Web 2.0 as you may or may not, know is the latest buzz word on the Interweb, well actually it is getting quite old now, but nevertheless it still is all the rage, think facebook, think twitter think well this very blog! So web2.0 is, from the wikipedia: “enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users”. I have started to read some stuff by Tim O’Reilly and it is just, excellent because Tim has a unique and very expert view on everything tech and all the latest trends… Anyway back to the point, I recently read an article about web2.0 written by Tim in 2005 and it was very good and thought provoking, it made me think, what if I took the game industry and made the same web1.0 VS web2.0 comparison?
In other words, in almost the same way Tim created a Web2.0 definition and comparison, I wanted to create a Game2.0. In the normal sense as the gaming industry was and has been for a while it is like web1.0, but with the advent of MMORPG’s it has stared its metamorphosis into Game2.0!
First let me define Game1.0:
- It’s all about you This means that even tough the game might have a multi-player mode it is still a single player game with a multi-player mode so it is about you sitting in a room killing <insert evil enemy here>, solving puzzles and exploring the wonderful world of <insert any place with eye candy here>, it may be fun but it is still about you playing a game ALONE… Games like Half Life, Prey and Doom3, all have multi-player modes but this is not the core selling point of the game.
- Many a form these can be…You get First person shooters which in my mind defines classical Game1.0. Just look at Wolfenstein3d, Doom and Quake all about one player and even one character in the game, saving the world form Nazis, Demons and Aliens, with no help what so ever. Then Strategy games, which is actually a bit of a grey spot, because the game play is actually made for many players, it could be called Game1.5 but not quite Game2.0, the same goes for Real Time Strategy and role playing games which are all probably Game1.5
So what do I mean when I say Game1.0, It is when a game’s primary focus is, the one player playing, there may be some other players and there maybe allot of other players but the focus is still on achieving some goal and wining or loosing be it in a team or free for all.
Game2.0
What do I mean by Game2.0? It shares allot of features of Web2.0 enhance creativity, information sharing and most of all collaboration between users. So a Game2.0 game it is all about the community and interconnectivity, there is no one goal but rather a few sub goals, it is more about collaboration than it is to win and besides there is no real winning or loosing state anyway, more the notion of a sandbox game. A Game2.0, game also exhibits a strong Network Effect, this means that every new “player” who signs up and plays are contributing indirectly to the enjoyment of the other players, what a business model, everyone in the game wants more people to play…
You might have guessed what I am on about, If you have ever played Wow(World of warcraft) or second life or any other MMORPG or on-line community game, you would know what I mean. The WOW business model is also ingenious, you don’t have to worry about DRM, or copy right or some kid in Finland cracking your games inferior CD copy protection system, because you could give away the game for free, and I think Blizzard could actually do this, because you make money from players playing. I see a future where more games will no longer be for sale in a store, but rather free for download, you pay for game-time or items in the game, using real money. This makes the game a service not a product and I love the notion of software as a service! So it would be of no value if you only had the game but, had no one to play with, and you can’t copy millions of real life players, now can you? In a game2.0 it is not about the singularity that is you but about the community in its entirety, you don’t play WOW because of the graphics or the story line, you play it because you can play it with millions of other people from all around the world and because it is ever changing, all this and you get to kick some dragons ass and raid some dungeons, or go clubbing and build a boat with millions of others, while you are “Networking”…
Makes Business Sense
This is where I think most games will be headed in the not so distant future, just because it makes business sense and nothing else. World of Warcraft is already making billions in subscription fees and new people are discovering it everyday and thanks to the network effect all other players will benefit from it. In terms of business, piracy is very bad, its like someone stealing your product out of your shop, and lets be honest you can’t fight it, when a new anti-piracy measure is implemented it only takes awhile for some group to reverse a jump here or nop an operation there and there is a counter measure. But with Game2.0 games, you don’t charge for the product you charge for the service, the ability to play it and how do you make people pay every time, you make the game never ending, you don’t have wining or loosing states, you let the interaction between players and building up of a skill set be the goals and see them coming back for more and have a constant every growing revenue stream!
Disclaimer
This is what I thought of awhile back, if someone else has already coined the term Game2.0, I have a sneaky suspicion someone may have done so, then this is simply my view of what the Game2.0 platform is. This is entirely my own (maybe uninformed) view.
I will be writing a a follow-up on this soon if I can find some Game2.0 references on the web, please post comments if you know of any such resources. I will be focussing more on the business side of it all and how it will impact our lives as gamers in future.
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