[MUD-Dev] Differentiation and The Marketing of MUDs [was R& D]

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

From: "Sean Kelly" <sean at hoth.ffwd.cx>

> Some of the larger game companies are already branded.  Blizzard
> and BioWare, to name a few.  Those companies have an entrenched
> fan-base who will likely buy any game the company produces.
> Though a big enough screw-up could obviously still drive away
> customers.

I'd like to point out Bethesda Softworks. They made Daggerfall, an
excellent game, but with so many outrageously awful bugs that it was
virtually unplayable. And this piece of complete crap was still
promising enough that a LOT of people waited YEARS for Bethesda to
create Morrowind, talking the whole time about how great it was
going to be.

That's a pretty damn loyal bunch of fans for a tiny little
development house in Maryland that created a game I honestly believe
is buggier than any other retail release in game history. And that's
really saying something. In the software industry, we're finding out
some sort of odd thing that currently looks like "even if your
product sucks, your company can still be a dominant force". The big
question, of course, is why... and how. (I can produce products that
suck all day.)


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