INTERVIEW: Football Superstars

But despite the initial questions such a marriage offers, stop to think for a moment and it all starts to make a whole lot of sense. MMOs are, by nature, intended for a large market. And few audiences are as ‘mass’ as those enjoyed by football. Football Superstars is at once both absurd and completely logical.

CasualGaming.biz recently caught up with the publisher’s creative director Steve Marshall to learn more about his curious title.

CG.biz: First of all, can you give us a little bit of background on your company?

SM: CyberSports was born after a chance conversation with my uncle (and now CEO) Malcolm Clark during a family visit to his home in London. We were talking about gaming and he simply asked if I had any ideas that could leverage the MMO market. Five minutes after leaving his house and knowing the gaming space pretty well I thought – football, MMO, what would be a more perfect way of creating a truly mainstream experience than that?

To my knowledge nobody had married the football genre and MMO platform with anything more than a lobby system so we started looking into how we would put such an ambitious project together.

A few months later and we had a rudimentary design; even a table top representation of Football Superstars and Malcolm developed a plan to make it all happen.

CG.biz: In your mind, what differs a ‘casual’ MMO from any other sort?

SM: Good question, for me the term ‘casual’ targets a particular type of player. Generally casual games are perceived as browser based and have a limited number of features and usually fairly low production qualities, in comparison to say full blown box product releases.


That’s not to say the game is basic, many I have played have hundreds of hours of gameplay and incredible graphics, the common criteria is that they are generally easy to play, accessible and don’t require a commitment of 40 hours a week to get the most out of them whilst appealing to pretty much any age and sex. Lastly they are usually monetized by advertising, micro transaction or ‘freemium’ whereby you can play a limited amount of the game free, but have to subscribe to get to the ‘good stuff’.

There has been more and more investment into these types of products over the years having developed some clever ways of monetizing from advertising to up selling to bigger and better versions. I looked at the casual games space when considering many of the design elements for Football Superstars and aimed to ensure that as a participant a player gets a sense of pre-match excitement and post match achievement out of each and every game regardless of the time they have to spend on the ‘persistency’ of the world. Thus allowing casual players to enjoy their time in Football Superstars regardless of how long they stay.

A player with only a few free hours a week can launch Football Superstars and choose to play a quick 10 minute kickabout with friends, play competitively with their FS club in three, five, seven or 11 a-side football or participate in a tournament with their Player Managed Club friends. We have developed a play mechanic that allows people to be competitive regardless of level and although an avatars statistics will go some way in augmenting their ability on the field it does not dictate the result. A team of high-level players that do not pass or work together will find themselves quickly out maneuvered by a team that communicates and plays as a team.

This fundamental rule allows anyone to get involved and feel they can make a difference regardless of their own personal time restraints. For the hardcore the FS club system allows players to strive for the 1st division and play full 11 a-side 90 minute matches and compete in as many PMC tournaments as their heart desires, we have some hugely exciting developments to announce in this space in the future.

CG.biz: Traditional MMOs such as EVE and WoW are renowned for the time and commitment they require to play properly. This seems at odds with the casual games ethic. How come casual MMOs are proving so popular?

SM: Indeed, EVE in particular can seem quite daunting to people that don’t have the time to invest hundreds of hours in developing their character. Both have gone a long way from their launch offering to provide content for more casual players but to really get the most from WoW’s rich raids or some of EVE’s more complex corporations you do need to invest significant amounts of time.



One of the biggest barriers other than time however is that both of these products have fairly hefty subscription costs. This would be completely against most casual gamers principals, why pay £10 a month for something I am only going to have the time or inclination to play for a few hours a month… especially when I can play X game for free and enjoy it just as much given the amount of commitment I am going to give it?

Apart from the time and potentially money you need to invest in the game the acquisition or accessibility of the product is also of fundamental importance if you wish to capture the casual player. From our experience of measuring player or potential player activity from registration to getting in to the game world any barrier presented to them is likely to lose you 50 per cent or more at each stage – this is potentially true for each registration field you have in the process.



