Web-based MMOs on Facebook versus standalone websites: chief ohai Susan Wu analyzes the tradeoffs

Our first MMO, City of Eternals, can be played within Facebook, and on its main site, CityofEternals. The game experience is significantly different, depending on the platform you play, but they both have advantages for the developer. On her personal blog, chief ohai Susan has very interesting player data on this point. For example:

When people play embedded through Facebook, their usage pattern looks something like this: 5-6 minute sessions about 8-10 times a day. So they are round tripping in and out of the game world many times a day. When people play directly at the City of Eternals site, they’ll play for 20+ minute sessions 2-3 times a day.

So people playing City of Eternals on Facebook play the game more often but in shorter periods, while players hitting the City of Eternals site play for longer periods, but in less total daily sessions. Notably, the average daily play length comes out roughly the same: 40-60 minutes on Facebook, or 40-60 minutes on CityofEternals.com. However, the time spread is significantly different, and that suggests very different tradeoffs to both platforms. For the standalone site, Susan notes, “you have more control over the user experience” — but because it’s not embedded within a social network users are accustomed to visited many times a day, “you have to deal with a conversion rate hit of the first ‘try’.”

Much more here, including thoughts on turning users from “tourists” into “citizens”. That is, “Someone who is invested in the health, stability and future of the service they’re using.”

ohai — we’re in Forbes talking virtual goods!

Forbes has an article on virtual goods featuring chief ohai Susan, who explains why they’re a valuable commodity people are willing to pay for: They help us symbolically express how we feel about each other, and show off our own place in the world. Or as she puts it there: “It’s about relationship building, and things like rank and status.” Also, big ups to City of Eternals player and CoE Wikia fansite editor Greg, who tells Forbes about our community’s passion for buying items to pimp up their vampire cribs.

ohai — we’re in Ars Technica!

ohai, this is full of coolness: Michael Thompson of uber tech site Ars Technica features ohai in an article on up-and-coming social games attracting the interest of major game publishers. Sample:

Ohai’s vampire-themed MMO—which is admittedly a great deal of fun—allows players to engage in a fast-paced action story involving a civil war amidst a number of undead houses. For those of us who see no appeal in strategy games like Farmville of Mafia Wars, it’s a welcome alternative that plays like a cross between Diablo and World of Warcraft.

Much more here, including insights from chief ohai Susan.

ohai — our first MMO, City of Eternals, is in open beta! Here’s usage stats from our private alpha!

ohai everyone –

Today we’re excited to announce that our first MMO, City of Eternals, is coming out of private alpha! Now, anyone can go to CityofEternals.com, log in with their Facebook account, and get into our game world of vampire fun. (And if you just happen to be a hipster who’s over vampires, then what’s better than jumping into City of Eternals and inflicting your Smug Glance of Hipster Disdain on some vampires? Or if that doesn’t work, unleash your Self-Esteem Shield of Ironic Distance.)

Our first MMO should give you a taste of what ohai is all about: applying web development principles to game dev – rapid iteration, agile frameworks, and constant adaptation to the market. That also means City of Eternals is still evolving. Even though we’re “launching” this week, you’re going to see many changes, much more evolution. This isn’t your grandfather’s static MMO! You’ll see new content and features pretty much every week, if not every day. Because of the backend architecture and toolset that we’ve built, we’ve been able to get City of Eternals to public beta in 9 months with 3 engineers’ efforts. Game development in web style, baby!

As we launch, I want to share some player stats from our alpha test, which involved over 40,000 players. Unlike every other MMO out there, City of Eternals has a near-equal gender split: 60% male, 40% female, while 70% of our most active players are female — women like Nileena, who’s a dentist in the Bay Area, or Diana, who’s a professional violinist from Transylvania (it’s now known as Romania, but it’s most famous for being Dracula’s birthplace.) Then there are our experienced gamers like Greg, who does a great job with our player wiki, cataloging game missions, recipes, and much more.

We’re tremendously proud that our mission to make MMOs for everyone is so far paying off. We’re also honored to build products for customers who are so passionate about what we’re doing. Thank you, alpha testers!

