GDC 2008: Outspark!
Their answer? "Play games, have fun, personalize your experience online"
What's not to love?! Read on!Outspark is a publisher and operator of free to play multiplayer games. They focus on enhancing social experiences and game play through micro-transactions (MT), without requiring players to take part in them to be a part of the world and enjoy. The Allakhazam team sat down with some of the folks from Outspark at last month's GDC and I'm eager to show you what we talked about, and where this exciting company is going!
They really made a point of stressing their community interaction and features as part of the Outspark goal and, having played these games just a short while, I can state without a doubt, that they've succeeded. In game events in both Fiesta and Solstice are plentiful, happen often, and engage many players at a time to become part of the world! It's a refreshing change from the big companies who for years promised us they just couldn't do it due to both budgeting concerns and being able to control "the fun factor" for everyone involved! Take for example, their recent "Date a GM" event which ran in February for Fiesta Online. This particular event had hundreds of applicants and while only a few were chosen for the game show feature from which an eventual winner was chosen, entry was not limited to being high level, online and around a certain area in game, as it so often is in other games.
It was great to hear the time focused on their games being a service, not a boxed product that, once you buy you as a consumer, have no other interaction with the company. All too many times MMOers are forced to deal with this type of publisher and developer attitude and companies like Outspark seem to be bringing the service portion of our games back to us.
Outspark currently has three games available for playing, two of which are client downloads, and one being browser based.
Fiesta Online was their first gaming launch. With the shop opening November 1st 2007, it's still in its infancy but has a strong and fun feel. Its familiarity is incredibly comforting for MMOers who started playing back in the days of pen and papers, or even MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons). The four basic class types of fighter, cleric, archer, and mage, fight within the world of Isya. The easy and intuitive class system make it simple for any player to quickly get the hang of thiings but has much that is engaging and strong about the game play and world. Guild PvP, Kingdom Quests, and an extremely helpful player base help to make this game an exciting option for those looking for a colorful world where fighting over mob spawns just doesn't happen.
Secret of the Solstice was their second launch (January 2008), and has the traditional ring of saving the world from trouble as its story. Solstice was compared to a Super Nintendo Entertainment System for its classic look and feel. While that may dismay some folks who are ready for the gritty real world graphics so many seem to rave about these days, it's also a nice comforting place where I know many players once took not only great satisfaction in playing, but also took great memories from. Here there are 6 main character types as well, which you choose as you level.
Bread 'n Butter is their newest game, and is a browser based click fest that manages to be fun, and incredibly challenging in a very strangely attention grabbing story. Here you build your bakery with mini-games that further your goals, and if you figure out how to make the volcano bread making game work, please let me know! The games combine the fun and quick gaming values that "casual" games across the web hold, while allowing you to keep your MMO persistence in your daily gaming.
Senior Product Manager of Downloadable Games, Daniel Chang, took us through an overview of where Outspark was going with Fiesta and Solstice. Daniel has an incredible and impressive history in games, and his vision and ideas for success were based on making sure the players got what they wanted! He knows that content and store items is what brings people in, and what makes them stick around.
When asked about the types of localization challenges the teams faced with their games a round of laughter and pain passed through the Outspark members. Localization is the process of changing games to fit the geographic, cultural, and language differences of where the game is being developed and where a publisher is trying to launch it.
Fiesta's challenge in this process was the pure amount of work needed in order to get it right. Since it was originally Korean developed and serviced there were not only language translation issues, but also the headaches of making sure that the translations actually fit the game. As anyone who's ever translated anything knows, a straight across broad translation oftentimes just doesn't cut it, and the team spent countless hours, and went through many, many excel spreadsheets of data trying to complete the process. Looking at the game now though, I stand by my original take on Fiesta's approach here. It rocks. I've never seen a team put out such an amazingly well translated game, and it shows in that this is the only Korean developed and US published game I play! I can read and understand it without having to think twice about what idea or thought they were trying to express. Harsh? Yes! But it's the truth! MMO experiences are lost on players if they can't be expressed clearly, quickly, and well. Outspark gets that. That Outspark CEO Susan Choe spent time translating the files, and was demanding of their perfection speaks to the commitment that has been shown. Enough drooling over how impressed I was with this, and onward we go!
Outspark is obviously looking to expand their game library, and we asked what they look for in games that they are considering publishing. Truly, with the time and money required to localize, launch and support these games, how do they pick the most likely success? They have a panel of play testers and rigorous standards that must be met for games they're considering. Also important for them to consider are the technical aspects of integrating their launching and authentication processes as well as hardware requirements on the player's end. And of course, not least when choosing a game: it has to be fun! Easy to get into and fun to play while being easy to understand and intuitive for their market makes choosing games incredibly difficult. Add into the equation what a failed launch and unsuccessful game could drain from their core business processes and I begin to feel the incredible stress these poor people go through! I'm glad I get to just play and have fun.
Audience targeting is also heavily considered in the process of choosing developers and games to work on with their main audience being 13-20 and the usual, traditional heavily male group. While this isn't my age group, they noted that many of their gamers are indeed from another bracket; they're also focusing more on a female market with current and new games being considered. Building their community to extend through all age groups and demographics is obviously the goal, and choosing games that will fit everything just isn't possible. So instead, they're focusing on building a library of games which will extend through all markets and hopefully bring people to try something different, within the same brand.
