grep ‐‐week 47

I’ve been noticing a trend on game news sites and blogs in the last few months.  There is a growing movement of vocal critics of the state of the industry, which is very encouraging.  From AAA to indie to classic developers of all genres, it seems people are finally coming around to what Dan Cook (“Why video games are pointless”) and Raph Koster (“We make bad movies”) warned us about 10 years ago.  All of the articles below were published in just the last two months.

On the pointlessness of the debate of ‘walking sims’
@pcgamesnews
There’s Dan Pinchbeck (Dear Esther) talking about defending himself from critics claiming a walking simulator is not a game, because you don’t kill things or solve puzzles.  When he was growing up games could be anything and weren’t pigeonholed into genres.

“It felt like games were always about questioning what they could be.” –Dan Pinchbeck

We’re definitely at the point where something’s gotta give
@IdleThumbs
Then Amy Hennig reflected on her work on the Uncharted series, questioning the morality and logic of hundreds of game developers ruining their health and their personal lives just because that’s what they are expected to do, because that’s what AAA developers have always done.  And the big driving force behind that is publishers trying to give the increasingly hardcore players of a shrinking design space exactly what they expect for $60 at retail.

“I mean, Uncharted 1; a ten-hour game, no other modes… you can’t make a game like that any more.” –Amy Hennig

What counts as a game?
@GameON
John Romero reflects on the cyclical nature of the debate.

“Computer games weren’t games according to people who played board games back in the ’70s. While console games were not games according to computer game players in the ’80s… As we expand the boundary of games, people question whether it’s a game at all.” –John Romero

Games should be about what players feel, not what they do
@gamesindustry
David Cage of Heavy Rain thinks that “there’s a tradition in video games that they should be separate from the real world and not talk about real issues, our society and so on. I don’t know where that comes from.”  He wants his games to “stay with you for years. Just like the books or films you love, they become a part of you.”  As a writer he can literally write what he knows and put it in the game.

“For me, working in video games is about personal experiences: having a life, loving your children, loving your wife, going out to the park, and being inspired by all these things. Then you try and reinject that into your games and share those feelings with everyone that plays them.” –David Cage

We shy away from life and death and love and sex
@gamesindustry
Monument Valley creator Ken Wong thinks there’s not enough “life and death and love and sex” in games.

“[We all have] interests outside of games, and that really helps us remember that we are part of the story telling tradition, and the artistic tradition. We should be aiming to be as relevant as literature and film and all those other art forms.” –Ken Wong

We make boring games
@gamesindustry
Brie Code, lead programmer for Child of Light, comes right out and says it: “We make boring things.”  If you aren’t a white male geek gamer, then the vast majority of video games aren’t made for you.  She quotes a fashion designer upset that his peers are no longer capable of designing clothes for most women, because they think those women are shaped wrong rather than realize that their own skill at designing is flawed — “this is a design failure and not a customer issue.”  Our potential audience of video game players isn’t broken, rather our ability to design to the expectations and life experiences of the general public is lacking.

“I want to make games that help other people understand life.” –Brie Code

There’s a desire to go back to a simpler time
@gamesindustry
Ron Gilbert of Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island thinks the time is right to resurrect old genres that have been neglected by big publishers for the last two decades — “Back then games were a little bit simpler and seeping with charm.”  I see a parallel with point-and-click adventure games from the 90s and console games today, both of which closely follow Dan Cook’s genre life cycle: “I do feel that somewhere around the mid-90s, point-and-click adventures sort of ran off the rails. A lot of really – for want of a better word – stupid puzzles were being made.”

“There are just so many more people playing games these days, and with adventure games being very story and character focused, they are able to attract that broader audience.” –Ron Gilbert

I’ll be following this up shortly with a post on how these musings have led to a substantial pivot in the direction of my core design.