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

[Jeffrey Kesselman]

On 2/28/07, Nick Koranda <nkk at eml.cc> wrote:
> Sean Howard wrote:
>
> <snip>
> > I hate forced group and thus will likely never be able to enjoy
> > Vanguard on any level, <snip>
> >
>
> This got me to think about the design process of massive online games
> and how it differs from the music industry and bands.
>
> 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.

Not always.  Thats the romantic image, but its hardly the whole, or id
argue even majority, picture.

There have been plenty of bands built by studios in order to farm a
perceived trend (KISS being the classic example.)

The music publishers are  on the constant  look out for trends they
cna grab a holkd of and ride and their choice of musicians to publish
is very much based on this.

In fact, the whole MTV machine is based on filtering out the latest in
"cool", re-packaging it, and selling it back to the kids.  There was a
VERY well done and just slightly scary documentary on this, I think it
may well have been a NOVA episode, called something like "The Making
of Cool."

Sum total. All mass media needs mass audiences.  Those who invest
money in it are always  looking for ways to predict the mass response.