Here’s some more data from our alpha test:

- Average time spent in game: 65 minutes
- Most active players spend 7+ hours per day in game
- 42% active users play multiple sessions daily
- Our most active player in the last 7 days, Tanya, has averaged 12.77 hours every single day in game. In the last 30 days, Heather has averaged 10.85 hours every single day in game! Wow, that’s even more than our Community Manager Matt!

We’ve also been testing monetization of virtual currency for about a month — here’s some interesting early data:

- Average transaction size of ohais (our in-game currency) is $16.50 – a number of people buy more than once.
- One of our passionate players has already spent $584 in the last 30 days in City of Eternals! (wow! thank you!)
- Female purchasers: 44%, Male purchasers: 56%
- Generally speaking, male players buy less items overall but spend more on expensive individual items, while female players will buy many more items at lower prices.

While City of Eternals is free-to-play, we’re especially grateful to our players who’ve put their trust (and their money) in what we’re doing.

But as I say, this is just the beginning. Launching is just the start. There’s much more to come and so much more hard work to do. We’ll be sharing stats and insights on our blog frequently, so be sure to subscribe to our feed.

<3,
susan, chief ohai

Games.com Interviews Chief ohai Susan!

Games.com has an extensive interview with Susan, our chief ohai, who covers many topics pertaining to our new Vampire MMO, City of Eternals, and around the ohai philosophy of MMOs. Here’s a sample:
Read more…

CNET Wonders: Will City of Eternals Become Bigger Than World of Warcraft?

Ohai, here’s a gratifying write-up of ohai from Dave Rosenberg of CNET, nicely titled, “Is Ohai the next big thing in social games?“. Very smart analysis of the existing social games/MMO market, and where our first game, City of Eternals, may fit in. Our favorite money quote:

Maybe I’m crazy, but by next year, I think there’s a good chance the most popular MMO on the market won’t be World of Warcraft, but City of Eternals, or another game that crosses the boundaries between MMO and socialized gaming.

We hope so too!

ohai, We Have Press — TechCrunch and VentureBeat!

Gratifying media coverage of City of Eternals and ohai: “So far it’s working,” reports TechCrunch Internet guru Michael Arrington. “I do believe that this is the beginning of a new wave of social gaming.” Over at the influential VentureBeat, Dean Takahashi observes, “Ohai has a real opportunity… City of Eternals can tap into the growing popular interest in the romance, action and dark humor of vampires.” Stay tuned for more!

ohai — Announcing City of Eternals, Our Modern Vampire MMO!

This week I’m proud to announce City of Eternals, the first full-featured online game (often called an MMO) set in a world with modern vampires. Request a private alpha invitation here, we’re giving them out as quickly as we can.

We’ve been building out the core technology for about a year now. City of Eternals went into production about 9 months ago, incorporating a few design elements from our early social games from 2007, and from our even earlier work developing the world’s very first MMOs back in the 1990s. I’m proud to say that ohai team members were leading innovators and developers of text-based MUDs and large scale game franchises such as Everquest, Everquest 2, PlanetSide, Asheron’s Call, Star Wars Galaxies, Second Life, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Second Life and Free Realms. I’m honored to be working with this fantastic team.

With City of Eternals, we’re taking social games and MMOs to their next stage of evolution: An action-filled, web-based experience with 3D graphics playable not just within Facebook, but anywhere on the web, starting with CityofEternals.com, and soon, anywhere you can host the game’s Flash client, such as blogs and social network pages.

In New Valencia, your vampire will battle powerful monsters, uncover mysteries and secrets, and earn a place among many rival vampire Houses fighting to control this secret society of Immortals. But that’s just the start: Fall in love with a fellow Vampire, lead your own personal coven (which we call your “House”), customize your home and avatar look, and much more. Choose the way you want to play a Vampire! Over the next few months, we’ll continue adding features and new content, so our world can better reflect the big diverse culture of the bloodthirsty undead.

Our game is still growing and improving, and we’d love your feedback to make it better. Meantime, look for me in New Valencia — my avatar is also named Susan, a Vampire dressed in hot red boots (I wish I had these in real life!) If you spot me, please say hello.

This is just ohai’s first MMO, by the way, with many more of all varieties to come. Meanwhile, see you in the City of Eternals!

- Susan, chief ohai