Chapter 10. Launch Day


"When we launched UO , we expected some problems. That being said, there was a whole class of issues we did not expect at all and were entirely unprepared for. Think of it this way: Suppose you built a real city from scratch. At first, you build the roads and houses but have no citizens . Then one day, you say, 'Ah, the city is ready. Okay, 100,000 people, come move in!' That is basically what we did when we launched UO.

"In a real city of 100,000 people, there is a huge amount of social and political infrastructure. We had none. Thus, everyone who wanted to complain about things that could be parallels of how often the trash is picked up, or potholes, or school boards , or penalties for laws, or laws themselves , had no formal way to voice their thoughts. Thus, they all complained to the few creators. The creators who number a mere few dozen cannot possibly respond to queries of 100,000 citizens; thus most went unanswered, thus most felt we were ignoring their plights, thus they hated us. In fact, we did hear them, we were working diligently to rectify their issues, but we likewise had no way to respond to them, as they had no way to voice to us their needs.

"It took over one year to evolve a proper community structure. Creators should grow their online communities well before launch."

Richard Garriott

KEY TOPICS

  • Launch Philosophy

  • The Importance of a Technically Stable Launch

  • Who's in Charge on Launch Day?

  • Disaster Control

  • If Disaster Happens

If you aren't scared of launch day, you ought to be.

Of the seven major persistent worlds (PW) launches and several minor ones since 1996, only two have avoided significant levels of tragedy. On the other five, servers crashed, critical bugs abounded, and customer service (CS) was overwhelmed or nonexistent; in other words, they were a mess.

You're probably thinking: "Hey, we planned for this ahead of time; didn't we just go through a test period? We'll be different from those other guys, really." And you may be right; stranger things have happened .

Chances are, though, you aren't as ready as you could be, especially if this is your first time out of the gate. Like real combat, until you've lived the hell, it is impossible to truly comprehend just what is about to happen. A good launch is absolutely critical to your long- term success. Ultimate Online ( UO ) and EverQuest ( EQ ) were able to get away with poor launches because they had first-mover advantage in the marketplace . That luxury is no longer available for games entering the market today. Every player who tries your game and then flies away after a bad launch seems to make it known on one Internet rant site or another these days, which means several other players won't be giving you money, either. The ones who don't bother to post on the Internet are still subject to using traditional word of mouth to spread knowledge of their dissatisfaction to interested parties.



Developing Online Games. An Insiders Guide
Developing Online Games: An Insiders Guide (Nrg-Programming)
ISBN: 1592730000
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 230

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