Dennis56

(This was made easy to read so it doesn't matter if you're technical or not)

Most games fail after they are created. What the project leader didn't count on or didn't know is a little something called "business", at this point the project leader is happy and cheering that he has beaten the odds and created a multilayer game. Here are a few of the things that most likely will happen to your game.

Step 1: Few downloads/active players
So the you posts the game download on your site and wait.

The problem: You soon finds out that you has less or about a hundred or so download and less than 50 active players, you wonder whats up?

The truth: You didn't advertise, or advertised poorly. Posting the game on a few forums isn't really going to do the trick. It will attract people, but not that much people.

The solution: Banner ads are effective but it wont come cheap. Google offers a great service where you could pay them a few hundred(I believe it is 400$) a month to be listed first when users search for certain key words.

Step 2: The word Massive in Massively Multiplayer Online Game
So you realized your mistake, advertised and got about 1000 downloads and they were about 750 active players.

The problem: Your server crashed every time 100 people tried to play at the same time

The truth: You only purchased dedicated hosting!
If you would look at the specs of most dedicated host they would be:
Pentium 4 3.0ghz HT CPU (Core 2 duo or rare cases)
1 GB Ram

Now please tell me how that would even come close to supporting hundreds of thousands of players persistently

The solution: Buy your own servers, servers cost around 2000$-6000$* (Good ones), you would need about 20-30** to support around 100,000 people persistently. You would also need to purchase space in a server area to place your servers(which has 24/7 monitoring, daily backups, generator etc.)

So you don't have the money to publish a MMOG?

Solution #1(easy): Make your game a MOG(Multiplayer Online Game), that way you can just kick back and watch how people say good things about your game. Posting on forums about your game is good here, it will attract just enough attention.

Solution #2(medium-hard): Get your game published by another company.

What you will need
1. Be over 18 or have a representative from your team over 18
2. A couple hundred page design document going over your game
3. Scout out publishing companies that aren't huge
What this means, the game will be downloaded from their sites, they will pay for the servers. Your team will be mentioned at the beginning and on the credits.

Solution #3(hard): Get an investor.

What you will need
1. Be over 18
2. Have a team over 18
3. A couple hundred page design document going over your game
4. Good companies/investor scouting knowledge
5. Be willing to quit your job and get payed for your future contributions
6. Have a team that is willing to relocate
7. Have a team that is ready to quit their jobs and get payed for their future contributions.


Note: This is not to tell you that creating a game is impossible, it's very possible. It's just hard to make a Massively Multiplayer Online Game.
My suggestion is go with "Solution #1" it's easy and good.

* Numbers based on servers sold by Dell
** Estimation based on server specs sold by Dell
(I choose Dell for my estimation since their products are good and not too expensive)

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Khanstruct

Adding to what Dennis has already said, I'd like to throw in my 2 or 3 cents.

A large part of creating a successful game is planning, and knowing what to expect. For example, Dennis mentioned 20-30 game servers. This is a pretty good number. On average, a single server will host about 1000 players.

I know what you're thinking; you don't want to buy 100 servers to host 100,000 players. Don't worry, you don't have to. All of your players will not be online at the same time. Also, they will likely not be on the same server, and many won't be doing anything too terribly server-taxing (except for walking).

There are generally 3 categories of MMOs, as far as player-base goes.
1,000-250,000 players
250,000-750,000 players
750,000+ players

All of these are considered very successful categories and very profitable, assuming you properly balance your overhead with your income. To give you an idea of how many servers you may want to start; I believe Everquest had about 12 during its prime. (This is only game servers, it does not include database servers and such.)

Now, assuming you have some endless pile of money. How you might find that, I believe Dennis covered fairly well; Angel Investors, Private Investors, Venture Capitalists, the 3 F's (Friends, Family & Fools) and you could also possibly try Corporate Sponsorship.

So! You have your team (estimate 25 people); all dedicated to the same goal, all with vast experience and talent, lots of time and no social life.

You have your pile of cash (If you have enough cash... say $5 million, you might be able to pay your team very poorly, thus giving them all the time in the world).

Assuming you have all this, congratulations; you've made it further than 99% of would-be developers. That's not sarcasm, I'm serious. That 99% is tough to overcome. But you're not done yet.

Development begins. The $5 million should be enough to carry you through about 2 years, paying for salaries, equipment and bills. NOTE: I said 2 years. Your team had better be damn good. After those 2 years, you're simply out of money. If you don't have a game by then, you won't have a game. You'll be executing your "Exit Plan" which typically involves selling off your idea and equipment piece by piece. You lose the game, and if you're lucky, a year down the road, someone else will publish it. (Your name won't be mentioned anywhere and you won't see a dime.)

Now, considering the average online game takes about 3 years to develop (if not 4), you'd also better have some pretty impressive innovations up your sleeve to speed things along. For starters, don't even consider building your own engine or server architecture from scratch. There are plenty of free libraries out there; use them.

So, you put in the money, the relentless overtime, you've even survived your beta testing. Your game is complete and right on time. You call your friendly neighborhood distributor and tell them the wonderful news. They reply with, "What'd you say your name was again?" Before you finish spouting the title for your company (you'd better have a company by this point), they hang up.

Ah yes, even after all that hard work; after having millions in the bank; you're still a nobody. The truth is, companies like EA, Microsoft, Activision, Midway, etc., control distribution. If you haven't published a commercial title before, there is almost no chance you will see your product hit retail shelves.

I'll go into getting through this at a later date. I imagine you're not quite that far yet anyway.

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