Size doesn't always matter (Gaming)

by Kahzgul, Friday, June 19, 2015, 22:04 (3444 days ago) @ Cody Miller

Cody I'm surprised to see you take this attitude of bigger is always better given your stance about Destiny and how it needs to be fixed. It was made by a pretty large group.

While it can be good, bigger is not always better. There often comes a point of diminishing returns to such things. While all organizations develop group think, an attitude of our-shit-don't-stink-ignore-that-pile-in-the-corner, large groups are especially vulnerable to such thinking in whole or in part and the larger an organization the easier it is to ignore small voices of reason or dissent. (or strangely, having so many voices of dissent that the group winds up not making a good decision at all.) There are ways to prevent such things but it usually involves dividing the larger whole into smaller parts--sort of like starting a small company or something.

All of that does not counter the point I make. You just need a good person with a creative drive, as well as the ability to manage a large group of people. Your inability to do that doesn't make it any less of a truth that making cutting edge games simply requires more and more resources and people as time goes on.

But this is false. When I tested games, I managed a team of THREE HUNDRED testers. And you know what? I had weekly meetings where I told my supervisor that we could do a better job with 10 good people. Seriously. Those extra 290 guys were generating so much nonsense data that the 10 good people on the team spent their entire days sorting out new bugs from duplicate ones. Should the 290 people have been better at their jobs? Sure, but you get what you pay for and Activision insisted on paying nearly minimum wage. In-N-Out burger paid better. I'm just sayin'. Could I have been a better manager and trainer? Absolutely. I was a horrible manager, but when you pay a guy $9.75 an hour to manage a team of 300, what the hell do you expect?

Bigger is not better in video games. Not by a long shot. Better is better, but companies that focus on stock value over quality will always aim for the more impressive numbers instead of the more impressive products.

Want to know what really sells games? It's not graphics or gameplay or story, sadly. It's goddamn advertising. That's because too many people pre-order games. You're buying them entirely on hype. Advertising is the thing that big studios have which small studios don't. Certainly not better games.