The questions that most executives have been asking about PW proposals and projects are generally the same ones they have used with success in evaluating the viability and progress of standard retail games :
As more than a few publishers and developers found out the hard way in 2001, those questions are not nearly comprehensive enough to gauge the viability of a PW proposal. The questions list should look more like this:
These are only the basic considerations. The more you know about PWs (also known as massively multiplayer online games or MMOGs), the better and deeper the questions you can ask. If there are good answers to your deeper questions, they will tend to be more complex and inter- related than answers to the simpler questions about simpler games. Yet, you have to do this digging, especially if you're considering plunking down several million dollars. There is a difference between leaving your footprint on the Sands of Time and leaving a splatter pattern on the pavement outside David Letterman's studio. |