I believe that culture counts. I believe that success comes from a process that allows the best ideas to rise to the top and get into the game. I believe that the reason WoW succeeded is that Blizzard created a winning creative ecology inside their company. An ecology that delivered victory.

So; I view 38 Studios with skepticism. You can’t just BUY the quality of success. If you could, big companies would do it every day.

We’ll see what comes out of 38 Studios. Sure, I have high hopes too. But tempered with realism. They have more money, true, but since when has spending more money guaranteed success? Sometimes it works, sure… and sometimes not.

I don’t come from the “Sigil Games school of business” or any other school. I just observe that they have hired people from disparate backgrounds, NONE of which have championship experience in the field that they’re now working in. I’ll be impressed when they hire the equivalent of Mike Morhaime. :)

You know, hiring top people is not the same as hiring their entire department. Assembling a team from the ground up in a brand new company is not the same as running an established team successfully....]

Coherent, you seem to come from the Sigil Games school of business management. Smart business does not work like that. Real companies, built and run by winners, don’t have problems like you allude to, as they hire finance people and intelligent CEOs, CFOs, COOs etc., early in the process to prevent the creative overindulgence of something like the Vanguard debacle.

Brett Close and Bill Thomas don’t get mentioned much in the avalance of big names like Curt Schilling, Bob Salvatore, Todd Macfarlane et. al., but when all is said and done, it will be their contributions to the company that are the foundation upon which those creative minds can build a successful project, rather than an obesely creative pile of shite.

Real companies hire business people before designers. They create boring finance plans, design documents, thesis, business plans, long before they decide if there should be open PvP or item-centric advancement, skills or classes…

Many of us who are farmiliar with the industry spanning more than a decade or two, can spot a company that apears to be making all teh right moves from a mile away, vs., those that are doomed to fail. We aren’t always correct (see vanguard for me) but 38 Studios does appear to be building more than a house of cards, and thats what has us so excited.

You know, hiring top people is not the same as hiring their entire department. Assembling a team from the ground up in a brand new company is not the same as running an established team successfully.

Visual stylings of Todd, the storytelling of Salvatore…I cannot wait myself. And even though this may be “Another” fantasy MMO…it should leave the playground open if it is successful for other genres of play.

(Also, did you see some of the execs there, with the woman from TSR?…hehe…I am all giddy)

Cheers

Is it sadder when you think that for 2+ years all my main characters were Alliance side, and I still recognize it?

Yup, yup, yeppers. Too bad it was restricted to the area, I would’ve loved to take a shot at it. :(