Dungeon Runners

Or, Stephen Nichols'(TM)Dungeon Runners(TM).

Hey, I like to boost his ego. It seems to make him all giggly.

"Is it really free-to-play?"

I get asked that question a lot. The answer.... yes, yes it is. There is NO catch. You don't have to pay for any software either, just download and start playing. We don't try to lure you in with some free content then pull some evil bait and switch on you. For some reason a lot of people think you have to pay for high level content, but there is no CUT OFF. You can play, play, and play, leveling all the way up to level 100. (BTW, whoever started that rumor, I will find you one day and set the record straight!) And I'm not talking about agonizing, painful "OMG I must start paying now because I take this anymore" type of gameplay, either. The balance is pretty solid. You may not have some of the extra perks paying members have (which is still only 4.99 a month) but it still quite do-able, and quite enjoyable.

So how do we make money? Surely we're not some non-profit organization. Alas, we are not. We got bills to pay, bling we want to buy.

Like I just mentioned, premium content is 5 dollars a month. Most people like paying because they don't ever have to see an ad (although we haven't seen too many of *those* lately...). You also get extra bank space, which is a BIG plus, because it's always nice to have extra space for your extra gear. I personally like having the major potions that together nicely. Members can also wear purple and rainbow loot - that's the good stuff - while non-paying members will find they can only wear certain types of purple and rainbow gear. Certainly, being a member usually means you can up your quest difficulty (which in return boosts the chance you'll get something sweet) while non-paying members may find they will need to weight the risk vs reward a little more carefully.

HOWEVER....you aren't gimped as a non-paying player. You just don't get the extra perks, but there are plenty of perks there already. Dungeon Runners isn't meant to be a hard game, although there is enough of a challenge to keep the interest up. It's very casual, very fast paced.


SO WHY DON'T WE HAVE MORE PLAYERS!!

I often wonder why. Why don't we? Sure, we got a decent player base, but as a gamer I've tried a playing a zillion MMOs. And they are not forcing me to say this when I say Dungeon Runners far surpasses the expectations I have for any "free to play" game.

Well, Dungeon Runners was originally intended to be a "word of mouth" game, ala online viral marketing.

*Shivers at the mention of the word 'viral', but continues on*

The idea is that the game would market itself, just by being free. Well, unfortunately, it takes a little bit more than that; if not enough people know about the game in the first place then how on earth can we expect them to tell their friends? Awareness is the first thing any product needs.

And is it the responsibility of the community to tell the whole world? Isn't that a lot to ask? We're a low budget game, yes, and to keep our prices low *insert yellow smiley here* we do have to have to keep our marketing budget small. That is something we may have to live with.

So, let's go on the theory that we want the community in the streets in ridiculous costumes holding big DR signs. (Hmm, I see a future contest idea brewing there....) The game is still intended for casual game play, yes? It seems kinda strange, we do want to attract the casual gamers, yet this is basically volunteer WORK that you primarily only see out of hardcore gamers.

It's a pickle. So where do we strike the balance between the two....?

Tools. Hand over the goods, and throw it all out there, and see what happens. This is the current goal, we'll see how it goes from there.

That, and I try to do what I can :)

Official Forums: Yae or Nay?

This is a topic that comes up quite frequently in community management circles - should online games always have official forums? Are they necessary? Should they always be expected as a basic necessity?

IMHO it depends, and it depends on many, many factors. Once everything has been considered I think it is up to the producer to decide which course of action best suits his or hers team's needs. The community person is there to primarily serve two sides: the needs of the developers (getting them the feedback they need) and the needs of the community (getting their feedback TO the dev team.) As long as those needs are met then things are heading in the right direction. Because in the long run, just having official forums isn't enough to meet those needs. "Official" certainly doesn't mean it's better. Anyone can have forums if they just want to give players a place to post back and forth with one another. It's also easy to assume that you can't meet these needs WITHOUT official forums, but that isn't necessarily true either. Several community reps live without official forums, and this in turn gives them the extra time they need for several unofficial forums.

When I accepted this position, 2 out of 3 of my games hadn't even been launched yet. Beta forums are a MUST, but what about after launch? I sat down with the Dungeon Runners and Exteel producers and I asked them for their input. Now, keep in mind that no product has an infinite about of resources and time. Would they prefer I manage official forums, or would they prefer I spend that time working on other community related matters? In the end, forums won out, and I agreed with them. Both of these communities were very small when starting out (and at the time, they were receiving very little attention) and they both needed a central location for that extra focus. Every product is different, so I'm not a big fan of saying that official forums are needed for every online game out there.

