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Thread: UF News: An interview with Mehul Patel, creator of Utopia

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    News Correspondent Mad_Scottish's Avatar
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    UF News: An interview with Mehul Patel, creator of Utopia

    A bit of background on this for some people that may not realise who Mehul Patel is. He created utopia. He was the one behind the whole idea of the game we now play. He sold the game several years ago and the rest is history. He graciously accepted my request to answer some questions and has now gotten back to me with his answers. You are now reading those answers and I just hope that more than anything it just generates some interest and it has given him the opportunity to offer some thoughts, where he couldn't before.

    Interview Questions:

    Q1. Have you ever created an account in utopia since selling the game? If not, when was the last time you played?

    I did early on in the months after we finished the transition, but it was only to see how the new system was working and how the sign up and login process was working.

    Q2. Are you are aware of the whole Utopia Kingdoms "Scandal" with OMAC? The fact that they took the Utopia name to create another that was basically a clone of Travian. Do you have any thoughts on this? Do you have any thoughts on how Earth (shut down) and Utopia has been handled
    since you relinquished control?

    I did see the Utopia Kingdoms nonsense, and from my understanding, it was pretty much a failed venture. I don't think that's why OMAC purchased Utopia, but it was probably something they could leverage. Overall, I think OMAC discovered that running the games properly was more complicated than they realized. They didn't understand how to properly manage or monetize the games, and I think they gave up pretty quickly. We discussed all of the difficulties of making a transition prior to the sale, and I assumed with all the staff time they were committing to the project, they'd be able to handle it, but apparently that wasn't the case - or at least not to the extent that either of us expected.

    Q3. Are you aware of the current state of the game? With a much smaller player base, do you have any advice for the community & developers to help develop the game?

    I'm not sure who's actually responsible for developing the game at this point. Over the first year or so, I made several efforts to offer advice, but never really seemed to get anywhere. The new ownership seemed to have their own path in mind, and that's reasonable - no one wants to have to deal with previous ownership injecting their ideas. So after that, I pretty much stayed away to let them take the games where they wanted. Part of the problem is just the nature of the game - Utopia was developed in world without broadband, where massive multiplayer gaming was difficult
    and rare. Today, with all the technologies out there, it's a different world. I think the key to making a game like Utopia grow is to get back to the basics: target everyday people, create unique interactive properties, and make it easy to get started and hooked.

    Q4. Did you have any specific hopes for the game when OMAC bought it, in terms of did you feel they could do more than you could?

    I felt that I was losing interest, and slowly letting the game pass me by. I was focused on other projects and was spending less and less time on Earth & Utopia and could see the inevitable path they were on. We had a few offers over the years to buy the games, but no one that we really felt was capable of committing the resources needed to take them to a next level. OMAC seemed to have both the interest and the resources, but ultimately with all the sales/mergers involving Jolt and Gamestop, I think the focus was lost.

    Q5. There has been a return of the old races within Utopia, such as faery. You were the one to remove them, do you have any thoughts on them being back and what made you remove them back when you were coding the game?

    A lot of the changes we made to add and remove races was simply for variety's sake. Part of what made Utopia so great is that every 2 or 3 months, you could have a totally different experience. There wasn't necessarily any rhyme or reason to adding or removing races, except when we felt there were just too many. At some point, you end up with complexity just for sake of it, rather than because it adds anything to the game. Somewhere along the line, I felt we had gotten to that point and it was time to trim the number of races a bit to simplify things.

    Q6. What was the inspiration behind the creation of Utopia (for those that havent read previous interviews) and do you feel you managed to achieve the goals you set out?

    Utopia was really an experiment. We had succcessfully created Earth, which showed the power of multiplayer gaming and was bringing thousands of people into a single gaming environment. But a team setting just seemed the natural evolution of the game - and a continuation of my previous game, BRE, and the InterBBS nature of that game. Creating cohorts just takes the level of interaction up to a whole new level, and we saw that with the friendships that were built that spanned the world. I would say that Utopia's success exceeded my every expectation.

    Q7. There is now a paid sitting feature, where players can buy credits so that their accounts can be sat legally while they are away. We also have a legal invite system where invite codes can be bought and are also naturally generated over the course of an age (7 per age). What do you
    think about this?

