A few games like Dragon’s Green became favorites because I wanted to achieve a top score but overall my Home gaming is mostly based on the rewards too.

Thanks for the correction to my incorrection (?) Burbie lol. I purchased it so long ago I didn’t remember them reducing the price.

Re-thinking DG, maybe the real reason more don’t play it is the lack of good initial rewards coupled with the lack of new, ongoing rewards. Something that could easily be true of many failed Home spaces, the lack of desirable rewards and updating of missions. Do at least one of the two and you got a chance, do both and you should succeed.

Some cold accuse me of not giving certain games a fair chance but I usually decide within the first 5 minutes of playing a game if I want to keep going.

I tried the Slap Happy Sam demo when it was in Central Plaza and couldn’t wait to get knocked out. Absolutely hated it. I even have the full game pass from a VIP card and have never used it.

Novus Prime bored me to death from the word go. For some reason, I slogged my way through the first few rounds to win the jacket that I’ve never worn. Haven’t returned since then.

Conspiracy held my attention for a while at first but I only used the VIP game pass there once, I believe.

Repetition can’t be the only deterrent. I’ve played Salt Shooter enough to earn Gold VICKIE on 2 accounts. I’ve spent hours on Project Velocity as well, having reaching level 40 in NA and EU months ago. I can’t even imagine how much time I spent racing dolphies, collecting orbs and gathering pickories from Loco Island. The Granzella Downtown space was monotonous with serving and buying drinks but I spent some time there before it was taken down for maintenance. I’m not much of a gamer outside of Home. I figure that most of my Home gaming is based on the rewards that I’d like to earn and the developers that update their spaces with new ones.

For some reason(s), certain Home games just seem to have more appeal than others, even when using essentially the same freemium business model. The hard part for any developer, I think, is divining what people will be willing to spend money on.

This, I think, is why video games — just like the motion picture industry — are falling prey to sequelitis and a general lack of innovation at the very top: no one wants to risk their next IP turning into the latest Pluto Nash.

In this regard, Home is a wonderful asymmetric response: the barriers to entry are much, much lower. And social games, as Richard Garriott pointed out in Issue #10, are slowly evolving into experiences which will possibly in time really start to rival more “hardcore” content (certainly, in terms of average user session length, they already do). Coupled with the larger audience penetration, it’s interesting to see where this could go.

At all.

I mostly don’t play Home games because it usually takes forever to load and they are usually buggy. I can get pretty much the same experience as MOST Home games with a LOT less hassle than it takes to boot up Home, navigate to a space, wait for it to load… etc… etc..

Great article Burbie. Another great look at a pressing issue in Home today.

I’m apparently the exception to all the Dragon’s Green dislike. I do go back and play DG and very much enjoy it.

There’s a couple of things you wrote that I don’t really agree with though. Not sure how one would feel it’s repititous since there are seemingly infinite ways to play any given hole. Plus each hole has 3 ways of completing it to start with.

Nothing left to do? By your own admission you haven’t completed the various objectives yet. Sounds like there’s more to do.

Novus Prime seems the very definition of repitious to me. And yet a large number of people find shooting at enemy ships moving in set patterns over and over and over much more thrilling than I do.

I would agree that perhaps the reason more don’t play DG is it can seem a tad tricky initially. After one gets the controls down there’s a lot one can do to manipulate the ball though.

In DG players can use group chat and play at their leisure. If the ball stops and you need to hit it again you’re given a natural pause in the game and an opportunity to talk. With two, three or four avatars playing together I find DG to be highly social.

Maybe DG just takes too long to play 9 holes and everyone seems to want a game to last a couple minutes.

One factual error though, the DG Golden Ticket is $2.99 and not five dollars. That seems like quite the bargain as far as Home pricing lately too. For the hours of enjoyment I’m getting it’s likely the best thing I’ve ever paid for on Home.

Thanks again for the great article.

PS I’d say sorry to Novus-Cooldown regarding my opinion of Novus Prime but with the money he’s making with that space I don’t think my thoughts much matter.

