[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Music Industry teaching the Game Industry (Was: A rant for Vanguard)

[Caliban Darklock]

On 2/28/07, Nick Koranda <nkk at eml.cc> wrote:
>
> The game design process seeks to find what players want in a game and
> design the game to fit those wants.  The music industry is different
> since bands dont ask what music they should create, they create music
> that they enjoy and hope others enjoy it as well.

I don't agree. Many bands ARE synthetic, created to appeal to public
sensibilities, and exploited for massive profit. N-Sync didn't just
run into each other one day at the bus stop. They created music under
the very tight direction of professional producers who were interested
in profit, not art.

> The successful bands are the ones that have created music that has
> struck a cord (no pun intended) with a large populous.

However, statistically, only a very tiny few "organic" bands (as
opposed to synthetic ones) will become successful. Go out into the
nearest big city and walk up and down the street where all the "cool"
clubs are; many of them feature live music, and 90% of the live bands
you hear playing there are

1. Every bit as good as successful bands
2. Massively unlikely to be signed to a record deal
3. Getting paid almost nothing to play
4. Working low-wage jobs during the day to pay the bills

This is the normal state of affairs for modern bands. Most of them
will never be successful. Those that do become successful will earn a
living as musicians, but not a very good one.

> I would imagine that the game industry in part would do well
> to find ways to place the creation process in the hands of individuals
> or small groups and let lots of "bands" (dev groups) create their
> "albums" (small MOGs) and let the playing community decide which are big
> hits.

You are describing the mod community, which is huge and thriving and
produces a vast sea of crap with a few nuggets of genius floating in
it. The producers of more than a few nuggets of genius will probably
be snapped up by a major studio; all of them are watching these
communities. There is a path to the mainstream industry there, but the
vast majority of people in the community will never reach it.

> Think of a guitar as a tool to make tones and chords.

Think of it also as something you can buy for $20 in any pawn shop
after someone figured out it's hard to make anything that doesn't
suck. There's a never-ending stream of such someones; some shops will
buy and sell the same guitar five and six times before anyone who can
actually play ends up with it.

I don't think the two industries are that different, really.