[MUD-Dev] About.com article on Skotos

[Jon Morrow]

Here is my response to the entire thread thus far:

Let's take a trip to the bottom-line of the business issue.  If you
are making a text-based game solely for the money, you're not very
intelligent.  After being in the commercial text-based industry for 3
years, I can confidently tell you it takes a genius (or a group of
them) to design a game that can command a 10-20K player base.
Geniuses are also in high demand.  Apply the same skill set to a
different technology market with the same tenacity, brilliance, and
solid business theory.  You will probably find the company raking in
far more than $1 million per year.

And what if you are not a genius?  Well, you are competing in an
industry flooded with them.  Unless you can harness a few (not
likely), you are probably wasting your time.  Of course, I can see a
few exceptions.  But we are looking at survival rate here.  Talented
money-seekers should purchase a franchise like McDonalds.  Their
failure rate was 5% per year the last time I checked.  That's at least
a good 50% higher than the break-even rate in the gaming industry.

Lastly, let's assume you do succeed for a moment.  You are making
money at something you probably do not enjoy.  I've been cursed by
getting to know quite a few of the folks in this category.  They
succeeded.  They are rich.  They are miserable.  What hasn't changed?
Their misery.  If you are not doing what you enjoy from the very
beginning, you're not going to enjoy the result.  Take some time to
find your passion.  Then run with it!

My recommendation?  Do what you enjoy.  It's even better if you can
make money.  If you enjoy making commercial text-based games, don't
care if you are the richest person in the world, and you still have
some money-making ideas, go for it!  Think about it.  You could make
money doing what you love best.  And what if you don't succeed?  You
should have enjoyed and learned from every step of failure.  You
should still be happy.  That puts you ahead of the successful,
miserable folks.

Summary of the Bottom-line: Only make a commercial text-based game if
you enjoy it.

Best Regards,

Jon Morrow

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