[MUD-Dev] Design iterations (Was: R & D)

[Amanda Walker]

On 6/7/02 2:42 PM, Sean Kelly <sean at hoth.ffwd.cx> wrote:

> From what I've seen, this practice of crunch-time is primarily
> restricted to the gaming software world.

Not at all.  I've seen the same sequences unfold in the commercial
world time and time again.

I don't think it's a hallmark of gaming companies, I think it's a
hallmark of immature development organizations all over the
industry.  It's particularly a hallmark of small development
organizations made up of bright people who think that talent and
technology win.  Well, they don't.  Persistence and consistency win.
Repeatability and predictability are more valuable than the most
amazing piece of coding insight.  It's just not as dramatic.  In the
excitement of building something cool that will change the world,
things like "asset management workflow" and "unit testing" migrate
to the bottom of the todo list.  Working on shaders, lighting
effects, and bot AI are, after all, much more inherently
interesting.

> Of course the salary level would also have to become more
> competitive as new hires might not necessarily be straight out of
> highschool with no leverage to speak of.  This would in turn
> decrease profit margins, etc.

Yep.  Daydreams of Ferraris as the prize for writing a cool game
aside, most gaming companies underpay.  But until the game
development market matures, there's a bit of a chicken and egg
problem there.

Amanda Walker

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