[MUD-Dev] Re: MMO Communities

[Tom Hunter]

<EdNote: Please don't attribute to "me".  One or more quote levels
later, who is "me"?>

Zachary Jensen:
> Quoth Tom Hunter:

>> Brad McQuaid wrote that he was trying to design the best game he
>> could when he was working on Everquest.  The best game he could
>> design sold really well.  Does anyone think he would have increased
>> profits by building the second best game that he could?

> If building the "second best game that he could" fit the user-base
> better, then yes, I think he could. What if Brad's 2nd best
> version (and I don't presume to know anything about it, or even if
> there was one) had left out/replaced one of the things that a
> majority of the people who play EQ always gripe about? Sales could
> go up, and so would profit. [1]

This is partly a semantic argument and I left myself open too it
when I failed to define "best game."  Of course hindsight gives us
all the chance to improve our work in retrospect.  I am arguing that
any version of a game that contains more content players like (or
less content they dislike) is the "best game".

> Say I choose profit over design. Would I be making a game that is
> worse than the one I started with? Yes.

I am making the assertion that you cannot choose profit over design
and make a better game (except for yourself).  I am defining
creating a game as the act of creating something for others to
enjoy.  People value what they enjoy and pay for what they value.
So profitability is directly liked to "better" in fact it is a (one,
there are others) measure of quality.  This rule applies to both
mass market products and niche products.  In the mass market more
people pay for better, think of the Lord of the Rings movies and few
people pay for worse think of any recent bad movie.  In niche
markets (I am picking Opera) few people pay high prices for better
think of Tosca and no one pays anything for worse, name an opera by
Antonio Salieri.

In all cases if you build something bad people refuse to buy it.  If
your building a game for yourself you don't have to worry about
better or worse you only have to worry about what pleases you.  Once
you start trying to develop a better game (which is what this list
is about after all) you have to start considering the point of view
of other people.  People are very good at expressing their point of
view with their money and that is why I assert that quality and
profitability (or at least revenue) are tightly linked.

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