I just saw this documentary called “Another perfect world” about MMO development and how we recreate society online. I recommend it to you if you’re interested in the subject.
This link works in Sweden only: http://svtplay.se/t/102869/k_special__virtuell_perfektion. Maybe you can find it streamed in your country.
I get upset by some of the things I hear about how other game development companies treat or treated their customers but I am not really surprised. Except maybe that Raph Koster states that it was considered an employment perk to spy on players and delete accounts. I assume the game was Ultima Online.
It has always been fairly obvious to me that most MMO game developers care little about their players and this documentary strengthens that opinion. It’s like they don’t even try to do it right.
The documentary also claim that often company employees help their friends and destroy their enemies, something I am sure happens. I am proud to say that in Wurm none of this has ever been allowed to happen. The reason why we don’t have many GM run events is to remove such suspicion.
I met the CEO of Eve Online Hilmar (who’s in the documentary) in Cologne. I got his business card and it had a scratch area with a code containing two months worth of playing time. Very cool.
I told him I was making the swedish equivalent of Eve but fantasy style, so he invited me to their party which was pretty awesome.
Now we just need to get 400k more customers!
