| Mail |

You might also like: WoW Insider, Joystiq, and more

More Sites You Might Like

The Daily Grind: What would you ask your favorite game dev in person?

by Shawn Schuster on Oct 26th 2011 8:00AM

MMO Industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

Let's say you found that golden ticket. Somehow you had the chance to tour your favorite game studio to meet your most admired MMO game developer. There he or she is, standing before you, willing to answer any question you can throw at him or her. As an added bonus, the dev can't avoid your question!

So what would you ask? Would you ask Curt Schilling if you could play the Project Copernicus MMO? Would you ask Mike O'Brien when Guild Wars 2 is coming out? Or would you ask anyone at Blizzard what they were thinking when they decided Kung Fu Panda would make a great expansion to World of Warcraft?

Let us know in the comments below!

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

Tags: devs, game-developers, gene-wilder-was-the-best-willy-wonka, golden-ticket, mmo-industry, opinion, orange-you-glad-i-didnt-make-an-orange-joke, tdg, the-daily-grind, veruca-salt, willy-wonka

Reader Comments (42)

hmm i would ask Blizzard dev how much of wow revenue is spent back on the game, even just percentage is accepted as answer

@alzeer

This is exactly what I want to know. I'd probably want more detail, but even just a percentage of the total reinvestment of revenues would tell me quite a bit about what they're really up to.

@Barrikade this info is public, check the Activision Blizzard investor calls. I don't remember the exact numbers, only remember they are very small

@alzeer Lol, as if you have to ask, probably a better question would be "How much money from WoW subscriptions, do you use on Titan?"

I would ask Ree Soesbee (ANet) if she was available for a dinner at any time in the near future.

@Bottleskup
Double date with Kristen Perry.

@Bottleskup

Damn you were faster than me :(

Don't listen to him...would you have dinner on the beach with me on a tropical island and I will tell you what's my story :p

@Bottleskup

creepy factor just went up +1 oO

@real65rcncom

Whats creepy about wanting to take a very talented, successful and attractive woman out for a meal?

Seems fairly normal to me...

@Bottleskup

Perhaps thinking all female developers are dating material as opposed to developers has something to do with the creep factor. Non?

So back on topic: What would ask a developer Bottleskup?

Hmm nothing. They are not calling the shots. Sure they implement cetrain mechanics, but overall and most important for me things, like:
a) business model
b) general game concepts (themepark, sandbox, sandpark, tokens grind game? or player-economy driven? focus game on co-op instance running? or world-building with instances just beign one part of it?) - that's what I would like to talk about, but average dev is not a person that decides that.

Investors, managment and eventually lead designer is ppl who decide that- and all things that are in game depend on anwwer to those questions/ concepts

@smartstep Agree, it's all about the filthy-shill-money-men.

I'm not a devotee of the cult-of-the-dev so have no cult figure to fawn at the feet of anyway.

@smartstep
You are mostly right, but that is not true of smaller indie, games.

I'd ask Blizz devs for a job. Not like I could possibly do any worse. And some of my easy to implement (very minimal development cost like a few hours worth of programming max) ideas have no effect on gameplay whatsoever would rival or outshine the sparkle pony for quick infusions of cash.

If nothing else, at least I know Steady Shot and the newer Cobra Shot have always been affected by haste. Only class that I don't have intimate knowledge of at max level are shamans. I'm a former progression raider.

Hell they could use me as a sounding board too. Have Ghostcrawler send me his blogs before he posts them and I'll tell him how to edit them so as to not sound like such a condescending elitist ass. The GC PR disaster prevention(s) I could provide would be worth a small paycheck. Hey I'll work cheap.

Come on Blizz, I need the money.

@(Unverified)
I always find it hilarious when an untrained, inexperienced gamer thinks that because they spent X hours with a very narrow focus playing a single game that they could do a better job than any of the actual developers. Drop them an email with your 'ideas' and see if you get an interview, I'm guessing you won't even get a reply.
Also laughably ironic is the 'couldn't even get an interview' gamer who posts about how great his ideas are compared with the real developers who then goes on to call THEM a condescending, elitist ass.

@(Unverified)
You sound like my 13 year old nephew, who is somehow convinced that if he wanted to, he could work for Blizzard. He just... erm... uh... hasn't wanted to yet, yeahhh thats it. he's er... uh... waiting for the right time.

*are you serious face* Mmm... really. Tell me more.

@Misterlee
Don't misunderstand me, I agree with you about this guy, but I feel the need to point out that it did work out well for Jeffrey Kaplan and Rob Pardo.

Dude, where's my pony?

I would ask CCP Why Caldari Cruisers and battle ships are so bloody ugly.

Not that I have a favorite developer but here are a few questions for the companies.

For WoW & Rift: Any serious plans to add in sandbox elements to your game?

SWTOR: How do you plan to put out timely content considering the amount of investment voice acting takes?

Guild Wars 2: When is your beta and can I be in it?

| 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments

The Daily Grind: What would you ask your favorite game dev in person?

Reader Comments (42)

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 8:09AM alzeer said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 11:53AM Barrikade said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 1:30PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 6:27PM drunkingamebar said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 8:15AM Bottleskup said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 8:36AM MCMjolnir said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 9:27AM Valdur said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 10:42AM real65rcncom said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 11:42AM Bottleskup said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 12:50PM Utakata said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 8:28AM smartstep said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 11:50AM Saker said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 12:04PM donweel said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 8:43AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 12:09PM Misterlee said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 1:35PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 2:44PM Seldra said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 8:47AM dudes said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 8:54AM ThePeon25 said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 8:55AM (Unverified) said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Trion hit with another round of layoffs [Updated]

Featured Stories

Tattered Notebook: A guide to EQII's Moonlight Enchantments (with new stuff!)

The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV beta phase 1 and 2 - FATEs and dungeons

Wings Over Atreia: Shugo Kingdom returns to Aion

Engadget

Joystiq

WoW

TUAW