[MUD-Dev] R&D

[Dave Rickey]

From: "Brian Bilek" <brian at darkalley.net>
> Matt Mihaly wrote:
>> On Mon, 3 Jun 2002, Brian Bilek wrote:

>> Games are a product/service developed through certain processes,
>> and I don't really see why directing the business behind them
>> necessarily requires a passion for games. A passion for the
>> business of games, definitely.

> Fair enough, point made - the executive in charge of a game
> company needs no passion for the games themselves.  However, I
> think the point is still salient - if we make an assumption
> (granted, a rather large one) that the gentleman who originally
> stated that gaming executives and marketing types lack an
> understanding of games and gamers was correct in a general sense,
> does that not hurt their ability to bring successful products to
> market?  I would think that the successful marketing manager or
> product manager has an in-depth understanding of their products
> and customers.

Classic business school example: Take a look at the toothpaste aisle
in a supermarket.  99.9% of the products you see there would need
analysis in a fairly good lab to show differences in their category
(Gels, pastes, hybrids and anaesthetics).  Toothpaste is a pretty
simple product, and everybody in the business knows how to make a
product that will clean your teeth.

Everything you think you know about what makes one toothpaste better
than another is the result of clever marketing campaigns.
Toothpaste company executives are not in the toothpaste business,
they are in the brand management business.  They can move from a
toothpaste company to a candy company and then to a tobacco company,
and they are *still* in the brand management business.

With certain narrow exceptions (sports games, mostly), games don't
work that way (at least not yet).  You cannot take a generic
product, 99% similar to everything else in the category, throw lots
of money into marketing, and guarantee a profit.  This drives your
typical business exec absolutely *nuts*.  It hasn't even matured
enough to be handled like music and movies.  With only a handful of
exceptions (Sid Meier, Will Wright, John Carmack, Peter Molynieux,
and that's just about the list) you cannot even bank on particular
people to consistently deliver profitable products.  "Past earnings
are no guide to future performance."

In the brand management business, R&D is an expense you undertake in
order to safeguard your current brands.  Sometimes it creates new
brands, but that's usually an accident, or an act of desperation.
3M was a company built on sandpaper, the MicrosSoft success story of
its day, sandpaper was an incredibly useful product, and 3M held the
patent.  Desperate to find new ways to sell sandpaper (because of
overvalued stock creating expectations of increased earnings), one
executive went so far as to develop a technique for *shaving* with
the stuff.  Finally, they got desperate enough to remember some geek
in the labs who had the idea of *not putting sand* on the paper, but
selling the sandless paper with adhesive on one side as a packaging
tool.

Did I mention that they had already fired the employee in question,
because he spent too much time thinking of wierd stuff rather than
finding cheaper ways to make sandpaper?

--Dave

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