Yeah, everyone thinks is really easy to do and the real developers are just idiots. Problem is that all these failed mmorpgs started with someone who had an idea and a means to make it happen, enough so that they secured funding, something no one on this site can do, even with their narcissistic infallible cocktail of great ideas. Look at the 7 pages of ideas here.. "I would take this game and that game and this thing from that game" the same train of though that gets us the same old shit over and over again. In all honesty I would take that 100 mil, make a full loot sandbox that wasn't an underfunded and under developed product...something that hasn't really been done since UO/AC...but I know it would never recoop that 100 mil. But yeah this site has hordes of armchair developers with all the right ideas and everything with making a game is easy and simple..
Lets put it this way. Few people have any original ideas. Copying a bunch of ideas that have already been done a millions is doomed to fail when the market is over saturated. What is needed are ideas that are completely new and never been done before.
That being said there probably is room for UO/AC style sandbox MMO. If it was done right it would certainly recoup that 100 million. Profitable on a $100 million means 300-400k initial sales and holding those subs for 2 to 3 years. Again it just couldn't be a rehash of UO/AC. New ideas that have never been done before would be needed.
Originally posted by DamonVile I'd spend a couple of grand making an awesome website with some cool trailers and then spend $25 making some crappy f2p game with no content and buggy as shit. I'd call it neverwinter and then keep the rest.
LOL
If you really wanted to make a ton of money you first have to add World in the title of the game, that seems to work for a ton of games lately. Also, you want it to have it easily simplified to type with 3 letters or less. WoW, AoW, ESO, WoT, EQ, EQ2, EQN, SWG.
If a game can't follow the 3 letters or less rule it fails! See: Tabula Rasa, Archlord, SWTOR (5 letters W-T-F were they thinking), this means DOOM! for wildstar and archage obviously.
I would also pay some guy with a fancy name to say he has something to do with my game. I'd make up some fake game that no one has ever heard of, say something like "The genius mind who brought you ... The Ultimate Carrot... Claude Von Powerfist is proud to bring you..."
I'd say my game was a mix of sandbox and themepark... since everyone is soooo tired of themeparks and loves sandboxes... until people play sandboxes and then complain... and then go back and play themeparks and then complain about lack of choice... I'd call my game a beach. THERES A TON OF SAND TO MOLD WITH THE WATER WE PROVIDE~~~ NO 1980's MOVIE THEME BULLIES TO KNOCK DOWN YOUR CASTLE BRO WE HAVE SAFE ZONES.
I'd also put dragons and sexy kitten women in my game, those always sell.
I would spend $5 million on advertising on every damn site I could get my hands on. I would spend $5 million on creating 3 30 second cgi trailers that would bring tears to your eyes the way they flowed when (spoiler alert) bambis' mom died.
Finally I would announce: "The genius mind who brought you ... The Ultimate Carrot... Claude Von Powerfist is proud to bring you... World of Everstar" WoE... Easily pronounced (keanu voice) Woah..
The gameplay, crafting, pvp? No those don't matter when creating a profitable game silly.
Just to be a troll, the fact someone has 100 million to fund a MMORPG almost guarantees that it is a AAA game. Typically the term AAA is due to the insane amount of funding, high quality graphics, and large amount of content. It doesn't signify success, quality, or gameplay.
So pretty much anyone who spent the 100 million (or a fraction of that) on the actual game itself, could produce a AAA mmo, no matter how crappy it ended up. Given the fact AAA simply means lots of money spent for high quality assets.
Just a curious thought.We constantly discuss mmo's and what we want or expect from them.We have some pretty good idea's.
So if you were given $100 million buck's to put out a AAA mmo,what would your creation be?On top of that,what makes you believe it would sell?
Cmon peeps.don't hold back,let's see those idea's.
With $100 million i could help produce 10 AAA mmorpgs.. and this is from knowing the basics around MMORPG development, so basic costs of software and hiring people, building costs and so on.
I guess it all depends what you mean by AAA as well.. now if you want 100% voice acting from famous people sure its going to cost you quite a bit... also the speed that you want to develop and release the game. if you want it done fast your going to need to hire a lot more people so costs will rocket..
Sure what you are saying is correct. But you are missing the point of this whole thread.
Curt was a guy just like everybody else here, posting their "ideas". The only difference is he actually had access to the 100 million. But what he didn't have, was any clue how to make an actual game. And neither do any of the posters here, including yourself I am sorry to say. Hell ,even the people trained to do it are having a hard time these days! Oh and what he came up with after all of his ideas was just another generic high fantasy MMO by all accounts.
