| "Nice to meet all of you. My name is Dr. D'Plae. I know everything about
DirectPlay. Questions?" |
 |
 |
"Yes, hi there. I'm looking for game developers to do great games
on an unlimited budget...and I especially like working with smart guys!" |
|
|
|
| "Why should I consider supporting DirectPlay?" |
"Microsoft is pouring millions into developing
DirectPlay and marketing it as a network and online games standard. Many
online services (such as AOL and ImagiNation) are supporting it. It
is the defacto-standard. Basically you write to it once and play it on many
services with no further custom programming." |
| "Why should I use the ImagiNation extensions found on the DirectPlay
CD?" |
"Because you want your title to take advantage of the features that
best show-off that service. It will differentiate you from all the other
plain titles that run on the same service. Also, there are some cool
value-added features that ImagiNation will support on top of DirectPlay
for their network service. This extra stuff will run on AOL - the world's
largest online audience." |
"Will adding ImagiNation extensions mess up my game outside of The
ImagiNation Network?" |
"No worries! Our extensions enhance the playing experience for our
members. If your game is run outside of our environment it will work just
as well as it ever did without our extras." |
| "Why do I care if my game is lobbyable? Why is supporting community
such a big deal?" |
"Human beings
are social animals. We come together to play, to chat, and to interact. Games
have proven to be more marketable when they can be folded into a social
community. With DirectPlay, and our extensions, your game generates a community
of interest filled with a cross-mixture of players playing longer hours
and demanding more." |
 |
"Hello, I am a games company executive and it is my responsibility to make sure that our shareholders make money."
|
| "How do I make or save money on this stuff?" |
"You will save money because your company no longer has to spend development
dollars reinventing communications software. In fact, DirectPlay makes
you money by giving you the opportunity to run your games on more services. It will be easier to do deals with online service
companies since there will be fewer technology conversion issues." |
| "Will my developers ask me to buy more PCs, more hardware or more software
because of this?" |
"No, you should be able to use your existing equipment if it is up-to-date." |
| "Will this make people work harder? |
"This will help you hit ship dates earlier because you will have less to develop from scratch,
debug, integrate, test, etc." |
| "How will this agreement increase the overall usage metrics, re-distribute
market share, decrease $ per development line per bug ratios, and blah,
blah, blah..." |
"Oh, uh, let's see how can I put this. When everybody
gets behind one good way of doing things, especially the basic types of
things that are in DirectPlay, then everyone in the market benefits - especially
consumers. Why re-invent the wheel?" |
|
 |
"Yeah, I am the corporate lawyer and frankly I am a little worried." |
| Will my company be protected using your software? Are there any potential lawsuits in my future? |
"The stuff is promoted and supported by Microsoft. They've committed
to providing it to developer's worldwide through a royalty-free license.
There's nothing to fight over. More free software for developers to write, and more software for Windows - that's the bottom line!" |