Something I always bring up when talking about F2P (free to play) games is the disgusting "casual" label, and it was great to see their approach to this type of player! Noticing that many of their players weren't in a rush to get to the highest level, they've focused on creating social experiences to keep their players happy, and around. It's also affected how they utilize their shops to help monetize the game. The lower level characters oftentimes spend more money on vanity items and enjoy showing off and hanging out. As players level their purchases tend to be directed more at items that can assist with game play and PvP. Obviously it's a gross generalization but more often than not, it's true. The casual, social aspect of the game has opened up doors such as their new beauty shop coupon which allows players to change their appearances.
Creating a play environment which is safe and playable for all players, regardless of age, is something they're committed to. Helping Outspark in this goal is the fact that their staff is made up of Americans who both live and work in the market to which they're providing this service. The unique challenges that must be undertaken to assure that all laws and operating procedures are easier when your entire staff is on the same page. That Outspark takes understanding their market and supplying a well defined and directed service across all areas of operation is something that truly warms my heart. All too often we see games being published in other countries without any sort of localization, poor or understaffed customer service teams, and little to no translation, and it shows! These games are not like that.
The challenges of a younger crowd can be quite overwhelming for a customer service team. Trying to explain to a 14 year old that they shouldn't have shared their password with their bf and there's nothing to be done now that all their items are gone is something that should never be constrained by language barriers or poorly explained Terms of Service (ToS). On the other hand, anyone who's played MMOs for many years will find true joy in logging in and seeing a GM right in front of them, interacting with the players and the world. So while customer support can never take a back seat, it can often be as simple as being visible to your players.
Payment options is always a concern for F2P games since their market does tend to be too young for credit cards, and sometimes explaining to mom and dad that you're playing a harmless game with it can be hard enough without having to explain the security that online shopping now provides, especially as mainstream media outlets barrage unknowing folks into thinking that the internet will eat souls, among other things. Billing right now is offered with Paypal, Pay by Cash, and click to buy (credit card), though other options are being looked into. They're looking into game cards, as well as telephone billing, but these options will not appear in the immediate future.
When asked if players could go from starting the game out to end game without purchasing an item "It just takes more time actually" was the response, and when discussing the advantage over purchasing or playing the game for free forever, the answer was really time. If you have the time to grind it all out, that's super! If you don't, but want to keep up with your friends, or level up more quickly, that option is available to you as well. Requiring the player to purchase items to advance, however, is not the goal of their transaction model, and is not something that they're looking to force upon players. When asked if participating in guild PvP required purchasing items simply to stay competitive the answer was no, mostly.
Since no premium weapons are available for purchase at this time, the only real assistance you'd get with item purchasing would be potions. While the guild system is fairly well advanced, creating a warring (PvP) capable guild isn't a requirement, but if you do find yourself creating or joining one, the level of competitiveness can be compared to any other high level end game in other MMOs.
Since monetization only takes place from the sales of items, one of the most difficult challenges the team faces is educating players as to what type of items are available, their cost, how they work, and trying to find out what players want, to better capitalize on folks who would buy something, were it available to them. As with any F2P MMO, your success comes from the items you're able to sell. These games are not free to operate, and in the end can end up costing more than most folks realize. Since only 10% of F2P MMO players end up being item purchasers, if even one additional player becomes aware of what is offered and turns that into a sale, the percentage of income is greatly increased. Forum fights over whether players are willing to buy items tend to be amusing, and highly charged, since money is involved.
The only real instances that you'll see in these games are Kingdom Quests, and they've recently increased the amount of instances that are available for players to participate in. The developer of Fiesta was originally unwilling to increase the instances available since they were supposed to be highly sought after and difficult to obtain. After much convincing however, they made more available for mid and higher levels. We were unable to see the Kingdom Quests during our interview since we talked right over the starting time of the available instances.
More soloing opportunities are being worked on with the developers, since Outspark realizes that their market wants more of it, even if Korean gamers overall would be loathe to see more in their version. The challenge comes from creating the right amount of soloing while still giving groups great experience, loot, and fights. What's the line between making the single play experience as much fun and as rewarding as group play, while still rewarding each appropriately? Thankfully, I'm not the one who has to figure that one out!
While Outspark owns the license to operate in North America for all three games and while they'll take anyone who isn't associated with an IP in an area that has another publisher of their particular game, they can't guarantee that licensing in the future will allow this. This is a scary step towards centralizing MMO games and keeping international guilds and friends from playing with each other, should multiple companies own the operating license in different areas.
It warms my heart to tell you that a 64 bit operating system version is being worked on, but they can't be specific as to when it will be attended to. Patch day issues will be a thing of the past for those of us who deal with this incredibly frustrating headache! Hooray! Of course, on the other hand, reverse mouse look apparently isn't really being looked at since it isn’t requested very often.
World PvP made its way into Fiesta a few weeks ago via PvP zones. PvP world zones are level 1-30 and then 1-79.
One of the things with Fiesta Online that I must mention before coming to a close is my great delight with their starting areas. Launch area never lacks for players, mob spawns, or drops. I've never seen a starting area so packed as any other MMO on launch day, or when a new server is rolled out on an existing MMO. To make things even better, there was no fighting for mob spawns! Mobs spawn everywhere, are quickly dropped, looted, and before you can finish looting the next player is off hitting their own spawn. It's nothing short of miraculous to have such a thriving newbie area, even after five months after launch.
It was great to talk to these folks, and I can't thank them enough for their time and enthusiasm in both the interview, and in their games. I'll see you all in Isya....as soon as the 64 bit operating system functionality is put in!
Andrew "Tamat" BeegleEditorial Staff Writer