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What makes Simutronics' on-line games so addictive? Hint: it's not the technology But our collective amusement comes to an abrupt end when, minutes later, the matrimonial MC inexplicably goes AWOL. I fuss with the folds of my to-die-for red-velvet dress. The guests all seem to have a glazed look--until word gets around that Rehoboam's Internet connection has been cut off. He'll be back in a minute. Such, it seems, are the peculiar perils of a virtual wedding. Or so I assume. That was my first such cyberceremony, which I attended as Judila Goulde, the smart, platinum-haired avatar I created in DragonRealms, one of the six multiplayer, interactive on-line games that Simutronics Corp. (#295), in Rockville, Md., has dreamed up since 1987. The company's offerings, which now attract 40,000 aficionados, used to be known as MUDs, which stood for multi-user dungeons. Now a better label would be MUSH: multi-user shared hallucinations. Fun as the games are, they also have an intensely trippy quality that can be disorienting.It's the huge, frantically baroque environments swarming with an endless supply of monsters, magic, mayhem, and, yes, even matrimony that charm newbies into hanging around. Simutronics' own data show that its members have extremely "sticky eyeballs," meaning the average player spends about 2,300 minutes, or 38 hours, every month in its games. Dragon-Realms disciples rack up a whopping average of 4,656 minutes a month (77.6 hours) as they traverse the 15,000-plus distinct locations that compose the game's ever -evolving medieval world. No other on-line pursuit comes within a broadsword's reach of those user averages, according to Media Metrix Inc. of New York, a research outfit that tracks Web site traffic. That's staggering, considering that all Simutronics games except CyberStrike, an action game with 3-D graphics, are entirely text based: just words, no pictures. The games are pure linguistic mind candy, at first baffling, then kind of distracting, and ultimately downright adhesive. Since there's no score to worry about and no such thing as winning, there's no overheated endgame strategy. It's not about slaying monsters and taking all their stuff. Far from it. Consider, for example, that Simutronics runs about 30 ultrachic in-game weddings each month, hugely popular soirees that can set the bride and groom back 200 nonvirtual U.S. dollars. The point of the exercise is to keep on playing, winning friends and forming partnerships as you build up experience and standing in the community.Players get into the games with a credit card ($9.95 for a basic monthly subscription to the game world of their choice, then up to $80 more for souped-up memberships). It's common, if unkind, to assume this player populace is overrun by teenage boys, freaks, and geeks with cyberpunkish haircuts and pierced tongues, who fill up their formative brain spaces with complex battle strategies and cram their characters' knapsacks with treasure. But as I toured Elanthia, the mythical setting for DragonRealms, there was no way to make that countercultural scenario jibe with the people I met: savvy players whose characters helpfully showed me the ropes, smiled at and hugged me, and stage-whispered hints every now and then to make sure that Judila didn't suffer a premature demise. The game isn't what sucks you in; it's the people, who turn out to be its best feature. From the beginning, greenhorns are nudged along by official "mentors," a platoon of volunteer in-character advisers. "We started the program specifically to help overwhelmed new players," says Melissa Callaway, 24, who began playing at 15 and now directs the entire Simutronics mentor program. But the guides also offer everyone, including veterans, a lesson or two in Netiquette. "Some people want to kill everything that moves," notes David Whatley, 33, one of the company's cofounders and its president and CEO. "Mentors say, 'Hold on there, Tex.'"Players who swear out loud or indulge in egregiously disruptive behavior (use your imagination) can be isolated in an on-line time-out and required to recommit to the Simutronics code of conduct. If they refuse, they risk eternal exile. The task of making sure the games remain fair, balanced, and entertaining falls to an elite breed known as GameMasters. GameMaster Nova, a.k.a. Elonka Dunin, who is general manager of Simutronics' on-line community, keeps tabs on the delicate evolution of each game's social structure. It's a highly regulated environment, undoubtedly an outgrowth of Whatley's formative experiences as a player. "When I started messing around with computer games," he recalls, "my older brother was the game fanatic, and he'd get me to play games beyond my reach--then he'd slaughter me. So I wrote my own." He was still a high school student, doggedly writing code in his bedroom, when he developed the idea for the medieval epic GemStone. Now in its third edition, "GemStone III has the most on-line usage of any game," says Mark Mooradian, senior analyst with Internet-research producer Jupiter Communications (#391).DragonRealms, a GemStone spin-off, was launched in 1996. In what is estimated to be a roughly $50-million industry, Simutronics' revenues--a hair over $5 million in 1998--place it behind the two industry leaders. "You might see some players migrate to graphics-based games," Mooradian says, "but Simutronics' strength is its role-playing. Loyalty comes from creating a character and identifying with the community." By the end of 2000, the company anticipates revenues just short of $10 million. To get there, Mooradian says, Simutronics will have to draw more players. Over the course of a regular Earth-week, Judila and I have taken a swim (in fish form) in a silvery pool, learned a few useful spells, shared a cup of honey-nectar cordial with the locals after a long day in the realms, and even gotten to see a little combat--all mere backdrop to the real allure of the fantasy, the chance to experiment with new social roles and relationships.That's how on-line marriages sometimes turn into more. When Commandant, a.k.a. Bill Chamberlin, married Karess (Sue) in GemStone, in 1997, the pair liked it so much they did it for real two years later. "But don't get the wrong idea," Bill insists. "We don't go around wearing swords all the time or anything." Need help implementing a new sales or marketing program? We've got two suggestions: a) Check out our free marketing templates and tools on this site. There's ton's of them. You might want to bookmark the site now, you could be here awhile. Just become a registered member (it's free) of the myMarketingGuide.com website and you can download hundreds of other articles, templates and more. Don't worry, we respect your privacy. |
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