[MUD-Dev] Metrics for assessing game design

[ceo]

Damion Schubert wrote:
> From katie at stickydata.com
>> [Adam M wrote:]

>>> I agree quite strongly with one of this week's Gamasutra
>>> articles which points out that the infamous "crunch time" on
>>> games dev projects probably is the single greatest drain on
>>> creativity within the industry - and it has no plus side.

>> 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.
...
> The Star Wars: Galaxies team probably did enough crunch to be
> considered slavery in some countries, and yet it seems to have
> more than its share of creative and innovative designs.
...
> True story: I interviewed with and walked away from a job at a
> company who 'didn't believe in crunch'.  They'd all come from game
> company situations where crunch was abused, and swore that it
> wouldn't happen on their watch.  My belief was the attitude
> sounded more like a company that wasn't populated by 'finishers' -
> those that had what it took to get the product out the door.

I think I agree with everything you've said, certainly that it is
currently often a necessity - it surely wouldn't be done on such a
scale otherwise?

I just feel that in most cases it could be avoided, if we had better
tools/processes/etc (I'm trying to be careful not to too tightly
constrain what kinds of things - partly because it's probably as
much to do with individuals' skills and experience as it is with
processes or tools). The situation I was highlighting is that at
least part of the problem is that some of the tools other industries
have are not yet available (or perhaps not yet discovered / honed /
etc) here.

A parallel example / analogy: it's taking time to establish strong
shared vocabularies just for discussing MMOG's (and to establish
consensus opinion - which for many people means it must be based on
fact - about things like the relative appropriateness of different
types of economy). This is a walk in the park compared to
creating/improving customized tools/etc for managing
games-development projects.

One distressing but perhaps valid comment I've heard often is that
there really isn't enough time in any individual's career in this
fast-paced industry to sit back and work out better ways. And that
anyone who does get that much time only does so by quitting the
industry in circumstances that involve never wanting to go back :).

Adam M
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev