[MUD-Dev] Metrics for assessing game design

[katie at stickydata.com]

[Damion Schubert wrote:]
> [Katie wrote:]

>> Crunch time means that planning has been inadequate.  That's not
>> to say that good or complete planning is easy - far from it, to
>> such an extent that many companies, even very large ones, often
>> weigh the work necessary to put together real and good planning
>> and processes versus the cost of dealing with poor processes, and
>> in the short term coping costs less.

> Such vitriol against crunch!  Really!  The ironic thing, of
> course, is that if it were not for crunch, and I mean serious,
> serious crunch, there probably would not be a single major MMO on
> the market today.  SWG, UO, EQ, AC, and Shadowbane all were
> shipped on the backs of a ridiculous amount of crunch time.
> Perhaps poor planning is required to get an MMO out the door!

You don't mention Dark Age of Camelot - widely acknowledged as one
of the most successful and on-target MMO releases to date, and one
with among the least amounts of crunch (although, to be fair, they
did knock some big features off the release list). :)

That aside, I should probably have qualified my vitriol.  I am also
experienced in another heavy-crunch industry: that of
enterprise-class software implementation and web development.  When
I say "crunch" I don't mean "devs expected to pull occasional
all-nighters and work like hell for the few weeks prior to launch."
That said, if a great project could be completed without either of
the above occurences, I'd be all for it.

I personally believe that we have not yet really begun to do
software development and project managment in a particularly elegant
way, for many, many reasons - a big one of which is the sheer
complexity of it combined with the esoteric and highly subjective
nature of the knowledge and talent involved.  But that's not a
useful discussion, really, not for this list.

Certainly the point you make about shifting audience and market
demands is a good one.  Although, in an ideal world, a development
schedule would take that fact into consideration ahead of time, and
make time to acknowledge it.  Of course, what we live in is far from
an ideal world.  At any rate, my problem with crunch has largely to
do with the fact that it creates an enormous obstacle to creativity.
Sure, at times, impending doom can spark the creative fires - but
99% of the time I have seen it push people into "make-do" cycles,
not truly creative ones.  I should also qualify the kind of
creativity about which I'm speaking.  The sort of creativity I mean
is largely related to the initial creation and design stages, and
less related to the kind of creativity it requires for developers to
create innovative solutions to tricky problems (many of which are
temporal in nature).  I honestly believe that it takes time for
excellent and creative game designs to be developed in a realistic
manner, for artists to create visual and level compositions that are
as stunning as possible, for really good stories to be written, and
for elements to be tested for playability and holism.

I'm not saying that artists should be allowed to run rampant over
developers or schedules - what I *am* saying is that I believe that
allowing more space for dialogue and creative endeavors especially
at the beginning, but even throughout the project, is a better way
to a better game than pushing everyone up against deadlines that are
often extremely unrealistic to start out with.

k
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