So sorry, while you may be correct in saying they made mistakes, you are not making any relevant comment on the actual topic of this thread.
In any business venture "someone" has to have good sense, common sense and business sense.
The problem with your assertion is you think the people in this thread are... what? Idiot gamers? basement dwelling bottom feeding morons? People who only play video games and do not much else? People without any business experience or any degrees?
Well, sure those people exist but not everyone fits that general description.
the question is "if given 100 million dollars" could you produce a AAA game and what would it be. That's pretty much it.
And I can confidently say "yes". Not because I"m a game developer. But because I can work the business side of things per my day job. And I gather there are several people in this thread who could also do it. And part of that is also knowing when to step aside when the business grows and get actual the appropriate people in place (unless of course you have that experience).
That would entail hiring the appropriate people at the appropriate time who actually have expertise in relevant positions. I've worked for several startups and guess what? The people who started those businesses didn't know everything about their business. But they didn't have to. They hired the appropriate people, made the business a success and (like many startups) sold them to giant corporations for a lot of cash. In some cases they grew the business to a certain place and then altered their involvement and hired people with more experience to take it to the next level.
If you gave most people (myself included) $100 milllion dollars and said "you and only you make a AAA game" then I could see issues.
but There are people who work in business who have experience in business and those smart people know that in order to be successful you have to put the right people in the right chairs to make it work.
does that mean the game will be successful? Well, per your post there are no guarantees. But that's why you do your research first, see what's out there, see who is buying what, what those games are generating. If you were to make a $100 million ffa pvp game with permadeath that money might not be well spent. Or at least you would have to be prepared for an appropriate level of interest which might not be enough to sustain the game.
I don't care if Curt had the money or not, I already see the mistakes that were made. I seriously doubt that he stepped aside and had a proper CFO who he answered to when it came to the money side.
So give people a little credit, some of us actually have jobs and actually work in business and know how businesses should run. And know when those businesses would benefit from real experienced leaders.
As far as my "fantasy company" I could easily get the business started, get the "first few" appropriate people in place, set up the payroll and H.R., take care of the commercial real estate (when the time came for that) all this would be done by hiring a startup incubator and then making the appropriate transissions when the time came.
Part of starting a business is also knowing when to hand over certain responsibilities to better qualified people.
What would my creation be? Whatever would give me a return.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
With that kind of money you could research time travel. .go back in time kidnap Tolkien and force him to create a brand new fantasy universe for you LOL.. and then still have money left over to make a AAA mmorpg..
With that kind of money you could research time travel. .go back in time kidnap Tolkien and force him to create a brand new fantasy universe for you LOL.. and then still have money left over to make a AAA mmorpg..
Not really. "Just" the Large Hadron Collider costs billions. A time machine is going to be much more expensive.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon. In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
100millions of dollars mmo mean that it have to sell atleast 500.000 boxes at 50 dollars otherwise the investitors will eat your heart. is more problematic to gather such amount of players that make the game itself really
100 million isn't nearly enough. For what my vision of a truly great MMO requires I would need at a minimum of 500m with a preferred 1 billion to work with. In addition to several technological advancements. With the caveat of no potential return on investment. Also with the potential of creating a Skynet like AI.
100% yes! I would need the money cash, preferably in small unmarked bills. I'll also need a plane ticket to Brazil and several passports under different names...
BTW, excellent post Sovrath. Very well said.
A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true...
I think it is IMPOSSIBLE to make a game today, no matter how much money you have, that could make both "casual" and "hardcore" fans happy. Could I make a great game....yup, will it appeal to everyone....nope.
I reckon I would need $300 million... the same as the budget for 'The Green Lantern' movie.
I have had ideas for over 300 MMO's and have some wonderful ideas for games -- they just flow from me -- needing an outlet.
I have many many ideas, which stray away from the usual MMO of today because I think we need some revolutionary ideas in gaming to take us into the next century and millenium. The current crop of ideas are just not good enough.
I'm a big-gamist and I think it would take at least a $1 trillion to make a really good MMO, complete with its own city to make the game... a whole city deigned to make one game. I have a design for the city and for the MMO.
We need to think really big if we are going to have a good future of gaming and I think MMO's are the future for humanity and the rest of the universe.
Think of it! we could play MMO's against aliens and whatever other life is out there.
Yeah, I'd like to think I could do it, but while I've delivered a lot of software in my day, none of it has been game related and experience really does matter.
