Saving Gaming for the Rest of Us

"Anyone who can't make money off Sports Night doesn't deserve to be in the business of making money." —Aaron Sorkin, Sports Night

The game companies of the world are gathering this week in Los Angeles for E3 2013, a major conference in the world of game development. Electronic Arts will hold a press conference at 1:00 on Monday.

I am looking at the E3 site, and other sites about gaming, like AppData, which tracks numbers of users for all apps on Facebook.

I am trying to make sense of the larger world where it makes economic sense for a corporation to spend over $300 million buying a successful company and to throw that investment away less than four years later, as Electronic Arts is doing with Playfish and its products.

Pet Society is still up there on AppData, as EA's third most popular game, with over 100,000 individual players each day, and over 1 million players a month. Some companies should be very happy to have those numbers. Pet Society is still ranked 157 overall, in AppData's odd way of lumping online games in with Yahoo, Yahoo toolbar, Bing, and Pinterest as apps. This is technically correct, but in terms of how real people use computers, lumping apples with oranges.

And I'm thinking, EA, do you actually enjoy being named Worst Company in America for two years in a row by Consumerist? Are you going for three?

And what about you, game companies, and game analysts? I'm looking at the categories for games on the E3 site. Here's are the genres discussed on their forum:

Action

Adventure

Driving

Fighting

First Person Shooter

Puzzle

Strategy, Real-Time Strategy

Role-Playing

Rhythm and Music

Simulation

Survival Horror 

Third-Person Shooter

Wrestling

I am not decrying other games. I merely note, there is almost no slot, no pigeonhole here for the sort of game that Pet Society is: a focusing, open-ended, noncompetitive experience where you can apply your natural creative impulse. Imagination. That what-if, let's-pretend capacity that's innate to small children, and gradually crushed out of us through rote schooling and formalized jobs. Creativity. Call it what you will. We value it at its highest flowering in art and literature, but don't know how to encourage the creativity that lies in everyone.

My husband loves comic books. Always had. Tried drawing his own. Not very well. In Pet Society he found a place where the brilliantly designed elements fell into place for him. He found an inner child in his pet Scoop, and created a brilliant little world for his pet. All the pet friends and their players could come and play with Scoop's toys, and wander through his house. 

What genre is there for the gentle games that soothe us, delight us, and awaken a sense of wonder? Can computers hone creativity as well as reaction times? Can we light up other areas of the brain besides puzzle solving or heroic rescue or quest retrieval? 

The players of Pet Society are making a stand. We want to be noticed. It's more than just losing our personal pet. Real life pets get old and die, we grieve, and go on. 

We protest the willful destruction of a beautiful, unique environment that encouraged creativity. That could be played with joy by people of any age, or any language. Where every pet and every room in every players house was as unique as a fingerprint. Standard-issue goods were combined in wonderful ways. 

Pet Society was a brilliant achievement in programming and in visual and sound design. Since it defied categories, and looked on the surface like Second Life for 3-year-olds, it may never have received the acclaim it deserved. It's been a marvelous experience that's held my attention for the past four years. One flick of the switch, and that world will be dark forever on Friday.

How someone can not make money off this intellectual property, with its devoted following of over a million fans? As Forbes wisely observed, social games should have a plan for the life of the game, including how it winds down. Can other companies make what they consider good money housing Facebook games? Is a subscription model possible? Mark Zuckerberg, don't you want happy customers  too? Does anyone at G3 see that there's an audience out there that is not being served? 

This sudden closure has won EA a new round of antagonists. Pet Society players are already boycotting EA products. Unless Monsanto somehow gets on the radar of Consumerist voters, that third year title could be already cinched.

Why It Hurts To Say Goodbye

I'm using this blog as a "bully pulpit" to look into the phenomenon of Pet Society. We are now one week away from the scheduled shutdown of this very popular game. There are many groups on Facebook (one with over 32,000 members!) protesting this closure and searching for what can be done.
Even Forbes has taken notice of this intense international alliance of players who stand by their pets.

Art by Greta Crippa http://www.flickr.com/photos/gretacrippa/

This drawing captures the emotional bond so many players have found with their online pets. Some of us who pretend to be respectable adults have "come out" to speak about our support of this game, and inflict our tweets and postings upon the world at large. Our voice, what we have to say, may matter. It may register that something special was going on with this particular game; that Playfish managed to capture "lightning in a bottle." 

Whether artistically sophisticated or simply direct in message, many players share a bond with their particular pet. Some describe themselves as "pet parents".  Others, like this tweet, capture another facet: "I have loved her since the minute she was born. Please don't take her away."

Whether you are six or 70, no matter what language you speak, or how many college degrees you have, the feelings of love and anger and loss are much the same. My own sense is that through some magic, Pet Society was designed to create little creatures that are as individual as human beings, with the happy, creative, curious, and self-reliant attitude of well-behaved two- or three-year olds. (Minus the colds, whining, and temper tantrums.) 

