PCShooter: What is the future of multiplayer gaming?

Name:  Ken Veale
Company: RayLogic
President/ Game Designer/ Dark Ore

<Ken V> I, and only I, am able to see the real future of multiplayer gaming.  Unfortunately, you must have G3 clearance before I can share that information with you. At risk on my life though, I can offer that maybe we might see the 'thin client' model of gaming becoming the norm, as faster connections to the internet become standard. Just click on a web page and within seconds a fullscreen, hardware-accelerated game is ready to play. (i'm not talking solitaire here). no fuss, no muss, no download and install, no trip to the store. the actual game code remains on an anonymous server somewhere (happly charging your credit card every hour).

PCShooter:  Where do you see the gaming industry heading?

<Ken V> I see games becoming super realistic, with physics catching up to graphics. Ironically, at the same time, I see players becoming more easily bored with games, causing a resurgence of emphasis on game design.

PCShooter: What is the future of multiplayer gaming?

Name: Ken Levine

Company: Irrational Games

Co-Founder/ Executive producer/ Freedom Force

<Ken L> That's a pretty broad question. The Mod community is super important to this. The whole Half-Life/Firearms/TFC etc. community clearly attests to this. We've bought into the mod model pretty heavily and Mods will be a key part of all future Irrational PC products.

PCShooter:  What are you currently working on?

Two games, Freedom Force, a superhero tactical RPG for the PC with neat-o destructible environments and, of course, superheroes (plus the ability to make your own heroes, levels, etc.) and The Lost, a next-gen survival horror game for the PS2 that will re-define the genre. Or at least my mom thinks so. They rock, but don't take my word for it. Next year you can spend 49.95 MSRP to prove I'm a liar. (disclaimer: I have no idea what the actual price of the game is going to be, so tell my publisher not to sue me).

PCShooter: What is the future of multiplayer gaming?

Name: Kenn Hoekstra

Company: Raven Software

Project Administrator/ Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force

<Kenn H> Bigger and better. It's a wired world that we live in and Internet speed and technology is improving daily.  Soon, every Internet connection will be fully digital and work with blazing speed.  The 56k modem will go the way of the dinosaur and the multiplayer-only games of today will pave the way for the bigger and better multiplayer online games of tomorrow.  I honestly don't see this genre going away anytime soon...especially with the growing popularity of deathmatch and team games and massively multiplayer games like EverCrack.  =)

Name: Herb Flower

Company: Rewolf Software

President, Lead Designer/ Gunman Chronicles

<Herb F> The future is...crowded.  It seems that there will be 50 massive multiplayer games soon. Then you've got the less massive, more intense TF2 type games... and mods for those such as Counter Strike for Half-Life. There will be a whole lot of choice. Hopefully enough people jump online and fill them up-- a massive multiplayer game with 50 people playing would be...lonely. They sure are addicting though!

Name: Warren Spector

Company: Ion Storm

Game Designer/ Deus Ex

<Warren S> Heck if I know! It'd surprise me if you didn't see more co-op stuff, with small groups participating in what were, until recently, exclusively single-player type experiences. I hope we see more compelling (or, at least, more varied) game styles than just the traditional shooters we've seen so far. I mean, capture the flag is more interesting than straight deathmatch and there are some interesting variants showing up in multiplayer games but it's still all about adrenalin-inducing, heart-pumping, blood-spurting action. I have nothing against that kind of stuff but, man, I wish there was more variety.

PCShooter:  What made you change from Deus Ex a single player game to Deus Ex a mutiplayer game?

<Warren S> Nothing MADE us change. Some early tests showed that a multiplayer game based on some of DX's core design decisions would play and feel different than anything else out there -- and it promised to be a lot of fun. We had some development resources available to work on the multiplayer version while some other team members did early pre production work on DX2. Multiplayer is clearly part of everyone's future and we had the opportunity to develop some in-house expertise we didn't have. Throw those factors together and the decision to do a DX multiplayer patch wasn't tough.

 PCShooter: What is the future of multiplayer gaming?