What else should be considered?

Money and resources - I'm not just talking about purchasing forum software or basic technical maintenance. No matter what ESRB rating a game may hold living without any type of moderation is next to impossible. Of course the amount of work varies from community to community, and going into it you may not know exactly how much. In many situations MMOs can use volunteers, but it's important to check into the legalities of that in addition to any company policies. In some situations you need 24/7 coverage, even in holidays, depending on your influx of new users. Many out there have made a career just with moderation, and they do have families to feed.

Now I don't see this often, but I sometimes see individuals who think it is "okay" to act up because they see there is a moderation team already present. Having a system in place to handle such problems is not our way of saying "we expect this out of you". We frankly don't. The truth is, no one wants to have more moderation than they absolutely require. It's a waste of a good resource because every employee is an asset. Time is money, friend. Moderators *can* do a lot more than just moderate, if they have the time!

I sometimes see that same mentality in "well I can cuss because there's a profanity filter there to stop it" statements. It's there to absolutely stop it in any case that it can, but it isn't there to ALLOW cussing.

Okay, I derailed there. Back on topic.

Another factor: does the game already have a well established presence? If yes, perhaps the idea of going without official forums should be considered. (Money and resources have to be considered in this, obviously.) But be forewarned that you are leaving everything about forums in THEIR hands. The community person will still be as official as ever in their posts/announcements, but if any drama breaks out it is up to forum owners on how to handle it. This can be a curse and a blessing, so the MMO should already have a good pre-existing relationship with a forum fansite before they even think of going without official forums.

Official Forums: the official madness!

Some say official forums are "breeding grounds for negativity" simply because they are official. Perhaps this is a tad bit pessimistic, but there may be some truth in this. When a poster expresses him or herself he or she keeps their target audience in mind. Official forums, naturally, tend to have more posts that are directly aimed towards staff members. I'm not saying that is a bad thing, but sometimes it's nice to sneak on "unofficial" forums and see what people are saying when the target audience involves other players. It can be just as brutal, but the perspective is different - and usually easier to analyze.

The forums can show an ugly side to any game.

I know, this is breaking news to you all. People sometimes wonder why we allow people to use our resources to say BAD things about us. A negative post by itself is not against the rules, of course. If we only heard good things it would be extremely difficult to even know what on earth is really going on.

Forums can get heated - arguments do break out. And when people see all that stuff in the bugs and technical forums section all stuck together like that...yikes, it can look bad. It can make ANY MMO can look broke, even if that MMO happens to have a pristine reputation.

Do we really want all of that negativity on OUR site? Do we want people who are having zero problems with the game, folks who just forum registered to say "hello" to others, seeing all this stuff on our message boards?

When you go with official forums you are saying "yes" to that. But I'm okay with it. All those problems people read about on the forums may not be commonplace, but forcing them all on a "unofficial" forum doesn't make those problems any less real.

There are other things to consider, of course, but I think I've babbled on enough for now :)

I'm currently getting over some type of bug - no pun intended. It's the kind that makes you want to sleep, sleep, sleep. Caffeine+Crickette=FTW!

Posted on Plaync.com: NCsoft Announces Fiscal Year 2007 Results

Now keep in mind this is how the company stands on a global scale. I was tickled to see Lineage I gain 4%, but I'm afraid most of those were not in the North American market. We're holding steady, though, we're defying all the odds!

More and more people are asking me about Aion, but I'm being completely honest when I say that I have no inside information. Sorry! I can't say a peep about it. I don't work on Aion, but it is really nice to see all the interest it is gaining.

There is an official Aion site: Aion and I recommend checking it out. It's a complete teaser, but you can sign up for future news and information.

From what I understand it is pronounced "I-ON'. The A throws me off, too.

Dungeon Runnahs!

It was long overdue: an official DR fansite kit is being created. We'll hopefully have it out within a couple weeks or so *knocks on wood*. Everything has to be signed off and approved, but I can't wait to see the end results.

Well now it's back to work for me. I got a lot to catch up on!

When most people mention "Lineage" in the United States they are generally referring to Lineage II. Just go to google and type in "Lineage" and see for yourself: most hits refer to Lineage II. It's pretty safe to say that Lineage II is the more popular between the two, at least on this side of the world. Because of this I generally refer to "Lineage" as "Lineage I" so people know what I'm talking about.

It's just strange how we have to differentiate "Lineage" from "Lineage II" (and not the other way around) because Lineage did, after all, come first. It's the game that started it all for NCsoft*, so we still have some bragging rights, even do this day :) Speaking of bragging - Lineage I is the only Mac compatible NCsoft game out there.

