game Management Systems
December 27th, 2008 by Malcom

Hello, everyone, and happy holidays! It"s been a while since I"ve written anything here, and most of you are probably thinking "thank god I haven"t had to read any hateful posts from this asshole," but who couldn"t do with a little holiday negativity? No, no, I"m not here to bash the countless holiday events that game companies host in their virtual worlds. I"m not even here to post a subjective evaluation of a game I"ve played for only 10 minutes a la my Atlantica Online review. Today we"re going to take a look at Game Management Systems, and a couple in specific: PlayOnline, and Steam. If you"ve never heard of PlayOnline, all you need to know is that it currently stands as the best example of how to not build a game management system.

What the hell is a "Game Management System"?

Truth be told, it"s just a term I use to describe applications that handle digital content to make it easier for the users to obtain, play, and keep their virtual assets up-to-date; it"s a way to juggle many games at once. The most prominent example of such an utility is Steam. Like in the days of old, not every person had imaginary encounters with minotaurs, dragons, or angels but most people knew what they were; much in the same way everyone knows what Steam is supposed to do, even if they"ve never used it. These utilities promise a reliable, and most importantly, safe way to acquire games for yourself or others. Not only that, they"ll keep your games organized, so that all you really have to do is run that application, then pick whatever game you feel like playing. Wait, it gets even better. This tool will even keep track of your friends, what games they"re playing,¡¡and even allow you to join your friend"s game through the utility"s friend interface. The application even provides you with an in-game overlay you can use to talk to your friends, change the application settings, etc. It promises the ability to use all your favorite applications while in-game. That is, unless PLAYXPERT beats them to it(hurry up with those 64-bit versions, slackers!). Sounds great so far, right?

Well, hold on, I"m not done yet.

Everyone benefits from the existence and support of these applications. Developers can make their games available to an international audience without having to ship boxes there, thanks to digital distribution.¡¡Additionally, it promises the potential to reduce the price of games. How can it do this? Think of Wal-mart. They can sell goods at a much cheaper price because they sell a broader array of goods. Wal-mart also keeps low prices on goods by reducing the cost to make them; irrelevant when it comes to what we"re talking about, though, as there is virtually no cost in digital distribution(no box, CD, etc). By having so many games under one roof, and completely eliminating cost of shipping, cardboard, plastic, and media, games can be made available to the public much more cheaply. These companies can even bundle a bunch of games together, and sell them at a very affordable price. Hey, who wouldn"t want to buy over a dozen games for only 75USD[1]?

There"s more. These management systems can prevent piracy. By making game activation possible only to those who have the application, and only allowing people who have legit serial keys to play on legit servers, you can successfully prevent piracy. Arguably, anyone determined enough to crack a game will eventually find a way to play it for free. If the effort and time comes out to be worth less than the 50 bucks , then great. You must be some sort of game-cracking prodigy. Unfortunately, you"ll still miss out on having the most up-to-date version of the game, and any mod developed by communities of people who paid for the game.

So that"s it. This form of content delivery:

Is user-friendly.
Saves a ton of time spent on organizing games with your friends, and gives you more time to actually play with them.
Allows more people to purchase the games and encourages more companies to offer digital distribution to reach an international audience.
Can ultimately make games cheaper, as the companies running these applications have more games to sell, and can often bundle them for an amazing price.
Prevents piracy.
Good night, everyone!