The OCRegister has another Blizzard related blog online entitled 11 innovation lessons from creators of World of Warcraft. The article addresses the key ideals that keep Blizzard on the right path to creating great games for the public as recognised by innovation experts in Orange County. Here’s a quick slip from the article on criticism:
Blizzard welcomes criticism – seeks it, in fact – both during game development and after the launch, when games need to be fine-tuned and freshened up.
In a process that is common for software companies, an alpha test provides crucial pre-release feedback from company employees. When the game software is ready, Blizzard moves to a beta test involving a limited number of outside players. Blizzard plans a beta test of its upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack for World of Warcraft, but hasn’t announced when it will begin.
Thanks Slashdot
I think those 11 things should be rules and any game developer would at least carefully think about those 11 things. Maybe then there wouldn’t be so many crappy games.