From my experience in the gaming industry (as a whole) a lot of people don't know much about Lineage. Although both games are a part of the Lineage franchise, you can bet they are two very different games. The two should not be confused!

Lineage launched in the US in October of 2001, roughly 3 years before I joined NCsoft Austin. Right around that time I had just left a competing MMO, and that means I was adamantly spending all my time looking for more work. So I must admit, I didn't have much time to play games back then. In 2001 there were like what, maybe 3 other major MMOs to really compete against? I guess it wouldn't talk much guesswork to figure out I was at UO, hehe. Perhaps it was just the timing of things, perhaps it was the explosion of all these new MMOs that followed suit...(which I both worked for and played). I just wasn't in the world of Lineage when it all began. But I am now.

Lineage has US 4 servers: Lands of Aden, Depardieu, and Ken Rauhel. Ken is a non-pvp server, while LoA and Dep are two pvp servers with different rulesets. Then last, but not least, we have the test server. The test server provides double XP to help ease leveling and testing (to a certain degree) and every few months we wipe it to start all over again.

Yes, the graphics and style are different from what many are acustomed to now. Lineage is an aging MMO, but they will all get that way. With all these new MMOs out there it will be interesting to see what they are like in 7 years or so. We don't get very many new accounts, but we do get some. There's a nostalgic and sentimental feel to Lineage that still runs very strong. We have people who play from all over the world (in particular, Europe) and most of them have been with us for years, sometimes off and on. I personally find the Lineage community quite endearing. They got a lot of spunk. For the most part, most Lineage players don't care about other NCsoft games. Ha. But it's true...they don't. You see that in all gaming communities to a degree, but this is a trait that I think distinctly fits Lineage players in particular. They don't care about what new game we may be coming out with.
They aren't always NCsoft fans, but they are Lineage fans. They never lose their focus, and I truly respect them for that.

Lineage players are not something to be feared, but sometimes they are. It's just because they are so hardcore. There's no doubt about that...you have to be hardcore to play Lineage. But it's good to have games like that. If all games were made to be easy, if all games were made without what are often severe consequences, then certain types of gamers would be left out of the market completely. Yes, you can lose levels in Lineage. You sometimes have to work REALLY hard to get what you want. And I mean really, really hard. Some people have been playing on a single character (at least) for over 7 years now and they are *still* have goals they want to achieve, including leveling. This may not appeal to everyone, but I completely understand why Lineage gamers are drawn to it. It's hard work, but it makes you feel good, reaching your goals. A level 65 character in some games is nothing. But if someone makes level 65 in Lineage the entire community becomes completely awestruck. Nothing is ever taken for granted in Lineage.

At last year's PlayNC Meet and Greet several Lineage players were able to make the pilgrimage, either driving for hours or by flying in. All of these players have been playing longer than I have, but it was nice to hear all the good stories (which were often funny) on all the things that I missed out on. Even the Lineage II players, from what I heard, took their hats off to them that night...just for being that hardcore.

How many people out there can say they have played any MMO for seven years? Probably not too many. But like I mentioned, all these newer of MMOs are going to become older as well. I'm sure that seven years from now all those newborn MMOs will have the technology to do things that we can't do today. You can always go back and re-work a game, this is true. But unless decide to start completely clean you are going to have coding limitations. And that doesn't mean that a game has to be passed upon and buried for good just because it happens to be a few years old. A game doesn't have to have the best graphics around today for it to be an amazing game, right?

Right now we're working on Episode 6 - yes, - new content - that we will release sometime this year for Lineage. Throughout the year we also run a variety of events; the Halloween event was a fun one in particular. For those of you who never have played Lineage, don't think you've passed up your opportunity just because you didn't play it when it was brand spanking new. Lineage is a small, tight nit group and they are always welcoming new players with OPEN arms. I know this personally, for when I was new someone would always come up to me and offer their help. For some reason, people sometimes get the impression that if they decided play they would be ganked instantly, but I have found that to not be the case. (Remember, we do have a non-pvp server.) Sometimes people just think that they would be so far behind all the experienced players that they could NEVER catch up to them. Nonsense. People start new characters all the time.

So do people lose their passion for older MMOs? Does it wear off with time? From my experience, no. The community (both on the official forums and on lineageone.com) are pretty dang fierce, even to this day. Lineage I players are very frank, I've found, perhaps more so than my other communities. They will tell you how it is, point blank. They don't mess around when it comes to telling you what they want by trying to dress it up.