The pets are naturally cheerful and self-reliant. They are not emotionally needy, pressing their face up against the screen from time to time, demanding your attention (as in another competing game, now gone). They do need to be fed and washed, like real toddlers and pets. In a properly set up room, with plushies to carry and objects to bounce on or ride, they can amuse themselves indefinitely. 

Whether you've done "inner child work" or not, playing Pet Society is likely to awaken memories of being young and innocent and full of creativity and fun. Being a grown-up all the time can be wearying. The financial responsibilities, the natural concerns for the well-being of those around you, the stress of illness and impending death, the very viability of the planet we live on: it's a sobering burden we confront each day. Many of us no longer have real children in our lives; they have this way of growing into responsible adults and taking a very long time to produce children of their own to be doted upon.

When we touch base with our "inner child" we remember why everything else we do matters. Deep inside, I still have the curiosity and love and joy and perplexity of my two-year-old self.  I experience this connection through playing with my pet, so losing my pet becomes like losing part of myself, part of who I am. That is my best intuition as to the dynamic that is going on here. When a game becomes more than just a game, it's worth taking notice. But that's another blog post.

Occupy Pet Society!

Amazing news today on two fronts. 

This article appeared today on the Forbes website: 
Will The Community Be Able To #SavePetSociety From EA?

Forbes contributor Ewan Spence writes about the cross-section of technology, media & human nature. In the vast pond of 1.1 billion Facebook users, our small group of 32,000 passionate Pet Society players who refuse to move on to other games is being noticed. 

Does family-friendly Disney really want to be associated with a company that's being tagged as a pet-killer? 

How does pulling the plug on games that are still viable, with over one million players per month, affect players? Will those players, not to mention all their friends and relations, ever want to spend money on games they don't own again? Spence has an excellent take on these issues, and how companies should make the eventual shutdown of games a part of their overall plans. 

The other bit of good news, is that someone from the Please Save Pet Society group was able to speak with someone from EA corporate headquarters. They are aware of our stalwart band of pet parents who refuse to go away quietly.

We have 32,000 people from around the world who are actively engaged in an online game that transcends languages and borders and time zones. Pet Society knows no age limits. Some of us are deep into AARP territory. Other are well under the official FB age limit of 13. (Playing under parental supervision, mind you.) 

Somewhere deep inside the most cynical and grizzled of each of us there is a bright, playful,  curious inner child. In the pixels of Pet Society we breathe that air once again. We remember. 

If everyone played Pet Society, we'd have world peace, my husband often says. Seeing the posts in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, and Greek, not to mention whatever they are saying in Kanji or Korean or Chinese -- I have to agree.

Simple Pleasures: Greeting Friends

One of the nicest parts of playing Pet Society is having a circle of friends who are active players, and having your pet visit them every day. This does generate "points" within the game, but it's become a lovely experience in itself, and one that I shall miss profoundly when Electronic Arts shuts the game down forever in a few weeks.  Today's photo sequence shows my pet Tizzy greeting pets of active players. Half of them are real-time friends and half are friends I know only though Facebook, but would be happy to meet some day.

Hedwig keeps a very grand entrance hall and wonderful seasonal theme rooms.

Not sure what is happening on Bocopai's planet, but it's colorful.

I love you, Mr. E, but don't spill your wine glass!

Gustav's red planet is very animated.

Hello, Biddy! A new friend in England.

Greeting to Madison, whose human we still hope to meet in person.

We did get to meet Yogi's human in person after years of internet correspondence.

Miss Bubbles is surrounded by hungry petlings, not unlike her human.

Scoop has a party going at his winery. 

The beautiful backdrops were created by Pet Society artists, 

and could be purchased within the game with coins you earned as you played.

This one looks like the Sonoma Valley wine region.

Miss Hiss knows it's fun sometimes just to enjoy the sweetness.

More sweetness with Sprite. 

 Nana needs a drink after all her work to Please Save Pet Society.

My real-life friend's pet Lilac has wise words on her crawl: 

"I am very sad to know Pet Society is coming to an end. 

Lilac will always love you and live on in spirit."

Love is what it's all about.

No one can stop us from loving our Pets, and the humans behind them.

Remembering The Fun Times

I just took a trip down memory lane as I searched out and compiled a list (lower right) of some of the appearances our pets Scoop and Tizzy made in another blog we enjoyed, Pet Society Anonymous. The writer has moved on to other endeavors, but her blog remains as a chronicle of week-to-week changes and the sheer inventive play the game inspired.

Here are some teaser photos that showcase the variety of imagination Pet Society inspires.

Tizzy, left, was thrilled to be included in this photomontage tribute to Sex and the City. Cocktails had just been introduced, carefully labelled as "juice." Parties had not yet been introduced, so having an image with four pets in the same room was quite thrilling. 

