Who s in Charge on Launch Day?


Who's in Charge on Launch Day?

At this point, just before launch day, you should have in place both a game development team and a live development team. The live development team may or may not be fully rounded out, but by this point, your mission-critical positions are filled and they've been working with the game development team for some time. For that matter, they may be working for the game development team, as part of the final crew bringing the game to the launch stage, and some members of the game development team are probably slated to move to the live development team to help maintain continuity and a keen knowledge base of the code.

If you've done as we've suggested, at this juncture the game has two producers and, at minimum, some duplicate sets of lead designers, client programmers, server/network programmers, and maybe a few duplicate junior designers and engineers in the mix, too. At the same time, the rest of the overall live operations team, including community relations, player relations, and network operations, have been ramping up and getting to know both development teams .

With such a mixed command structure, communication links and responsibilities may become an issue, especially in knowing which "duplicate" is responsible for fixing bugs and publishing changes and who communicates them to community relations, player relations, and the players. It is important to maintain a clear chain of authority, both within the company and with the players, to avoid misunderstandings ("Hey, I thought you were fixing that bug!" or "What are you doing answering questions for the community guys? That's my job!") and create a smooth pathway for transitioning the live development team into operations later on.

Who Does What, and When?

How long a launch phase lasts depends greatly on how many problems the game and service experience on launch and how long it takes to fix those problems and stabilize the product. Even though the live development team has been slowly ramping up during the testing process, the game development team is still far more familiar with the code and design and can do this job more quickly and more efficiently .

Ideally, a launch phase for a fairly stable product and service can be planned to last for three months, at which time the live development team takes over from game development, which then goes on a long vacation to rediscover what that "sun" thing looks like. For that three-month period, the game development team hierarchy should remain in charge and have sole responsibility for assigning, tracking, and testing fixes for patches. They should also be the people that community relations taps to provide "official" answers for public distribution.

If the game and service experience a load of serious problems from the outset, however, the duration of the launch phase should remain flexible, as long as six months. By the end of this time, the service will either be stabilized or you'll be trying to come up with an alternate strategy to stave off impending disaster.

Introducing the Live Development Team

It should be the responsibility of the community relations team to keep the subscriber base informed as to who is in charge and maintain the communication flow between the teams and the players (see the later section titled "Disaster Control"). This includes managing the public transition of the internal leadership and teams to prevent a sense of confusion, instability, or trepidation among the players. A sudden or abruptly announced transition can easily be mistaken for firings or replacements for incompetence and may be blown out of proportion by that portion of the player base that lives for such drama.

If it hasn't happened before this in the open Beta test period, community relations should begin smoothing the way for the public transition to the "new" team at the end of launch by introducing the live development team to the player community. This is in addition to any community relations activities with the game development team, such as online developer chats and regular team postings monitored by the community relations team. Community relations' purpose is to maintain the game's public chain of command in the hands of the game development team, while simultaneously making the players accustomed to hearing from the people who will eventually be in charge of the game. There are a number of strategies that can be employed, such as a series of regular "Letters from the Live Team" that discuss issues of concern to the players or note some of the combined activities of the game and live development teams, and live team online chat sessions to let the players get to know the live team's personalities.

If the live team is being introduced for the first time during launch, it is probably a good idea to wait until the initial two-week "rush" period is over. If there are issues with the launch, the great bulk of them will occur during this period, and there may be a sense of confusion and chaos among the players; there is no need to amplify that by introducing new people and perhaps creating a perception that confusion reigns internally, too.

Transition Ceremonies

When the day arrives to move from launch to live operations and make the official transition from game development to live development, the occasion should be noted with two ceremonies: an internal one within the company and one that is held publicly , with the players. This is a critical milestone in the life of a PW and it is important to let all concerned know that not only have the game and service moved into a new phase of the lifecycle, but the baton has been passed to others to carry.

The Company Ceremony

For the game development team, this has been a long haul, certainly at least two years and perhaps as long as four years . For some of your team members, this will be the longest sustained activity they've experienced in their lives and the most significant project in which they've ever been involved. Some of it will have been fun and exciting, basking in the adulation of players who appreciate the effort; some of it will have been pain, sweat, and sleepless nights, suffering the ingratitude of that small section of the player base that likes to carp and criticize at every little bump in the road. As the team comes to the end of the trail, there will be mixed emotions, including satisfaction with the job done, some sadness and happiness that it is finally over, and probably a little depression, too; they will no longer be the cocks of the walk. For people who have just spent years being the online game industry's equivalent of rock stars, this can be a bitter pill to swallow.

Conversely, it is a new beginning for the live development team, as they prepare to take on the huge responsibility of maintaining a game and service that may have taken $20 million to develop and launch. They will probably be both excited at the prospect and nervous that they may blow it.

To help ease the transition of both teams into the new situation and set a demarcation line for the rest of the company, it is important to have an all-hands company ceremony that acknowledges the hard work and success of the game developers and clearly and cleanly passes the responsibility torch to the live development team. This can be as simple as a company meeting one afternoon, with a small ceremony thanking the game development team, introducing the live development team, and having short speeches by the two producers, or it can be as elaborate as a formal company dinner, complete with plaques, awards, and speeches.

The Public Ceremony

Equally as important is a ceremony for the benefit of the players, again to scotch potential rumor-mongering and let the subscribers know that the change from development to live operations has been made.

If at all possible, this "passing the baton" ceremony should be done in the game and at least somewhat in the context of the game, with players invited to attend . It is recommended that you don't throw open the doors to any and all who wish to be there; that is practically a guarantee that the physical server will be swamped and probably crash, because everyone will want to be there. Imagine 2,000 “3,000 simultaneous players trying to crowd onto to a small region of the game and you'll get the picture.

Rather, pick or create a closed location in the game for the ceremony and hold a drawing, raffle, or some other random, non-partisan selection method to fill the player attendee slots for the ceremony. At the appointed time, have your GMs transport the player/ characters to the correct spot, conduct the ceremony, and then have some kind of event, such as a banquet or skill contest. This kind of ceremony and event really charges the players and puts a "human face" on the live team; it makes them part of the family, so to speak.

If it is just not possible to effectively hold the ceremony in-game, hold a web chat and/or post "in-character" announcements on your web site, announcing the change of leadership and the movement from development to live operations.



Developing Online Games. An Insiders Guide
Developing Online Games: An Insiders Guide (Nrg-Programming)
ISBN: 1592730000
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 230

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