No End Game for MMO Devs

Whenever human beings gather, you will find them indulging in a favorite hobby: Humbling the mighty. The only thing we love more than being fans of someone is tearing that someone to shreds. Especially on the internet.

In video games, particularly MMOs, the phenomenon is such a regular occurrence that we should expect to see it once a year like some kind of unholy groundhog day. In the past few years, we’ve seen it happen to Jeff Anderson, Brad McQuaid, Bill Roper, Richard Garriott, and Mark Jacobs, among others. All five of those guys were strongly associated with their studios. All five were hit professionally, for varying reasons with varying degrees of culpability, and then shredded by the chattering classes with a savagery normally exhibited by feral cats and Walmart shoppers going after flatscreen TVs.

But these are MMO people, and there’s no such thing as a final chapter in an MMO. Jeff and Bill are already back in action. Brad has launched a blog, en route to his comeback. Richard Garriott has several new hobbies. Mark is not the type to sit quietly and fade away.

So, what creates these dramas with their multiple acts?

Read this great piece by Sanya Weathers over on MMORPG.com. Gives a really good insight as to what the MMO industry is like.

MMO Playing equivalent to parenting

That’s when it hit me: I just changed my character’s pants.

What Level is Your Daughter? The WoW Method for Raising Kids and MMO Characters

This was a really interesting read by one of my fellow writers on Bright Hub. He compares levelling in an MMO to parenting a child. No, that's not saying you'll make a great parent if you play WoW - it's just an interesting concept to compare your budding character to a budding young life.

Go read it!

Two big gaming business shifts

Image via Wikipedia

Today brought the announcement of TWO big shifts in the gaming industry.

First of all, id's been bought by ZeniMax. That's right, Doom and Oblivion just got married. Or Wolfenstein and Fallout, if you want to think of it that way.

And then EA decided to merge BioWare and Mythic - which also resulted in Mark Jacobs leaving. What? That was a shock to his coworkers as well as to the rest of us. No one seems to believe Jacobs quit willingly.