the corner office

First visit to the gym in well over a month. Cuhreak. Hopped into the bath at about 4pm with a book and surfaced after 8, having finished it. If it wasn't for the hunger pangs, I'd have grabbed another book and stayed there for a while longer. That, and the missus wasn't that diligent in providing me with a regular supply of tea, which is an essential part of the decadence.

The book I finished was "Developing Online Games: an Insider's Guide" by Jessica Mulligan and Bridgette Patrovsky. This is another of the gaming-related books I bought a while ago, and again, while I can't see myself becoming an online games developer, it was still an interesting read. I've never played any pure MMOGs but they do fascinate me. Between the local bandwidth issues and worrying about affordability and a healthy dose of "no way, I wouldn't have the time" thoughts, I've always shied away from signing up anywhere. It's way up there on the list of things I hope to do one day when I'm rich and bored, though.

The book's focus is on the practical issues of designing and rolling out and maintaining persistent-world games, from an operational perspective. I enjoyed the insights it gives into the practicalities of dealing with games that have hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and the dynamics and nature of the types of people who're drawn to these games. The authors know their stuff, and their confidence and experience comes through very clearly.