Planning to Succeed

If a computer without Internet access is like a car with no fuel, a potential blockbuster online game without well-designed support is like a vehicle that only works in reverse. While no one dares to release a game to the public without painstakingly scrutinizing every artistic shot, line of code, and music score, it is amazing how many will open their doors to the masses completely unprepared to support the players. If one-fifth of the planning that went into the art, design, code, and marketing of online games went toward customer service, the woes that face today's games would be drastically reduced. Early on, during the development planning for the game, plan to implement the coding that will save you time, customers, and countless hours in the long run. Case Study 4.3.1 explains how to do this effectively.

Case Study 4.3.1: Planning Customer Service

While every game will require unique coding for their specific plans, gamestyle, and design, a few elements are common across the board.

• Naming: Ability to block offensive names, change names, avoid impostors, and so forth.

• Disruption: Ability to silence, temporarily ban, and permanently ban disruptive players. Players need a way to block unwanted communications from each other, but not warnings from the support staff.

• Exploits: Ability to check logs of player actions for traces of hacking.

• Inventory: Ability to check a player's inventory.

• Gameplay: Ability to find players, reach their locations easily, and move them within the game world.

• Tracking: Ability to add comments to a player's file for easy viewing from within the game.

• Reset: Ability to restore a player character's previous state after a problem.

• Reward: Ability to grant bonuses to players.

• Filtered views: Searchable views by rank, profession, time in game, and other criteria.

• Help system: An easily alterable in-game help file system that can be modified as changes occur.

• Call: A way for players to request customer service assistance, both ingame and otherwise.

• Communication: Secure message boards for player/staff exchanges.

• NPC control: A way to create, resurrect, or remove non-player characters.

• Reporting: Methods for players to report bugs and submit feedback.

• Billing and technical assistance: Access to accounting records and a technical problem resolution database.

Make sure you have these functions tested and ready to work on opening day.