Name: Jon Gwyn 

Company: Shiny Entertainment

Character Modeler/ Sacrifice

<Jon G> I would suppose that the online community will become more and more focused on clubs and clans and other groups that come together to play. I believe you will see a lot more tournaments and squad based games that can create a loyal online fan base that will continue to support the games from initial release to subsequent expansions and sequels. Dedicated servers set up by the publisher also seems to be

the next wave after the continued success of systems like Blizzards Battlenet. Lastly, its obvious by now that the persistent online games coming out are going to be sucking in huge amounts of people and their cash, so I would expect there is no end in site to the amount of these types of games that will be appearing soon.

Name: Tim Williams

Company: Planet Moon

Senior Producer / Giants: Citizen Kabuto

<Tim W> I will tell you after I play Fantasy Star Online. I am interested in how you make a patchless massively multiplayer experience. :)

Name: Chacko Sonny

Company: Savage Entertainment

CFO/3D Artist / Battlesuit MK1

<CS> Whoa. That's a wide open question.  Not to go off on too many tangents, I'd say the biggest trends we'll see going forward are: a) massively multiplayer gaming, b) persistent universes, and c) multiplayer gaming hitting the mainstream via consoles.  I don't think anyone who plays PC games right now doubts the first two. There are so many great MMP games in development right now, there's little doubt that at least one of them will hit. Who isn't waiting for the Star Wars MMPORPG? We're seeing evidence of the last trend right now with the DreamCast games like NFL 2K1. Once you have Mom, Dad, and Junior in the living room, playing another Mom, Dad and Junior across the country, then we'll start to see some real numbers for multiplayer gaming.

Name: No One Lives Forever Team

Company: Monolith Productions

No One Live Forever

<NOLF Team> The number of players participating in multiplayer gaming has certainly increased over the years and will undoubtedly continue to increase. This will pave the way for more multiplayer only focused games. However, we also believe that there will always be a large percentage of the population that simply feels too intimidated to participate in a multiplayer experience. Joining a game of Quake or Everquest is not a simple and painless process! It is difficult and often embarrassing for new users. As multiplayer gaming becomes less intimidating, this barrier to entry will decline, but this will take some time and may always remain to a certain extent. In addition, there are games that simply don't fit the multiplayer mode, including games that focus more on story and creating a cinematic experience for the player.  Singleplayer and multiplayer gaming will likely always exist side by side, each appealing to a slightly different type of gamer with plenty of overlap as well. 

Name: Michael Chang Gummelt 

Company: Raven Software

Programmer/ Writer/ Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force

<Mike G> I think it will continue to grow, but I honestly don't know what the cap is on the size of that market. Until computers and high bandwidth access become much more common, I don't think the multiplayer market will grow by any great leaps and bounds beyond its current level. I think there's a lot of redundancy of clients between the different multiplayer online games-the same guy might be playing Tribes, Unreal Tournament, EverQuest and Ultima Online.  So, for the immediate future, I see a lot of competition for a limited number of dedicated online players.

Name: Keith Fuller

Company: Raven Software  

Programmer/ Soldier Of Fortune Gold Edition

<Keith F> Heh. Wish I knew. I think people will continue to enjoy team- and goal-oriented games, perhaps more so than the traditional "deathmatch" gameplay, as we've seen with the popularity of recent releases. 

PCShooter:  Were you pleased with the success of soldier of fortune?

<Keith F> I, personally, am very, very pleased with the success of SOF. Considering that something like 90% of all games made in a given year fail to even make back their development costs, I feel incredibly fortunate to have worked on a project that has resulted in such note worthy acceptance by the gaming public.

PCShooter:  What is the future of multiplayer gaming?

Name: Dan Kramer

Company: Raven Software  

Assistant Lead Programmer/ Soldier Of Fortune Gold Edition

<Dan K> Well, one thing for sure, it's here to stay. I certainly don't think it spells the demise of single-player games by any means. But, with more and more people getting hooked up to the 'net each day with faster and faster connections, multiplayer gaming is and will continue to be a fertile playground for game development. I'd predict that due to its popularity, persistant-world gaming will spread its tendrils far beyond the realm of just role-playing games. I could certainly see persistent-world real-time strategys, traditional strategy/war games, shooters, and even sports games as things that'll be coming down the pike in the not-so-distant future. Are you pleased with SoF's success? 

PCShooter:  What is next for Soldier of Fortune?

<Dan K> Both the critical and financial success of SoF are supremely gratifying. No plans have been announced for any more Sof games, but if I were a gambling man, I'd wager you haven't seen the last of John Mullins.