So unless I was able to hire the right team my ideas would probably never see the light of day, and even then I'm likely to find out the things I'd like done are either impossible, impractical, or would take another 200M to implement.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
For $100 million, I could probably deliver a super quality game. I've even got about 1/3 of the game systems designed and ready to implement. I had a functional business plan and project plans ready that could be reused. And I've enough expertise to attempt to lead such an effort, even without direct gaming experience.
But, I'd probably just give myself a massive raise and take an early lunch until the money was gone.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
nah .. i am a consumer, not a developer. I am not trained for it, and i wouldn't mistake having some opinions on gameplay as expertise in actually producing a product.
With $100M, nearly anyone could produce a AAA MMORPG. That doesn't mean the MMORPG would be any good. It certainly doesn't mean the MMORPG would make any money.
Personally though, I don't think I'd sink that much money into an MMORPG. A multi player game with player run servers would probably be the target I'd shoot for. Then I'd save the other $80M for something else.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I could definitely make a great AAA product with $100 million. I know plenty of talented people in varying disciplines that I could recruit for my project and not having to answer to investors or publishers would be a great boon. But honestly if I had $100 million I wouldn't use it to make a single great AAA game for everyone; this puts too much limitations on the game design. Instead I'd make 2-3 quality niche MMO's. You can do a lot more to advance this genre forward by experimenting with game designs that cater to niche audiences than by targeting the mass market.
Everyone is obsessed with making the next WoW (in terms of success I mean). These kinds of games do nothing to progress the genre. Even WoW at release did very little to innovate the genre and the things it DID do well it had to mess them up in attempts to capture even more of the market. Furthermore, just the success it DID achieve put this genre into a coma for nearly a decade. If you want to make a game with new game designs that can breathe new air into the MMORPG genre it needs to be somewhat cheaper and require less subscribers to be profitable. This doesn't mean it can't look and play well, $30-40 million is plenty of money to do that. It just might not be as massive or broad in scope as a AAA MMO (which would be fine because a successful game can grow). You need to be able to take risks.
I would tell you one thing for sure though, I definitely would not make it F2P. Sure cash shops can be successful and it can attract more players, but I find the notion of cash shops to be immersion breaking and I want to make immersive quality products. I would have to crunch the numbers but I would probably be doing like a full box price B2P model like GW2 or lower priced box+ subscription or something like that. I would have to market test and find the right price for my products and sell it for that. Microtransactions would definitely not be a part of my games though. I'd rather charge less than current MMO's do (if it can still be profitable) than make it microtransaction.
Comments
I have some good ideas here and there but I don't think I could produce a AAA mmo. I would love to be a consultant though.
But the reality is there are lots of people with good ideas.
Lets put it this way. Few people have any original ideas. Copying a bunch of ideas that have already been done a millions is doomed to fail when the market is over saturated. What is needed are ideas that are completely new and never been done before.
That being said there probably is room for UO/AC style sandbox MMO. If it was done right it would certainly recoup that 100 million. Profitable on a $100 million means 300-400k initial sales and holding those subs for 2 to 3 years. Again it just couldn't be a rehash of UO/AC. New ideas that have never been done before would be needed.
LOL
If you really wanted to make a ton of money you first have to add World in the title of the game, that seems to work for a ton of games lately. Also, you want it to have it easily simplified to type with 3 letters or less. WoW, AoW, ESO, WoT, EQ, EQ2, EQN, SWG.
If a game can't follow the 3 letters or less rule it fails! See: Tabula Rasa, Archlord, SWTOR (5 letters W-T-F were they thinking), this means DOOM! for wildstar and archage obviously.
I would also pay some guy with a fancy name to say he has something to do with my game. I'd make up some fake game that no one has ever heard of, say something like "The genius mind who brought you ... The Ultimate Carrot... Claude Von Powerfist is proud to bring you..."
I'd say my game was a mix of sandbox and themepark... since everyone is soooo tired of themeparks and loves sandboxes... until people play sandboxes and then complain... and then go back and play themeparks and then complain about lack of choice... I'd call my game a beach. THERES A TON OF SAND TO MOLD WITH THE WATER WE PROVIDE~~~ NO 1980's MOVIE THEME BULLIES TO KNOCK DOWN YOUR CASTLE BRO WE HAVE SAFE ZONES.
I'd also put dragons and sexy kitten women in my game, those always sell.
I would spend $5 million on advertising on every damn site I could get my hands on. I would spend $5 million on creating 3 30 second cgi trailers that would bring tears to your eyes the way they flowed when (spoiler alert) bambis' mom died.
