A Pirate Producer's "Post Partum" Analysis

[Ged Bligh]

Originally Posted by Clackling

GB,

The presentation wasn't about "The State of PotBS". It was about the development cycle of the game, and the things that were learned from it. If you want opinions on game mechanics and bugs currently in the game, this probably isn't the thread for it.

I know that but what better place to catch Joe's attention & views for the topic that we all really want to hear.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by Guy DeRusson

This could be one of those "Chinese Whisper" stats that was plucked from thin air when some one was put on the spot?
"It's the number that comes up in every community panel at every game industry conference since UO launched."
Do you have a source Joe? Want to do some Mythbusting?

The industry should be tracking this data. I would have thought this was 'need to know' stuff?

The first place I know I heard it was Raph Koster and Rich Vogel talking about the SWG development effort. That would have been back in 2002.

Individual companies in the industry track all sorts of things they never share. It would be an advantage to competitors to share most of it, so it doesn't happen.


Joe

[Luc Delaveaux]

Is it time for th post mortem yet?

[William Obvious]

Originally Posted by GB

Joe, Can you have a crack at Garbads questions quoted above please.
He is probably the most respected member of the forum community & his quiery needs urgent attention.

Wow, you really don't read all his posts, do you?

[Ged Bligh]

Originally Posted by William Obvious

Wow, you really don't read all his posts, do you?

No worries, i posted that before the 1.5 devlog & all Joe's follow up posts.

Thanks to JOE for addressing the issues.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by GB

No worries, i posted that before the 1.5 devlog & all Joe's follow up posts.

I thought about replying "watch for a devlog in an hour" but that just seemed silly.


Joe

[Ogri]

I reluctantly had to admit to myself that my days as a closed tester were pretty much over, at least for the forseeable. I wasn't involved in the closed testing of PotBS, by the way, due to not applying, as much as anything.

Yes, there are obviously sections of any testing 'community' that have conflicts of interest. For example those seeking advanced knowledge of exploits to abuse come release, rather than helping get those exploits fixed, plus of course the 'unmentionables' that try and use them to develop 3rd party apps to break the game with, post release. Such types are a very small minority, however.

Most people that test do testing because they are enthusiastic gamers, and want to see their hobby improve to as large an extent as possible, so are prepared to contribute to that improvement.

I don't know what it was like doing bug reports in PotBS CB< but most games it is an absolutely abysmal process, which puts people off from doing the bug reports. In fact I'd go so far as to say if the bug reporting sucks, people will stop taking part on that issue alone (I have, when it's been a nightmare to report bugs).

I think 'burnout' is an overused, and pretty much meaningless word. I don't do 'burnout' as such, and I don't know anybody else that does. I jealously guard my ability to have fun, more than anything else, and it dawned on me that the amount of testing I was doing, was depriving me of a lot of fun. There is indeed a heck of a lot to be said for starting any given game, at or around the time of its release. In sheer fun terms.

As far as PotBS goes, as I see it, there's massively more right with the game, than there is wrong with it - and the minor stuff that is wrong, won't take too long to resolve, imo.

If anything has really gone wrong anywhere, to me it is maybe the loss of priority of a single word. A word that is absolutely vital to any and every MMO, and I think just about every MMO seems to lose sight of it - the word 'inclusive'. It's all too easy to end up pandering to small cliques (usually highly damaging cliques), and 'excluding' everyone else. There seems to be a big temptation in gaming to shove 'inconvenient' people (normally the vast majority) off into irrelevant sideshows out of sight of the main game, so the little cliques can have their fun.

If the main game is only accessible to the small cliques, the 'exclusive', then that's what's got to be changed. I do think it is a minor matter to fix, but I do think it is overwhelmingly obvious to most people, that the treadmill to PB's and the PB's themselves, is highly exclusive, rather than being inclusive.

If most people are going to be left out, then all they can really end up asking themselves, is "What's the point?" Especially when you throw the facility to 'whack-a-mole' into that mix.

Whack-a-mole has got to go, and get the rest of the game inclusive, and to me PotBS will be solid long term fun for most people.