"Higby pls" process explained

[Rolfsky]

I posted this on the PSU forum, might be interesting for this outfit as well:

With all the recent rage quit drama about people/outfits (BCP/TE) pulling the plug because this game being "unfinished" and feature X/Y/Z still not into this game, this video might give us some perspective.

Although it does a lousy job of illustrating the passion that lies underneath a product like Planetside 2, this video probably gives a good idea of the challenges SOE devs are facing every day and the model that lies behind deliberately releasing an "unfinished" product. It's called "Agile software development" and probably was chosen by SOE because it works well with the F2P business model.

In this video: "Product Owner" = Higby/Smedley, "Stakeholder" = We, the players, "User Stories" = Planetside 2 features and "Product Backlog" = Roadmap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=502ILHjX9EE

 

[bpostal]

Ah, and here I thought 'higby pls' is just like a child whining to it's mother in the grocery store.

 

[Edgewalkr]

This is a bit of a rant so here's the TLDR: I suspect you're right, the fact that the Roadmap exists and they are able to stick almost consistently does imply an Agile style of development

Long version:
My previous company used Agile development for the main software we were producing, from the perspective of someone not directly involved with the development (I was the Support Lead/Liaison to the main support team in the USA) it can be infuriating. I'll agree that SOE are probably using Agile due simply to the Roadmap, part of the Agile process is to layout your goals and then decide the priority/order in which they should be handled, which is exactly what the Roadmap is, only they made it public knowledge rather than internal only.

And that is probably the biggest mistake they made, yes SOE have been incredibly open with the development of PS2 but giving the customers direct access to deciding the development process is never good idea imo, 12 years ago I was working on a butchers counter, the butcher gave me the best piece of advice I've ever heard regarding customer service "The customer is always right, but the customer doesn't know what they're talking about." This has never been more true than in software development, look at the forums, or at reddit, people think that something can be fixed with a single line of code, or in an afternoon, the truth is that it could take days to find the issue, and then figure out how to fix it, then test it to make sure it working correctly, then test that it hasn't broken anything else. On the small project I was a part of it could take a month for a relevantly minor issue to be diagnosed, fixed, built, tested, and then finally released. I dread to think how they manage it in the code of an MMO. Of course the daft thing is when something is fixed by a single line of code, it's just finding that line that's the issue.

Anyway I guess that's enough of a rant, should probably add a TLDR up the top.

 

[Moodel]

That is a spot on explanation by Edgewalkr.

Many of the large corporations use that model these days although they will never admit to it. I know that many of the big blue chips all use that methodology when releasing new products.

Edgewalkr is correct that this is the way of the future for all F2P MMO's.

I will however add this.

If you have issue with the game keep it yourself, bitching constantly about how broken the game is on Mumble achieves nothing and I for one (along with some others) have no desire to hear you mouthing of about it.