How exactly does a project get funding without a concise plan or design document? If a game makes bad design decisions so be it. I just don't understand how these projects are getting off the ground without any type of focus at all. It's like getting funding for a sports stadium without having the land or architectural plans in place before hand. Why is this industry so financially retarded and irresponsible?
Because they do it backwards. First, they need an IP to launch upon or at least enough general interest in for an MMORPG. Second, they look at who has shipped an MMORPG. Then they look to see if that person needs a job or are recruitable. If they interview well (Read: Bullshit well) or have connections they will get hired. Then, in this case, they build their team of buddies in the industry they have made over the years whether they were any good or not. 9 times out of 10, they are not. In this case, as was the case with SWTOR, there is publisher backing with a * Lot * of cash trying to cash in on this. Then the project starts...
Then stops because Matt Firor sees customer backlash from a different launch he copies features from.
Then starts again with a new framework.
Then stops again because that one launches piss poor.
Back to the drawing board of what worked for other games.
Start up again.
By the time it gets to start/stop number 2, the publisher has too much invested and will want to see it through if the idiot they hired can show they can get the title to ship. At this stage, shipping is all that matters. Not even so much financial success any longer. If they ship it, at the very least they can write off the losses. But then it's the job of the mouthpieces to enter a damage control mode to stop bad press which will kill off box sales. At this point, it's all about the units sold. Not even subscriptions, market, future financial success. Enter where TESO is at this moment, and others have known would happen for quite some time. Right now I would venture to say there is about 20% of the onboard crew at ZO that is tired of Firor and Sage's shit and are having difficulty with the fact that they are both lying through their collective asses about this game in press, trying to sell on futures which may or may not ever exist years down the road, or severely blowing features out of proportion the team knows will not work well (1st person for instance) and are having moral issues with their company - causing productivity to suffer further.
If you think this is bad, they are doing the same exact thing down to the process, with Battlecry and Rich Vogel. In fact, Fallout Online will be using the same tech. Which leads me to believe they are whoring out the IP as much as they possibly can because upper management is not conficdent of continued success with the single player RPG.
Either way, it's a mess. But the reason why we continue to see this garbage as consumers is because of the incestuous nature of the genre. These people never leave. They continue to get hired. They continue to try and pull their 2001 PR scapegoat stunts, and the genre never evolves. When new people enter, we see something new. (Like with Kaplan and Araisiabi - with Shane Dabiri as a producer with ZERO experience in the genre - look at how well they did as an organization) Until that happens again, these people will continue to just sink everything they touch.
I ever wonder * why * publishers do not see the lost opportunity cost. Not only in hiring these relics which will give them a mediocre at best product with mediocre to poor results, but also from a stand point of the tail wagging the dog.
In the end, why was someone like Matt Firor hired? It isn't because he cares or even knows anything about the product, the customer base, etc - that is a given knowing he already said this genre is done and will not innovate any longer. Probably knowing full well it will, but he is a talentless hack. What he is good at? Bringing a game from almost vaporware to ship within a 4 month period and then taking full credit for it when it belonged to someone else anyway. They see that, believed he did it, and they continue allowing him to keep pushing out that deadline. Which, they stopped now. Nov 2013. Ship it or else. Now it's time to have Matt Firor hire Rob Denton to get it done for him again.
