimum computer specifications with free trials / downloads to lure the audience in.

Read the whole article here.

Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com

DrowNoble  5/14/07 10:33:42 AM

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Interesting read and I fully agree on the part about more Events.

I remember the GM/Holiday events in EQ1, they were always quite fun.  I remember participating in a halloween one and getting a nice 2hb and tunic for my monk that was better than any non-raid item ingame at the time.  He was still using the tunic up til the day I quit.

WoW seasonal events are a good example of a "passive" event.  Devs just have to patch-and-forget.  I always did like the "for fun" items like the hallowed wands, silver arrow, etc.

Would be nice to see more active events where company reps are controlling npcs, adds a bit of unpredictability to the event.

*edited for a few typos*

 
Alienovrlord  5/14/07 12:06:29 PM

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Cartoon Network is making a MMO?

I suspect it will be something weird.

 
jm9206755  5/14/07 12:09:22 PM

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Broad appeal - such as adult humor in kid's games - is something that Disney has historically achieved in their movies, and diverse content. In short, they have something for everyone.

Maybe that works for Disney but, in my opinion, it is the attempt to be everything to everyone that creates mediocre games.  Developers should focus more on a few complimentary playstyles and make the best possible implementation they can.  Otherwise you end up with a game that has OK PvE, OK PvP, etc. and nothing really stands out for the long-run.
 
SonofSeth  5/15/07 5:29:10 AM

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Find a form
is free to roam

One day, The Long Tail en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail will work for MMOs too and then we'll have some niche games of proper quality 

*_*

Jhereg  5/15/07 7:06:00 PM

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I personally think that there definitely should be more in game events.  Some developers just don't have enough fun events, NCSoft is a  good case in point.  Events bring more people to play and make the game fun.  If you have more of them you keep your player base because they will want to know what the next event will be!