It seems like everyone is afraid of The Man these days.
In this age of solo web entrepreneurs like Tim Ferris with his Four Hour Work Week, Seth Godin telling you All Marketers are Liars and Small is the New Big, and Chris Brogan telling you to Develop a Strong Personal Brand, it’s quite easy to believe that big companies aren’t necessary anymore. In fact, people like Steve Pavlina believe working for another company is a Sucker Bet and will hinder your personal success.
However, with the exception of Mr. Pavlina, all of these people have worked at corporations, and some are now partners in corporations that they have created. What’s the deal here?
I don’t have all the answers, but I can make some connection to how it can relate to the gaming world. I do know that in the gaming business, in order to work on something Epic you will need a lot of people to do it. A large Role Playing Game such as Neverwinter Nights or Dragon Age is going to need the resources of a big company like Bioware; with hundreds of people. Many of those people will be creating vast amounts of content (music, sound, art, writing, levels), and many of those people will be coding, directing, and even testing it. And once the game is developed, it needs to be distributed and marketed. This all requires a vast amount of resources and time.
So don’t be afraid of big companies. They have the framework and the resources to make really big, really awesome things happen. Especially in games.
That’s not to dismiss Independent Games. Many great games and game ideas are spawned from indie developers. However, these are usually limited to Casual Games and the occasional off-the-wall action title. There are very few indie RPG games out there that are even worth mentioning. And I wouldn’t call any of them epic.
Sure, a small team of 3, 2, or possibly even one person could make an Epic RPG on a similar scale. However, it would take roughly a decade for that one extremely talented person to do. And by the time he released it, it would be outdated, and no one would have any interest in it. That is, if he could even find a publisher/distributor.
On the other hand, a not-so-biggish company named Telltale games has recently made headway in this area with Episodic Graphic Adventure games (similar to Broken Blueprint).
TellTale use relatively small development teams for each title, create their games so that they can run on very modest hardware, and divide up each game into multiple chapters and release them over time. So far, it has been very successful. Not only does this keep the development time rather short, it also keeps the marketing engine going strong automatically because of new, fresh, content is always in the works (instead of one big push, as in traditional games).
Where am I going with this? Well, a mostly epic RPG similar to the Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest games can be done a bit more easily than an epic MMORPG or Bioware title. A single-player game with a linear storyline, limited (non-custom) character selection, and the right amount of content… could be finished in a little over a year.
But people aren’t patient enough for that. Which is something that TellTale figured out and is why they are doing so well (don’t worry, TellTale would never hire me, I’m not an Ex-Lucasarts employee 
)
Why not an Episodic RPG? I’ve been toying with the idea for a few years actually, and I know it can work. In fact, I’m going to announce it soon. And I’m going to document the entire development experience right here. If my designs are anything to go by (compared to my original Arvale designs), I can finish the game in under two months. I plan to officially start development on October 1st.
So, if you’re looking for Uber-Epic, MMORPG, with cutting edge visuals that will make your hard-drive bleed, and a storyline where you must save the world from utter destruction which will move you to tears with it’s sheer Epic-ness: Seriously, go play a Bioware game. That’s what they do.
If, on the other hand, you wish to play a bright, fun RPG which can be played on any decent computer, has a light-hearted theme, and is full of humor and clever writing: Stay tuned 
Interview with Legendary Leisure Suit Larry Designer, Al Lowe
What kind of games do you want?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I am constantly amazed by how talented you are, Jaybot. Good post
Yarsh! (I still like the sound of that! I wish I could start every response this way)
You know I don’t believe in Talent
Everything is a skill. Which means, if I’m good at a few skills, it means I spent a lot of time sucking at them too.
Time well spent then
There is nothing wrong with sucking
Babies do it for years and no one makes fun of them.
Nice post Jay! You know, until recently I had no idea how much you were into game design. I’m “loosely” interested in game development too, albeit from a more technical side. So I’m staying tuned!
Word up Zoltan! Thanks for the comments.
Well, considering that’s what NNG was employing me to do, I do know a thing or two about game design
Technical side is important too. I wish I had the time to learn programming more, but scripting takes enough of my time as it is.