Darth Hater

Retention as it Relates to Star Wars: The Old Republic

We previously touched on our opinion regarding BioWare and LucasArts focusing on avoiding common MMO problems as a basis of our speculation articles. Many of the common problems relating to the retention success and failures were highlighted in BioWare Austin's Co-Studio Director Gordon Walton and consultant Scott Hartsman's GDC session, "MMO Retention -- Learning From The First 25 Years." During the talk, these industry veterans provided some insight into possible retention strategies in Star Wars: The Old Republic. We spent over a month listening to this presentation, debating all of its points, and dissecting it to find all the clues we believe are hidden within.
The pressure to retain customers gets stronger as you acquire more of them because you constantly lose a portion of your base over time; this is true of any industry. "We don't want to make easy opportunities for customers to exit," explained Gordon Walton. For an MMO to be truly successful, the experience must be so compelling that you continue to play, and eventually become an evangelist of the game itself. Additionally, they need to identify these evangelists and give them the tools to do what they do best: getting more people to play the game in their own language.

Walton also stressed fulfilling the promise of "always on, 24 x 7 x 365" by firmly stating that developers must establish ongoing service and support as relational to not having a static game. He describes this as a "horizon of experience," meaning there always needs to be someplace new for players to explore and experience. Walton believes that if people think they've found the edges and seen everything, then they may feel that they "won the game," and quit. This acknowledgment leads us to believe we're in for a heightened schedule of content updates as subscribers, possibly meaning something on a regular basis instead of a more sporadic one -- and not just for one play style.

If you think of it as an inverse of other MMOs, then this logic begins to makes sense. Instead of artificially prolonging existing content until the next batch is ready, they are going to be more proactive about supplying new content so there isn't a lull in between major updates. And we think it can't simply apply to just PvE; too many MMO developers regard PvP strictly "player-created content" without regularly providing fresh, engaging structures or scenarios for players to master.

However, there needs to be a comfort zone when it comes to implementing such changes: it can't be overly repetitive to the point where the player feels the experience isn't rewarding. There is a finite population of masochists in the world, and Walton chuckled as he stated that if a developer chooses to focus on catering to them, then he wishes them the best of luck. Most people really want a lot of variety while staying in their comfort zone of play.

Walton also felt that Everquest's leveling experience was too hardcore (he actually used the word "sadistic" to describe it), and Everquest2's mentoring service was an improvement. But it is also important to point out that the major concept in MMORPG retention was "praying to the God of Repetition and you will be rewarded" -- i.e. The Grind. If The Grind isn't well masked, then retaining subscribers won't go so well as a result. There needs to be new ways of implementing character progression where you feel you are constantly making your character more powerful no matter what your play style. BioWare is setting itself up to be in a position where they have to constantly innovate and test those innovations because the last thing they want you to do is "poke through that veil and think you are doing the same stupid stuff over and over again." And Walton reassured us that the best thing is not to make "stupid things" at all.

People don't like to feel dumb playing a game, and instead feel like "if I spend time applying myself, then I have more skill, and my character gets more powerful (as a result)." And on the same topic of the importance of player mastery, developers need to stop viewing some things as "exploits" or negative actions because the player feels the exact opposite, i.e. "I'm using the game rules to make myself better." Walton alluded to cries for balance in a MMO might be something the developers eschew a bit for one reason: sometimes a slight imbalance is fun for the player, and the developers shouldn't be pitted against the player for it.

As the session continued, Walton pointed out one of the key drivers of retention in an MMO is a "persistence of the data, and the persistence of what you've actually done in the world stays there. That is one of the biggest promises made to people, and believe me, not being persistent is very anti-retention. All you have to do is mess with their data, and you can pretty much guarantee their exit."