Finally I would announce: "The genius mind who brought you ... The Ultimate Carrot... Claude Von Powerfist is proud to bring you... World of Everstar" WoE... Easily pronounced (keanu voice) Woah..
The gameplay, crafting, pvp? No those don't matter when creating a profitable game silly.
Play for fun. Play to win. Play for perfection. Play with friends. Play in another world. Why do you play?
Easily.
Just to be a troll, the fact someone has 100 million to fund a MMORPG almost guarantees that it is a AAA game. Typically the term AAA is due to the insane amount of funding, high quality graphics, and large amount of content. It doesn't signify success, quality, or gameplay.
So pretty much anyone who spent the 100 million (or a fraction of that) on the actual game itself, could produce a AAA mmo, no matter how crappy it ended up. Given the fact AAA simply means lots of money spent for high quality assets.
And its not EA that deserves the IP either....
Nope, i would not post misinformation, but I would advertise (to make peoole know it exist).
I would basically say the game is like this and I will not change this stuff on the future. Play if you want.
I want they really know the game is really like that and get angry because someone is making a game like this
also added a new feature
13-IF your heath bar increase by just resting, it will be increase at a realistic rate
With $100 million i could help produce 10 AAA mmorpgs.. and this is from knowing the basics around MMORPG development, so basic costs of software and hiring people, building costs and so on.
I guess it all depends what you mean by AAA as well.. now if you want 100% voice acting from famous people sure its going to cost you quite a bit... also the speed that you want to develop and release the game. if you want it done fast your going to need to hire a lot more people so costs will rocket..
In any business venture "someone" has to have good sense, common sense and business sense.
The problem with your assertion is you think the people in this thread are... what? Idiot gamers? basement dwelling bottom feeding morons? People who only play video games and do not much else? People without any business experience or any degrees?
Well, sure those people exist but not everyone fits that general description.
the question is "if given 100 million dollars" could you produce a AAA game and what would it be. That's pretty much it.
And I can confidently say "yes". Not because I"m a game developer. But because I can work the business side of things per my day job. And I gather there are several people in this thread who could also do it. And part of that is also knowing when to step aside when the business grows and get actual the appropriate people in place (unless of course you have that experience).
That would entail hiring the appropriate people at the appropriate time who actually have expertise in relevant positions. I've worked for several startups and guess what? The people who started those businesses didn't know everything about their business. But they didn't have to. They hired the appropriate people, made the business a success and (like many startups) sold them to giant corporations for a lot of cash. In some cases they grew the business to a certain place and then altered their involvement and hired people with more experience to take it to the next level.
If you gave most people (myself included) $100 milllion dollars and said "you and only you make a AAA game" then I could see issues.
but There are people who work in business who have experience in business and those smart people know that in order to be successful you have to put the right people in the right chairs to make it work.
does that mean the game will be successful? Well, per your post there are no guarantees. But that's why you do your research first, see what's out there, see who is buying what, what those games are generating. If you were to make a $100 million ffa pvp game with permadeath that money might not be well spent. Or at least you would have to be prepared for an appropriate level of interest which might not be enough to sustain the game.
I don't care if Curt had the money or not, I already see the mistakes that were made. I seriously doubt that he stepped aside and had a proper CFO who he answered to when it came to the money side.
So give people a little credit, some of us actually have jobs and actually work in business and know how businesses should run. And know when those businesses would benefit from real experienced leaders.
As far as my "fantasy company" I could easily get the business started, get the "first few" appropriate people in place, set up the payroll and H.R., take care of the commercial real estate (when the time came for that) all this would be done by hiring a startup incubator and then making the appropriate transissions when the time came.
Part of starting a business is also knowing when to hand over certain responsibilities to better qualified people.
What would my creation be? Whatever would give me a return.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
With that kind of money you could research time travel. .go back in time kidnap Tolkien and force him to create a brand new fantasy universe for you LOL.. and then still have money left over to make a AAA mmorpg..
If given $100 million,you think you could produce a AAA mmo? [/quote]
Easily, and have money left over for bonuses
Looking for a family that you can game with for life? Check out Grievance at https://www.grievancegaming.org !
Not really. "Just" the Large Hadron Collider costs billions. A time machine is going to be much more expensive.
100M cannot even fund a AAA movie.