We really focus on rewarding players for putting the time and effort into ranking up in Novus Prime, i.e. earning the full Commander’s Uniform once you reach level 30. Our players asked for more ranks and rewards so we delivered them in our newest update, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. As Home developers, we believe the key to success in Home is listening to your fans. Hasn’t steered us wrong yet.

I think the biggest failure of all Home games has to be Ooblag’s Alien Casino. Has anyone even continued playing after unlocking the alien costume?

Dragon’s Green and Conspiracy never appealed to me; either due to their freemium nature, or my lack of interest in the rewards offered (really, an enchanted tree costume?). I now regret not having given Conspiracy more of my time, however.

In my opinion, Novus Prime and the two Sodium games are the best gaming experiences currently available on Home, and well worth the occasional expense for upgrades.

Who knows why some games are likable and others some. Personal preference in many cases. I prefer baseball even though I’m not good at the games unless they have a manager mode.
NBA 2K12 has the old 94 controls for those who prefer to play that way. And hey! Simple controls allow someone very good to play against someone who isn’t, like me or a little kid.
And if all else fails, set up the game, create players and set the controls to the center position and watch the team you created. It is an option.

And people are going to often go where their friends or others go. The Dolphy game was something I enjoyed until I tired of it, perhaps in part to glitching? Maybe I’ll go back and see how things are.

Right now I am having fun in the winter Central Plaza trying the rid the alien Hunters because they’re destroying any chance of us getting Central Plaza.

Now!!! You shut the heck up and play the game(s) the way you wish. I’ll do what I enjoy.
OK? OK

I too bought the Dragon’s Green ticket when I first arrived. But then I too stopped playing for basically the same reason you did, it wasn’t busy, and it was hard to play.

It really is scary entering a space with no one in it. It’s like walking into a restaurant with no one in it. It feels dead, and you are just as likely to turn around and leave in those situations.

Reading your article, I was reminded of my time working in retail. I worked in an independent bookstore and we were constantly changing things around to keep them fresh. My boss at the time told me that in retail displays and whatnot last for maybe two weeks before they get stale. I think it is the same kind of thing here on Home except the time line for things getting stale is probably way shorter.

I think perhaps companies who come on Home need to treat it exactly like a retail space, and people who come to their spaces as guests and customers.

By keeping their spaces fresh and up to date it encourages people to return. And making them feel welcome, it encourages you to return.

Also the use of free items as loss-leaders is critical for companies success here on Home. A loss-leader is of course something retailers sell at a lose because it encourages customers to spend money on other things they can make money off of.

There is a restaurant I frequent in my home town and one of the reasons I go back is that the owner will often buy his customers drinks at the end of there meal. I know from my perspective such gestures make me feel special, like the owner was glad to have me. It makes the whole experience positive and you bet it makes me want to return.

Lockwood practices the same practice and you can bet it works. I know that I keep going back to Lockwoods showroom everyday to see what’s new, and get the new rewards. Plus, the gifts they give out are very well thought out. For example, the Valentine’s gift were great. The Romantic Table and Chair were awesome and work well in a number of different spaces I own. By using loss-leaders like this Lockwood encourages people to actually spend real money which I have, I actually think I’ve spent the most at Lockwood.

Lockwood’s showcase room is the closest thing on Home to and actual department store. It is great to go there and checkout their displays because it give you ideas for things for your own space.

Aurora is another space I frequent often, again it is because it encourages people to return on a daily basis. They set-up retail point in these places where you can buy stuff. They let you play games, but if you want to excel at them you can buy various add-on to improve your performance. All these things add-up to dollars in the bank.

Quite frankly, every major gaming company should be doing more of this kind of thing. I’m surprised SquareEnix is more of presences here on Home. It would be awesome to own a personal space inspired by there Final Fantasy Games.

It is heartening to see Marvel here on Home. It has the potential to do some awesome stuff and I look forward to seeing what they some up with.

There are an awful lot of t-shirts on Home, which are okay, because at least it something. But sometimes I feel they lack creativity.