So a game that requires significant registration information, a huge download, subsequent large patch and anything but instant engagement when the game starts will potentially loose you up to 90 per cent or even higher of your initial registration base.

This is where browser based games have the edge over full client games at the cost of production quality and depth. However you can see this changing over time as developers cloud the boundaries between browser based and client based games.

If anyone has managed this process near perfectly I would have to suggest it has been SOE with Free Realms. If it were up to me they would win several awards for their download delivery method alone and I believe Free Realms will be the bench mark for many development studios in the future. It masks the boundary between full client and browser-based game almost seamlessly.

Although the actual game doesn’t appeal to me as it is targeted towards the younger audience it is an incredible piece of engineering and I would recommend that anyone interested in seeing how to overcome the issue of accessibility to go through the registration and character creation process just to experience its excellence.

CG.biz: MMO and sports do not seem like natural bedmates. Why am I wrong?

SM: I guess that depends on what you regard an MMO to actually be. Many see the term MMO and instantly think RPG and predict a hardcore experience. For me the term MMO purely states a platform, not a genre. In my opinion an MMO is a game with a supporting persistent virtual world (rather than a lobby) allowing thousands of participants to interact with each other and experience the main ‘game’  together or against each other.



This would then suggest that any genre of game be that FPS or RTS could be molded to the MMO platform and I very strongly believe this to be true. I personally have at least a dozen conceptual ideas of how to leverage the platform further from tycoon style to global RTS and I think it is just a question of time before we start to see more and more MMOs break from their RPG origins. 


MMOs are a natural evolution of gaming as a form of leisure. Not so many years ago gaming was perceived as quite a nerdy pastime mostly performed by friendless sandal wearers in darkened rooms tapping repetitively on their rubber keyboards or breaking their twelfth Kempston joystick. 

The internet revolutionized that perception for the better and opened up a world of competition and social spaces. No longer would you be competing with predictable artificial intelligence – now you can compete with the wonderfully unpredictability of human nature, starting with humble chess or draughts with simple lobby systems to the now more common FPS or RTS supporting teams of 16 a-side or more.

What is the next step? Well, MMO of course, where hundreds compete concurrently rather than a handful whilst remaining engaged in the lifestyle world when they are not ‘competing’.

So then, to answer the original question, if you agree with my previous ramblings you would see that sport and MMO are perfect partners. Football games are top of the sales leagues year on year be that action or manager style, proving that sports as a genre is vastly popular.

Football is by far the most popular sport globally and immensely tribal in nature (another great ingredient in creating a compelling MMO) and pretty much every young boy this side of the US has dreamt of being a Premier League player at some time in his life. So giving them the opportunity to live their childhood dreams in an immersive virtual world seems quite a logical step to take.

CG.biz: Monetization is a big challenge for the casual sector – how are you tackling that hurdle?

SM: We looked at each of the monetization opportunities from advertising to subscriptions and saw a strong fit for each case within Football Superstars. So we developed methods of maximizing each opportunity, some in game now, others still on the drawing board ready to be introduced later in the pipeline.

We wanted to allow the game to be played for free to maximize liquidity whilst ensuring that the core experience was one that players could take part in ‘casually’. Also allowing for a more hardcore experience as previously mentioned with the Player Managed Club system and aspiring to reach the 1st division.

Fortunately advertising and sports go hand in hand. Place a billboard in an FPS or an RPG and it could feel intrusive. A big billboard sponsoring Virgin broadband strapped on the side of a dragon isn’t very immersive is it? Play football on a pitch without hoarding and it would feel empty. So in our case billboard advertising is almost expected and adds to the experience rather than detracting from it. We also chose a realistic art style over a cartoon or stylized look and feel that allows brands to engage with their audience as they would in the real world allowing them to portray their values accurately in our virtual space.

We have been very fortunate to have built up close relationships with Puma, Nokia, Reebok, and others that allow us to create brand integrations previously unseen in games that not only provide us with a modest income but also enhance the users experience and add credibility to the game itself. We continue to develop these integrations to further improve the players experience such as enhancing the Puma Football Academy and adding more items to their flagship store in game.

