Ramblings on Game Industry

Time for another intermission from the terrain fest.

Brad McQuaid has another new blog entry on how Sigil failed with its Vanguard MMO launch. I'm glad he has noticed that the MMO industry is WAY too caught up in its developer's egos. I think it is standard in most U.S. corporations for the managers and execs to have super bloated egos but in the MMO industry it seems to filter right on down to the Janitor as well. I won't name names but having worked at 3 different .com websites that covered the MMO industry... I interviewed and and met a number of developers who just couldn't get over themselves. As a QA professional I've ground into many people many times that "The customer isn't always right, but you give them what they want anyways because they pay for your sorry ass to to have a job". Like having a paycheck? Make sure your customer is happy.

Of course I believe it would help if the MMO industry and a lot of other game companies put a lot more resources into Quality Assurance. A lot of failures (including WotC's Dreamblade which I was a contractor for) just didn't test their stuff enough before throwing it out to customers.

Another BIG problem with game developers is that not enough of them play their own game. A lot of the already mentioned egotistical MMO developers were horrible for it. They had this great theoretical expertise about game development... but they didn't play their game and didn't see problems which would be obvious to someone who did for a couple minutes. If you can't enjoy the game you're making, then you're working on the wrong project or maybe in the wrong industry.

Though maybe I shouldn't talk too much. I'm still unemployed and looking for work. At least my housing issues are settled for now with the landlord deciding he didn't want to go to court and settling for letting us stay in our place. Which is why I can enjoy my unemployment a little less stressfully and put out some new articles soon on terrain making.