I only cite it because it made me recall an interesting conversation with a friend of mine at a top five publisher, who claimed they can predict the lifetime sales of a retail game with 90% accuracy, based mainly on pre-orders.

Is that any different than using first-weekend box office revenues to predict the lifetime value of movies?

What I want to know is: why aren’t there more “career simulations” in the US, given our cultural fixation on money?

When I was at Sony Online Entertainment, I briefly talked with Raph about proposing a massively multiplayer “career simulator” for training employees, as part of both orientation and professional development… I was told by him and others that such a product would not be a cultural fit. Of course, I disagreed, considering that all games are naturally unobtrusive. Games have the power to reinforce as well as shape and redefine culture.

Raph Koster has posted a nice summary of every role in a game development team. You might be surprised by its length.

I added to that list, in the comments, some assumptions about the quality assurance function.