I'm an MMO hacker that's shipped one unsuccessful game and one moderately successful game, and I have to comment on some points made in this article.
-MMOs fail due to bad management, design
Partially true. All the elements need to be there, and bad technology seems to be the biggest crippling force in games. We need more good hackers in the field.
-Good MMO studios aren't hiring.
Not true, even today.
-MMO studios all have terrible quality of life, pay, benefits.
Not true. Startup studios might, but if you're going into that situation you're either getting profit sharing, or a beginner getting a foot in the door.
-MMO engines don't exist, tech isn't reused.
This is becoming less true, but the third party tech out there is still untested. It's unlikely a great MMO company will sell its tech like Epic does with Unreal, since we need long term customers, and can't afford to undercut ourselves.
-Don't work in games unless you are a gaming fanatic.
Loving gameplay helps if you want to be a gameplay coder, but MMOs are vast. Networking, graphics, AI, scalability, the problems to be solved are endless. If you're bored at your job, I recommend giving the games industry a look.
-MMOs fail due to bad management, design
Partially true. All the elements need to be there, and bad technology seems to be the biggest crippling force in games. We need more good hackers in the field.
-Good MMO studios aren't hiring.
Not true, even today.
-MMO studios all have terrible quality of life, pay, benefits.
Not true. Startup studios might, but if you're going into that situation you're either getting profit sharing, or a beginner getting a foot in the door.
-MMO engines don't exist, tech isn't reused.
This is becoming less true, but the third party tech out there is still untested. It's unlikely a great MMO company will sell its tech like Epic does with Unreal, since we need long term customers, and can't afford to undercut ourselves.
-Don't work in games unless you are a gaming fanatic.
Loving gameplay helps if you want to be a gameplay coder, but MMOs are vast. Networking, graphics, AI, scalability, the problems to be solved are endless. If you're bored at your job, I recommend giving the games industry a look.