Drewbot

During beta testing for Star Wars Galaxies, one player discovered developers had no plans to regulate the in-game economy. Immediately, he stopped obsessing over making the game great for fans and started building a business plan.

It worked:

I was now making real-world money for making virtual money by making real money. It was amazing, and it worked perfectly. I would transfer 10 mil credits to Tan; he would pay me via bank transfer. He would then sell the fake money for real money at around a 100% mark-up. The player would get his 500k or million, and turn around and buy my merchandise for 1.5mil. This happened across the board, at all levels.

I remember with crystal clarity when I realized I was making more money from this enterprise than I was at my full-time job. I quickly decided to expand and hired four guys in Singapore to play 24/7.

Soon the money was stacking fast and I needed to expand again, and again. At the peak, I employed 12 men and women. I controlled, for the most part, the economy on four servers, and I was bringing in almost a six-figure salary.

The whole piece is worth a read just for the character study.

The author starts out contributing, “I made copious suggestions, everything from combat to social aspects. I complained for a week about how the zabrak horns should look.” Once he discovers the economic loophole, he becomes absorbed in gaming it. From a nest of computers, soda, and snacks he takes over virtual star systems, space ports, cranks up prices, and expands.

Finally he becomes frustrated as developers compensate for a tight economy by increasing the abilities and assets with which a player starts. Fascinatingly, his frustration comes more from the dilution of the game itself, rather than the hit to his finances.

Their goal was $400,000. They’re at $532,459 in less than 24 hours. Why this matters:

Keeping the scale of the project this small accomplishes two things. First and foremost, Double Fine gets to make the game they want to make, promote it in whatever manner they deem appropriate, and release the finished product on their own terms. Secondly, since they’re only accountable to themselves, there’s an unprecedented opportunity to show the public what game development of this caliber looks like from the inside. Not the sanitized commercials-posing-as-interviews that marketing teams only value for their ability to boost sales, but an honest, in-depth insight into a modern art form that will both entertain and educate gamers and non-gamers alike.

Over a six-to-eight month period, a small team under Tim Schafer’s supervision will develop Double Fine’s next game, a classic point-and-click adventure. Where it goes from there will unfold in real time for all the backers to see.

Funded.

90wpm:

The Atlantic published an excerpt from my essay for Distance today. It’s a little over 1500 words, and covers some of the main points in the essay.

It also includes a fantastic photoshopped stock photo of a lab rat playing FarmVille in a Skinner box.

Here’s a small snip:

In the 1890s, while studying natural sciences at the University of Saint Petersburg, a Russian mathematician named Ivan Pavlov was analyzing dogs’ saliva output over time. Pavlov noticed that dogs tended to salivate more before eating and that merely the sight of a white lab coat would induce salivation — even if no food was on the way. So he tried ringing a bell before presenting them with food, and found that over time, the dogs would salivate even if a bell was rung with no food presented. Pavlov’s research defined classical conditioning, in which a primary reinforcer (one which naturally elicits a response, e.g. food or pain) is associated with a conditioned or secondary reinforcer, such as the lab coat or bell.

Forty years later, Burrhus Frederic Skinner built upon Pavlov’s observations as a young psychologist in graduate school. He constructed a soundproof, lightproof chamber that housed a small animal; a lever was placed within the animal’s reach, which triggered a primary reinforcer. Called the Skinner box, the device opened up many possibilities for experimentation, leading to breakthroughs in later research: from the relative addictiveness of cocaine in isolation versus in a larger community, to the question of whether rats have empathy.

I’m really, really excited about the impending release after Feb. 17, especially given the awesome essays that Vitorio Miliano and Jon Whipple are working on alongside me.

Anyone curious about social game design, behavioral psychology, or even just why FarmVille is so damn addictive should take a look at the full excerpt.

Really inspiring work.

I hope the buzz of ‘gamification’ wears off and we return to saying ‘Skinnerian’. It’s so much less rosy that way.

This is what happens when you stop investing in gaming innovation and start investing in business model innovation:

The new iteration packs in new features, including a power-up laden “Galaxy Mode” and a “Marathon One Touch Mode” that has been “specially designed for touch screen gameplay.” Perhaps the most interesting addition is the ability to subscribe to the “T-Club,” which offers “exclusive access to new mobile challenges and content.”

I bet the word “monetize” is used more often than “fun” in EA halls. (Via Joystiq)