Behind the scenes of MMO game development
You may or may not be familiar with the "ghostly wolf" debacle that occurred in the World of Warcraft recently. It involved a pet wolf that would not have been able to be tamed by Hunters without some clever usage of game mechanics and some costly preparation. Blizzard confirmed that they would not be changing this, prompting many players to begin their time and money investments into obtaining a "Grimtotem Spirit Guide" pet. Then a hotfix was released that meant the wolf could no longer be tamed, and a resounding "WTF?!" was heard across the land.
Sandra at Elder Game discussed this case, and having had experience as producer of Asheron's Call, decided to write a hypothetical story of what the whole ghostly wolf situation might have been like behind the scenes at Blizzard. It's a tale of miscommunication, internal drama and politics. The point she makes at the end is that it is extremely difficult for a large development team to work as a single entity, and that internal communication is the key to avoiding scenarios like the above. The full article is definitely worth a read, and gives an insider perspective on the sort of challenges these teams face that aren't directly related to development. Also, for a bit of history on the ghostly wolf story, WoW Insider covered each of the stages, from discovery, to the announcement that Hunters would be able to continue taming them, to the hotfixing.
