I had written a rather lengthy rant about the state of the industry and all of the things that just drive me to insanity, particularly design problems, mishandled operations, stupid funding deals, etc. etc. etc. After I wrote it and had some time to sleep on it, I decided that 2008 is a new year, and thus full of promise and potential. I’d rather set the tone with some optimism and deal with the scurvy side of the industry later in the year…
Author Archive for NicodemusPage 2 of 8
Hoo boy. You have to see it to believe it.
Wow, I can feel the radiation from here, and I’m pretty deep in the sewers hunting more damned rats. Ok, I have to tell you up front that I’m not sure if this guy really is an ex-vanguard designer or what, so take the post for what it’s worth and with a grain of salt or two.
Among other things, he rips into McQuaid, Smedly, and Gilbertson.
//whistle//
I thought *I* was bitter about some things in this industry!
Happy New Year folks!
I’m working on a huge post that I will try to get up this weekend or mid-week next week. Mostly, I’m going to give my two cents on the state of the industry (mostly MMO) and explain why I’m so damned bitter and cranky about it. The problems are legion, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
In retrospect, 2007 was a pretty crappy year on a number of levels, but I think we are nearing the end of the downcycle. Expect some more horrific bombs, failures, and wtf? deals and press releases. However, keep in mind that this is still a relatively young industry with incredible amounts of hope, promise, and potential. I’m not seeing anything that really gets me excited /now/ but the winds are changing. I’ll talk about that more in my post.
In the meantime, hop on over here and leave some comments.
Yep. That’s right. Activision and Blizzard merging
Wow. I’m not quite sure what I think about this right now, although I’ll probably comment on it on my personal blog from the business perspective.
The gamer half of me is a bit perplexed though. Blizzard probably realizes they can’t rely on their Warcraft/Starcraft franchise forever and simply can’t come up with any good new ideas. Activision might be a good source of established IP and franchises, but it has quite a checkered history. I almost feel like Activision just won the lottery here and Blizzard could have had better merger partners.
The one thing I am thankful for though, is that they did not merge with EA. Because as you all know, EA has the touch of death. The only people that win in a EA acquisition are a few execs. Everyone else gets a wedgie and kick in the mouth.
More commentary later…
I’m going to be in San Francisco the evening of November 26th through November 28th for the Dow Jones Consumer Technology Innovations conference at the Sofitel Hotel. This is sort of last minute, so I am scrambling around to make arrangements…I need a pickup from the airport (SFO) around 11p on the 26th and a couch to crash on. Anyone interested? Otherwise, I’ll head over to couchsurfing.com because I’m cool. Email me.
Yes, we are presenting at the conference. Something wicked about AI-driven evolving and adapting ecologies, as well as dynamically scaling player driven economies. Yeah, no kidding.
I have a theory about game industry execs…most of them are pretty dumb. Sure, I’ve met a lot of really smart guys that “get it” and are just totally awesome. There are a few that I look up to and I try to follow their example in business, design, etc. But there are so many idiots out there that have either gotten their position by dumb luck, the ideas and work of others, or simply being in the right place at the right time, that the joke about the stereotype is actually pretty right on the mark in a lot of cases.
This is pretty self-evident in the industry. How many times have you seen a press release that has left you scratching your head and thinking “wtf?”. This usually happens when someone cancels a project or title that everyone is just dying for, or some stupid concept is greenlighted and given an outrageous budget, and the list goes on.
But I digress, lets talk about Nancy Drew for a moment, and then on to EA.
Continue reading ‘Nancy Drew more popular than WoW; EA doesn’t know what a PC is’
I just had to share this message I got on myspace this evening. It totally made my day!
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From: ******
Date: Oct 11, 2007 6:20 PM
I have been playing MMOG for 10 years (since EQ beta). MMO Evolution is a very insightful piece of work.
I am finishing a graduate research paper and your work helped enormously.
Thanks again,
******
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How cool is that? Graduate research paper! I asked him to send me a copy when he was done. I admit, I’m curious to see what he wrote and how exactly my book was useful to him.
Speaking of which, I need new shoes. Go buy a copy from amazon or send me a donation for the PDF version.
Ok, I’m curious…what MMO has the best crafting system ever? What do you like or dislike about the various systems out there? Tell me what you think from gathering resources and components to selling (or using) the final product of your hard work!
I’ve been in a few discussions lately and the responses have been all over the board…What do you guys think? What would you do differently? What really annoys the hell out of you?