jfeil wrote:
] This is an interesting article on Salon:
]
] [quote]Who killed Miss Norway?
] Five years ago, the news that a beauty pageant participant had
] died in a car crash stunned her virtual world friends. But was
] it really an accident?[/quote]
]
] link:
] http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/04/14/who_killed_miss_norway/
]
] requires Salon subscription (or viewing of ad for 15 seconds)
] too read the whole thing.

That's some nice investigating! Reminds me of the process that I went through to track down one of my own customers who faked his own death after the September 11th tragedy:
 http://www.freetimes.com/issues/1017/features-coverstory.php3

RE: Who Killed Miss Norway?

Some excellent quantitative demographic data about the players of EverQuest, as of 2001.

Norrathian Scrolls - EverQuest Demographics (2001)

Some data on relative subscriber numbers between a half-dozen graphical Massively Multiplayer Games, as of July 2002.

An Analysis of MMOG Subscription Growth (July 2002)

The single-player game "The Sims" has been the biggest selling game of all time. According to some metrics, it was the #1 game for 2000, 2001, and 2002. Its core version, not counting expansion packs, has sold 8 million units. Including expansion packs, that number soars to 24 million units.

Electronic Arts put $25 million into the online version of the game, "The Sims Online," and the marketing push for TSO was bigger than I'd ever seen for *any* online multiplayer game.

They were hoping to capture at least 10% of the 8 million players of "The Sims" to sign up for subscriptions, at $10/month. So far though, they have only sold 100,000 units, of which 80,000 people have signed up for free trials, and 40,000 have paying subscriptions. So instead of 10%, they've got less than 1%.

Though TSO is technically a competitor with my own games, I can't say as I'm happy to see these numbers -- I know and like several of the people on the TSO team, and feel badly for them. Things may change in the future though -- I look forward to seeing how things pan out!

Early Numbers on 'The Sims Online'

Richard Garriott (aka Lord British) is a longtime friend and colleague. Plus he's the only other guy in my industry (that I know of) who's also been to Antarctica. ;) Here's a recent interview with him, where he talks about some of his original games such as Ultima, some of his recent projects, and about his parting of the ways from Electronic Arts, and then joining of forces with the insanely popular Korean game company, NC Soft. For reference, the largest multiplayer games in the U.S., such as EverQuest, have a few hundred thousand subscribers. The NCSoft game "Lineage," in Korea, has four *million* subscribers.

Interview with Richard Garriott

] Generally speaking, a filter of manners is missing in
] today's business world. This [gaming] industry, in
] particular, attracts young people, many of whom have been
] raised in a society where shock value is celebrated and
] etiquette dismissed. This isn't about which fork to
] use at an upscale restaurant, or whether you should hold
] the door open for a female, this is about fundamental
] decency. Something that shouldn't even have to be
] taught, but perhaps should be.
]
] Game agent, Jay Powell, of Octagon Entertainment believes
] it a key issue in an industry he describes as "way too
] small to burn bridges." Says Powell, "there is far too
] much turnover, and if you don't know a person's history
] you can really put yourself in a bad position later.
] Blowing off a producer at a small publisher could hurt
] you down the road if that person suddenly takes a job at
] EA, for example. They're going to remember how they were
] treated the first time."

Amen!

The current guesstimate in my industry, is that the average tenure at one company is less than two years. It's rare to see anyone stay at a single job for longer than that time, before they're jumping (or more likely forced) into the jobmarket again.

The companies may come and go, the products may rise and fall, but the skilled and qualified people remain the same, regardless of which company's URL may be on their current business card. In a small industry, today's loathed competitor could be tomorrow's potential business partner. Be courteous to *everyone*, is my motto!

Good Etiquette Is Good Business

This is an hour-long audio interview (29 Meg MP3 if you'd like to download) that showed up on the "Unknown Player" gaming site this week. In it, the host and I talked about a variety of subjects, ranging from gaming to cryptography to politics and current events. The sound quality isn't particularly great, but if you'd like to learn more about me and my history and other miscellaneous eccentricities, feel free to give it a listen. Or not, your choice. ;) I can think of many better ways to spend an hour!

Audio Interview with Elonka Dunin

"Unknown Player" is one of those fan sites that collates a lot of news bits about Massively Multiplayer Online Games, and presents them all in one place. It's one of the more comprehensive "game gossip" sites, and I recommend it.

UnknownPlayer.com

Okay, it's a shameless plug, but I really have to mention my game site here. I'm General Manager of Online Community, and these games have been my babies for over 10 years. I'm proud of them. :)

If you want to play any of them, we've got a 30-day free trial. The amount of information that we ask for from users varies depending on a marketing program that we're experimenting with. Some users are asked for a credit card right away, and others can get in for a free trial with nothing more than a valid Email address.

It's kind of random as to which visitors get the offer, so if you want to be sure to get the "no credit card" signup option, use this "Elonka" link I set up for personal friends, to ensure they can get the 30-day free trial of our flagship product, GemStone III, as easily as possible:

http://www.play.net/gs3/signup/?refer=ELONKA1

play.net

For those who want to know more about just what exactly I do in my day job, here's an interview that showed up on a Game Industry site earlier this year. GIGnews, btw, stands for "Get In the Game".

Interview: Elonka Dunin