The Vision

Hello all. I would like to give you a vision in this entry. It will likely last several entries, but that is ok.

The vision I plan to impart a few paragraphs down requires a bit of an introduction. It is a vision of the future of gaming, or at the least how I would like to see the future.

To appreciate what I am about to reveal, you may want to consider the source. I am an old guy, who cut his teeth on gaming just under 40 years ago at age 10 playing boxed war games by Avalon Hill. I picked up “Dungeons & Dragons” when it was advertised in an 1/8^th page ad in Wargamer’s Digest when I was going through a table top gaming phase in 1974. Likely I have (or had) one of the first printings of the 3-booklet set. In 1980 I started a game company (in the wrong location), and developed computer games for the Atari and Apple microcomputers. It unfortunately failed, not because of the game design (it was called Shadow-Hawk I and it was similar to Elite but 5 years earlier), but because we could not release in time and missed the Christmas retail window. In short, we ran out of money and had to fold. During this time I developed a blue-print for the future of gaming and what phases we would have to go through as a company to change with them. I was about 90% right on, the biggest flaw was that the ability for massively multiplayer games in a shared graphical game world came about 5-7 years earlier than I predicted. Later in the mid 1980’s through the early 1990’s I developed turn based multi-player games played by mail. In 1990 I saw the coming of the internet as a death knell for this business, and tried with the help of several programmers to develop real time games played via the internet through a gaming service. There were lots of real world problems that caused this not to be finished (divorce, disease, lead programmer leaving) and in 1994 I left gaming on a professional basis for nearly 10 years. I tried to return in 2003 with what I am about to reveal to you, but with limited success.

The reason this is important is that I have a track record of being ahead of the curve and being able to spot market trends. As I opened this blog, I revealed that likely I will not see the benefits of what I have inside my head. I have spent years researching this concept and documenting a business case for it’s success. It is my sincere hope that this discussion will help the right person at the right time and this vision will, in some form, be given birth for the benefit of all of us.

The future of gaming is not a game. It is a game publishing service. It is based upon the most successful and proven business model utilizing the Internet today. I call that model a “T” based service model and both Amazon and Ebay use it.

It is a service provided by a gaming company that sits between a provider and a consumer and provides immense value BOTH WAYS.

For the Provider: The game company enables the provider to create games using a standardized platform, tools and extensive provided artwork assets. It provides the infrastructure that enables players to sign up, select games they want to play or download, and then keeps track of the time the player spends on what product. Monthly totals are calculated and part of the players subscription fees are paid to the various providers based strictly upon usage. The “Design tools” are free and freely downloaded by anyone and most importantly they are aimed at the high end player, and not the low end developer. The company provides a rating system which is calculated from the actions or the players and organized feedback from the player community that cuts the poor titles from the offering stack.

For the Player: The game company offers a service where you sign up for $15.00 a month. You have access to hundreds if not thousands of titles that you can play any or all, as you desire. New titles are added all the time, some are good, and some are great and the poor ones are dropped from the offering.

From the Company: This solves so many problems in game design. It eliminates the risk issue that publishers have in investing in new titles, as you only pay for titles that are successful. It gives a constant stream of content that is provided by your game designers and providers. The company focuses on marketing the service, providing solid infrastructure, billing service, and creating artwork.

This situation we see ourselves in holistically in the gaming community is very similar to a situation that occurred in history several hundred years ago. It was in Europe where all knowledge and technology was controlled by the church. In order to create books you had to go through years of training in the monasteries, be subject to rigorous standards and do menial copy work before you could even dare hope to write your own book. Even then, it had to be approved. Then came the printing press and the arguments that the clergy had with allowing non-priests to write books. What could they, the untrained and uninitiated possibly write about?

Today this same flavor of issue is before us and it is strangling creativity, and stopping a renaissance in gaming. The ideas are out there, the writers, storytellers, and novelists abound. What stops them from producing games? They are not trained, are not closely tied to the industry. In order to bring their artistic imaginations alive and be free to create, they have to do years of base work and support business minded people to make money. In short, we stifle creativity for the sake of profit. Yet ironically it is that very creativity that generates profit in the first place. What I am doing as a Modder with Mount&Blade clearly should illustrate that there is talent available out there that can provide professional looking and engaging products. I am not alone.

Some of the market research that I have done shows that there are thousands and even tens of thousands of people who would love the opportunity to create offerings on this system. Just look at what has been done with the games that have decent modding tools out there. Look at Neverwinter Nights who after 5 years after release is still a growing community! Statistically speaking there are hundreds of people who would excel, and a dozen who would be at the J.K. Rowling level at creating gaming products through a service as I described. In addition, there are millions of people who would jump at the chance to play this service, as it would provide immense value for their dollar.

This is the vision. A place where a college student can spend a summer vacation and create an offering that serves as a part time job through the school year. It is a place where a housewife can create a vision of gaming, by women for women when her kids are at school. It is a place where the creative novelists can express their thoughts, ideas and stories in a new medium. It is a place where the creative do what they do best: Create, and the best is consumed and enjoyed by the player community and the company who provides the service takes no risks. It is a vision where hundreds of jobs are created. It is a vision of leadership: Where we enable those who have the talent to succeed with their passion.

Peace out and more later.

Jim