Formerly titled, “Brayden Olson, Novel Interactive and Empire & State” (updated October 26, 2010, title changed November 13, 2010)
When I posted my previous piece, Brayden Olson’s company was called “Novel Conception”. He has since graduated from Seattle University, been mentioned in an article in Businessweek magazine, changed the name of the company to “Novel Interactive” around May, moved into a new office space at Gas Powered Games, changed the company name again in October to “Novel Incorporated” and taken his new game in a somewhat different direction than World of Warcraft or Asheron’s Call. The Novel Incorporated team took some inspiration from Puzzle Pirates and decided to use the Persistent Browser-Based Game (PBBG) model for their “first-of-its-kind new massively multiplayer game for release in the U.S., France, Germany and South Korea.”
“Our games have no levels, no grind and are about more than just combat. Our first product is a game, our second is not.” – Novel-Interactive.com
Media courtesy of Novel Interactive.
On May 26, 2010, Novel Interactive launched the website for their upcoming game Empire and State. The overview on the website informs us that the game is “inspired by the freedom and scale of games such as Ultima Online, Asheron’s Call, and Alpha Centauri”. In light of previous information divulged regarding their first game, it could be conjectured that the Puzzle Pirates and PBBG model influence may be along the lines of in-game alliances, economies and monetizing the game itself. However, IGN revealed on October 1, 2010 that this was not the method of monetization Novel, Inc. will be going with.
Media courtesy of Novel Incorporated.
In IGN’s Empire and State Preview, it was revealed that Novel, Inc. was developing a browser-based massively-multiplayer real-time strategy game (MMORTS) taking inspiration from Civilization V. The “social strategy MMO” will consist of ten cities, “populated with player-run stores of varying level and function. One may take raw materials and process them into something useful, like turning logs into planks, or take these more useful materials and create weapons and items that players need. You can’t, we’re told, do both. …These businesses will also serve as a source of ‘quests’ for players.” Empire and State will include an electoral system described as “interesting”. Players will campaign for elected offices and other players will vote. Travel is an available option by way of a series of hexes (as it is in Civilization V), with moves regenerating over time. Characters can eventually create a party of drones (“robots who act as characters”) and travel the world. “Combat is stat-based and will use dice-rolls to figure out who wins, and how much damage is dealt”. Game play for city-mode will resemble Sim City. The player-driven economy of Empire and State integrates microtransactions with actual real-world money, “which will be used to buy player-made in-game advertisements” for political campaigns, wanted posters for political rivals, or advertisements for your store.
IGN’s “interesting” description of Empire and State’s electoral and economic model sounds exactly like the one in eRepublik which is not even as well-realized as the beta release of Virtual Nations. Empire and State’s combat mode sounds similar to eRepublik’s recently introduced Military Module which also included a pattern of hexes. The module itself was discontinued due to the overall contempt that it garnered from it’s users due to it’s slow PvP timers and economic cost (Note: wars cost money). The monetization model may still have the same in-game economic problems as eRepublik’s gold-based economy. When someone can get ahead by buying in-game items, resources or currency the end result looks a lot like real-world inflation. In-game ads will only be bought if they generate meaningful results for the player. If you advertise your business, it should result in increased sales. Nothing is mentioned regarding how players would gauge their progress by buying ads for guile and self-aggrandisement. Hopefully, Empire and State will feature competitive advertising rates that fluctuate with the in-game economy and ban currency purchasing through microtransactions.
So far, it would appear that the most dramatically original feature of Empire and State will be cities beautifully realized in 3D, based on atmospheric concept art.
Sign up for their alpha testing here.
Shedding light on the other non-game-related intellectual property, Olson has said, “‘I look at Novel as being a leader in the future of virtual reality…If we can help businesses with simulations, it can put us in position to be at the cutting edge of R&D.’”
Sounding like the reverse of the company depicted in the Jason Reitman film, “Up In The Air” (that is, a contractor that specializes in firing your employees), XEconomy.com writer Gregory T. Huang states:
“Here’s what that might look like. A company might evaluate its prospective employees’ leadership and teamwork skills by having a group of job candidates enter a game-like computer simulation where each person controls a virtual character. The simulation would present the group with various management problems, or other business situations. By watching how each person performs and interacts with others, the company could potentially learn more about them than it would in a run-of-the-mill interview. And if done right, it could be more time-efficient as well.”
Final note:
eRepublik has accumulated a fiercely loyal following of around 250,000 active players over nearly four years with publicity. It was developed by two programmers in Madrid, Spain.
Virtual Nations has a loyal following of over 2700 citizens in less than a year without publicity and is yet to begin monetization. It was developed by one programmer in Australia.
