Video game industry needs to grow up.

CleffyII

  The video game industry is huge now.  MMOs alone account for $5 Billion/year.  In the last year the industry has tripled in sales volumes.  Isn't it about time developers started to take development seriously?

  The underlying problem I have seen was that many development houses hire thier friends, buddies, and people they can chat with over people who just plain can work.  This can be a detrimental work environment.  In design positions it has always been more productive to work with people you don't like then you do like, mainly because you have no chatting points to consume time except for work related issues.  Another problem with this is that they believe they have a say in the design process, so now you don't have the people who just will do the grunt work but a bunch of people trying to get in on the design.  After all most people in the game industry want to be the designer.

  As a result of this we are seeing a trend of games that seemed like only 2 people were working on it, or 500 people doing the work of 10.  A world whos assets have a disconnect, and poorly planned areas that the player has to deal with.  This can be corrected though by hiring actual workers not your best buddies, having a pre-plan that lists everything that needs to be done by release with milestones, and having a better pipeline so workers are not left wondering what to do next.

  There is another problem as well with the lack of voice when it comes to the design of a game.  We have hit a point where a games costs is too high to take risks.  As a result we have tried and true designers who have made atleast a dozen games working on contracts rather then bringing in fresh blood.  A company can have an outstanding employee who worked with them for 10 years but opt for an outside lead designer.  Pretty much now the only way a person can become a lead designer is if they were already a lead designer or they start thier own company.

Nerf09

Already the video game industry has overtaken Hollywood in revenue.  Don't tell me the money isn't there.