    When I first sold Utopia, I provided OMAC with some basic thoughts on how to run the game - things to do, things not to do, what made the game work so well, etc. The single biggest thing I told them was never to allow people to choose their own kingdoms - the entire premise of the social interaction of Utopia was built around interacting with people you didn't know and learning to work with them. It was a mix of learning diplomatic skills, politicking, etc. When they added that system, it was clear they were taking Utopia down a different road than I had hoped, and I felt like it would be the "beginning of the end." Sometimes, what players want is not what is best for the game as a whole, and this is one example of that, in my opinion.

    Q8. You were always fond of the fact that utopias random province allocation meant you played with strangers and forged friendships. Do you think you stuck to his guns correctly, or does you feel you should have catered to demand?

    (this fits with Q7 above)

    Q9. Did you ever think that some people might not care about playing in better kingdoms but being happy fighting ghettos in the ghetto underworld ?

    Absolutely. One of the greatest things about Utopia is that we simply created the environment. There was a place for every type of player - the people that logged in every few hours and the ones that checked in once a day. The followers and the leaders. The ones who loved going to war, and those that loved magic or thievery. Some people loved taking on the challenge of leading kingdoms that lacked activity or leadership; others loved playing with super-active people like themselves. But regardless, there was always a way to fit into the game. That was one was reason we always focused on catering to the less active gamers - without them, we felt like the game couldn't work, or at least couldn't grow and attract new players.

    Q10. Did you want everyone to want to make it in the top charts and win crowns?

    Not at all - by definition, everyone can't win. Our focus was never on the top players. The game had to be fun for everyone - it still had to be fun for the people that were losing. Otherwise, the people losing will simply quit and it's impossible to sustain a userbase. The fact that we had 100,000 people playing and not quitting was a testament to the fact that you didn't have to win to enjoy Utopia. That's one thing that made it such a unique game.

    Q11. What do you feel about players just wanting to play the game without achieving anything in particular other than fun playing the game?

    This goes with Q9 and Q10, but I think it was great - and vital to the games' success. One of the biggest concerns we had towards the end of our time running Utopia was that the serious players were running these types of players off. We tried to find ways to resist that where possible, but it was a struggle and I think losing those types of players hurt the game.

    Q12. Do you feel like you left the game incomplete by making it neccessary to use out of game programs to enhance the game such as angel and utopia pimp?

    I'm not sure, honestly. On one hand, we didn't want the game to devolve into just a math problem - the math was necessary, but we wanted it to be secondary. This might have been a pipe dream though, and I'm not sure if it would have served us better to just integrate more math and analysis directly into the game. On the other hand, some of these tools helped build and engage the community in a way that we couldn't have done.

    Q13. Are you happy we got hold of you to see how you are doing and to get your thoughts or would you rather we all buggered off? Have we become like an ex partner that just feels awkward to be around?

    Ha! It's kind of funny to get pulled back into that world every so often - I can't really say it's a positive or negative, but it's fun to see where that world has gone and how it has changed over the years. For the first 3 years after selling Swirve, part of the agreement included a non-compete, which also meant I couldn't comment much on people's questions, so I couldn't really say much until now really. So a lot of my responses in the past were "no comment" or something along those lines.

    Q14. Do you miss utopia and her players?

    Yes and no. I wish we could have ultimately created the game we were truly aiming for - no cheating, random kingdoms, etc. I think that would have been an incredible experience for a whole new class of casual gamer that we never could quite sustain after the first year or so of the game. But I also felt like it was the right time to move on - I had never intended to spend 10 years developing computer games, so it was good to try something new after that long.

    Q15. Do you still get Utopians/Earthlings dropping into Dominican Joes?

    Not that I know - I do a lot of work remotely, so if they do show up, I haven't run into them!

    Q16. Are you amazed that a game you created has had such a large impact on peoples lives? (given the fact that quite a few people have actually met their future spouses from within the game).

    Yeah, when I started Earth, it was an experiment to see if we could create this new type of gaming environment - but we really had no idea what the end result would be. On the low end, I wasn't sure I would find a way to make it a viable business model. On the high end, I thought we'd create a really entertaining and unique game. But I don't think it ever really crossed my mind that we'd influence people's lives *outside* the game. Hearing those stories was one of the most rewarding parts of running Swirve - whether it was the relationships built, or teachers that used the games in their classes. My favorite was a story from a parent of an adopted boy - they were struggling to connect with their son. He played Utopia, and they joined in and it opened doors for them all to build relationship. Things like that were beyond my wildest expectations when I started this project.

