|
| The joys and the problems of being a game owner / admin |
|
For new players in the field, and especially for young people, having your own game seems a real achievement and look like something fun. In this article I want to talk about my own experience and point out the good and the bad side of it. I personally started my own experience as game owner / creator after playing a web game and being unsatisfied by the lack of depth of the game world. I then started to think how a real game world, like those of the old 2d RPG, could be implemented, and slowly started to build it. Now after more than 4 years of work I can look at it and say that I indeed succeeded in creating a virtual world. But it wasn't all easy, and it is certainly never really finished. As a side effect of creating this virtual world, new players talk to me like they would talk to somebody really important or a semi god. Honestly I don't like that, even if for some it would be a dream. Why? Simply because I don't feel special, and also because I do see the responsibilities linked to the task more than the privileges. Indeed, having to act like a god and change / introduce rules is not an easy task as any change needs to be as balanced and as smooth as possible. Oddly enough, the older the game is, the more complaints you get every time you touch it, even if you just add new features. Another really annoying side effect, if we avoid talking about those players that just want to chat with you to feel a bit special as well, is the huge amount of requests / suggestions I (as well as the other admins) get. Some are actually good ideas but somehow the majority are just useless or actually impossible to implement. Generally, the more useless the request is the more annoying the players are and say things like "if you don't do it your game will die"?; odd then that we survived for more than 4 years without it, isn't it? Now, don't get me wrong, I still have pleasure to work on my game, especially when I see where we are now and what we can offer to the old and new players. I still have a lot of ideas and a lot of areas which require more work to be up to par. Basically, what makes me happy is when I'm able to materialize an idea, and let then the players try it. This concretization of my ideas is my "drug", and what pushes me again and again to continue. On top of that, the contact with a few people, which now I consider good friends, is the icing of the cake, and I'm quite sure I would have stopped if I wouldn't have those contacts and the huge help they offered, and still offer. I again take the occasion here to thank Croesy, for example, as well as Iya, Zorich. I stop here before the list grows too much, even if many other helped a lot too. So exactly what are the jobs of a game owner? Well the jobs are multiple, and in completely different areas. The main tasks are; to monitor the game to avoid abuse, and keep the community on track (e.g. avoid bad mood, flaming wars); fix bugs; implement new features and here we finish with the obvious one. Now, for the one which you may not imagine; there are all the emails and private messages to answer (even those which are just annoying); close non-existent bugs explaining what the player did wrong; manage the forums; try to fill the documentation, such as wiki; research new innovative ideas; try to make contacts with other game owners to get support, or more traffic to your site; do the system administrator work (e.g. apply patches, handle the domains, the hosting); do all the administrative work (e.g. pay the bills, find the hosting); and finally do all the marketing work to make your game known to the biggest number of potential players. If you think this is a small job, well you maybe don't really realize how time consuming any of those tasks are. However, don't get depressed even before starting, as you may delegate one or more tasks to somebody else. Crucially, the time you spend depends on 2 factors: the size of your game, and your own goal. If you don't want to grow too much, then it will certainly not require too much time. In conclusion, yes being a game owner is like being a god for that particular virtual world. With the power of the god, which let's you modify the world as you want, there is also the responsibilities to make it work, and the drawback to hear (if not listen to) the huge amount of requests / wishes. Think of it this way: the more wishes you get, the more players you have and the better your game is. |
