[MUD-Dev] Retention without Addiction?

[Koster]

From: Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com

> 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?

If you're careful, I suppose it is possible with anything. Don't get
me wrong, I am a great admirer of their work and their philosophy.

> 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.

At MMORPG scales, it is. Harder than 4-16 players games,
certainly. Harder than 250-player games too.

>  If its in balancing gameplay > dynamics, I'd argue they are
>  experts.

They are indeed experts at it, but an MMORPG is ten times more
complex than the games they have made before.

> Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo all show that they are really
> pretty good at balancing diverse ability sets and creating an
> interesting and rewarding game.

Yep, and that only leaves persistent economies, customer service,
ongoing content addition, ongoing forms of narrative, and multiple
playstyle support as tough nuts they haven't cracked.

Trust me, to developers used to single-player or even hybrid
retail-and-Net-play games, creating and running a persistent world
game is a whole new ballgame, easily ten times harder.

-Raph

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