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Why the developers of my game suck so much.....
Azash_AT
Member Posts: 23
Its a common enough statement heard on forums like this and on the games forums also. It doesnt matter what the game is you always find these posts. What makes it difficult is the posts are always siting different reasons why the games such or the developers dont know what they are doing because....! Only the because part differs depending on the poster.
This got me to thinking. Having read a great many of these posts and alot of developer interviews I think I had a sort of break through. Most developer interviews are wastes of time and space. Why have them????? Seriously all they ever say is "cant say (input whatever passes for actual information here) and then toss some gamer speak in and call it an interview. Christ almighty I think Donald Rumsfeld learned how to give press confrences by reading game developer interviews. These intervie3s and the costnat postings lead me to my break through.
Industrialy speaking MMORPG's are relatively new compared to other games. They are also brand new in one aspect. They are the first game that is a service not a product. This was my break through. What I see time and time again since my early days playing UO to my current days is a community talking to developers who have no idea that they are supposed to listen and should they listen they dont know how to listen. Seriously every customer knows how the service business works just go to a restaurant or brokerage firm etc. The service industry culture exists but it has never existed in the video game development culture.
I think alot of MMORGP gamers are frustrated with developers because the developers dont know how to be service providers. Sure they know the basics put the product out there and keep the servers running. Howerver to often (more like 99.9% of the time) we see the game industries pre existing logic work into the MMORPG realm. To put these two in comparison I will provide an analysis a service industry is about building a relationship kind of like marriage where as the gaming industry tosses out a product and moves on to the next without a second though the proverbial one night stand.
Now you cant take your customers words compeltely to heart or the slurpee's down at 7-11 would be free for 2 weeks then it would go under. Instead you need to learn how to listen and also to listen to the customers that arent using your service because they are the ones you need to win over. This is something the gaming industry and the developers really have not done a good job at .
You can have great graphics, outstanding things to do and a great vision but if its a service nobody wants its worth approximatly jacksh*t. Here are just a few things off the top of my head to improve the overall quality of all mmorpg's.
1) Actualy have a two way dialogue with your focus groups. To often developers fall into the tired circuit of telling the focus group what changes they are making and where to test instead of letting there customers wants and the developers realities mutualy dictate the direction of the game. Sure you wont have a free slurpee but you also want have a pepperoni pizza flavored slurpee.
2) Have a dialogue with the players! Would it be impossible to code polling into the game. Things such as would you like to see option A or option B in the next expansion. Actualy ask your paying populous what they want from your service.
3) Remember this is a marriage not a one night stand. The developers of a game can not afford to toss out a game, x pacs etc and then expect there to be viable service continuity just because they made it. Does your new product help or hinder your current service.
4) Provide as high a quality service to as many customers as possible. That means your going to have to have things like multiple end games and do things like limit pvp but have pvp. That means tough choices are going to be made to be inclusive as opposed to exclusive which is the current trend of developers.
5) Drop the father knows best attitude. If you are a developer and your reading this and you think you know exactly how to make your MMORPG loved by all your players YOU ARE DEAD AZZ WRONG!!!! No matter what you do someone will dislike it! The trick is knowing how to include the most people and to do that see suggestions 1-4.
However everything aside the most important part about a service relationship is COMMUNICATION!!!! To often this is relegated to the press monkey or "community manager" who more often than not is out of the loop and makes annoucements when they get them from on high. A community manager is not realy communication its like your doctor hiding behind his receptionist and that pises us all off. So the developers need to communicate with there customers in a two way dialogue.
I think the MMORPG industry will keep seeing these roller coaster launches and performance by MMORPGS until they actualy figure out how to function as a service oriented industry. It wont be mold shattering when it happen it will be pioneering. As the studio or publisher that really figures it out will literaly invent the video game service industry.
Now if im right or just rambling is for you all to decide but service is the one common aspect all MMORPG's have and its that one thread that ties the developer interviews and trolling together across games, publishers, and studio.
P.S: So far the company thats shown some promise in this regard is SOE but they are by no means in there yet.
Comments
Voting on game changes would be cool. Maybe not even opening the voting up to all levels depending on the subject--maybe not even opening up voting to all classes.
I think it would be amazing if they undid a decision they had made. Example-They nerf said class but after a couple weeks and testing realize that there nerfs or buffs went too far and undoing the change. Why not? Alot of these game companies and devs make decisions as if there Perfect and all knowing. Its definitely not true.
A class in WoW that is known for being tough to play in pvp, the warlock is one of the most nerfed classes. There not a great pvp class. There was even a site that kept track via a mod of what class beat other classes and warlocks were at the bottom of the list. I have no doubt that Blizard just ignored those stats. Thats just one game, one class where the devs think there gods and ignore not only 3rd party information but the people that play the class.
Mythic has been pretty good about a lot of these things with daoc. They have login polls sometimes... where even the winning choice is put into action (a couple of the polls could be viewed as push polls though). The person in charge of internet relations posts a Q&A every friday. And it is sombody actually knowledgable about the game, or when she doesn't know the answers, she gets them from sombody who does. They do patch their game often instead of waiting months at a time to release large patches.
They are indeed tough to play, but that does not necessarily mean they are "nerfed". Just harder to figure and control than other classes. I have a friend who plays a warlock and can beat even rogues in their "own" game (and we are not talking about a cheater or one equipped with a full epic set of course eh?) This guy is a maths teacher though
The point is that people always whine about being nerfed. Warriors in WoW always whine about that. I play a Paladin and other classes whine about our healing ability. However, a 20lvl Mage can do double the damage that a 60lvl Paladin does. But nobody sees the whole picture. No game has a perfect balance, we have to understand that developers are people and make mistakes. The key is avoiding such gross imbalances that can destroy a game (Beastmasters in UO spring to mind).
The service they provide is toil to those who don't have enough of it in their lives. Wrap that up with a cute little Pavlovian bow and you got yourself a MMORPG service station!
Solidly, alot of warlocks just suck...
As a mage I can almost agree with the above comment (2 above) at level 39 if I can avoid damage the entire battle (have one person say a shaman healing themselves and offering up as a good tank/low end dmg dispenser) I can deal enough dmg to outright kill any class - people dont believe me when I say "Me and 2 other people my level killed a 60 rogue today" and Im telling the truth, you know maybe people just go into battle underestimating the fact that once i fireball you you cant go invis for 10 seconds, or that I can polymorph you and could have ever since level 20.
People say Warriors suck - I say I agree slightly, but only because blizzard made them equipment reliant instead of more skill.
Rogue are impossible to beat? Well considering my mage has as much hp as a rogue of the same level... I say they arent, sure all they have to do is press 4 hotkeys to win in a pvp match, as soon as they get cornered out of their sinister strikes, they are harmless, stealth? Well thats all a matter of a well formed AE attack. Every Class has one... cept warlocks
and rogues.
WoW is not imbalanced... people just need to find their element, mine is mage and the aforementioned gentlemans is warlock.
Other games just suck because they do not at all listen to people reccomendations (Lineage 2, EQ2, CoH) I just cannot understand for the life of me why game devs do not listen to at least an idea or two
A suggestion to the game devs like "Would'nt it be pwn if armor didnt have a class requirement but a stat requirement instead??" is ignored, and not because that person said pwn, but because they are one of thousands of adoring fans (in some cases millions) ? Well that my friend is the reason why I still play alot of console games
People think it's fun to pretend your a monster. Me I spend my life pretending I'm not. - Dexter Morgan