Having My Cake and Eating It Too

It is great to participate in cyclical events like LOGIN. You not only get to experience the completion of one year, but the fresh start of another. There are themes each year that are familiar, such as colleagues and other industry leaders that visit the conference. The following year's event is a chance to try something different, to start fresh, and to realize past successes and failures and what was learned by them. There is little fear how you will start the next year because you've had experience in previous ones. There is also little fear in completing a year, because you have the next to look forward to.

I'm currently working on a book about the MMORPG genre. You'd think that at 320 pages and only a chapter left to go, I would be working feverishly to complete it. I’ve been writing like mad on fine-tuning all the chapters, but it's been a slower process than I had anticipated it would be. It's becoming more of a cross-country trek than a downhill sled ride. I've been so excited by the writing process, that getting closer and closer to the end has changed my perception of the project itself.

It's sometimes hard to get started on a project that you know will take weeks, if not months to complete. Every great project takes that first leap of effort. Planning takes up a significant portion of your efforts, the most creative aspect of a project. Anyone in game development can certainly attest to that. Once you get started on the project and get past the planning phase, it's all easy riding, right? Surprising as it may sound, it can be just as hard to finish a project. Without proper guidance that events like LOGIN provide, that last great effort in a successful game can falter for many reasons.

One of the keys in success of a project and feeling good about seeing your work completed, is finding your source of motivation before beginning (besides having that large cup of coffee to get your day started, of course). You have to have a purpose in order to begin, let alone finish something. The motivation for most people is typically in how the end results will look if the project is successfully completed. For me though, it's a bit different. I love to see the end results blossom in all their glory as anyone would expect, but the process itself is just as interesting.

What is the concern then in completing a project? Completion itself and the success it may bring. I'm not talking about Hollywood get-rich kind of expectations that follow those few that hit a home-run on their first attempt. I'm talking about the general feeling of accomplishment. The personal kind that is all found inside one-self, not from the compliments of others. It can actually be intimidating to finish a project because you suddenly realize you're, well, done. What is there to do now? The next project of course, but what is it to be? I think I've suddenly discovered the reason why so many sequels are created in the entertainment industry...

For those of you thinking about attending LOGIN but are unsure where to start, the coordinators have made it easy for you! There is LOGIN Lobby and other networking sites, in addition to the official LOGIN page. All of these tools will help you keep updated on the latest news about the conference. Everything from speakers bios, daily track outlines, to how you can get the most from these programs, are available. There isn’t a conference like LOGIN that provides such open access to fantastic speakers and tracks customized for each segment of the industry.

You can not only have your cake by attending a conference like LOGIN, but you can eat it too by filling up with inspiration, knowledge and many new friends and connections in the online games business that will drive your career forward. Now that's what I call appetizing!

Mathew Anderson LOGIN Advisory Board Member Lead Community Manager, Petroglyph Game Studios

The Gating of the Middle Kingdom

China is loaded with advantages as arguably the world's most vibrant online game market. Within their borders they've got a massive consumer base of sixty-five million online gamers and a rising standard of living that this year has allowed these gamers to spend $52 per person on their hobby. The numbers have long pointed to China's most obvious of overall advantages, of a huge population and rising affluence. Consequently, we're seeing numbers like these: China's online game industry has netted over $900 million in revenue in just the 2nd quarter of 2009 alone, a 39.5% leap over the same time period last year. This is definitely the right time and place if you're an investor or a game publisher, isn't it? Hold on, this is where the ride gets bumpier.

