So, the other day, I read that Anarchy Online (AO) is getting ready to replace their dated graphic engine. The new engine, if I understand things correctly uses the same engine as Age of Conan and Funcom’s upcoming massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, the Secret World. On top of that, the new game director, Fia “Lindelu” Tjernberg has stated that the character models in AO are getting an overhaul, bringing them up quite a ways in polygon count.
AO is currently a very dated looking game. When it launched in 2001, it was a fairly pretty game (although character models were always pretty bland - my three year old daughter refers to it as "the ugly man game"). AO was, however, a very innovative game that really changed some of the staple features in MMO’s that followed. Hyper-linking of items, that’s an AO first. Player housing in a 3D MMO? AO gets that first, although the isometric Ultima Online achieved it first for the modern MMO market. Instanced, on-demand content? AO.
AO was also a product of its time. Back then, MMO’s were relatively sandbox in design. The game creators generated a world, gave you tools to develop a character and more or less let you go wherever you could manage. Character development was fairly complex and the array of interdependent decisions you made rendered a game where arguing what was best was part of the fun of game play.
Those games are gone now. The modern MMO is a theme park. The world created by game developers is linear. Bread crumb paths pull players along a predetermined route. Exploration, for the most part, is simply a process of checking off achievement boxes. Character development is simple and linear leading to easily analyzed optimized builds. Without question, the theme parks pull in larger subscriptions than the sandbox model ever did, justifying high levels of venture capital.
In recent news, a number of older MMO’s have experienced some success inter-twining free to play (F2P) with their premium subscription model. In particular, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has embraced F2P, adding it (or in process of adding it) to their DC Universe Online, Everquest 2, Everquest and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes games. Turbine entertainment has found some success revitalizing their Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons online games using a hybrid F2P/Subscription model. NC Soft has added a hybrid model to City of Heroes. Cryptic Entertainment similarly either has, or is working on, hybrid models for Champions Online and Star Trek Online. Funcom itself has even experienced some success using a hybrid model with Age of Conan.
In some ways, Funcom piloted the current generation of hybrid F2P/Subscription gaming with their “froob” model for AO. In that system, players can play the entire original game without ever spending a penny. However, to experience any of the content from the various game expansions, players have to upgrade to a subscription model. Thus, while AO was the first modern MMO to embrace F2P, it’s simply not monetized very well.
Now is the time to change all of that. Not specifically because every MMO in the last 10 years is experimenting with hybrid models. Instead, Funcom should consider this because AO is about to do a massive engine upgrade, because none of the more modern looking MMO’s feature sandbox game play and because AO plays in the relatively uncontested sci-fi genre.
The FROOB system needs to be addressed in this. Either it needs to be removed (not likely to be popular), or the current FROOB model needs to be a destination halfway between hybrid F2P and full subscription. You could simply monetize content selection up from the current FROOB model, but you lose out on several easily monetized options. There are a number of features in the FROOB model that could easily be monetized (inventory, insurance, classes and races). Following the lead of their MMO competitors, the new hybrid model should open with:
- Restrictive race options (perhaps only Solitus)
- Restrictive class options (Enforcer, Doctor, Fixer and Nano-mage)
- Restrictive inventory (50%)
- Restrictions on free insuring (once per week)
- Restrictions to original AO content
- Limited number of character slots
Each of the above could be fully unlocked via premium subscription, or purchased up via cash purchase unlocks. To get to the current FROOB account, people would have paid a small amount for more races, more classes, more inventory, unlimited insurance and more character slots (if desired).
To ease the transition, current FROOB’s should be grandfathered in. However, just before the new engine goes live, the ability to create new FROOB’s should be frozen and replaced with something along the lines I proposed above. Once the new graphic engine is in place and running smoothly, Funcom marketing should promote their repackaged sci-fi, sandbox MMO. The game very much deserves a second life.
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