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

[Adam Martin]

On 28/02/07, 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.  The successful bands
> are the ones that have created music that has struck a cord (no pun
> intended) with a large populous.
>
> I think the game design process is so expensive now a days, at least for
> the "AAA" games that you cant mimic the music industries style of
> creation.  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.

I find that disingenuous - the bands may not worry so much about the
target market, but the music publishers certainly do, in fact you
could say they obsess about it, and you need to look at both
industries as a whole, not cherry-pick small parts of them. Those
bands that care nothing for a market and just "create music" are a
close equivalent to the successful indie developers who do the same
with games (though there are many fewer of the latter group).

Adam