Tizzy was besotted with the New York fashion theme and redecorated her own room in a similar manner. Shortly after this photo was taken, I placed the cosmo glass on the floor while rearranging the furnishings. James was watching as Tizzy helped herself to the cocktail, which she downed glass and all as we were helpless with laughter. It was a large drink for a small pet!

Scoop gained renown for his gardening skills. There was an art to growing and harvesting the vegetables, and Scoop worked diligently to assemble cabbages of various sizes. 

But Sccop's true noteriety came when he decided in 2009 to create Burning Pet, his own fantasy of what Burning Man must be like, constructed out of various objects available within the Pet Society game. 

Everyone was welcome at Burning Pet, even Hideeni. The Pet Society artists/animators supplied various costume changes, such as the sporadically erupting volcano mask that Scoop is wearing, which fit well with the theme. There were also potions that induced interesting effects. Our friends who are Burners were quite amused at what Scoop was able to accomplish. We'll leave it to James to tell that story later.

For those of us who don't draw, it's great fun to see a children's storybook unrolling before your eyes. You just added a little imagination -- like being a kid again. 

Passionate About Pet Society

There's a story here, about a unique, beautiful, nonviolent game that can be enjoyed by players no matter what their language.

When the history of online social gaming is written, I hope someone recognizes that Playfish was able to put lightning in a bottle. With simple, nonverbal choices, people of any age from countries around the globe could enjoy an online experience that could have been elevator pitched as "Second Life for Three-Year Olds." Pet Society was a beautiful, relaxing experience that you could share with friends no matter how far away in space or time. No matter what your age, part of you could touch that sweet, direct enjoyment of life that we see in toddlers, and dimly recall within ourselves.

What no one may have banked on is the degree of passion that people came to feel for Pet Society. In the three weeks since Electronic Arts announced that Pet Society would end on June 14, players from around the globe have banded together on Facebook. The largest group, Please Save Pet Society, has nearly 30,000 players from around the world, posting in many languages, with one common message: "EA, don't kill my pet."

What is this lightning in a bottle?  In Pet Society the onscreen arrangement of pixels that constitutes your pet becomes part of your life, like a beloved household pet that greets you every day. Emotionally, shutting down this game is like having animal control come and euthanize your healthy pet in real life.  Through some kind of magic, the pets take on a personality and identity. You can make choices about color and features and gender. The pet seems to have a mind of its own.

Tiny choices in setting up the game ecology created something larger, a love that transcends language.  "Pet Society" in other countries is the equivalent of "Humane Society" in the U.S. The love of pets and desire to help them runs deep in humanity.

Do game companies have any idea who their true market is? Who are their "whales"? (That's apparently the industry term for people like my husband and I, who spend money on games we like, as a vote of confidence.) To announce the closure after a recent promotion offering a discount rate on the "Pet Cash" you use in the game, with no alternative for transferring that money to any other game, left many people feeling burned. This has happened with other games, driving down the number of "whales" who will continue to support the industry.

Do game companies realize that their players are not all teenagers? And that they have memories? How is it profitable to anger and alienate millions of players? Many are vowing to Boycott EA, or simply to never spend money on online gaming again.

How can a company that was worth $300 million be thrown away in less than three years? The brilliant game designers and artists who created this tiny wonderland of Pet Society were given pink slips, when they deserve creative accolades. Work groups around the globe have been laid off. What kind of crazy world is it, where it makes economic sense to chew talent up, then spit them out?

Sadly, last week Electronic Arts refused the request of Pet Society users to keep the game in a grandfathered state. We don't need the quests, the weekly themes, and the constant parade of new swag. We simply want to continue to spend time in this charming and creative place, where you never know quite what is going to happen as you visit your friends. It's been a quiet place to unwind, and to marvel at what your friends' pets have been up to. It's not about the levels, or the "new high score" you achieve.

I hope some other company is able to buy Pet Society. They would rightfully earn the gratitude of over a million active players, and the respect of those players' friends. On pages that monitor stats of active users (appdata.com), Pet Society ranks 121st in all apps on Facebook, including non-games like Pinterest and Yahoo.  Surely there is some value in a loyal following.

The illustrations in this post were done by Pet Society players around the world, and shared on Facebook. Hope to give proper credits later. Please comment if this is your art, and how you would like to be credited. 

The International Appeal of Pet Society

Just found, via LinkedIn, of all places, a Spanish language gaming blog with a post that appears to be about Saving Pet Society. (My Spanish, sad to say, is what one learns growing up in California, where navigating maps and menus is a basic tool for social survival.)

Some great art work transcends language, as the original Playfish game did. This must have been done for one of the theme weeks.

Pet Society players are exhorting their friends to play as long as the game is there, in hope some company will think an established game with a million players a month is worth acquiring. 

And of course the moral:

Spanish readers, please visit this blog and share your thoughts! 

http://www.melocotonyregaliz.com/2013/04/campana-contra-el-cierre-de-pet-society.html

Pet Society transcends borders.