MMO Design Blog of the Month: MMO Tidbits

Every once in a while you find a diamond in the rough in the world of MMO design blogs. There are many great sites out there and I try to link most of them. Some are so popular such as Tobold and Broken Toys that to link them would be just needless overkill.

One amazing site just came to my attention is MMO Tidbits. It’s the creation of Arnold Hendrick a 25 year industry veteran. He’s a video game producer with an impressive resume and an even more impressive series of articles on MMO game design.

Here’s just a small sampling of Arnold’s unique perspective on MMO design:

The uncommon ingredient I bring to the field of MMO games is historical perspective. It’s not just my 25 years in the computer game industry. My original academic training was in history. MMO game development now has enough history that past experience can be useful in evaluating future possibilities. If you are unaware of past failures, your chances of repeating them are higher. If you don’t know about past successes, you must reinvent them rather than build on them. Of course, there remains plenty of room for originality. Every game has novelties; some work well, some fall flat. To continue the learning process I plan to review various games from a design and production perspective.

I’d like to help promote this fine website. Here are the links to some of his articles to whet your game design appetite:

Beyond Fantasies & Licenses

Selling MMOs

A Customer Development Strategy for Building Online Games

The Next Generation of Social Networking Games

How MMOs Designed Away Social Gameplay

Project Management for Game Development

Subscriptions vs. Microtransactions

If you are into game design or you just like to get a rare glimpse into the mindset of someone who’s produced 20 games then be sure to check out Arnold’s insightful site.

-Wolfshead

If you know of any good MMO design blogs or are linking to my blog please contact me and I’d be happy to return the favor.

Latest Comments

  1. Brian 'Psychochild' Green September 29, 2009
  2. We Fly Spitfires September 29, 2009
  3. Stabs September 29, 2009
  4. Arnold Hendrick September 30, 2009
  5. Longasc October 1, 2009