The iterations within a live team or iteration of hopping from development of a new MMORPG to the next? An argument that iterations (publish cycles) on a live team gives you a better perspective of how an MMORPG can (should?) evolve may need to be put forth.
A live team can observe - and it takes years - behaviors/reactions to game systems which are hardly scratched on in MMORPG's. The team can build on those observations and come up with solid gameplay that meets a wider player-base. Teammwork on a football field works with schedules, but how about with folks that haven't even met in real life and have different time zones? That's just one of the wierd examples to work around.
What I'd really like to see is a good guide of industry veterans (yeah, define veteran) of what they've observed and how to avoid pitfalls.
These games are so new that the very depth of the interactions with game systems are still questioned. As opposed to a tried and true single-player RPG, which have been polished for some time now.
Although, an online game can evolve and does not need to be a new product, as this article suggests. That is the beauty of persistant online worlds.
Ultima Online has changed to allow players more expression in a persistant world. It originally did not ship with many of the features it has today, such as customizable housing, vendors that can be dressed up by players, more AI features on higher level creatures that are unique to them, an extremely extensive magic item system, etc. This is on top of the enormous content already in the game. Something that Second Life does not have (and much of the player generated content seems shallow aside from visuals, imho).
Professional content over armchair designer content has been much more appealing, imho. A good mix of the two is something that goes a long way for folks.:)
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The iterations within a live team or iteration of hopping from development of a new MMORPG to the next? An argument that iterations (publish cycles) on a live team gives you a better perspective of how an MMORPG can (should?) evolve may need to be put forth. A live team can observe - and it takes years - behaviors/reactions to game systems which are hardly scratched on in MMORPG's. The team can build on those observations and come up with solid gameplay that meets a wider player-base. Teammwork on a football field works with schedules, but how about with folks that haven't even met in real life and have different time zones? That's just one of the wierd examples to work around. What I'd really like to see is a good guide of industry veterans (yeah, define veteran) of what they've observed and how to avoid pitfalls. These games are so new that the very depth of the interactions with game systems are still questioned. As opposed to a tried and true single-player RPG, which have been polished for some time now.
Although, an online game can evolve and does not need to be a new product, as this article suggests. That is the beauty of persistant online worlds.
:)
Ultima Online has changed to allow players more expression in a persistant world. It originally did not ship with many of the features it has today, such as customizable housing, vendors that can be dressed up by players, more AI features on higher level creatures that are unique to them, an extremely extensive magic item system, etc. This is on top of the enormous content already in the game. Something that Second Life does not have (and much of the player generated content seems shallow aside from visuals, imho).
Professional content over armchair designer content has been much more appealing, imho. A good mix of the two is something that goes a long way for folks.