Small VW operators vs. large

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5 December 2004

(Revised 8/12/04)

by Mike Rozak

Seeing as I'm thinking about running a small virtual world, I have spent many hours figuring out areas where small virtual world providers (with 10K users) have an advantage over large virtual world providers (with 1M users), and vice versa.

Obvious tradeoffs

According to my definition, small VW providers will have about 10K users and large VW providers will have around 1M users. That means large VW providers have approximately 100x as many users as small VW providers; since small VW providers won't be able to charge much more than large VW providers, that also means large VW providers have 100x the resources to invest in the world.

Despite their small budgets, small VWs need to produce entertainment at a "quality" that's on-par with large VWs. Luckily, "quality" is subjective, and depends upon the user's perspective. Some people think great graphics are a very important part of quality, while others do not. Some players may rank customer support higher. Etc.

This 100-fold difference in resources forces small VWs to make the following design concessions:

• Lower quality graphics, animation, and sound - Graphics (and other audio-visual effects) are very expensive, and the largest development expense for a large VW. Small VWs cannot afford high quality graphics, so they must target the subset of population that accepts inferior eye candy in exchange for a more targeted experience; after all, books still sell, despite the advent of movies and TV.
  
  To given an example of the cost of graphics: A text adventure is approximately 1/50th the cost of developing a graphical adventure. I'm not saying that small VWs will limit themselves to text, just that they'll use text (or synthesised speech) as much as possible.
  
  
• Downloadable content - Lower quality graphics, animation, and sound reduces the size of the client-side database, and allows the entire product to be downloaded. Small VWs will all take advantage of this, since large VWs are too large for most people to download.
  
  Besides, there's very little chance that small VWs will get the retail shelf space; if they want to distribute their product, they must make it downloadable.  Once a player has paid, a small VW could mail a DVD with better textures and sounds to players.
  
  
• Niche market - Small VWs will target niche markets, including role players, people that like in-depth back story, intellectuals, special-interest groups, and those wanting unique worlds, puzzles, historical virtual worlds, etc. Niche-market players won't be catered to by the large VWs, so they have no choice but to accept lower quality graphics.

Other cost-cutting techniques

Small VWs have to cut costs as much as possible. Here's how:

• Lower quality graphics, animation, and sound - As mentioned above.
  
  
• Algorithmic content - Larger VWs will favour hand-created content (like quests) since the costs will be spread over 1M players. A small VW has to spread its costs over 10K players, and while quests are cheaper to make for small VWs, they're not 1/100th the cost. The only alternatives for a small VW are (a) to have fewer quests, and (b) produce algorithmic quests and content. Many small VWs will have fewer quests, but I also expect many to use algorithmic content even though it's not as "good" as hand-created content. Algorithmic content, however, can customise itself to the player, and allow for worlds that can be changed by players. Large worlds with hand-created content will either be static or only change based upon the larger population.
  
  I'm not certain about algorithmic content, though. One major reason to use algorithmic content is to produce a never-ending game that is low on substance. This almost sounds like a mass-market application instead of a niche market; kind of like a life-time's supply of McDonalds' value meals.
  
  
• Small world - Large VW projects will be able to produce enormous worlds with lots of content. Small VW projects will have much smaller worlds with less content.
  
  However, if the world is smaller and takes less time to "complete", will players stay as long? If they don't stay as long as in large VWs then monthly payments won't work. Similarly, monthly payments fail if players routinely visiting several virtual worlds every week instead of spending all their time in one virtual world, as current players do.
  
  
• User created content - A definite cost savings for the developer, and the act of construction is entertaining for some of the players.
  
  
• Speech synthesis - A synthesised voice is cheaper than getting thousands of actors in to record voices for all the NPCs.
  
  
• Non-photorealistic images - Not only are non-photorealistic images cheaper to create, but their stylisation attracts a niche market.
  
  
• The "short" form - 10-minute long movies, often made by small teams, are called "shorts". A "short" VW with high-quality eye candy could also be produced by a small team.
  
  
• Custom worlds - Licensing a world like Middle Earth or Star Trek is very expensive. Small virtual worlds won't have the funds and will be forced to create their own worlds, or use a niche-novelists' worlds.

Ramifications of lower quality graphics, animations, and sound

Once a VW decides to use lower quality eye candy, there are some ramifications:

• Produce a world with more varied scenery - To use an extreme example: Changing a setting from a lush forest to subterranean cavern is just a matter of changing a few words if you have a text-based VW. In a fully graphical world, it's much more work. Despite the 100-fold increase in budget, graphical worlds have to re-use a lot of 3D models, which means that most buildings, trees, and other objects are repeated hundreds of times in a large VW.
  
  
• Non-linear - Text-based worlds can be constructed from a nodal space, as opposed to a linear space that's required by large VWs using 3D modelling and animation. Nodal spaces allow for some world aspects that can't be duplicated using linear space.
  
  
• Small cut scenes and stories - A lack of graphics makes it cheaper for small virtual worlds to include cut scenes and linear narratives than 3D animated virtual worlds.

