Comments on: What Does An MMO Producer Do? http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/what-does-an-mmo-producer-do/ MMO game development Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:51:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: steffenj http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/what-does-an-mmo-producer-do/comment-page-1/#comment-21873 steffenj Thu, 07 May 2009 11:38:19 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/19/what-does-an-mmo-producer-do/#comment-21873 So you Producers also do the design? I find that ... discomforting. But "filling in the gaps" really describes a producers role IMHO, plus he/she should be an excellent leader and motivator. Ideally someone you can talk about anything. For smaller developers i see Producers cleaning up the mess behind developers. Things that they would let fall by the wayside, eg. meeting discipline, wiki structure and content, regular non-work activities like training sessions, making sure the game installs fine, copy protection is added at the right time, being the voice of the team to biz and community, writing up the credits, managing risks, praise individuals and the team, involving them in decisions that affect their career or workplace like outside hiring of a lead position or working on the seating plan for the new office.... I could go on and on and on ... So you Producers also do the design? I find that … discomforting.

But “filling in the gaps” really describes a producers role IMHO, plus he/she should be an excellent leader and motivator. Ideally someone you can talk about anything.

For smaller developers i see Producers cleaning up the mess behind developers. Things that they would let fall by the wayside, eg. meeting discipline, wiki structure and content, regular non-work activities like training sessions, making sure the game installs fine, copy protection is added at the right time, being the voice of the team to biz and community, writing up the credits, managing risks, praise individuals and the team, involving them in decisions that affect their career or workplace like outside hiring of a lead position or working on the seating plan for the new office….

I could go on and on and on …

]]> By: Kuba http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/what-does-an-mmo-producer-do/comment-page-1/#comment-20039 Kuba Sun, 12 Apr 2009 22:14:34 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/19/what-does-an-mmo-producer-do/#comment-20039 I agree, the title is bumped around a bit, from my Position, EP/Operations, I have to maintain many projects at once from negotiating to assigning. I also do a bit of the Graphic arts, however I don't get to spend much time there at all, its always the next lead that will be conducive to an available source sitting in a file somewhere, usually for a producer that file is locatable by some random factor more so than memory. There seems to be a level of serendipity that a Producer perceives and by this perception is able to help keep the increasing momentum of the tasks at hand., Im not saying that synchronicity is the responsibility of the Producer, just saying that its neccessary that someone is looking at the big picture. I agree, the title is bumped around a bit, from my Position, EP/Operations, I have to maintain many projects at once from negotiating to assigning. I also do a bit of the Graphic arts, however I don’t get to spend much time there at all, its always the next lead that will be conducive to an available source sitting in a file somewhere, usually for a producer that file is locatable by some random factor more so than memory.
There seems to be a level of serendipity that a Producer perceives and by this perception is able to help keep the increasing momentum of the tasks at hand., Im not saying that synchronicity is the responsibility of the Producer, just saying that its neccessary that someone is looking at the big picture.

]]> By: Babs http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/what-does-an-mmo-producer-do/comment-page-1/#comment-67 Babs Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:20:06 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/19/what-does-an-mmo-producer-do/#comment-67 Don't forget the part about ordering crunch dinners... =D Don’t forget the part about ordering crunch dinners… =D

]]> By: Sandra http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/what-does-an-mmo-producer-do/comment-page-1/#comment-56 Sandra Fri, 26 Oct 2007 06:20:23 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/19/what-does-an-mmo-producer-do/#comment-56 Hello, Dana! Thanks for responding. :> I agree with you that leadership is the fun part. And you bring up my second favorite part of being a producer as well -- filling in the gaps! Although unfortunately I glossed over this in my post ... I suppose it fits in best as a side effect of task management, similar to being point person. If there are tasks that aren't being handled for whatever reason, they often end up on the producer's plate as well. (As I told one of my APs on my last team, all you really need to be a producer is an inappropriately broad sense of responsibility. The rest grows out of that.) As producer for Asheron's Call Live my duties sounded a lot like yours: design, content, QA, build master, patch notes, community, etc. I handled code as well, however -- I was also our Lead Engineer. But no art, thank goodness! We had a good artist. Anyway, I'm excited that another producer responded to this, especially one from a small indepedent MMO. I get to meet so few people with similar experiences! Hello, Dana! Thanks for responding. :> I agree with you that leadership is the fun part. And you bring up my second favorite part of being a producer as well — filling in the gaps! Although unfortunately I glossed over this in my post … I suppose it fits in best as a side effect of task management, similar to being point person. If there are tasks that aren’t being handled for whatever reason, they often end up on the producer’s plate as well. (As I told one of my APs on my last team, all you really need to be a producer is an inappropriately broad sense of responsibility. The rest grows out of that.)

As producer for Asheron’s Call Live my duties sounded a lot like yours: design, content, QA, build master, patch notes, community, etc. I handled code as well, however — I was also our Lead Engineer. But no art, thank goodness! We had a good artist.

Anyway, I’m excited that another producer responded to this, especially one from a small indepedent MMO. I get to meet so few people with similar experiences!

]]> By: Dana Baldwin http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/what-does-an-mmo-producer-do/comment-page-1/#comment-51 Dana Baldwin Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:35:58 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/19/what-does-an-mmo-producer-do/#comment-51 Reading that kinda makes me glad I work for a small independent MMO as Senior Producer. BizDev is probably the least of my worries. Task Management is a necessary evil and Leadership is the fun part. On the way through the ranks as a producer I've added to that list with content creation from world building to implementing the data side of every art and code asset. I also get to have a hand in every design team, I run the QA, I build all the installs and patches, I write the read me, I file all the bug reports, I manage the beta test team, I oversee the live game management, I interact with the community on a regular basis, I play art director, I run the coder meetings and I clean the white board. If all I got to do was run the spread sheet and talk to the suits I think I would go nuts! My answer to the age old question "What does a producer do?" is always, "Everything but the code and the art." And there's a lot more to an MMO than code and art. Reading that kinda makes me glad I work for a small independent MMO as Senior Producer. BizDev is probably the least of my worries. Task Management is a necessary evil and Leadership is the fun part. On the way through the ranks as a producer I’ve added to that list with content creation from world building to implementing the data side of every art and code asset. I also get to have a hand in every design team, I run the QA, I build all the installs and patches, I write the read me, I file all the bug reports, I manage the beta test team, I oversee the live game management, I interact with the community on a regular basis, I play art director, I run the coder meetings and I clean the white board. If all I got to do was run the spread sheet and talk to the suits I think I would go nuts!

My answer to the age old question “What does a producer do?” is always, “Everything but the code and the art.” And there’s a lot more to an MMO than code and art.

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