Each time we are approached by a brand we create unique ways the brand can positively enhance the players experience so it is received as an enhancement and not just another way of selling out our players. The brands love it as they have a creative method of communicating with a traditionally cynical and hard to reach audience; the players love it as they are getting more fun stuff to enjoy that doesn’t require them to fork out hard earned cash.

CG.biz: How has the advent of browser gaming changed the MMO landscape?

SM: I don’t think we have seen the full impact of browser based gaming yet. It won’t be long before it will possibly transform the games market and there have been some serious attempts over the years. The single most successful in my opinion of these being Runescape – one of the most incredible uses of browser based technology delivering a deep and rich RPG world.

Gameforge has also seen great success with their time based games such as Ikariam or Tanoth where players have to develop their character (or civilisation in the case of Ikariam).

Character development is restricted by the amount of real time it takes to perform an action such as build a barracks or travel to a dungeon encouraging significant repeat visits on a daily if not hourly basis and can be extremely compelling and supports hundreds of thousands of participants.

Before long browser based MMOs will become more elaborate using many of the methods or hooks found in full client offerings and, as we have seen with Free Realms, the boundary between browser based and full client MMOs will be so clouded there will be little to differentiate the two unless you actually read the EULA informing you ‘that if you proceed you will be downloading 2GB to your hard disk whilst you continue the tutorial process’. Does ANYONE read EULA’s ?



This will be to the players advantage, as developers and publishers see the value of the what makes a casual game appealing to the wider audience, smarter more technically astute developers will learn to develop traditionally hardcore material that ensures the longevity of a product in a far more instantly engaging way that will allow everyone to get the best from the experience and open up the social aspect of gaming even further.  Whilst keeping it immediate, simple yet compelling.

CG.biz: Where do you expect the casual MMO sector to go from here?

SM: I believe that we will see the development of casual MMO’s follow the exact same evolution as every platform and genre has over the years.  The original turn based strategy games of yesteryear such as Masters of Orion or Masters of Magic, two of the greatest and oldest have been transformed by their latter day equivalents into visual masterpieces.

Before long browser technology will allow developers to deliver the quality of graphics we expect in our full client MMOs but far quicker and within minutes of visiting their web site. Consider the independent casual games you find on Kongregate or Armorgames. A few years ago they would have taken hours to download and probably wouldn’t have run in a browser, I strongly recommend that you check out GemCraft 0 on Armorgames. It’s genius and only a few short years ago would have easily fetched good money on the shelves of any game store. 



As technology continues to develop that demand for free high quality games will only get stronger, forcing larger publishers to fully embrace the “casual” games approach as we will continue to see masterpieces from independent developers who do not demand hefty prices for their products (most are happy that you enjoy playing it).

We will also see a change in the way we play games when Flash is embraced in the mobile phone market, I don’t know enough of that arena to understand why flash isn’t utilized fully now, but when it does it will totally transform mobile gaming especially as mobile phone connectivity options expand and provide greater speeds and coverage, whoever creates the first mobile phone flash MMO will do very well.

We shouldn’t overlook the advent of global broadband being responsible for allowing almost all of what I have spoken of to happen, and as broadband saturation improves and home connectivity capacity increases it will continually open the doors for developers to deliver phenomenal quality products via a browser. This could also have a profound effect on devices too. I don’t think it will be long before we could do away with our PC’s and bring back the good old web TV, a piece of technology that came and fell way before its time.



Consider being able to watch any movie any time streamed to your TV using simple interfaces that would be as usable as a remote control, use the same interface to then switch over to your favorite FPS before watching the big match possibly in a small window on the top of your TV as it isn’t your home country playing. The games industry as a whole is responsible for driving and then maximizing the potential of the technology available.

In my opinion there is every chance that boxed product will all but disappear to many but the die hard collector as it starts to become far more effective both in cost and reach to deliver an experience that instantly gratifies our continually hungry for stimulation minds through ever expanding connectivity. Matrix anyone?