Month: November 2004 (Page 2 of 3)

Let’s Do Launch!

November 18, 2004 / Damion Schubert

WoW’s launch day approaches and EQ’s has passed. There’s endless debate about both products, and a lot of talk about how ready the two projects are, and how those launch days reflect their companies. I don’t buy it. Both are first-class studios with talent I respect greatly. Both will ship products that are quality, but will have launch issues. Saying there will be launch issues is kind of like saying that there will be a new car smell when you buy a car. The question is not whether there are issues, but how a team reacts to those issues.

All that being said, I thought I’d lift the hood and show what’s going on – from a developer’s viewpoint. I personally advocate that any design team for an MMO write a design doc for their launch day, because launch day has a set of concerns that are unusual.Here are some lessons I would impart about product launches, having been present for launches of both Meridian and Shadowbane.
Continue reading

NWN Tries Selling Player Content

November 17, 2004 / Damion Schubert

For all those people who like to talk about alternative billing solutions, it’s remarkable how little people are talking about the Neverwinter Nights Online Store. Pretty much, only the guys at CorpNews are talking about it, and it took another game’s dev to point it out. That’s somewhat shocking, given that just two years ago NWN was the golden child of the fans and academia. Continue reading

The Importance of “The Heidi Game”

November 16, 2004 / Damion Schubert

From the imminently quotable Tuesday Morning Quarterback:

Let us now praise the most important player in NFL history. We speak, of course, of Preston Ridlehuber….

In Defense of Crunch

November 16, 2004 / Damion Schubert

Between the initial EA Spouse blog post, the lawsuits, the academic studies and the calls to unionize, almost everyone has felt the urge to dogpile on EA. For some, the takeaway is that crunch is evil, and that it should never, ever happen. It’s not an uncommon takeaway – I’ve interviewed with several companies that have said, “We don’t believe in crunch, and we will never force you to.”

I always turn those companies down.

A Step Back in Time…

November 15, 2004 / Damion Schubert

Once upon a time, kiddies, games used to scold you for cursing. You spoiled brats with your GTA: San Andreas.

Note to all wanna-be game designers: the day you fill out your project’s profanity filter IS in fact the most fun you’ll have during the development of your game.

Gotta Keep Em Seperated

November 15, 2004 / Damion Schubert

Game Girl Advance wants to know why online worlds are segregated into smaller servers – i.e. why are you forced to choose whether to play Virtue or Justice when playing City of Heroes. This is, of course, one of those ideas that just keeps bubbling up, and keeps disappearing again. Many games have promised it, only to back away later. Surely, if 1500 people in a world is exciting, then 150,000 people is deliriously exciting, right? If we’re selling social gameplay, shouldn’t there be as few barriers as possible?

Resident Evil Chainsaw Controller

November 14, 2004 / Damion Schubert

I’m not quite sure this hits Nintendo’s primary age demographic.

Welcome to the Club! Now get back to work.

November 13, 2004 / Damion Schubert

I’d like to welcome Blizzard to the fraternity of studios that have actually managed to get an MMO all the way to ship. Congratulations. I… uh… hope you weren’t planning on spending Thanksgiving with your families. Or, for that matter, Christmas

Marvel Sues Cryptic; In other news, Tolkien Sues Everyone

November 12, 2004 / Damion Schubert

The article everyone’s talking about.

Scott (who is suing me for this blogpost title) offers this viewpoint:

Suing an MMO developer for the copyright violations of players on its servers is more than mildly troubling.

I’d go farther than that. I think it’s a non-starter. When I was working at my startup, we were working on a game that centered around the ability to make movies with the in-game engine (i.e. “Machinima”). Obviously, the notion that people could recreate movie scenes that mimicked a sue-happy license owner such as Fox or Lucas crossed our minds. Continue reading

Experience-Driven Strike Team Development

November 11, 2004 / Damion Schubert

For those who still care, Anyuzer posts that he doesn’t play games for the people, does some soul-searching, and then says in a bit of revelation, “I come for the game, and stay for the people”. Which as Raph points out, is already considered dogma amongst us. Continue reading