From what I can tell, very few game companies of any type have tenable career paths — but at least you occasionally get a game to your name before you burn out.

As opposed to more traditional game development, do you think? And is it more or less the same phenomenon 15 years ago when first-person shooters were at their hottest, when everyone and their brother was trying to make the next Doom instead of the next UO? Or is that too academic a discussion, given how much more complex a successful MMO must be to compete for customers or even just to get /done/, than a shooter, and that stupid venture capitalists just don’t seem to understand?

There is an incredible lack of competent project management and leadership at MMO companies. The thing is that it requires a truly charismatic leader to get one of these game companies off the ground — “yes, I want to get millions in investment money and in three to five years I’ll have something to show you” doesn’t really fly very well with most venture capitalists. But that incredible charisma needed to get the job usually means you have no actual LEADERSHIP skills.

It may seem amusingly unlikely from the outside, but I’m afraid it’s all too typical of the industry.

In the bread industry you get to make bread every day. If making a loaf took five years, how would you feel when you knew, a year into the baking, that the bread was going to be shit? What would you do then? Keep cooking the loaf?

Try google’ing “hope is not a strategy, obama”

About Eric’s post though: I’ve never seen you make such a cynical post before. Do you really think that “most MMO companies are rudderless ships of overworked, desperately hoping, doomed people”? Sure, most video games fail, but the industry and the people who work in the industry cary on and succede in the long run. Not every game can be a blockbuster and the industry doesn’t expect every game to be a blockbuster, do they?

Is it really accurate to say that people are “keeping your head down and hoping for a miracle”? Perhaps they’re working hard and doing the best they can, hoping to stay employed and make a living. If they are lucky enough to be part of the next big blockbuster title, then great. They can keep the job they have for a bit longer and the game company makes a lot of money. If not, then they go work on another project when this one is done. They gain some experience, meet new people, and generally get to work in a really cool industry.

I work at a bread factory. Sometimes the bread doesn’t rise. Does that mean the company is a rudderless ship and we’re all just blindly sailing towards the edge of the world? Should I quit my job and go re-evaluate my life before this company sails off the edge of the globe? Naaahhhh, I’ll keep working and try again tomorrow.

That aside, great article. Far too many MMO devs are hanging their hopes on far too little, with not enough reason to do so.

My current favorite MMO attempt, though I don’t play it, is that Mabinogi game. I don’t know if it’s in essence different than other asian styled games, but it has a very high degree of charm.

I have two ideas on how to fundamentally change the structure of the current MMO’s, one of which I really like. If I can think of something, with no experience in game design, that is fundamentally different that what we are currently offered today, then I am sure you can too.