[MUD-Dev] About.com article on Skotos

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Wed, 10 Jan 2001, Jon Morrow wrote:

> 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.

No offence, but you're wrong. First, I don't think it takes a genius
to develop MUDs. My definition of genius may be a bit different from
yours, but so far, I don't see any evidence of genius in any mud I've
ever seen.  The people who designed them may have been geniuses, but
the product doesn't reflect it in my opinion. Instead, the good ones
are the product of applying past experience and knowledge to the
design and technology, the ability to organize well, and the tenacity
not to quit. Basically, not fundamentally different from most
businesses.

Achaea makes me a 6 figure income, yet we don't have 10-20k players,
or anywhere near that amount in fact. The idea that you need some huge
playerbase to make money off a commercial mud is wrong. You only need
bigger numbers if you have a big staff and clearly you do not need a
big staff to support yourself happily.

> 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.

All this talk of genius is over the top. More games fail because
people enter into them with motives that are not financial in many
cases. The same cannot really be said of McDonalds. I know a few
franchise owners and not a one of them spent his teenage years
dreaming of owning a fast food franchise. Dreaming leads you to take
bigger risks, such as entering the games 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!

If you don't enjoy it, you're unlikely to make a game people will pay
for anyway.

--matt
"I whacked Huggy Bear."

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev