"The PW Market" and its "Barriers to Entry&qu

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Orleron
Multiverse Scholar
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2003 11:15 am
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"The PW Market" and its "Barriers to Entry&qu

Post by Orleron »

I think about the various PW's out there kinda like the way a market works in business. Afterall, you have a customer base, the players. Your world is a product, with certain characteristics. Your product will vary from the next guy's product. Your customer base has preferences... some like pvp worlds that start you at 15th level. Some like local vault. Some like roleplaying. You get the drift. You gotta advertise your world to get players by doing things like posting on NWVault and trying to make all the top 10 lists and such.

First I gotta say: Thank goodness this is all free for us PW-makers to do! (Minus the cost of actually running a computer cluster on a cable connection 24/7, of course.)


Like a market, I also think it has ups and downs. Right now I think it's a down. All that is due to supply and demand. The supply of PW's is waaaaay overexceeding the demand for them. You have x number of players out there. The number of PW's out there is far more than any of those players would get to use. You may have heard me say, everyone and their mother has their own PW these days.... and they don't die very easily either. I've seen some really shitty PW's spring up and from what I can tell they've got almost no players, but man, they still exist after a year. It's crazy.

So yeah, the number of these worlds is increasing, and CoPaP is probably feeling the effects of it. For one thing, it's hard to find staff here.... they're all working on some other projects. (See this thread: http://nwn.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic ... 3&forum=42 ) For players, we're doing ok. We get 80 people on during some weekend nights, which ain't bad. But if you look at some of our individual servers, they don't have more than 3 or 4 people on them, and these are not extension servers for Avlis I'm talking about. They are worlds in their own right, that should have a playerbase of their own that populates their place frequently. So the market is definitely affecting us in some ways.

Unfortunately, the concept of a barrier to entry does not work for PW's. This concept is fairly simple. Say you want to sell cars by creating a new car company. You can do that. But it's going to cost you a HUUUUGE amount of money to get it running, and Honda, Chrysler, and Ford are always gonna be able to do it cheaper than you. So most people won't bother with a venture like that.

For PW's, any schmuk can make one, and many do. Most of them don't realize that worlds like Avlis took well over a year to make their systems and to recruit the people they have today. Some worlds that are being made are VERY good, but they wont' get any players because there's just too many worlds out there for them to be noticed. Their new PW is just another tiny advertisement, and you see at least 20 of them a day. So who cares? I feel a little sorry for these worlds, but in a way I'm glad, because for projects like ours, those factors make it easier because we have things like name recognition and reputation on top of our stuff.

Honestly, I'm suprised CoPaP does not appeal to more worlds than it does. Here you have an organization that lets you bypass not only your coding barrier, but also your name recognition. People have heard of us, and if not us, they're heard of Avlis, which in turn advertises for all of the other CoPaP worlds. It's a great deal, and the only thing we ask in return is that you follow the Articles of Confederation, and make some small sacrifices for inter-server continuity that have nothing to do with your basic gameplay. I don't get it. I believe that for most, it's because their spirit of independence is far greater than anything that would allow them to explore the idea of "safety in numbers", and "together we stand".


Just my ramblings....
Avlis: http://www.avlis.org

"My name is Orleron...a dungeonmaster...two years ago I got shot through a game client...I'm in a distant part of the internet aboard these servers of escaped mental patients...my players. I've made enemies, stupid, and annoying...now all I want to do is make CoPaP a reality, to warn Earth...Look inward(to your monitor) and share the newbies I've seen..."
Mistcaller
Groundling
Posts: 137
Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2003 7:29 am
Location: Avlis Team - Tairis'nadur Team

Post by Mistcaller »

I'm pretty convinced by now that when someone says "I will build my own PW" doesnt really understand the difficulties behind this sentence and cannot predict the necessary time, resources and effort required. I wasnt aware about those requirements too some time ago... and still I am not sure I 've seen the whole picture cause... I'm afraid to look.. :)
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So a new server jumps into the pool with some "cool" areas and some "great" haks. But.. is this what the players want? Do you KNOW what players want?
Just another city, just another hill or cave with fancy creatures? I doubt it... Its not the decoration that keeps the players loyal... it requires something more... somethign more.. unique...
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I know its really fun to create things, make your dream city/lair/island come true. But you can do the same for another PW...that is already there...

Concluding I suggest (and I do foresee it happen soon) that some existent PWs should start to merge with each other, sharing human resources, areas, ideas and more. Think about it... ask around... share your dream... and who knows, you might get lucky and your dream will come true not only on your own monitor screen but on others all around the world as well. ;)

My 2 eurocents
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