Feature: Acclaim's David Perry Talks Foray Into Free-To-Play, UGC
As part of an in-depth new interview posted on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra today, Acclaim CCO and Shiny veteran David Perry (Earthworm Jim) discussed the free-to-play PC MMO-based titles that Perry is helping to bring to market through the revitalized Acclaim.
When asked how consumer habits are being changed by the 'free to play' model, the designer explained:
"You know the company Netflix? Well, what happened? They came along with a disruptive model. I was used to buying DVDs and I had racks full of DVDs until Netflix came along and now I have that I want, whenever I want, for a low subscription fee. It's killing Blockbuster.It's just disruption. I'm actually of the opinion that with all media, the concept of ownership is going to go away. Owning a film isn't going to matter anymore.
I have a three year-old daughter, and when she's grown up, when you think about the connection speeds and networks, she's just going to think about wanting to watch a film, any film, and it's going to be on her television. That's just how the world is going to be.
Music is going to be the same. People are already working on it. I can't possibly imagine what is going to make games not work the same way, even with the huge amount of data that is required.
The days of waiting for the distributor to deliver the games to the store and then waiting for the doors to open are numbered. You'll have a game within an hour of its release."
He also talked about "Project Top Secret," an Acclaim-affiliated project to get the public to help build their own MMO. He says he was energized by checking out Nexon's Audition in Korea:
"I was interested in Audition because it was one of the real breakout titles in Korea. And they did a licensing deal with a company in China and the game was unbelievably successful there too. So it's really interesting to find out why and when you start to analyze a game like that, you see some really crazy game ideas, like the 'punishment move' that I discussed as an example of a way they try and break the ice for people and make them chat more. It's kind of similar to what Jonathan Blow was talking about.I go over there and I like, look over their shoulder and I analyze it and think, 'Would that work in the U.S.? Would people get that?" Some of the stuff is just pure craziness, but some of them are actually damn good game play ideas. I think, 'That's an interesting hook! I haven't seen anyone do that in the U.S.'"
In that vein, Perry discussed how Acclaim's 2Moons is being monetized in the U.S -- including a few problems with advertising:
"It's all through item sales. We are going to add some in game advertising, optional advertising that people can turn off. We did put it in earlier but turning it on slowed down the game.People were turning it off not because of the advertising but because it was slowing down the game. And we like to know why people turn off the advertising, so we can understand where we can go with it. If 95% turn it off when we put it in and it doesn't affect the game in any way, we'll know there's no future in in-game advertising for us."
Finally, Perry also recognized the significance of the UGC trend:
"I'm going to do a lot of that, and some of my future games are going to be all about that. And hey, the Top Secret project is that on steroids, right? Thousands of people making a game -– managed by users, designed by users, made by users, voted on by users and then will be played by users when it's done. We're learning so much from that. It's controlled chaos: like herding cats. It's fascinating to see what works, what doesn't work."
You can now read the full Gamasutra interview with Perry, also discussing his many projects such as consulting on The Simpsons Game, as well as his thoughts on the Asian MMO market and his attempts to bring those titles to the West.