Ramifications of a niche market

A niche market allows a small virtual world to incorporate:

• More complex user interface - Large VWs must target the mass market, and therefore must design a simple user interface targeted at a 6th grade UI level (just as newspapers are targeted at a 6th grade reading level, and television is targeted at a 6th grade intelligence level). Small VWs can target more savvy users and provide a more complex UI.
  
  A more complex UI has ramifications on the world physics since a mass-market UI that limits users to point-and-click can't allow players as many choices as a UI that requires typed commands.
  
  
• More complex physics and AI algorithms - I suspect that small VWs will provide a world with more complex physics and AIs because many of the savvy niche-users will notice the better physics and AI. Mass-market worlds will be simpler since their customers won't notice a more complex physics and AI system, and may even resent it as being too difficult.
  
  
• Non-major languages - VWs that large companies produce will be localised to the major languages, like English, French, Chinese, etc. A small VW will only be produced in one language, but that language won't be limited to the major languages, and might be Finnish, Swahili, or Vietnamese. Small VWs will also contain localised content, such as Thai-based mythologies in Thailand.
  
  
• Will offend some players - Large VWs cannot afford to offend people, so they will make their content inoffensive and bland, just like most TV shows and fast food. Small VWs are willing to offend people if it draws in more of their target audience, just as comedy sketches often offend some people, but amuse the rest of the audience.
  
  
• Far-reality - Niche markets can target far-reality, while mass-markets target near reality. See Build it and they will come.
  
  
• More innovation - Smaller companies almost always innovate more than large companies. McDonalds only rarely changes their menu, and only after extensive market research, while small restaurants can add new dishes over night.
  
  
• Backstory - An extensive and important backstory will probably be a feature of many small VWs because many niche players enjoy a backstory that ties into the world. Large VWs can easily create a back story with their resources; they won't require players to know it in order to succeed in the game though. Is a large VW's irrelevant backstory worth creating?
  
  
• Deep and thought provoking - Niche books tend to be more thought-provoking than mass-market television. I suspect the same will happen with small VWs.

Ramifications of fewer players

Small VWs will have fewer players, which allows for:

• More user feedback into the world - The development team can listen to individuals or small groups more. One person has more of a voice in a 10K player virtual world than a 1M player virtual world.
  
  
• More GM interaction - It costs just as much for a small world to hire a GM as a large world. The GM can support just as many players. Therefore, large virtual worlds have no advantage here. Small VWs may take the lead and provide better product support than large companies, just as family-owned restaurants have better product support than McDonalds. The hands-on experience might go as far as GMs intervening in the background in order to make the VW experience more fun for individuals or small groups of players.
  
  
• Players can change the world - With fewer players, small VWs may allow their players to change the world they occupy. Large VWs probably wont, and even if they did, one person in a million can't do much. Furthermore, if the small VW relies on algorithmic content, they will find it easier to let players change the world. VWs with lots of human-generated content (large VWs) will be loathe to let players change the world since human-generated content is expensive to "throw out" as the world changes.
  
  
• Less E-baying of goods and characters - Large VWs provide a liquid market for characters, items, and virtual currency sales. Small VWs are much less liquid, so fewer sales will take place, although they'll still happen.
  
  
• Tighter player community - A smaller world results in players getting to know each other better. (This assumes that players stay in small VWs as long as they do in the large VWs, which may not be the case.)
  
  I suspect smaller virtual worlds will become like villages, while large virtual worlds will be like cities. In a village, everyone knows everyone else. In a city, new acquaintances are easier to make, and, if need be, never be seen again.
  
  
• Authors can control who is let in - Not only does the niche content attract certain players, but authors can control which players are let into the world, whereas a large VW will take all comers but the worst griefers.

Advantages of large virtual worlds

Amongst all the advantages of small VWs, I also listed several advantages for large VWs. Large VWs will have some other advantages:

• Economic game - Modern economies survive because billions of people are involved. Economies in isolated villages have less to do with cash, and are more about commodity swaps. I suspect that large VWs will be able to support better economy games than small VWs.
  
  
• Guilds and army vs. army - The more players in a world, the larger the guilds (up to a point), and the more likely the world will support large armed conflict, instead of small skirmishes.
  
  
• No NPCs - If the world is filled with real players, NPCs aren't as necessary, other than as cannon fodder. Small VWs are more likely to have intelligent NPCs.
  
  
• In-game advertising - Small VWs can sell in-game advertising, but their pool of advertisers is smaller than a large VW's. I suspect large VWs will rely on advertising more, just as mass-market magazines get a larger percentage of their funding from ads than niche-market magazines.
  
  The effectiveness of advertising will be bolstered by the VW's ability to monitor a player's activities... Maybe enemies will have Dominos Pizza's logos emblazoned on their shields between 4PM and 7PM local time, along with the appropriate local phone number.

Conclusion

Small VWs will provide different experiences than large VWs, just as books are different than movies. The key differences between small VWs and large ones are:

• Lower-quality graphics, animations, and sounds
• Niche markets
• More hands on interaction from the developers and support teams
• More innovation
• Tighter player community

In other words, when considering what a large VW will be like, think of McDonalds and commercial television. Small VWs will be more like neighbourhood restaurants or novels.