14 DAY TRIAL // Marvel will make headlines when it comes to multiplayer gaming in the coming year with the high profile Gazillion MMO project set to arrive during 2013, but until then gamers are able to get their superhero fix on Facebook, where an Avengers social game will try to bridge the gap between hardcore and casual players.
Marvel: Avengers Alliance is being developed by Offbeat Creations for Playdom and befits from input from Disney, which also owns the comic book creators at Marvel, and will use the entire lore of the superhero universe to draw players in.
Robert Reichner, who is the chief operating officer and one of the co-founders of Offbeat Creations, told Gamasutra that, “Are you taking social games and trying to inject them with core aspects, or are you taking core games and trying to inject them with social aspects? Neither. I think neither of those actually work.”
He added, “It takes people who actually live in both of those worlds and fully understand them at a deep level and understand the behaviors that go along with them, and what those differences are, and to approach it in a fresh way, and that's what's exciting to us.”
The developer believes that Facebook games need to offer short bursts of gameplay that are suited to those periods when gamers lack the time to get into a full session of an AAA release, like Skyrim or Call of Duty.
He says that Marvel: Avengers Alliance uses recognizable characters and that means players engaged in the testing process for the Facebook game tend to quickly recruit friends in order to progress and get the most out of the experience.
To stand out from the crowd of social games the developers at Offbeat Creations are planning to focus on the Player versus Player aspect of Avengers Alliance, drawing in the hardcore crowd who is obsessed enough with Marvel heroes to see who would win in a one-on-one fight between Iron Man and Spider-Man.