    Q17. What was your favorite aspect of Utopia compared to other games?

    I think it had to be the social nature of it. Earth was a social game, but it was primarily about individuals (or later on, Clans that were self-selecting). But Utopia brought together all sorts of different people from different backgrounds with different interests. And it taught them to communicate and work together in a way that very few games really do. Many people have probably heard of the TV show, Survivor. I really liked the first season of it for the same reason - people were simply thrown together and had to figure out leadership, learn to get along with
    people they didn't agree with, etc. I think Utopia had a lot of that (starting in the 2nd year, Survivor just became a strategic game of everyone figuring out "how to win" instead of the social interaction and lost its appeal). That's one big reason why I felt picking your own teams took away a lot of what made Utopia great.

    Q18. Do you have any other business interests other than the coffee shop?
    Q19. What is happening in the life of Mehul Patel?
    Q20. Where is Blake and what is he up too?
    Q21. Do you have any other online interests since you sold swirve?

    I'm merging all these questions since they are all along the same lines. At this point, nothing particularly new for me. We're exploring expansion with the coffee shop and looking for more ways to make a difference in the world. I also do some consulting with other people's projects and am exploring some new ideas, but nothing specific in the works right now.

    I forwarded the Blake question to him - his response is: "I'm in Houston working for
    the largest legal spend management company in the industry. I still have dreams of
    deleting multis. "

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    Epic

    And lol @ Blake

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    Game Support Bishop's Avatar
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    great interview, heavily disagree with answer 7 though
    Support email: utopiasupport@utopia-game.com <- please use this and don't just PM me| Account Deleted/Inactive | Utopia Facebook Page | #tactics <-- click to join IRC|
    PM DavidC for test server access

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    Nice to hear his thoughts and opinions, he was usually so vague with responses in the past, this time it's a lot more too the point.

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    Nice interview I just love it! and I miss Mehul. Wish him all the best.

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    Dear Friend Korp's Avatar
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    Nice interview,

    Bishop - So you didnt enjoy getting to know all kind of people from all over the world when you created your first province? :P

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
    great interview, heavily disagree with answer 7 though
    I agree. If they'd gone on down his preferred road there, this game would likely be dead today. Lots of people are still here for the single reason that their friends are here too. Take that away and they'll leave immediately, because the game itself isn't fun enough anymore to keep enough of the income-generating players playing. There's just so many other games out there you can pick up that you don't have to random around for a year to find some people to play with that make you actually enjoy the game itself, especially not when the game is already comparatively hard to get into.

    I'm thankful for a lot of what Mehul did, but I'm also very glad he left before it was too late. His dream of everyone playing with random people always was extremely naive imo. A good goal to aim for, but going too hard on it (especially with better cheating detection) would've killed the game.

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    I like to post Landro's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
    great interview, heavily disagree with answer 7 though
    I agree with you, Bishop. Without getting invited into a nice kingdom I would have been stuck in some ghetto and I probably would have left Utopia again.
    It's also a necessity for the developers. Ad revenues aren't what they were and this brings in some much needed extra cash.

    I believe people even cheated on Genesis just to play together.
    This is my province. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    My province is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.
    My province, without me, is useless. Without my province, I am useless.
    I must attack hard with my province. I must attack harder than my enemy who is trying to pk me. I must pk him before he pk's me. I will...

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    Needs to get out more DHaran's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Korp View Post
    Nice interview,

    Bishop - So you didnt enjoy getting to know all kind of people from all over the world when you created your first province? :P
    Most of the people in the recruiting boards have never met. The only ones who aren't meeting new people are the ones who were trading before it was legal anyway, lol. Bishop is right on this one, and I think if Mehul saw how trading is actually introducing players to new environments and people he might change his opinion a bit. In fact, the first age trading was legal I met more people than I ever had before, and my acquaintances have grown exponentially since, and I've made friends (and enemies) I never would have made without trading.
    Last edited by DHaran; 22-08-2011 at 20:44.
    S E C R E T S

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    Dear Friend Korp's Avatar
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    Lots of people are still here for the single reason that their friends are here too.
    How did they meet these friends to begin with? Everyone knew eachother from the begining and just decided to play toghter?