Just don't write Lineage off because the game is, ahem, for the lack of a better word...old. Come and see what has kept so many others with us for so long, and see for yourself. Many within the Lineage community know each other (and have for quite some time) but they will always welcome a fresh face. I lived it myself (see above) and I assure you they had NO idea I happened to work for the company.

We certainly don't get a lot of media attention. Honestly, Lineage deserves more attention that it actually gets. We live in a society where "newer" sometimes gets confused with "better" and our aging games get brushed to the side. There's also so much to compete with right now. Just go to any multi-game like WarCry and you'll instnatly notice that the MMO market has become overwhelmed with so many choices.

*So what does the NC in NCsoft stand for, anyway? Apparently, it stands for "new company". Hey, it makes sense when you are trying to come up with a new name, right?

A CM's fears

Uh oh, it's blog #1...I'm willing to bet that the first blog is generally the hardest. Yes, yes, I'm starting to see that now. I want to start things off with a big BANG, but I'm willing to bet that it just doesn't work that way. These things come with time...

It's quite telling, knowing that this is actually my first blog. I know, for SHAME. How could this have happened? I think I know the answer, but I'll need to explain myself first. There's one thing I've noticed about us OCR (online community relation) folks - once we get some experience under our belt and take off that Cloak of Newbness we tend to become less afraid. And when that happens, we tend to show a bit more of ourselves, i.e., throw a little personality in the mix. So what can make CMs (community managers) even the most outgoing CMs, afraid in the first place?

What CMs worry about when they first get the job

1)Eating our own words. We hate to say one thing, then BOOM, it ends up haunting us forever. Sadly, this is a fact of life, and sometimes you do just have to go out on a limb. And the more the community loves ya, the more likely they will let you forget too ;) This is not necessarily a bad thing, IMO.

2)Not being 100% certain. We hate, hate, hate that. We know players always want concrete answers, and we love giving those answers when we can. We like being that "great know it all behind the curtain". But I've discovered this - it's okay to state something may or may not happen. Heck, I sometimes try to give the odds or a general idea of the likelihood whenever possible. Even if something may not be written in stone every community enjoys being a part of the process.

3)Sounding too casual. I can't write those "we apologize for the inconvenience please let us know if you have any questions or concerns" generic business statements any longer. I used to do that, but now I've really given up trying to NOT sound casual. I've realized I can remain professional AND sound casual all at the same time. I think I'm just one of those CMs who is always going to a)make grammar/spelling mistakes and b)type the way I speak. Yes, many GMs have to write that way, but I don't. I just don't feel like I'm getting through to anyone if I just end up coming across like a robot, typing the same expressions over and over again. I'm just going to leave the marketing words up to the marketing guys....coming from me, it just sounds like a bunch of hogwash.

4)Getting blamed for the ruining the whole game, aka, Don't Kill the Messenger. Ha, it's true. But we understand...we're the focal point for a lot of frustration because we're the ones out there working in the line of fire. We sometimes have to write and say things that we know aren't going to be well received by everyone. It doesn't necessarily mean we have full control over the situation, but we're going to be the ones who are asked to explain the reasoning behind it.

I've seen CMs handle this in different ways. To me, I see it like this: I'm the Community Manager, I get PAID to deal with this. I'm here to represent the product as a whole. It's not my responsibility to assign blame to anyone or deflect blame on to someone else. If it falls on me as a default rule (perhaps a players assumption) then it falls on me. I use "we" a lot because we're a team here at NCsoft, and I'm going to stand behind any decision made, even if it was not my own. I'm going to be very vocal about what I think before a decision is made, but once a decision is made I'm going to stand behind it. Now sometimes it makes sense to clear up a misunderstanding, but that's a different matter. It may be true - we may just be the messenger sometimes, but we should NEVER point fingers or convey information in a "this is someone else's fault" type of manner.

5)Revealing to the world we're not always game experts. We may know a lot about any particular game we work on, but there isn't a single person who knows it ALL. It's okay to say you may not know something. As CMs, we're only held up to standards of perfection in cases where we TRY to be like that. We don't have to be infallible to be good at our job.

Going back to what I said earlier...how could this possibly be my first blog? Well, technically it's my first blog, but I think I've been "blogging" via the message boards for the last few months now. It's not something I did on COH. This is something I've grown into, using the lessons I've explained above. Sometimes I can write paragraph after paragraph on the forums *Exteel cough cough* all the while staying in first person mode.

So, I figured I might as well start a real blog :)