Brilliant post, Sovrath! Kudos.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_221/6582-Why-Your-Game-Idea-Sucks
Ideas are worthless. The only currency that holds any weight is the ability and drive to execute. -Mike Birkhead (see link, below)
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/128569/Opinion_No_One_Cares_About_Your_Cool_Game_Idea.php
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
100millions of dollars mmo mean that it have to sell atleast 500.000 boxes at 50 dollars otherwise the investitors will eat your heart.
is more problematic to gather such amount of players that make the game itself really
100 million isn't nearly enough. For what my vision of a truly great MMO requires I would need at a minimum of 500m with a preferred 1 billion to work with. In addition to several technological advancements. With the caveat of no potential return on investment. Also with the potential of creating a Skynet like AI.
100% yes! I would need the money cash, preferably in small unmarked bills. I'll also need a plane ticket to Brazil and several passports under different names...
BTW, excellent post Sovrath. Very well said.
A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true...
AAA MMO?
That's a loaded question. Who is the target demo?
I think it is IMPOSSIBLE to make a game today, no matter how much money you have, that could make both "casual" and "hardcore" fans happy. Could I make a great game....yup, will it appeal to everyone....nope.
I reckon I would need $300 million... the same as the budget for 'The Green Lantern' movie.
I have had ideas for over 300 MMO's and have some wonderful ideas for games -- they just flow from me -- needing an outlet.
I have many many ideas, which stray away from the usual MMO of today because I think we need some revolutionary ideas in gaming to take us into the next century and millenium. The current crop of ideas are just not good enough.
I have the vision, I just need the money.
I'm a big-gamist and I think it would take at least a $1 trillion to make a really good MMO, complete with its own city to make the game... a whole city deigned to make one game. I have a design for the city and for the MMO.
We need to think really big if we are going to have a good future of gaming and I think MMO's are the future for humanity and the rest of the universe.
Think of it! we could play MMO's against aliens and whatever other life is out there.
Ponder...
Yeah, I'd like to think I could do it, but while I've delivered a lot of software in my day, none of it has been game related and experience really does matter.
So unless I was able to hire the right team my ideas would probably never see the light of day, and even then I'm likely to find out the things I'd like done are either impossible, impractical, or would take another 200M to implement.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
For $100 million, I could probably deliver a super quality game. I've even got about 1/3 of the game systems designed and ready to implement. I had a functional business plan and project plans ready that could be reused. And I've enough expertise to attempt to lead such an effort, even without direct gaming experience.
But, I'd probably just give myself a massive raise and take an early lunch until the money was gone.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
nah .. i am a consumer, not a developer. I am not trained for it, and i wouldn't mistake having some opinions on gameplay as expertise in actually producing a product.
With $100M, nearly anyone could produce a AAA MMORPG. That doesn't mean the MMORPG would be any good. It certainly doesn't mean the MMORPG would make any money.
Personally though, I don't think I'd sink that much money into an MMORPG. A multi player game with player run servers would probably be the target I'd shoot for. Then I'd save the other $80M for something else.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I could definitely make a great AAA product with $100 million. I know plenty of talented people in varying disciplines that I could recruit for my project and not having to answer to investors or publishers would be a great boon. But honestly if I had $100 million I wouldn't use it to make a single great AAA game for everyone; this puts too much limitations on the game design. Instead I'd make 2-3 quality niche MMO's. You can do a lot more to advance this genre forward by experimenting with game designs that cater to niche audiences than by targeting the mass market.
Everyone is obsessed with making the next WoW (in terms of success I mean). These kinds of games do nothing to progress the genre. Even WoW at release did very little to innovate the genre and the things it DID do well it had to mess them up in attempts to capture even more of the market. Furthermore, just the success it DID achieve put this genre into a coma for nearly a decade. If you want to make a game with new game designs that can breathe new air into the MMORPG genre it needs to be somewhat cheaper and require less subscribers to be profitable. This doesn't mean it can't look and play well, $30-40 million is plenty of money to do that. It just might not be as massive or broad in scope as a AAA MMO (which would be fine because a successful game can grow). You need to be able to take risks.
I would tell you one thing for sure though, I definitely would not make it F2P. Sure cash shops can be successful and it can attract more players, but I find the notion of cash shops to be immersion breaking and I want to make immersive quality products. I would have to crunch the numbers but I would probably be doing like a full box price B2P model like GW2 or lower priced box+ subscription or something like that. I would have to market test and find the right price for my products and sell it for that. Microtransactions would definitely not be a part of my games though. I'd rather charge less than current MMO's do (if it can still be profitable) than make it microtransaction.