[MUD-Dev] Research in the Gaming Industry

[Damion Schubert]

From: Lars Duening
> J C Lawrence wrote:

>> A large element is how well the problem space is known before
>> hand, as well as how well defined it is.  In the game arena both
>> tend to be rapidly shifting sands well into the development
>> process.  You're inventing the field, raw CS-work, as you go
>> along, _and_ and a result defining the game definition as a
>> product of the capabilities you've just invented.

> Non-game companies (be it IT or non-IT) usually solve this problem
> by having a dedicated research department.

Game companies typically don't have research departments.  Designers
like Raph and I have always argued that this is short-sighted, but
right now the purseholders claim the economics are really lousy for
the industry to make that shift over.

The guys who have money to burn (EA, Microsoft) instead try to focus
their research dollars on Usability Testing (or, at EA, 'Kleenex
Testing).  Most of the other publishers say they can't afford that.
And if your publisher gives you usability testing and comes back
with a lot of changes, expect them to try to pressure you to make
those changes without paying you another dime for them.  This is the
nature of the publisher-developer relationship nowadays.

Of course, the problem is that most of the experiments that Raph and
I would like to do are social experiments that require a critical
mass of people to work.  This is a lot harder to do, since getting
that many people online is usually a project-sized endeavor in of
itself.

--d
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