Post by Morreion on Jun 18, 2010 8:11:05 GMT -5
The List: 5 Things Every MMO Gamer Should Remember
MMORPG.com's resident list maker Bill Murphy turns last week's list on its head and offers up five things that every MMO gamer should remember about their developers.
MMORPG.com's resident list maker Bill Murphy turns last week's list on its head and offers up five things that every MMO gamer should remember about their developers.
#4 Making a Game Is Not a Game
We've all seen the type: the forumite or blogger who thinks that MMO developers have it easy and that they get to spend all day playing games. As it turns out, and I'm sure some of our IT working readers can attest to this, making games and software in general isn't all fun and, well... games. Software development is an arduous and tiresome process that takes a great deal of time and constant iteration to get right. And no matter how hard a studio may try to squash them all, there will be bugs. There will be problems with the design. Making a virtual world for thousands to inhabit isn't like making Mario Bros. in 1983. So while it's likely that the offices of Blizzard are very much the professional nerd heaven we'd all love to raid one day, the work done inside the cubicles there is just that: work. It may be one of the coolest and most nerdgasm inducing jobs available, just short of being Felicia Day's love-interest on The Guild, but rest assured that making a game is not a game.
We've all seen the type: the forumite or blogger who thinks that MMO developers have it easy and that they get to spend all day playing games. As it turns out, and I'm sure some of our IT working readers can attest to this, making games and software in general isn't all fun and, well... games. Software development is an arduous and tiresome process that takes a great deal of time and constant iteration to get right. And no matter how hard a studio may try to squash them all, there will be bugs. There will be problems with the design. Making a virtual world for thousands to inhabit isn't like making Mario Bros. in 1983. So while it's likely that the offices of Blizzard are very much the professional nerd heaven we'd all love to raid one day, the work done inside the cubicles there is just that: work. It may be one of the coolest and most nerdgasm inducing jobs available, just short of being Felicia Day's love-interest on The Guild, but rest assured that making a game is not a game.
#2 You Don't Know How to Fix It
With the exception of our more industrious brethren, there are probably very few gamers out there who know enough about game design and development to make widespread claims on how to correct everything and anything that might be commonly brought up as a game's shortcoming. There should be a moratorium declared on all arm-chair designing for games that already have their own development staff being paid to do the job you feel you've gained enough levels to do yourself.
I'm not saying that we should all stop wishing and hoping for what we want to see from our games. I'm just saying that we should stop propping up our desires as golden nuggets of game design brilliance that only we have the mental fortitude to produce. As stated in number four, making an MMO is a difficult and complex task. While your idea for Game X might seem very viable to you, there are likely things behind the scenes preventing it from ever being implemented. So keep brainstorming... just don't act like you're "genius" is going unappreciated. It's annoying.
With the exception of our more industrious brethren, there are probably very few gamers out there who know enough about game design and development to make widespread claims on how to correct everything and anything that might be commonly brought up as a game's shortcoming. There should be a moratorium declared on all arm-chair designing for games that already have their own development staff being paid to do the job you feel you've gained enough levels to do yourself.
I'm not saying that we should all stop wishing and hoping for what we want to see from our games. I'm just saying that we should stop propping up our desires as golden nuggets of game design brilliance that only we have the mental fortitude to produce. As stated in number four, making an MMO is a difficult and complex task. While your idea for Game X might seem very viable to you, there are likely things behind the scenes preventing it from ever being implemented. So keep brainstorming... just don't act like you're "genius" is going unappreciated. It's annoying.
