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MCO

July 21st, 2005, By Duncan Gough

I’m defining a new TLA.

It’s now becoming clear that many MMO’s are a chore, mostly due to the boring business of creating a character that can explore and get into trouble. It seems that Massively Multiplayer Online games just aren’t the fun they’re meant to be. Massively Casual Online games, however, are where the real fun is. Puzzle Pirates, Neopets, Gaiaonline, Habbo Hotel, KartRider and now Dofus.

True, not all of these are ‘games’ as such, however, neither are a number of the mainstream MMOs (work, eat, sleep, repeat). In fact, most of these MCOs are community websites that have been elbowed and kinked into popularity with the use of game elements. Gaiaonline and Neopets being the prime examples. They’re viral communities that reward user loyalty with arcade style bonuses. They have virtual economies to supplement the purchase of extras where they make their profit. These browser based games are Massively multiplayer Casual Online games, hence, MCO.

There are 12 million registered KartRider users, a third of whom are female. Given the number of articles on Slashdot and the Guardian Games blog
that slavishly repeat the news that girls actually do play games in the Maoist hope that repeating this fact will result in more girl gamers, I’m surprised this isn’t bigger news. I’m also surprised that there aren’t any big Western MCOs around at the moment. Cute, funny, popular and even the membership graphs look good. Just think how popular a well produced Mini Golf MCO would be.

7 comments

• Suttree » Shoot out on the plantation replied:

  [...] ue engine at some point in the future. More pressingly though, it seems that my crusade to define a new TLA for Massively Casual Online games (MCO!) is gathering pace. There was a lot of discussion abo [...]

  July 26th, 2005 at 4:27 pm. Permalink.

• PC gaming is dead? at Suttree, Elixir for Immortal Baboon ~ Casual Games development replied:

  [...] My personal bet for the next wave of popularity in gaming is a brand of MMORPGs without the monotonous levelling-up process. A coming together of the pick-up-and-go nature of casual games with the compelling nature of virtual worlds, namely MCOs, Massively Casual Online games. [...]

  January 10th, 2006 at 11:53 pm. Permalink.

• Fast and links, MMARG at Suttree, Elixir for Immortal Baboon ~ Casual Games development replied:

  [...] And in MCO news, Seed is a ’social’ MMORPG (hence, MCO), that looks to be very interesting the quests/storylines will unfold like some sort of interactive fiction. Where the multiplayer aspect comes in is that these quests might actually involve other player-characters. For example, to complete one of your quests, an NPC might ask you to get a specific player-character elected to a particular position in the city’s government. [...]

  January 19th, 2006 at 6:07 pm. Permalink.

• Audition at Suttree, Elixir for Immortal Baboon ~ Casual Games development replied:

  [...] Via Gamers Daily, via Wonderland, another Korean MMO, but this time it looks suspiciously like an MCO. [...]

  January 25th, 2006 at 4:02 pm. Permalink.

• casualities at Suttree, Elixir for Immortal Baboon replied:

  [...] Elsewhere, there was a fun Hype vs. Real deal session that resulted in the admission that big portals don’t encourage community features in games since they don’t want their customers talking to other customers on a different portal. Along with the statement that ‘this begs for an open source API’, Bunchball seemed to loom large over our heads. Again, a lot of the discussion at the conference was about MMO’s, when it wasn’t about what makes a casual game(r). Whilst it was generally agreed that an MMORPG combined with a Casual Game would be big (the proverbial MCO, Massively Casual Online game that I’ve been harping on about for a while now), not once did anyone mention Puzzle Pirates. There’s no ‘if’ or ‘when’ regarding MCOs, Puzzle Pirates is living proof that Casual Games work in a permanent virtual world. Get down into the belly of your pirate ship and solve a few rounds of match-three style goodness to get the bilge pump working at full speed and you’ll see what I mean! [...]

  February 14th, 2006 at 6:40 pm. Permalink.

• Casual Game MMOs at Suttree, Elixir for Immortal Baboon replied:

  [...] True, a lot of these alternative remedies to the over-MUD-ification of MMOs at the moment has been successfully implemented in games like Puzzle Pirates, Go Pets, Albatross18 and NeoPets. However, the encouraging news is that the increasing number of MMO clones out there points to the fact that people are looking for a casual, or passive, MMO to play. An MCO, of course. [...]

  March 20th, 2006 at 11:10 am. Permalink.

• Casual Gaming, Passive Gaming at Suttree, Elixir for Immortal Baboon replied:

  [...] Primarily, the concept of Passive Gaming is strikingly similar to what I’ve been calling MCOs, Massively Casual Online games. “Passive web games are brilliant because they fit into your life in the same slot as ‘checking your email’ or ‘checking the sports scores’ or ‘checking your portfolio.’ it’s hitting a site. clickity, click. ‘okay. my turns are done for the day.’ and you’re done. [...]

  March 21st, 2006 at 8:13 am. Permalink.

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