Ken Levine Is A PC Gamer

[Andy Chalk]

Ken Levine Is A PC Gamer

In a new interview with Forbes, BioShock [http://www.2kgames.com/bioshock/] mastermind Ken Levine claims he's first and foremost a PC gamer, and says he wishes the industry could find a way to make PC gaming more "broadly successful."

Levine said that despite the high regard given by gamers to his past work, the 2007 shooter BioShock, with over two million copies sold, is the first real "hit" he's ever worked on. "We had marginally successful project - we never lost money - but BioShock is head and shoulders above the rest," he said. Despite that, he maintained that he and his team haven't been influenced by the increasing popularity of casual games, and that they don't make games for "targeted demographics."

"You can't make Bioshock from a focus test," he said. "It is too weird. We come up with the kind of stuff we want to do, and then it is our responsibility to make sure the company is going to make a return on its investment and we're not off making some crazy art project. The casual space just broadens the expressive space for what we think of as gaming experiences and what people enjoy."

But Levine also pointed out that the flip-side to making games you like to play is that you don't get to actually play them. "My team and I make things that excite me, but the downside is that I don't get to play them with fresh eyes," he said. "When you make games you want to make, they always end up being games that you want to play - but you already know everything about them. So now, I don't wish I had made [Fallout 3 [http://fallout.bethsoft.com]] because then I wouldn't get to play it."

Looking toward the future, Levine said he's a believer in "industrial Darwinism," but added that he'd like to see greater success for the PC gaming industry. "There are so many challenges for PC gaming - the complications from systems specifications to the drivers - most people look at PC games and say, 'What are you talking about?' It's a shame because as a gamer, I am never more comfortable than I am sitting with a mouse and keyboard two inches away from my monitor."

Ken Levine's full interview with Forbes (including the part where he talks about swinging from a noose) can be read here [http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/03/ken-levine-bioshock-tech-personal-cx_mji_1203levine.html?partner=yahootix].


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[PedroSteckecilo]

It's pretty simple, Blizzard did it (in a way) with WoW.

STOP PUSHING GRAPHICS SO HARD

People CAN but do not WANT to upgrade.

Still, I like Ken Levine he's like the smart, more creative, likeable cousin of Cliffy B.

 

[purple_haze]

I think PC gaming is far from dead, and I don't mean in terms of casual gaming and MMOs. Look at the sales that Valve just released for all of their games at retail. Obviously not every company can do as well as Valve, but with the Orange Box selling 3 million world wide on PC just at retail I think we see that you can easily do well making games on the PC.

 

[Samah]

I think PC gaming is far from dead...

/agree, +1 Insightful

I don't know why people keep claiming this. Given that the hardware for consoles is released in cycles of a few years (ie. each generation), all these technological advances are generally targeted at the PC market. If there were no thriving PC game economy, there would be less desire for people to upgrade their hardware, therefore much less money going into nVidia/ATI's coffers, therefore (theoretically) less resources for pushing new technology.
Without PC gaming and its relatively short technology cycle, the next console would suffer in terms of capabilities. I'm not getting into the whole "PC/Console is better than Console/PC" argument, because no-one will win. I will agree that the console market is huge compared to PC gaming, but claiming it's dying is pretty naïve.

My 2c (which is currently worth about US 1c with the Aussie dollar falling.)

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Someone post that "PC Gaming: Happily dying since 1990" picture.

Agree'd though, stop pushing graphics and innovate gameplay.

 

[deftune]

I don't know why people keep claiming this.

Ok but i do know, Its all gamepolitics to move gamers over to consoles. Consoles which dont suffer much from piracy and where the issues with hardware dissapears. Think about it, why does Intel and AMD say the PC-market is fine and most software companies the opposite?

 

[Dommyboy]

I don't believe PC gaming is dying, but it is neglected in a few areas that's for sure. For Christmas I would like an original, long, entertaining PC game that has great graphics and would run easily on my computer. I is so crazeh.

 

[xitel]

I don't think that PC gaming will ever die off completely. There are some game types that just don't lend themselves well to a console. The primary example of this is RTS. Honestly, has anyone ever found an RTS on the console that played better than it did on the PC? The main problem is that they keep trying to push hardware specs. A lot of my friends refused to buy Crysis because none of them had a rig powerful enough to play it. Developers need to focus on making fun games instead of pretty games.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

No PC gaming will never die completely, but until they ditch the Crysis mindset and the tech head focus it will be in the minority. If more games with WoW/Team Fortress 2 like graphics came out (creativity over power) I think PC gaming might start to movie back into the mainstream. The problem for PC's is that it is VERY easy to buy a console, it is not so easy to get a good PC unless you know someone. It's also slightly cheaper at the moment.

But a refocus of resources and priorities might help PC Gaming out a lot, though this whole DRM fiasco certainly isn't helping. I'm currently very hesitant to buy any new PC games because I won't really "Own" them.

 

[CAPPINJACK]

"making games you like to play is that you don't get to actually play them."

This is, in my eyes, the reason why the games of yesteryear are markedly better than the shite produced (Bioshock included, it was boring) in this age. Back in the day a lot of games were created by people who enjoyed playing games and often did so. These days it's game development by numbers, where some shit-stain in a suit sees money pouring in for a specific franchise and says to himself "I gotta get me some of that." and assembles a team of know nothings who, for the most part, only want to collect a paycheque.

Fuck, back in the day you didn't need producers or designers or whatever these superfluous assholes are called these days. They've complicated a very simple formula to the point of where it regurgitates nothing but garbage. Personally, I blame quake and those games. Not that they weren't impressive games when they came out. They sure were, but every idiot and their mother tried to cash in on the FPS genre (and they're -still- trying) and produced watered down versions. That's what the industry has become, a cloning facility with increasing defects. Of course, it doesn't help that the average gamer is about as smart as a slug. God forbid they'd have to -think- while playing their games.

Fuck off.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

So THAT's why the PC version of Bioshock looked so beautiful

I think PC gaming is far from dead, and I don't mean in terms of casual gaming and MMOs. Look at the sales that Valve just released for all of their games at retail. Obviously not every company can do as well as Valve, but with the Orange Box selling 3 million world wide on PC just at retail I think we see that you can easily do well making games on the PC.

What I don't understand, is why they count the online sales of console games, but not PC games! Those sales of Left 4 Dead on the PC don't even include online and digital! That's like...half of the sales!