Recent news report point to the other advantages China's government and industry have cultivated. Protectionism, for example, has rewarded China's home-grown developers and publishers, at the expense of foreign interests, to this point. Recently, it was widely reported that China's General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has issued a statement that bans "foreign companies from investing in domestic online gaming operations, no matter whether in the form of joint ventures, wholly owned enterprises or any other forms of cooperation with local companies, including providing technological support" and furthermore, that "all online games, including new versions and expansion packs for imported games, are required to apply for its preapproval." (Forbes). That seems like such a strange step to take, when China's economy is rebounding from the recession too. Why close off access to international money and partnerships? From the Chinese governmental perspective, one argument that can be made is that the greatest good that can be served appears to be a tightening of control over foreign influence and free speech. But, according to the Forbes article, this move may have been prompted by NetEase's re-launch of World of Warcraft on September 19th without receiving GAPP's approval, although it had received approval from the Ministry of Culture (MOC).

Therein lies another matter of control, which may in fact be the real story behind the story. The MOC is in a public feud with the GAPP over regulatory control of the Chinese game market. Mr. Tuo Zuhai, deputy director of MOC’s Department of Cultural Marketing, said in a recent speech that the "General Administration of Press and Publication must stop the surly interference in domestic online game enterprises. It is MOC’s duty to ensure the long-term development of China’s culture industry, especially the game industry." GAPP issuing the new regulations it has could well be a reassertion of its presumed authority, although it is doubtful that this is the last word in this struggle. In the meantime, Chinese publishers and developers benefit most from this recent political maneuvering, at least in the short-run.

In addition to protectionism, a persistent concern to international companies are imitations. Not of Levi's jeans, Prada bags or DVD movie duplications we often hear about, but online games created by local developers that bear more than passing resemblances to their originals. Famously, major Chinese publisher The9 lost the license to distribute World of Warcraft earlier this year. Instead of sitting on their hands, they developed "World of Fight, a game that echoes World of Warcraft in many ways right down to the logo. Rather than fighting through bureaucratic and nationalistic Chinese copyright law, Blizzard has relaunched World of Warcraft with NetEase, as mentioned earlier. If one of the world's most successful developer won't fight the system, what chance do most Korean developers have? There are discussions underway with Chinese copyright officials to remedy the problem, but realistically that could take years to resolve at all levels. After all, look at how the MOC and the GAPP are engaged in warfare over their spheres of influence.

The road to the online Chinese game market is in many ways a unilateral one, one which is open when sending investment and product abroad to other markets, but the government closely guards the gated access to its explosive, exciting market and protects its industries. There are no easy answers for foreign companies looking to invest or publish. but either pursue a licensing agreement with a Chinese developer or wait until it's determined what agency calls the shots and what rules for foreign companies they'll issue when the dust settles. As far as copyright matters go, few game developers companies want to challenge Chinese companies over infringement concerns, because that stirring a hornet's nest could cost them access to the market entirely. So it's also a "wait and see" situation if the government will open it's walled garden.

For now it's simply possible that China's government has long-realized a truth from Sun Tzu: "For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."

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Paul Philleo Contributing Editor LOGIN Beat

Industry Highlights

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Story on IndustryGamers

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Rosensweig: Download revenue is getting "interesting"

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China's online market grows 40% in second quarter

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Article on Gamasutra

Virtual Goods To Reach $1 Billion In 2009

A new study estimates that the total U.S. market size for virtual goods will hit $1 billion this year -- twice the 2008 amount. The report by Justin Smith, editor of InsideFacebook.com and Charles Hudson of Serious Business, also projects that virtual goods sales will reach $1.6 billion in 2010. "One of the major forces that has led to growth in virtual goods this year is the explosion and seeming ubiquity of social networking in the U.S.," said Smith in an interview. Combine that with the popularity of gaming and marketing savvy and you have the perfect storm boosting demand for virtual goods. »

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Interview with Cities XL Developer

The city-building genre has been around for a very long time indeed, but this month French developer Monte Cristo released its take on that sector of the industry with Cities XL, a game that can be played offline or online, and with significant meta-game elements taking place on the official website. Gamesindustry.biz interviews studio head Jerome Gastaldi to to get an impression of how gamers have responded to the title, what the challenges of multiple play-styles (and multiple revenue streams) have been, and what the plans are for ongoing development. »

Interview on gamesindustry.biz