[MUD-Dev] Retention without Addiction?

[Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com]

Koster, Raph wrote

> I've got friends at Blizzard. I hope none of them take offense to
> what I am about to say, but...
 
> Yes, they ARE completely wet behind the ears when it comes to the
> challenges of large-scale network games.
 
> What they have done, and done pretty well, is build a large-scale
> lobby.  This lobby connects many instances of small-scale
> networked games.  Tremendously popular and successful networked
> games, definitely. A major achievement, to be sure. But a
> large-scale network GAME is a very different beast.

I've always partly attributed Blizzard's success to only releasing a
game when its thoroughly polished. All their projects seem to creep
massively, but when they come out, they really are worth
buying. Just look at WC3, not only did it slip, but the dynamics of
the game changed fairly majorly several times. The 'its ready when
its ready' philosophy seems to lie behind a lot of the great
games. Is it possible with MMORPG style budgets?

Anyway, I'm not sure where you think they are wet behind the ears? 
In the dynamics of implementing network code - if so, I don't see a
problem there, it ain't that hard. If its in balancing gameplay
dynamics, I'd argue they are experts. Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo
all show that they are really pretty good at balancing diverse
ability sets and creating an interesting and rewarding game.

Dan
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