174: Hippocratic Game Design

[tendo82]

Hippocratic Game Design

What do game development and internal medicine have in common? Not that much, but that didn't stop BioWare founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk from making the transition from doctors to game developers.

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[The_root_of_all_evil]

Votes for House. M.D.: The Video Game to be next out of Bioware?

 

[kgraeme]

With the "Hippocratic" in the title, I assumed the article was going to talk about a comparable Hippocratic oath for game design such as No DRM. DRM is loading corporate malware into unsuspecting users' computers and causing various problems and an overall degradation of the health of the systems.

We need developers (and the publishers they partner with) to take a Do No Harm oath. I have no problems with protecting intellectual property, but don't jeopardize the stability and functionality of my system in the process.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Votes for House. M.D.: The Video Game to be next out of Bioware?

Good story, emotional investment AND Medicine... we can only hope.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Votes for House. M.D.: The Video Game to be next out of Bioware?

Good story, emotional investment AND Medicine... we can only hope.

Think of it, an epic battle between saving lives, bossing people around and balancing your usefulness to the hospital with being able to piss off Cuddy.

Sim Hospital meets Balders Gate meets Monkey Island.

Cuddy : There's a patient dying out there!
Your reply
"There's a leg dying right here. Give me my Vicodin!"
"It's one of Cameron's. It'll build character."
"Let me have my parking space back and I'll consider it."

 

[Killerbunny001]

This is clearly PR bull@#$% .

My opinion.

 

[Cyclomega]

Votes for House. M.D.: The Video Game to be next out of Bioware?

That could be fun... sort of... I guess... maybe... ?

Can you play pranks and have a pointless motorbike-in-traffic minigame (just like Sam & Max's Highway Surfin' mini game) for good measure ?

 

[calelogan]

Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk were doctors, Denis Dyack was a taekwondo champion and instructor, and Drew Karpyshyn was a loans officer.

All of this only reveals the importance of general studies and education in comparison to specific formal education focused on game development. Both are important, but the wisest approached is to mix them.

All of this is good though, it means there is hope for me as a law student to get into the games industry (making games, not as a game lawyer).

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

This is clearly PR bull@#$% .

My opinion.

What game was it promoting? I had no idea that Bioware got started by making medical software or that it's run by two doctors with real life experience.

Personally, I found that inspiring. If after ten years of practicing law I decide I'm sick of it and want to turn it into an educational video game, I'll have someone to reference. Hell, I'd do it now except I'm going to have to scrape together the money myself before anyone will believe it could work.

 

[Killerbunny001]

This is clearly PR bull@#$% .

My opinion.

What game was it promoting? I had no idea that Bioware got started by making medical software or that it's run by two doctors with real life experience.

Personally, I found that inspiring. If after ten years of practicing law I decide I'm sick of it and want to turn it into an educational video game, I'll have someone to reference. Hell, I'd do it now except I'm going to have to scrape together the money myself before anyone will believe it could work.

Not a game. It was PR for Bioware - the firm.

Making "the Law" a education video game ? Goooood luck with that mate.

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

This is clearly PR bull@#$% .

My opinion.

What game was it promoting? I had no idea that Bioware got started by making medical software or that it's run by two doctors with real life experience.

Personally, I found that inspiring. If after ten years of practicing law I decide I'm sick of it and want to turn it into an educational video game, I'll have someone to reference. Hell, I'd do it now except I'm going to have to scrape together the money myself before anyone will believe it could work.

Not a game. It was PR for Bioware - the firm.

Making "the Law" a education video game ? Goooood luck with that mate.

Well, it definitely wouldn't be about fun. The Phoenix Wright series is definitely a wee bit creative when it comes to the law. This would be like the Bioware guys, educational software that law students would pay top dollar for so they can get good grades, etc. I'd make learning fun, but only in comparison to dusty books.

 

[Cyclomega]

Bioware = educational ? Wait what ?

By the way Jeffries, Phoenix Wright invented a futuristic system caricaturing Law & Order, I don't think it can be safely approchached by any means as an introduction to law, just the same way learning martial arts with Virtua Fighter and Tekken backfires infaillibly...

 

[illiterate]

PR bull? I don't think so.
Fluff article? Sure.
Author sympathetic to BioWare? Clearly, but many of us are.

I never knew bioware did medical simulators. It explains the name. Very cool.

Couldn't they have performed some procedure to make Carth less annoying?

 

[Cyclomega]

Medical simulators ?

Oh... I must have forgotten that part after reading the article then...

 

[zoozilla]

I guess I'd better get working on my MD if I hope to make a decent game.

 

[arrr_matey]

"Tom Endo hopes to one day visit the West Edmonton Mall and eat a Cinnabon. He'll also visit BioWare, if they'll have him."

Cinnabon at West Edmonton Mall is so worth it. Plus you get to eat right next to a replica pirate ship!

 

[Arbre]

This is clearly PR bull@#$% .

My opinion.

What game was it promoting? I had no idea that Bioware got started by making medical software or that it's run by two doctors with real life experience.

Personally, I found that inspiring. If after ten years of practicing law I decide I'm sick of it and want to turn it into an educational video game, I'll have someone to reference. Hell, I'd do it now except I'm going to have to scrape together the money myself before anyone will believe it could work.

Not a game. It was PR for Bioware - the firm.

Making "the Law" a education video game ? Goooood luck with that mate.

Well, it definitely wouldn't be about fun. The Phoenix Wright series is definitely a wee bit creative when it comes to the law.

It's a wee bit shitty yes, in my opinion, although using law based games has potential, but would be difficult to pull off.

 

[GyroCaptain]

So, the fact that the games are designed with empathy in mind is why the "evil" path embraces sociopathy so perfectly? That seems to make a lot of sense, somehow. Maybe if they had a Ph.D in psychology involved they could tell us why that's so fun.

I'd complain more about the article kissing up to BioWare if it weren't for the fact that it'd be MASSIVELY hypocritical. *starts waving his Mass Effect and Jade Empire collector's editions and cheering*

 

[Echolocating]

"Tom Endo hopes to one day visit the West Edmonton Mall and eat a Cinnabon. He'll also visit BioWare, if they'll have him."

Cinnabon at West Edmonton Mall is so worth it. Plus you get to eat right next to a replica pirate ship!

Don't forget the submarine rides! ;-)

The one thing that I would like to see from BioWare is less obvious extremes in player choices and in-game characters. It would be cool to actually empathize with bad characters.... or despise the good, but I ain't complaining too much because very few companies seem to care about story the way BioWare does. Narratology rules!