[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN} Who to design for?

[Caliban Darklock]

On 5/29/07, Sean Howard <squidi at squidi.net> wrote:
>
> Also, "Will's past work" is SimCity (I think we can safely ignore SimAnt).

I absolutely loved SimAnt, and SimEarth was quite possibly the game I
logged the most hours playing before DOOM.

> EVERYBODY has played SimCity.

Zero for two; I've never played SimCity and have no real interest in it.

> the thing which made them pay attention to it is the whole "by the
> creator of SimCity" thing.

I don't think that's a rational assertion. Game designers are like
directors - most people are only peripherally aware of them. Even the
big rock stars like Will Wright and Peter Molyneux are only
recogniseable to a fringe element of the community, and if you ask
people about John Romero they think you mean the guy who made those
zombie movies... because even though people don't really notice or
care about directors, they still notice and care about them a lot more
than they do game designers.

The Sims succeeded because it was a good game that also had good
marketing. Bad marketing can kill a good game, just like good
marketing can make a bad one into a success. But when marketing fails
(and both of these cases are, indeed, failures), the marketers always
blame the public - and, being marketers, they can be pretty
convincing.