[MUD-Dev] Crunch time

[Yannick Jean]

From: ubiq at zenofdesign.com

> The ironic thing, of course, is that if it were not for crunch,
> and I mean serious, serious crunch, there probably would not be a
> single major MMO on the market today.  SWG, UO, EQ, AC, and
> Shadowbane all were shipped on the backs of a ridiculous amount of
> crunch time.  Perhaps poor planning is required to get an MMO out
> the door!

Sorry to barge in friend,

>From where I come from (developping business application/IT
consulting) there is a lot of multi-millions projects that are
developped succesfully, within the expected time frame and without
any kind of "crunch time". In my humble opinion, as blunt as it may
sound, crunch time is an excuse for sloppy planning and should never
be tolerated (some overtime is fine, sleeping at the office is not).

The main reasons why the gaming industry is such a mess when it
comes to managing large project is that it's still employing mostly
geeks, in both high or low positions. Geeks, great as they are for
working days and night for your project, are notoriously atrocious
at planning and keeping tight schedule. Give me a ruthless,
cold-blooded, project manager and a full staff of "8 to 5" workers
who got a life and a family at home and I'll give you MMORPG on
time, on budget and with a stable codebase.

-Yannick Jean
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