This blog explores the connection between mobile games and online, persistent, virtual worlds. I am a videogame designer and grad student at MIT’s Comparative Media Studies. I’m writing my thesis on cell phone games. I’m also writing my thesis on Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs/MMOs). These may sound like two different topics, but there’s potential to create a connected gaming experience across multiple device species. I’ll be exploring the potential through this blog, hopefully with your help. I realize just in my first paragraph I’ve already glossed over the distinction between mobile games and cell phone games and the distinction between virtual worlds and MMOs. You could say cell phone games are to mobile games what MMOs are to virtual worlds; i.e. the first is an instance of the second. Regardless, here are some of the questions I’m thinking about:
How can massively multiplayer online games, currently played primarily on PCs, be extended to mobile devices? How can game designers enable players to stay even more connected with persistent worlds? How can game designers give mobile players a quick, fun play experience that has lasting consequences in a social world? How can game designers take advantage of the connected nature of cell phones, rather than simply replicating single player experiences better suited to larger screens? In which ways have any of these been done already?
Who do these questions affect?
Online, persistent world game designers
They’ve already put time and money into creating a believable, immersive space with compelling interactions. Their players are already carrying cell phones, thinking about the persistent game world, and talking with friends about goals and successes in that world. I want to help these designers think about ways to engage players wherever they are.
Mobile game designers
Cell phone gaming is currently a casual games market. Mitch Lasky, Senior VP of EA’s mobile-games division, accepted an interview with TheStreet.com at E3 2006:
TheStreet.com: What have you found out about which games work on mobile phones?
Lasky: Casual games, broadly distributed. It’s as simple as that. It’s a mass market, so it’s not gamers.Because it’s casual, it’s bringing in new players to gaming, which is a great thing, but it is also ignoring established markets. Massively multiplayer online games entice a significant number of people to invest a lot of time and money into creating personally significant alter egos. Using cell phones, mobile game designers can increase the personal significance of players’ alter egos by allowing players to stay constantly connected, to more easily show off their progress and status with friends, and to interact with friends simultaneously face-to-face and within a game world. Picture an ad hoc LAN party. At LAN parties, players’ skills and hardware take on heightened roles in affecting a real-life social status. Connected, persistent mobile gaming has the same potential.
Wireless carriers
Carriers are currently looking for more incentives for customers to subscribe to high-end services, purchase content, upgrade mobile devices, use airtime, and virally market all of it. Online, persistent game worlds perfectly match these dimensions. Carriers must realize the match and then figure out what to do about it. For instance, the software interface for purchasing games is terrible, and consumers would be much more willing to make purchases about which they had more information and therefore higher confidence.
Wireless manufacturers
Hardware user interface is currently a major barrier in mobile devices to engaging game experiences. Meanwhile, Nintendo is revolutionizing gaming (thankfully no longer a pun) and broadening the market with innovative controls. Manufacturers leave a lot of money on the table with bad UI.
Nintendo, Sony, (Microsoft?)
As mobile devices with cell phone capability advance, the game experiences they provide will become increasingly adequate. Leveraging the cellular networks could even allow these mobile devices to surpass Nintendo’s and Sony’s handhelds. Nintendo and Sony will have to work harder to convince consumers to pay for additional hardware and carry a second device. For instance, they may want to partner with wireless phone manufacturers and carriers, as Apple is doing with iTunes phones (Motorola ROKR and SLVR, and Cingular’s cingularsleek). They must figure out how to continue to provide great content in the way consumers want.
I’m sure there are lots of other parties involved, too. Who have I missed?
