Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Aug 30

Wow. It's not every day a game you worked on in high school shows up on PCGamer. Feels like a nostalgia bomb just blew up in here.

www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/th...

The MMO granddaddy you've never heard of is celebrating its 35th anniversary, and it still pulls in 'a few thousand active players' and needs a staff of over 40 to run: 'We want to be able to survive for another 35 years'

GemStone IV feels like a glorious artefact of the internet of old, still somehow enduring.

www.pcgamer.com

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Aug 22

This is insanely hard. (4/4)

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Aug 22

You have to know which game they're playing and how you're going to fulfill a critical need that isn't being met, and effectively steal them by being just that compelling or unique, at the time you're conceiving of your game. Not in testing. Not at launch. (3/4)

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Aug 22

There are no longer huge pockets of people who just haven't discovered live games yet and would love to play them. If you want an audience today, you have to steal them from something else. Quality alone no longer beats gravity. (2/4)

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Aug 22

Nothing against the Dreamhaven folks, who are beyond legendary. And nothing against the developers, who are ridiculously talented and truly want to entertain players.

This is about where games are right now: Everyone already has access to infinite entertainment. (1/4)

Cecilia D'Anastasio @cecianasta.bsky.social · Aug 22

New: Blizzard cofounder's Dreamhaven is struggling in today's challenged games market per an internal letter. Its 2 new games sold below expectations. Dreamhaven now seeks funding

It's not alone. Some of the most promising new studios are hitting roadblocks. Story: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Blizzard Co-Founder’s Game Startup Struggles Amid Industry Glut

Mike Morhaime, a co-founder of video-game giant Blizzard Entertainment, sent a letter to staff at his new company Dreamhaven this week that he wished he didn’t have to write.

www.bloomberg.com

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Aug 16

Happy bday!

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Aug 15

That got a legitimate lol

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Aug 13

Absolutely every MMO is haunted in its own special way, and I think that's beautiful. (ff14)

FF14 patch note: In Sinus Ardorum, a player could get disconnected if they put an item up for sale between 44,442 gil and 49,087 gil

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Jul 31

I love this. I use: if everything is cozy, nothing is cozy. I like Valheim invasions or night in Minecraft as examples of how I (personally) perceive cozy: You're cozy because of the warmth and safety that's relative to the decidedly non-cozy moments.

Also, I'm done saying cozy now.

tami lam @cuppy.bsky.social · Jul 31

pssst literally any game can be “cozy” if it feels cozy to you

every MMO is cozy if that’s the way you play it

cozy is not a game genre

cozy is not a graphical style choice

cozy is a ✨state of being ✨ you’re in while you play any type of game that evokes comfort and warmth for you specifically

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Jul 19

Chatted with GDC about live games the other day - Talk's up!

Game Developers Conference @officialgdc.bsky.social · Jul 16

Live service is a tough business. Industry expert Scott Hartsman talked with GDC on where things stand for live service studios, what devs can do to stand out in the market, and which monetization models are succeeding and failing. #GDC #LiveService #GameDev
gdconf.com/article/the-...

The Truth About Live Service Games: Insights from Industry Veteran Scott Hartsman

Discover expert insights on navigating the live service games market in 2025 and beyond. Industry veteran Scott Hartsman shares advice on monetization models, market timing, and sustainable developmen...

gdconf.com

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Jun 7

My favorite genre of non-games tech writeup is "describing innovation that MMOs & live games have been doing for 20+ years"

newsletter.scalablethread.com/p/how-featur... (Not to pick on this person - I've heard this same thing recommended as new at least three other times this year)

How Feature Flags Enable Safer, Faster, and Controlled Rollouts

Understanding Effective Rollouts Using Feature Flags in Distributed Systems

newsletter.scalablethread.com

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Jun 1

MAN. So proud of you all 😀

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · May 18

As I clicked this, I'm thinking, "I bet Mike found a funny."

No. No, Mike found something much worse

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · May 16

I know the feeling, Darth. www.gamefile.news/p/fortnite-a...

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · May 6

Likelihood's surprisingly good, really! And thanks. 🙂Extremely kind of you to say. It'll always hold a special place in many of our hearts too.

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Apr 13

I'm really hoping "both" is an acceptable answer here

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Mar 22

Great to see you as always. Really glad we get to do that every now and again!

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Mar 19

❤️😆 How'd I miss this

Brad Lynch @marinov1.bsky.social · Mar 19

How I’ve felt every day for the last 20 years or so.

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Mar 14

Excellent thread. tl;dr Publishers are signing games that don't need publishers, and that's about it.

It sucks, but this is the way it is for the time being.

Entire coincidentally, this is also a line in my GDC talk next monday morning @ 9:30

Alexander Sliwinski @sliwinski.bsky.social · Mar 14

Ok, let me be helpful here. As I've been talking to boutique publishers for the past couple of weeks thx to Siegecaster, here's what to expect at GDC. Let's start with: Are you only seeking "finishing funds"? Cool. Got 100k wishlists? Congrats! Risk is so low that's the game. Oh, you don't? Um...

Alexander Sliwinski @sliwinski.bsky.social · Mar 10

A lot of game developers are about to travel incredibly far and spend a disgusting amount of money to stay in a city with infinite problems, within a country in full collapse, only to discover that the one thing they made the trip for will result in...

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Mar 6

You either just passed or failed the litmus test -- I haven't decided which is which

Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Mar 6

If you clip this thread just right, you can paste it to your friends to see who did and didn't spend time in the absolute wrongest places on the internet in their formative years

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Mar 5

This is a great callout - And so generally massively misunderstood. I wince whenever I hear "Well why didn't they just give it X more months?" Those months are the most expensive ones a game will ever see, usually by a whole lot.

Mary Kenney @marykgames.com · Mar 5

Additionally - “6 years” doesn’t mean “6 years with a full team.”
It often means “3 years with a skeleton crew, 2 years at a half prod team, and 1 year borrowing people from other teams to close it out.” Team size ramps up near the end but, depending on the studio, can stay tiny for a WHILE

Jason Schreier @jasonschreier.bsky.social · Mar 4

A theme I've been hearing recently, talking to people who worked on games that took 6+ years to make, is that they always made calls thinking they had much less time. Then the game kept slipping, but they were still stuck with those old calls. So six years of development is never *really* six years

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Mar 4

How'd you know when I started turning it up past Obnoxious 😄

Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Mar 4

I love when videos come out where I can slowly turn them up until I hear "okay what the HELL" from the other room.

This is 100% one of those. Maybe 300%

Damion Schubert @zenofdesign.com · Mar 4

This is…. Amazing. @brokentoys.social

https://youtu.be/x9nrBF5gl8A?si=q8TZK4DCyMKH-Res

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · Mar 4

hahahahaha - Okay, yeah