There's a tremendous amount of work that goes into the creation of most games at present. MWM is attempting to do what few, if any, have done before, which is bring together a group of largely volunteer people and create a functional MMO (there's an Avengers metaphor in there somewhere...). There are plenty of people across the industry from both developers/business people to players and fans that are (and will be) fascinated by this phenomenon and the underlying story.
Has anyone at MWM thought about archiving the vast amount of communication, work, the posts here, and more to one day serve as a basis for a book?
If done right it would make for fascinating reading and provide a rough roadmap for the do's and don'ts of creating a game, to say nothing of building a team. Hell, might actually be a good HBS case study if things work out well.
Just a thought, and perhaps a useful way to raise the profile of the game post-launch, maybe at the 1 year anniversary or something.
I love this idea. This sort of storytelling could be done by other volunteers that don't need the sort of skills necessary for working on the game itself, so it doesn't need to have much of an impact on development. The core coders and artists might need to contribute some interviews and soundbytes but not much more.
This is a great idea! I really hope MWM ends up with a rags to riches story. Especially since it will all have been done with such a fragmented staff. Definitely a unique tale to tell.
"A sad spectacle. If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly. If they be not inhabited, what a waste of space." ~ Thomas Carlyle
yes exactly - it's not something I would envision them doing themselves beyond the interviews and reviewing the material prior to publication to be sure nothing untoward is accidentally released.