OOC - When to Make a New Game?

One of the great things about Ongoing Worlds is the ease through which someone can create a game. The ability for anyone, even those with no programing nor web design skills to design games that people enjoy is the one of the primary reasons that OW is a popular site.

One of the things I find frustrating about OW is the ease through which anyone, even people who have little intention of putting forth the effort to make a successful game, can put up something that often only succeeds in blocking the visibility of other potentially successful games.

With those two conflicting ideas in mind, I'd like to discuss making new games and when it is/is not appropriate to make a new game.

In my experience, making a new game that people will actually want to join requires a lot more than just pressing the "Create Game" button a few times and writing a one paragraph description of what you want your game to be about. Tragically, a substantial number of games that are created look like this, and unsurprisingly, nobody joins these games.

Most people will at least add a game picture, make a character, and/or create an introduction post, but in general, I think we can agree that if you are not willing to complete the "things to do" list that appears once you've created a game, you shouldn't be creating a game in the first place. And if you do create a game and then you realize you don't want to put in the time to make your game decent, the polite thing to do is to delete your game, because otherwise you are just pushing someone else's game off the "New Games" list, and that visibility is a nice thing to have.

With that established, now the question becomes, "If I am willing to put the time and effort into making a game great, is that all I need?" For the most part, I think the answer is "Not quite," although I think that the passion of the creator is certainly a critical factor, as I mentioned in a previous post (which can be found here). I discussed the things I like to see in games in that post, so if anyone wants to design a game that I'm going to want to join, do those things.

Anyway, so now you have designed a game that people should actually like, and in all likelyhood, some people will probably join it fairly soon. However, here's the thing: Most people who regularly look at Ongoing Worlds are not just getting on and reading some stuff while waiting for someone to make that perfect game so that they can join it. In actuality, most people who are likely going to join games at some point are people who are already in games, and these people also have the added benefit of having experience. However, most of these people are also quite occupied with the game or games that they are in at the moment, so they may not have the time to join your game the moment you create it. So if you've created a game that is really worth joining, try not to get discouraged if nobody joins it the first few days of its creation. Unless someone spams a bunch of new games or a bunch of people suddenly decide to make new games, your game should have visibility on the OW homepage for quite some time. If nobody has joined your game by the time it gets knocked off that list, your best bet is to either copy down everything, delete your game, and try again, or you could post your idea on this platform and ask if anyone has interest in or suggestions for your game.

Another thing to consider before making your game is whether or not there are already similar games with life in them that are currently running on OW. There is a fairly limited pool of active players on OW, so if you put up your game when there already is a game of the same genre running, you will likely find yourself competing with that game for players, and both games will be weaker if you create your game while that game has life. Therefore, the ideal and ethical thing to do in such a scenario is to shelve your game idea until such a time that no real competition exists before you put up your game. If you are looking for something to do and you don't want to join the game that is similar to yours, you can instead look at the currently active games and either join one of those, or develop an idea that is different from all of those games.

I think that is all I have for now. So what do you guys think? When do you think that making a game is appropriate? Do you think that a little bit of competition is okay?