Update? Update!

Updating. If you have a digital device, you probably have experienced this by now. The voodoo of said process escapes the general public in most cases. Something is downloaded, a bar goes left to right and done. And then reboot, more often than not.

This process is wildly different from one manufacturer of the device to the next. Even within the same device (i.e. a Windows machine) it's often different from each single bit of code to the next. The experiences range from pretty much not noticing it except that small unobtrusive note saying it has been updated, to a gargantuan task, ending in you reinstalling the entire machine. Depending on what you are updating, you want to know it happens, and what happened, and in very many cases, you don't really care.

So what is the current MMO developer to do?



When your current gen developer (including all the way back to 1997 Ultime Online) has a new patch they have to tell you about it. Granted, you might want to know what changed in the game you are sinking a good portion of your time into, but is it that important that I have to read it every single time I start the game? Or that I have to click away a box, because I just want to get into the game quickly for now, and read it later? And then where did it go, if it stays away after that initial click? Have I missed something? Might I miss something very important if I don't sit down and read carefully what is written?

These boxes annoy me to no end. I have yet to meet a person who likes them. If I want to read it, I will. Forcing it in my face, in an almost guilt tripping way to get me to read it, will just be counter productive.

A better approach lies in subtlety. If there is an update before the client can truly open, you can give an option to show the patch notes at that point, but not delay the user from getting into the game because of it. The very first indicator of speed to the user is, how long until they can do something. And if it's just entering their password. So get the user as quickly as humanly possible there, then add information on that screen. An example would be to show the player a line of text, including the date of the last update and the version number. If there is a new update since the last time they started the client, highlight it in some way. Upon clicking that line, a browser opens on the machine, with the URL to the patch notes for this specific item. The users get there is something important, they can skip it and they can at any time get back to it. Meanwhile they are not hindered in getting to what they want, the game.

I can already hear that some think now this is stupid, simple, and others do that already. EVE Online for example has something rather similar at the moment. Not the same, but close enough. But doing this right is an important factor. As updates are one of the major features any MMO worth anything at all has, this is very actively perceived by the users. If updating means a painless process they barely if at all notice, making their game better, then you got a winner.

Which is where EVE has a shortcoming. Not ripping on EVE, just holding this one bit up as an example where there is room for improvement. There are worse. The process is very illogical to the general population. You start the client, you get the login mask and then all of a sudden your client decides, it might be time for an update. Ok, you click, let there be an update. Promptly it downloads something, indicated by a progress bar and within a couple seconds it's done, even though there was mention of a 100 MB download. You are surprised at the speed of said download but don't think much of it, you want to game, now. Clock of and bang the client closes. After the initial shock, you see your desktop and a new application starting on the desktop. This is the actual updater. It will now download and install your updates, not telling you really anything about them or where you can find out about them. That privilege is saved up for after the update is done, the client is automatically restarted (or not) and you can then click on a link to read up what just happened.

You can see the awkwardness of this process.

If a user logs in once a month, you have not much of a choice to update them before they start the game in many cases. Very general program parts need to be patched with the client not running in most cases. But a lot of what the game is made out of, is actually bits and pieces that get loaded when needed. And a large number of players will play the game a couple of times per week at least. So here is a proposal for a different way of updating.

While the client is active, no matter if the player is gaming or not, the client will try to update itself. It will download files needed and replace them if possible in runtime (unload X and reload it with Y). Now this will work just fine with most cosmetic changes, such as models textures, font sizes, positions and the likes. With program code this might not always be the best option. Still, the client will download the updates while the game runs.

The screams reverberate in my skull about the performance and lag and so on this causes the player. If the player is in combat, this process stops. If the player is in a dangerous area or a high traffic one, it is throttled. The game play takes priority, that much is clear.This also gives you other opportunities, like deciding when to actually run the update. You could roll out the data for the update, then set a switch date where it actually becomes active. If in the large patch you are trying to bring online, you notice a mistake at the last minute, you just fix that last bit, roll out that one as well, before actually switching everything on as update.

The actual update process happens when you start the client. In most cases that should be just a couple seconds of time, to move the files around, maybe run some code at most and then your client is up to date. Show the one liner about the update and the gamers wont even have noticed anything about the whole process.

It takes a bit more work on the back end of things. The payout of your users being happier about the process and don't start groaning the closer it gets to patch day, or feel pissed off because now they have to wait half an hour to get to their activity of playing the game, is so worth it.