Game Development Essentials: Online Game Development

I only received the book about three days ago, and am currently on page 141 of about 250, so I want to say that I have not yet had time to finish the book. However, I'm so excited by it that I wanted to write this review anyway during a break from reading it. The book is an MMOG enthusiast's dream. For a long time I have been interested in eventually breaking into the gaming industry, with an eye towards one day designing an MMORPG of my own. This book puts the whole process into great perspective, and being that my degree is in engineering, I can say that the business approaches and practices espoused in this book work in all facets of business, design, and planning. Indeed, if one looks closely there are abstract bits of wisdom throughout the book that apply to all of life, and it becomes clear while reading that there are bits of wisdom throughout all of life that must be applied to game design in order to produce a good game. I could not be more pleased with this book, and find myself repeatedly amazed at how professionally researched, organized, and written it is. It is extremely accessible to all readers, and works to provide a brilliant foundation for MMOG design in general. While there is a great deal of breadth in the book, and it is accessible to all, only the most creative and intelligent minds will be able to fully grasp, digest, and appreciate everything it has to say. For this reason, it could be a great read for young gaming enthusiasts and industry leaders alike. In life, all great philosophical ideas are accessible to all, yet the full bouquet of intertwining reasoning will only be realized by the most brilliant. The same rings true of this book. I will be reading it more than once for my own enhanced benefit, as I admit that I cannot swallow at once all that it has to say. The book would make a great gift for anyone who is fascinated by MMOG design, its history, or just sound business practices.

I bought this book trying to find more specific data on the development costs, more data on the internal architecture (i.e. considerations about how or why to structure the servers and databases and where to look further), an expanded security considerations section (it is not even remotely acceptable how little this is talked about) and in general more examples and even code on all relevant topics. I regret having bought this book, it is just like a documentary on crack (it won't teach you how to make crack or how to buy it or anything useful if you're trying to get some). Of course, i understood this book wasn't for me the second it arrived: paperback with glossy cover and colored pages full of pictures. P.D: This mistake was only possible because the table of contents wasn't available and the comments were very misleading. *Don't be fooled*, if an author doesn't post the table of contents it is because he wants to _mislead people_ into what's inside (ie, capturing buyers of completely different technical sophistication). Another thing, accept the fact that the first comments are most likely the author's friends doing some marketing for him. Consider yourselves warned.

I purchased this book in an attempt to greater insight on creating an online game. This book provided alot of high level concepts that were good ideas to thing about. I was looking for something a little more technical though.

The book I ordered was very well priced and arrived in slightly better condition than I expected. I have a few of the other books in this series from when I was getting my degree in game design in college. The price on this book was skyrocketing a few years ago, so when I found it for cheap I immediately made the purchase. I am 2 chapters in and have skimmed around in some of the later chapters. So far the material has been very thorough (although a bit old, it still holds up). Packed with game theory, explanations on the why, player psychology, business considerations, and recognizing potential snags, this is a must read for budding game developers and would prove to be still quite useful material for professionals as well.

This is a book for anyone who wants to truly understand what goes into making today's online games. In a very straight-forward and readable manner, the book covers the many complex issues that make up today's development environment. It does an excellent job of establishing a project framework that works well in the creative element of a game design studio. This framework keeps the business side as its first focus but manages to do that without overwhelming the need for creativity and fun. Customer satisfaction and a successful product are the clear result of such a disciplined approach. Whether you are planning on a career in game design or are already a seasoned professional, no matter if you are a senior producer, coder, or design game art, a thorough understanding of a game development methodology will benefit your career immensely. I bought this book to gain a broader understanding of the issues surrounding the game development environment. I could not be happier with my choice.