Would it be a good game? I ask the question after watching a copy of the second episode of the current season of Doctor Who and I have to wonder: why the hell don't developers of MMOs have similar vision in regards to story telling? I know it's hard to have multiple 'hats (disciplines)' in respect to developing any game or product, but sometimes I think many times developers forget what they're making isn't just a quick buck, it's a piece of art. And like all art it should reflect the best of one's ability in all that it attempts to express: values, skill, imagination, and heart. It seems that anymore developers in the MMO space of game development are just literally heartless or can't seem to put their heart into it in a fashion that some writers do for series like Doctor Who or any other fiction on TV or any other medium (Heinlein for Friday, Gibson for Neuromancer, Homer for the Iliad, and so on). In this light, I think developers really do need to think about their games as holistic things, where the code aides the story and the story follows from the code, and so on. Plus, I think if they thought in this manner I suspect that games in the MMO market would evolve to be on par or possibly leading the pack of game development in story telling, game mechanics, and even graphics (within reason to each). Sometimes, I think the lowest hanging fruit is the most sour, maybe they need to think similarly. *shrugs*




-- Brede