Designing for the future
Articles
|
by Robert Washburne |
The Perfect Adventure Game |
Designing for the future
Finally, there are some things the game designer should take into account which have little to do with the game itself. These issues have more to do with the shelf life of the game after it has been purchased.
Adventure games are sometimes called “Evergreen.” They are not trendy. They stay on the shelves longer than action games and retain their playability. While Warcraft 1 was made obsolete by Warcraft 2, Myst is still as much fun to play today as it was almost ten years ago.
So, Mr. Developer, I just purchased a copy of your latest adventure game. I played and enjoyed it immensely. Ten years from now when I see it on my shelf, will I still be able to play it? Will my aging BluRay HD-DVD player be able to handle your antique copy protection? Will you allow my Linux OS to at least try to run your program under emulation for the defunct Microsoft products? Or will your legacy consist of nothing more than an old CD which nobody can run anymore?
Copy protection is Stupid. I can say that for two reasons. One, it doesn’t stop the pirates, but it does annoy the customers. And two, it loses more revenue than it gains.
Let’s take a look at just how effective copy protection is. First, there is plenty of software readily available that will copy or emulate most protection schemes out there. This is perfectly legitimate. If I have paid for a software product then it is my legal right to make a backup copy of it to protect my investment. It is NOT my right to sell that backup to other people.
Second, there are plenty of clever people out there who take copy protection as a personal challenge. These “Hackers” have been able to break the protection and post “cracks” for just about every game out there. I know of at least one case where the cracked version hit the ‘Net two weeks before the game was released.
So copy protection doesn’t seem to slow the pirates down. But it is a pain for the legitimate user. Exile was one example of a copy protection scheme that just would not run on a significant number of systems. Many people purchased copies, found out they wouldn’t run on their machines, and then found that they couldn’t get their money back. These did not become repeat customers.
The second pain to customers comes from a short shelf life. I spent a lot of money on my Commodore 64. I later spent lot of money on my Amiga. These two hardware platforms are now dead, but there are some very nice emulators out there which can run my software on my PC. Unless it had copy protection. Then it doesn’t work. This scenario is set to repeat with the PC as DOS, Win3.1, Win95, etc become unsupported and the old hardware becomes obsolete. So again, the pirate is rewarded with cracked software that will run on future hardware while the legitimate customer who spent their money is screwed.
But what about the revenue issue? Surely piracy costs publishers a lot of money? Perhaps, but I’ve never seen a article which proved it. Every article on piracy I have ever read assumes that every illegal copy represents a copy which otherwise would have been sold. That is just simply not true. If a person has no intention of buying a copy, then receiving a pirated copy doesn’t cost the publisher a cent. Let us divide the universe of people who receive pirated copies up into three categories:
A) Those people who would have purchased a copy if they had to, but found they could save money by pirating it.
B) Those people who would not have spent a dime, but will take it if it is free.
C) Those who never heard of the game, but now that they have tried it, will actually go out a buy a copy.
We can immediately eliminate group B from the discussion. As stated, they don’t cost the publisher anything. Now the only question remaining is which is larger, group A or C. Piracy only costs the difference between A and C.
Now add copy protection to the equation. Copy protection does little or nothing to convert group A into sales. But copy protection costs all the repeat sales which were lost due to upset customers.
Of course, there is one way in which software piracy does have a major impact on sales. That is when it gives people a chance to find out how much a game sucks before they buy it. Such freedom of knowledge could cause major damage to the industry.
To summarize, copy protection does not stop software piracy, but it does cause bad customer relations.
Now, what about the other issue of designing for the future.
Technology changes and moves on. Games should be written conservatively so that they will have the best chance of working on “backward compatible” equipment.
The most obvious problem is that of processor speed. Most games are good at running at a constant speed no matter what the CPU rating. But I still find occasional glitches where an animated cursor or cut scene runs too fast to see. One suggestion would be to design the game on a slower machine and then test it on a faster one and compare the experience.
Another issue is designing with the knowledge that the rules may change. I have one game which refuses to install under WinXP. It returns the rather flippant message of “Nowhere on the box did it say that this game was supported under NT.” Well, that may have been true of the NT 4.0 which was in use when the game was written. But WinXP (which is actually NT 6.0 in disguise) has all the libraries needed to support the old Win9x based games. It would probably work if only the designer would have allowed it the chance to try.
It is commendable that a designer would check the capabilities of a machine at installation and check for compatibility. But if incompatibilities are found, then they should be reported as a warning and the user allowed to try anyway. It just might work.
And finally, the truly last consideration, the final question which every adventure gamer has asked at one time. Why should a good adventure game ever go out of print?
Adventure games are not made obsolete by newer and future games. They retain their playability, assuming they had any to begin with. Take a look at the All Time Greatest Adventure Games List on any fan site. Most of the games listed will be well over five years old. All of them would be enjoyable to play again and a real treat to the newcomer. And none of them would be for sale anymore.
Keeping an Adventure Game on the shelf need not be expensive. Once the final pressing has been made, retool the game for the bargain bin. Scan the manual and put it on the CD. Lose the box and the insert. All we need is the CD and jewel case. Burn a small lot and post the game on the “oldies” page of your website. Payment taken over the Web. This may not be a large volume, but it will represent pure profit.
If your CEO can’t bring themselves to support the old products, then considerer donating them to an abandonware site. If the game was good enough to sell, then it should be good enough to preserve for the gamers of future generations.
Conclusion
The secrets of writing a great adventure game are no longer secret. The genre has been around long enough to try everything and find what works. The only question should be why developers keep making the same mistakes.
Well, they no longer have any excuses. We have documented what works and what doesn’t. Now it is up to the industry to pay attention.
