[MUD-Dev] Quality Testing

[Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com]

From: Dave Rickey [mailto:daver at mythicentertainment.com]
> From: Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com 

>> Depends on your expecations, its kind of light in hand generated
>> dungeon/city type content etc, also the magic seems to lack
>> diversity.  Splitting the world into three means they have their
>> work cut out too, as you are only likely to see 1/3rd of the
>> content. I think EQ may be the only one able to work so hard on
>> content, and that's probably why its my favourite.
 
> By that standard, EQ was equally incomplete, if not more so (there
> was almost no post-35 content in EQ at launch).  EQ's had 2.5
> years to build up their content, so the comparison is not
> completely fair.
 
> Nonetheless, the fact is we have to compete with what EQ is *now*,
> not what it was at launch, and if we didn't have advantages in
> other areas we'd be in rough shape.  I can see the day coming when
> trying to enter an existing MMOG market costs several tens of
> millions, simply because of the raised bar for content, and the
> lengthy testing that content will require.

Yep, lifes not fair and the barrier to entry may well go up. Then
again the market my broaden so perhaps it won't be as soon as you
think.

>> I think its time to jettison 'autoattack'.
 
> Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt.  When it's railroad time,
> we'll railroad, the world is not yet ready for the MMOFPS.

The depth that I refer to and JCL expanded upon doesn't need to be
twitch reflex. Just because I think auto-attack is a cop-out doesn't
mean I'm wanting Quake with swords. Its about having more complex
feedbacks and choices.

Anyway, I'd love to play an MMOFPS. Bravely, Verant is developing
one (Planetside) although I have reservations about bandwidth
utilisation/hackability/scalability and wotnot. In fact I've stopped
playing MMO type games for the last few weeks and worked my way
through some FPSs.  Its after doing this that I've been reminded how
shallow the current state of the art is.

As to the world not being ready, I don't buy that. I'll accept that
innovation is risk though, if thats what you meant?

Dan
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