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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.

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