    The only ones who aren't meeting new people are the ones who were trading before it was legal anyway
    So how do you explain all the new people ive met? You think that everyone that did trade before it was legal already knew each other? Cause i can easily say its not true, I didnt know a single person that played utopia and now I know a ****load.

    Dont get me wrong, I am all for legal trading, I am one of those that didnt consider trading really illegal to begin with. But I at least one of those that did really enjoy the aspect of just ending up in a random kd that you had to bond with and work toghter then as time went you get to know more people and traded yourself into better kds etc. Was just this part that i did really agree too "the entire premise of the social interaction of Utopia was built around interacting with people you didn't know and learning to work with them. It was a mix of learning diplomatic skills, politicking, etc."

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    Post Fiend Drop Dead Sexy (DDS)'s Avatar
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    Thumbs up

    the people that logged in every few hours and the ones that checked in once a day. The followers and the leaders. The ones who loved going to war, and those that loved magic or thievery. Some people loved taking on the challenge of leading kingdoms that lacked activity or leadership; others loved playing with super-active people like themselves.
    i think at one point or another i have been all those players..

    i like the questions, got some real good responses.

    about the trading players in, it allows me to go thru my old MSN list and select who have been in my KD years before and ask them to come back... ive done it several times since the introduction to the trades, and for that reason is why my activity and interest in the game picked back up after a peak with haven sanctuary.

    it has made my KD very close knit where we have sent recieved gifts for newborn babies even! \I love the game mehul made and I agree with his reasoning behind not allowing trADES. but its allways been that KD in ordeer to actually compete would need to merge with other players who played similar styles.

    but anyways i dont wanna take away from all the other questions, and i feel like im spaming already so great interview!
    DDS;
    Been everywhere and back.

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    Veteran goodlilwitch's Avatar
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    I was pretty young when I first started playing, and I think that was towards the end of Mehul's time with Utopia, so I didn't know him at all but it's nice to see an interview with the person so many people reminisce about and who started the game.

    Thank you Maddy and Mehul

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    Interesting article, I randomed into my kd a long time ago, and I was grateful to be able to get an invite back into them when I rejoined a couple years ago. So in that sense trades have been most useful in out kd for re-uniting people that originally randomed into our kd. We still get plenty of people randoming in.

    On that note - probably one of the most important things to retaining new players would be improvements to the forums and kd chat feature! I know there is a thread here on suggestions to improve that kd chat feature, because at the moment it does not add much beyond what is in the forums. If it was improved I think you would seen closer ghetto / "regular" KDs (which is where most people play - and as mehul said where the focus should be), and higher player retention.

    If you can make it easier for people to communicate in the game - especially with new players - they you will retain and then grow the player base. Improving that community in the KD is I think how the game needs to progress. It is the responsibility of KDs to then reach out to the new players and welcome them - but the developers can for sure make it easier for us.
    Last edited by Lazy; 22-08-2011 at 23:03. Reason: wording
    The Ravaging Monks TRM

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    Great interview, thank you very much!

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    Talking

    I actually agree completely with question 7. Despite playing in top kingdoms and taking crowns, I still have never had as much fun as those first few ages when I was just a random ghetto noob logging in twice a day.

    For those of us that are active, and post on forums, legal trading is the preferred option, but you have to remember that we are in the minority.

    The vast majority of players (especially before trading became so commonplace - WAY back) are no vocal on the forums, and do not play in top kingdoms. These players are what are essential for the game to survive.

    If all of the top players leave, the game goes on without a hitch, new kingdoms rise to the top and new casual players join.

    If all of the ghetto players leave, the game becomes stagnant. The ghetto players leave, and very few join because of the increasingly competitive nature of the game.

    I definitely wouldn't want legal trading removed now, in my position (I'm very competitive). However, in its current form, this game will not last, I think that is abundantly clear. The changes cater to the competitive minority, because we are the most vocal. What OMAC has missed is that despite being the most vocal, and active, we are not the most important player group to the success of the game.

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