Heat from without and within
The weather has been very awesome lately. Thunderstorms, heat, and sun are an awesome 1-2-3 punch. I went to The Gap today to pick up some new shorts (my old ones are big enough to use as a jacket now) and the weather outside was stellar. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
This link was sent around both work and a circle of friends lately, and I found that my response to the latter group was seen as a bit high-and-mighty and snobbish. Basically I scoffed at the thing. At first I was embarrassed by delivering a rant that ran parallel with the snooty, but the more I think about it the more I agree with my original response. Let me try to explain:
In a nutshell I said the article linked above is asking for things that the casual gamer doesn’t actually want, but THINKS he wants. Most gamers don’t want to be outsmarted by AI; they want to feel powerful and go “oooOOOOooo! Bitchen!” Most gamers don’t want to be rescued from the island on a random timetable, they want to be rewarded for solving the puzzle or completing the task. Please don’t get me wrong though, I DO love comments and requests for new and exciting gameplay ideas. As a creative individual holding the job-description of DESIGNER, I do want to design what people want to play. But when I look at what people know of and purchase (even if they don’t call themselves gamers) and then look at a list of gripes like the manifesto, the features I choose to implement are going to be swayed by the dollar. Perhaps I am getting old and “selling out” (or trying to lol) but there it is. Feel free to e-mail me about this if you want to talk about it more, I could write about this all day and probably not express myself to my satisfaction.
Let me put it another way, using a different example. Most people I know consider The Empire Strikes Back as the best film in the Star Wars 6-pack (myself included). Now if you look at the All Time Box Office sales, you will notice that this movie is the movie that made the LEAST amount of money for that franchise. While it is true there are many factors contributing to this and such a list would doubtlessly produce a whole discussion of its own, looking at this fact makes it a bit easier to see why Lucas (and other big-budget movie makers) makes the decisions that he does. He is trying to make money. He is manufacturing what people are voting for with their dollars. For better or for worse, entertainment is a business.
This link was sent around both work and a circle of friends lately, and I found that my response to the latter group was seen as a bit high-and-mighty and snobbish. Basically I scoffed at the thing. At first I was embarrassed by delivering a rant that ran parallel with the snooty, but the more I think about it the more I agree with my original response. Let me try to explain:
In a nutshell I said the article linked above is asking for things that the casual gamer doesn’t actually want, but THINKS he wants. Most gamers don’t want to be outsmarted by AI; they want to feel powerful and go “oooOOOOooo! Bitchen!” Most gamers don’t want to be rescued from the island on a random timetable, they want to be rewarded for solving the puzzle or completing the task. Please don’t get me wrong though, I DO love comments and requests for new and exciting gameplay ideas. As a creative individual holding the job-description of DESIGNER, I do want to design what people want to play. But when I look at what people know of and purchase (even if they don’t call themselves gamers) and then look at a list of gripes like the manifesto, the features I choose to implement are going to be swayed by the dollar. Perhaps I am getting old and “selling out” (or trying to lol) but there it is. Feel free to e-mail me about this if you want to talk about it more, I could write about this all day and probably not express myself to my satisfaction.
Let me put it another way, using a different example. Most people I know consider The Empire Strikes Back as the best film in the Star Wars 6-pack (myself included). Now if you look at the All Time Box Office sales, you will notice that this movie is the movie that made the LEAST amount of money for that franchise. While it is true there are many factors contributing to this and such a list would doubtlessly produce a whole discussion of its own, looking at this fact makes it a bit easier to see why Lucas (and other big-budget movie makers) makes the decisions that he does. He is trying to make money. He is manufacturing what people are voting for with their dollars. For better or for worse, entertainment is a business.
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