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Recommended Reads: Rethinking the MMO

Why should they be wasting their company’s money playing Solitaire when they could be wasting it playing your game?

Admittedly, this piece is already a bit older, but still worth reading: Neil Sorens (Dancing Robot Studios) pins down the problems of most current MMOs in this feature at Gamasutra.
We highly agree, most serious multiplayer-games include too much grinding, challenges take too long, just like group-forming:

The biggest reason is that a large portion of the market is unwilling or unable to dedicate a lot of their time to your game. Former PEG players who have had to quit because of time constraints, uncooperative spouses, jobs, graduation from college, etc., might be willing to play a PEG that provided equal enjoyment for a smaller time commitment. People who game at lunch, on breaks, at the office after work, or even during work could be buying and playing your game if it provided enough enjoyment within their limited time frame. Why should they be wasting their company’s money playing Solitaire when they could be wasting it playing your game?

This pretty much sums up the frustrating premise on which we started designing Coobico’s mechanics: a multiplayer strategy-game, more immersive than a match-3-puzzle, but less time- and money-consuming than your typical hardcore-MMO.

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