Comments on That's a Terrible Idea: Abominable Aphorisms

You forgot the classic, "The customer is alwa...

2010-01-07T03:41:33.886-05:00

You forgot the classic, "The customer is always right." which often really means, "I, your customer, am the best possible designer; implement my ideas."

The “Don’t release it until it’s finished.” mental...

2010-01-06T22:53:32.781-05:00

The “Don’t release it until it’s finished.” mentality is completely wrong. Releasing too late has cost many a company valuable market share, sometimes fatally. Common entrepreneurial wisdom these days is more along the lines of "Don't worry, be crappy." You need feedback from your customers in order to improve, so release and begin the process of improving. If you are not a little embarrassed about your first release then you waited too long.

If you exclude the loudest of the forum trolls, it...

2010-01-06T06:45:19.611-05:00

If you exclude the loudest of the forum trolls, it isn't that hard to objectively judge whether the game that actually launches is close enough to what was promised. (See Champions' infamous post-beta balance patch.)

You can argue semantics that we should refer to such a game as "not ready" or "released too soon" instead of "not finished". You could also argue that the game launched because it was launch now or launch never after the studio goes under. Neither change alters the facts, and all three convey essentially the same meaning. (Unlike, say, the word "casual", which I do my very best to avoid using because it clearly does not have a universally accepted meaning.)

"A patch that arbitrarily changes an existing...

2010-01-06T02:46:10.506-05:00

"A patch that arbitrarily changes an existing game is bad"

I disagree. Change for the sake of change is good. Of course, it's preferable to have a patch that changes bad things into better things but change, itself, is valuable for the game studio.

By changing the environment, you're forcing the players to adapt and that, itself, is a new challenge. It provides something new to chew on, even if it is less liked than the previous designed it's often better than a static game. In a way, "change" is content.

Is it okay if I just say "hear hear!"?

2010-01-06T02:08:23.338-05:00

Is it okay if I just say "hear hear!"?