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Developer who made the most impact on mmo?
hercules
Member UncommonPosts: 4,925
Just curious to who people consider had the most impact on mmorpg.
I know that the team greater then any one dev but sometimes someone stands out.
for me it is 3 people.ralph koster who brought us the sandbox ways of UO and SWG and showed us that a mmo can be truely a second life .
brad Mcquaid ,ok his ideas are pretty narrow but when it worked it produced magic and EQ is living proof.
Scot Hartsman ,now this is not an idea man in my book but he totally understands the meaning of post launch care and both games he was with showed amazing updates and new content well justifying the sub.EQ2 during his time has massive regular updates and he is now doing same with rift.Also he is the only really active of the 3 in mmo at this point.
Would like a special note to Rob padro who career actually skyrocketed because of been a hardcore raider in a guild called legacy of steel in EQ.He already worked for blizzard as a lower developer and when they wanted to make a mmo they understood his previous experience was vital and made him lead developer and rest is now history .he also brought in Jeff kaplan of WoW fame too by the way from his EQ guild.
However my vote goes to Koster!
so if u were to pick 1 person who would it be
Comments
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Well I think the word developer does not really need to mean you actually are a programmer creating stuff,the idea man has proven in gaming to be vital.Look at rob padro and jeff kaplan also.
I voted for Richard Garriot. The single player Ultima series paved the way for the myriad of "sandbox" innovations that could be included in a computer game, and his beloved series opened the doors for the fully realized MMORPG that was Ultima Online.
The fact that other innovative thinkers joined him to execute the first major MMORPG based on the series says a lot, and the clamoring for more "sandbox" features that we read about constantly in these forums, as well as some of the amazingly innovative games that have spawned from such requests only reinforces the brilliance of these MMORPG pioneers.
Actually the new found love for sandbox is why i think its the right time for koster to come back to mmorpg .I mean if EQ next is going to be sandbox need i say more since EQ did start the class based system we now know.
The only concern I have with the idea of a "class based system" is the limitations to freedom of character development from a player perspective. If the 'class' system is to remain in place and still give a "sandbox" experience, it will have to be developed in a way that still allows the player to make significant choices as to how their character develops within certain parameters, and offer a wide variety of choices.
Anarchy online brought us the "joys" of instancing first.
Derek Smart
Now doubt Richard Garriott. He created the ultima series, which is the ancestor of fantasy RPGs and the freeform world he created, the ancestor of the sandbox MMO, that later resulted in Ultima Online.
Raph Coster (mind spelling) is my close second, because of his role in UO and later in SWG, the two best sandboxes to date.
He did come up with the everquest idea and all developers agree it was his baby.
Agreed... but it was Smed that contacted McQuaid and Clover brought them on board for the (then nameless) EQ project... so it could probably be argued that without him there would be no them and the genre would probably look very different now (either for the good or bad, depending on your feelings).
I have no love for the guy, but his sheer impact on the genre is undeniable.
Apparently he didn't really, well not beyond the three goals of 'the project had to be Internet-based, it had to accommodate hundreds of players playing at once, and it had to be 3D'...
The rest of it was literally created from scratch by McQuaid and Clover by all accounts. But still, I do agree with you that his impact shouldn't be underestimated.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Almost went with Smed because of his impact on EQ and the negative impact on SWG.. but to be honest I don't really blame him for swg.. I think it was more LA after everything i've read. He just didn't have much of a backbone.
Edit: Richard Garriot ftw!
Rob pardo for me since WoW's impact goes beyond MMO's.
Before WoW, MMOs was not something the mainstream accepted as a 'hobby', now it is. That alone goes beyond MMO and into our culture which is huge and will impact us long after WoW's demise.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
People have already talked about biggest advancements of the past. So, I will talk about the now.
If your talking about recent influence Runescape holds the Guinness Book of World Records status for most Prolifically Updated. and I would sya not locking a person into a class, server, race, or way of doing things that would normaly restrict a players amount of choice also makes it the most dynamically improoved (that assertion made also on top of the depth of quest involvement, creativity of random events, and diversity of mini games).
Additionally Jagex has constantly pushed the boundries of the most widely available area to do things with it no one else has or can...as for the future Games like ArcheAge may take the lead.
Garriott was probably the msot influential but not all in good ways. UO was a major accomplishment but it had a horrible laucn and forced people to pay for beta, if not alpha testing, of the product.
I voted for Pardo though for obvious reasons.
other - Jeff Strain
dev profile
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,9171/
speech: How to create a successful mmo
http://www.guildwars.com/events/tradeshows/gc2007/gcspeech.php
EQ2 fan sites
wish i had more space or would have included him but nice addition yes.
i would love to have included Eric Flannum and Colin Johanson as they seems to have an idea of the next step in mmo.
Also nice to see smed getting some credit because i sometimes feel he took more heat then he should have .
I recall the hate when it was rumoured he sort of helped push mcquaid out of EQ but honestly even if he did(probably did not after all he has brought him back as a consultant) mcquaid ideas were getting stale and narrow with his menatality of force grouping and bowing to pressures of the few elite and the rest paying customers were just to fill the void(i recall nameless server players complaining about him giving out powerlevelled toons to elite guilds such as legacy of steel(kaplan and padro former guild))
I voted Raph Koster. UO, SWG, nuff said.
But you have to give also Jake Song some credits, after all Lineage was HUGE.
Edit/PS:
http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming/gdco12/Koster_Raph_Theory_Fun_10.pdf