Modesty Studios

Assuming things about your audience can definitely make an ass out of you (and me). And sometimes, it feels like some games designs are built on this foundation of assumptions about its players that might be excluding a large market. So what inspired this was something I noticed in my email. Several months ago, I had joined Lord of the Rings Online so I could keep in touch with my boyfriend who enjoyed WoW. It was a free MMO (since I was not quite willing to pay a subscription fee). And quite seriously a little gem in the MMO scene. Today I had received notice that their game guides had been updated and the message was very new player friendly. It had a colorful list of new player and beginner MMO guides to the game. When I had first heard about this MMO it was at GDC. A developer was explaining to me how LOTR Online was aimed for a more mature group of people and that it was not as 'immature' as WoW. Now my research on MMOs had pointed out that these games attract the mos...

Another bit of a rant about games, or really one game. Angry effing Birds. As an iPhone game developer, I can assure you that the easiest way to piss us off is to ask us about Angry Birds. In casual conversation when I bring up my profession, guaranteed 100% of the time the person will ask something along the lines of: Oh iPhone games, you mean like Angry Birds. Or my personal favorite: "Oh you know my son/daughter plays this one game alot...what was it?" Me: Angry Birds. (There is no intonation of a question in this response. It's a factual response.) "Yes that's the one." What. The. Duck. Seriously, has Angry Birds become the FACE of the App Store? It really feels like it has. Yay for that company...they have made it into infamy. And I get so pissed off seeing their fisking merchandise at the mall. Jealous? Perhaps a bit, but on the other hand I'm REALLY glad that an iPhone game has gotten that huge. That makes the platform meaningful for a wi...