PBBGs vs. MMORPGs vs. Board Games

Yeah, I said board games. Here's what I think about all of these things, how they are alike and how they are very very different.

Let's say you read this recent GigaOM posting about The Top 10 Money-Making MMOs of 2008 (you may have to see a brief ad before the article, if so you'll live). Looking at that list you should notice how all the top games are basically very similar in one respect, they're all about an avatar. Players create an in-game avatar that represents them and that persona exists in some virtual world somewhere. They move through it basically in real time, they interact with other people avatar to avatar, and they act on the virtual world and it acts on them. They are, as the RPG in MMORPG suggests, "role-playing games". Just like Dungeons and Dragons shares characteristics with Traveller, GURPS, and Champions, these games all seem kind of similar.

Which is great when that's what you want. But last time I checked, there's room on the candy isle for Almond Joy, Nerds, and Sugar Babies. I think not only can you be different, I think you have to be. While these games are raking in the cash, they're also investing it as well. How many people do you think worked on the last World of Warcraft expansion I wonder? How many people for 3D models, for textures, sound effects, music, voice work, marketing, etc.? Dozens? A hundred? More?

If you're like me, you don't have millions or even thousands to invest into building a game so PBBGs offer another possibility. You can build a game all by yourself or with a very small team that people can come play. And the best part of embracing the constraints that browser-based games have is that you can cleverly turn some of them into advantages.

• No, you can't have a rich 3D world, but you can have a game where the player doesn't have to download some client just to play and Linux or Mac user's aren't excluded because you haven't gotten around to building a client for them yet.
• Most of the top MMORPGs reward the players who are willing and able to work them like they are working a job. There are people clocking in 40 hours a week or more into the game of their choice. At the same time there are lots of people who would like to find a game they can play, but they can only afford a few minutes a day to do it and they don't like being made to feel like a stooge because they didn't put in enough hours this week. They're looking for something that doesn't require insane time commitments or $15/month in cost to play briefly every day. Many PBBGs specifically limit the player's playtime to 30 minutes or less per day via action points or ticks or some other mechanism. That acts as an equalizer and can be very appealing for someone who wants to play, but not live, in a game.
  
• Lastly, and I think this is one of the most important differences is that you can explore gameplay types that none of the big boys are even considering. Before anybody is tackling a big new MMORPG they're surveying all the popular ones, they're seriously considering buying a franchise in a popular property like The Lord of the Rings, Warhammer, Conan, or Strawberry Shortcake. And with all the popular ones being a little virtual world around the player's avatar, none of them are about to stray far away from that box. But you can look into all new kinds of gameplay. The kinds we are seeing today with designer board games. What about auction mechanics? Cooperative gameplay? Players who are simultaneously playing the game on a strategic and tactical level? Card driven mechanics mixed with area control and tile laying? Go look at the variety in the hot games on BoardGameGeek right now. They're literally all over the place in terms of gameplay, on different scales with completely different game mechanics. PBBGs can do all of those very same things and they can do them on a scale that no cardboard and dice game could ever achieve because it's limited by the realities of real people around a real game have.

Open up your mind a little and think about how your game can be different from other PBBGs and very very different from the big MMORPGs. Now, with all that said, in an upcoming post I'll lay out what I think are the three big unsolved problems are that PBBGs have that board games don't have.