World of Warcraft Developers Lend Their Expertise

[GameBanshee News]

The Orange County Register has published a new article featuring "11 innovation lessons" from Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft development team. Listen up, developers:

9. DEMAND EXCELLENCE OR YOU’LL GET MEDIOCRITY

“We could ship a sub-par game, but ultimately it hurts the brand. We should ship it when it’s ready or we shouldn’t ship it at all,” said Pearce, the executive vice president of product development. “It’s an issue of making sure we’re not risking long-term gain for short-term benefits.”

Brack added: “That’s a core value of Blizzard, not a luxury that it can afford now that it’s bringing in so much revenue.”

“Living with mediocrity can be the downfall of a company or service firm,” said St. George. “There are many companies that have learned this lesson through failed product lines and even company closures. Requiring or demanding quality and excellence is a must for all companies and service firms.”

“Demanding excellence is a tough call, as it often requires that we accept ‘good enough’ to meet tough shipping schedules. The concept of ‘perfect’ is one that most cynical employees will laugh at,” Wartenberg said.

“But one of our local companies, QLogic in Aliso Viejo, has that exact title posted through out their facility – a big sign saying ‘Perfection: Our Clients Demand It.’

“If you ask for excellence or perfection, you many never get it, but you will sometimes get something approaching it – and mostly will get good enough. If you ask for good enough, however, you will never get anything approaching excellence and will often get below-average results. People tend to rise to meet expectations,” Wartenberg said.