MMO Development Lesson #21
A good idea stands on its own. It doesn’t matter where a good idea comes from, it’s still a good idea. Let go of your ego and learn to identify a good idea no matter where it comes from, even it’s from a non-designer, player, or even your mortal enemy. I’ve had a few good ideas in my life (I like to think, anyway), but the total number of good ideas I’ve heard from other people dwarfs the number of good ideas I’ve ever had myself. Learn to get over yourself and recognize good ideas when you see them.
Sounds like the old quote attributed to Ronald Reagan: It’s amazaing how much a man can do when he doesn’t care who gets the credit.
Something like that. Seems about the same idea anyway.
Did you write this while chilling out in a field of daisies on a clear summer day?
(If you read this post in a stoner voice, it works pretty well.)
Just because I’m always contrary when you post these things…
One problem is that a good idea isn’t universal. Are flying mounts a good idea? Well, sure, if you’ve design the world for them. Notice that WoW doesn’t allow you to take your nifty, expensive flying mount to the old world areas. So, that doesn’t mean that sticking flying mounts into an existing game is necessarily a good idea, even if on the whole flying mounts are cool.
There’s also the issue of long-term vs. short-term good. Most of the things that developers “refuse to listen” to are things that they believe are not in the long-term interests of the game. Sure, lots of players may like the idea and want to see it implemented, but it’s not the player’s job to think long term.
So, while some devs may be full of themselves, there are sometimes good reasons why “good ideas” get ignored.
Yep, Psychochild. I have a couple of related MMO Lessons to follow this one. One of them is: “It’s not necessarily a good idea to implement a good idea.” It’s basically what you said right there.
I would also add to this that a good ideal does not always mean it will be implemented good or convey the right thinking of the good ideal in the first place.
Good Ideals are only as good as the discipline of your players. If they find a way to abuse the good ideal, then it can’t be called a good ideal anymore.
EverQuest had a ton of good ideals in it, it was just that players found ways to abouse those ideals and turned a lot of what was considered fun, to time sinks, money sinks, hell levels, and so on.
Ryan, you seem to be channeling Stephen King’s “kill your darlings” message: If you put all this time and care into your idea (your ‘darling’), but it doesn’t fit in the scope of the larger project, and someone else’s idea is a better fit, let go of your pride, kill your darling, and work together to make a better game.
Well then maybe they weren’t all good ideas after all. An idea is just an idea, it has to be vetted to determine if it’s good or not. Psycho’s example is a perfect fit. Flying mounts in expansion == good idea! Flying mounts allowed to go into old zones == good idea if we want to redo all those zones to make them work but since we don’t, not so much. Flying mounts alone is neither a good or bad idea.
EverQuest and Ruins of Kunark had good ideals in them, some of Scar of Velious. After that… well I feel the game hit the ‘easy button’.