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Quake Live, Ideas for Success
Author: Roger LaMarca Published: 2008-08-24	(Post a Comment)

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    It might seem like an open and shut case, but giving a game away for free these days does not guarantee success. The current market is flooded with a plethora of games for everyone to choose from. id Software though is no stranger to releasing their games for free and watching a vast player base rally behind their content. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory has already shown that id's idea of using Quake Live as a test bed for future games in the Quake series can work. Although enormous amounts of gamers in the past few years have turned to games such as World of Warcraft, a game such as Quake Live as a strong possibility to lure many back to the first person shooter arena. I've talked with many of people over the past few years that had played Quake3 in the past, but have switched over to other games. Is it possible to bring them back to Quake3? Is it possible to bring Quake3's player statistics back to when it first was released back in 1999 or to an even greater number? Will players be comfortable playing Quake3 inside an advertisement based environment? Quake3 had an up hill battle when it was first released in 1999. At that time, most gamers did not even have broadband to play on or the proper graphics card to play the game with. What most would consider one of the best pure first person shooters multiplayer games of all time never reached the pinnacle of success it deserved. If marketed correctly and released with polished features, Quake Live has a great chance to capture a sizable part of the online gaming market.

Third Party Developers

A screenshot from the popular RocketArena3 modification for Quake3.

    The entire Quake series has always thrived on the great modifications and levels developed for the community. While id Software has supported and continues to support the developer community, most recently with Quake4, an even greater involvement is needed. Having people make free content for your game is a great strategy, but Quake3 relied too heavily upon it. Quake Live's in-game advertisement based structure can allow id to bring developing content for Quake Live to a new level. While the latest generation of games has made it harder than ever for community developers to make new content, Quake3's past has shown that mod and maps authors are clearly able to develop amazing content. I believe allowing developers to cash in on the revenue made from Quake Live, would be a great idea to spur third-party development. Mod and maps designers have always been willing to develop content for nothing in return, but having their work played inside a ad-based environment might change their opinion. A system could be put in place, where developers would register their content with Quake Live, allowing the system to track the number of players who played their mod or map and distribute the revenue accordingly. Something akin to Google's AdSense would be a great idea. Most third party developers probably would not be in it solely for the money, but it sure can be a great incentive and help grow Quake Live into a very vibrant community. 

    Another issue that could stop third party developers from designing content for Quake Live is the game's lifespan. The retail version of Quake3 is an entity that will be with us indefinitely. If the Quake Live concept were to go away, the content developed to work inside the game could be made non liable and the developer's hard work would not be able to played without the service being online.

    A simple way for Quake Live to immediately have a massive collection of custom content would be offer developers a trouble-free way to port their modifications and levels to Quake Live. Level designers would most likely have the advantage here, but with the help of id Software, mod authors could also have a chance to port their content over to the new Quake Live code base. The converting tool could either be an online process where remote servers take care of the conversion or a application that would allow authors to port over their work. I am sure if the process easy enough, we would see many development teams interested in porting their content over.

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By maxtothemax  July 04, 2008

Score: 0    (Reply)   

The only bad idea in the article is allowing developers to get ad revenue in return for content creation. HELLO! 3rd party content for other games would disappear overnight! Even standalone games could get dropped in the mad rush to get a piece of the ad revenue pie.

By Anonymous Quaker  May 26, 2008

Score: 0    (Reply)   

Yeah, Release that shit, i am waiting for the BASH ! Greetingz from Germany ..Quake 3 - Game of Life^ Shoutz

By Anonymous Quaker  April 27, 2008

Score: 0    (Reply)   

awesome :), Although I have the q3ctf1 map source or a remade version,

By Anonymous Quaker  April 14, 2008

Score: 0    (Reply)   

"the general idea of the project could have been already designed and implemented by a third party if they choose to" check out: http://www.openarena.ws/

By orangecat  February 26, 2008

Score: 0    (Reply)   

good ideas :)

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