Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
FiGuRe 2.8
Fans of Blizzard's
World of Warcraft
lined up in droves to get a first look at
Cataclysm
when it debuted.
Multiplayer online games tend to be real-time games that allow players to
not only move through elaborate worlds, solve puzzles, experience intricate
storylines, and master quests, but also interact socially. Players can talk to each
other in the guises of their characters during play.
These types of games can encompass any and all of the gameplay styles
discussed in this chapter. The first game to launch online with graphics was
Neverwinter Nights,
which debuted on America Online (AOL). Other, lighter ver-
sions of MMOG exist, such as
FarmVille,
shown in Figure 2.9
,
which most players
discover through Facebook and which is actually considered a social game. In
this game, developed by Zynga, players can grow crops, sell their harvest, and
produce livestock.
Whereas
World of Warcraft
is a for-profit game (garnering profits in excess of
$2.2 billion), and players pay for the initial installation then remain connected
through a monthly subscription,
FarmVille
is free to play. Social games like
FarmVille
make money through the sale of virtual goods to players and by sell-
ing ads.
social games
run
on a social network
(like Facebook)
and earned their
name from that
distribution plat-
form as opposed
to the games being
“social.”
