Thanks to Tipa for noticing this and posting about it:
My wife has more than once suggested we check out working for King’s Isle. Unfortunately, they aren’t hiring artists at the moment. Still, these guys seem to get it better than most MMO devs.
I can’t help but think “if King’s Isle can do this, why not Blizzard?” I’m sure excuses can be made, but man… King’s Isle is earning their keep. Keep at it, lads!
…I wish I were at the GDC. It’s a lot more appealing than E3 or PAX. Then again, I’m the sort that wants to go to the SIGGraph classes, rather than prowl the product floor looking for free loot.
Such an easy concept to grasp and the 800lb gorilla still won’t do it. *shrugs* This kind of thing is what propels my admiration for games like EQ2 over WoW. For all the things EQ2 is not, it pays attention to little details like this very well.
One of the things that strikes me about Wizard101 is how they started as a very modest game and they’re slowly building into a larger game, all the while generating revenue.
In a lot of ways they seem like the model for how MMOs are going to need to be built from here on out.
Indeed, Pete. That’s just good business practice, and it’s surprising that we still see huge $20 million “hail mary” game releases.
I would have loved to have attended E3 as well. The problem it is very expansive if you are not sponsored by the company you work for and it can be problematic asking for time off to attend if you are in “crunch” mode which was very common when I was working in the industry.
Also, it seems to be a great place to get recruited but again I’m sure many companies realize this as well and would think twice about sending one of their employees to a conference where they may end up finding a new place to work.
True, Wolf, on all counts. I guess at some point you have to trust that you’re treating your people well enough not to worry about poaching. (Not that the game industry has grokked that just yet, though…)
I dunno where else to post this and don’t know how to email you…anyhow, I noticed KI is hiring. Have you tried applying and if so, what results have you? I tried applying…
Hmm… worth an investigation. Thanks, Vinh!