3 replies to this topic

[Reedbeta]

I just came across this blog post; it's got a pretty good analogy for why you can't get rich just by having a good idea:

http://paulbuchheit....ution_9197.html

Good link for the MMORPG aspirants around here...

[fireside]

Good article.
Games change so fast, it's hard to recognize a good idea. If someone would have told me about Farmville, I don't think I would have recognized it as a winner, but when you think about it, casual games were taking off and the next logical step was a casual MMO social game that would fit with the facebook community. There's probably a decent market for it yet and will be for a while, but what you see indies trying to do are the large world hardcore MMO games where there is extreme competition.
It's really easier than it ever was in history to prototype a game or put one on kongregate etc, so there isn't the reason there used to be to claim that you are an idea person and you don't have a thing to show potential investors. When it comes to games, there aren't many ideas that really stand out any more. It's mostly borrowing a little from another genre or something. Basically, it's a little different setting and the latest thing like the physics animation systems or destructible landscape.

[alphadog]

I have always told people that success is a combination of vision, execution and luck. To use the mountain analogy, vision is the selection of the mountain, execution is the climbing, and luck is the size of the pot at the top which you can't really see from the bottom, esp. when the mountain is tall!

[TheNut]

And here I was thinking those "aspirants" were just kids and lazy college students passing through :)