[MUD-Dev] R&D

[Amanda Walker]

On 6/6/02 7:48 PM, Koster, Raph <rkoster at soe.sony.com> wrote:

> In most large-scale software development, the initial requirements
> set forth will, if done correctly, highly approximate the desired
> end result. The same is not true in game design.

I disagree fairly strongly.  Not about game design, but about large
scale software development in general.  The traditional "spec things
out in advance and build what you spec'd" approach generally fails
in the marketplace, simply because the requirements change
significantly over the amount of time it takes to develop a complex
product.  It still survives in government contracting and the like,
of course, but continuously re-evaluating the requirements and
direction has become critical everywhere, not just games.

That being said, I do agree that it's more important for
games-as-business because games are marginal purchases.  That is,
people don't have to buy games if the game play isn't quite what
they want.  Microsoft Office can get away with a lot higher User
Annoyance Value than an MMORPG, simply because the game is never
"mission critical", mandated by an IT department, etc.

> This latter, of course, is pretty different as soon as you get
> into the online world, where good engineering, maintainability,
> expandability, etc, matter MUCH more than they did in
> single-player games.

Well, yes.  The great thing about networking is the explosion of
places where things can go wrong ;-).

Amanda Walker

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