291: To Die at the Hands of Your Own Creation

[mogamer]

Interesting, and believe it or not I had similar thoughts when playing the game, though I didn't tie everything together quite the same way you did. My approach to it was a little differant.

The thing about Alan Wake though is that while I liked the game itself, I think it tends to summarize a lot of the problems with the game developers themselves. Namely the simple fact that they made a game which largely seems to be a giant whine about their own situation. This combined with being upset with the performance and player response when this is what they deliver, along with the product not being what they promised to begin with.

See, the thing with the "poor us" bit is that the game developers seem to be detached from reality. It wasn't all that long ago when The Escapist had an article where some game developers were complaining about working 10 hour days, which is pretty much a normal work day for most ordinary people. On top of this you look at some of these virtual office tours and the like, and all the staged events aside, these guys are almost totally unprofessional, it doesn't surprise me that there are complaints when they actually get told to you know, do the work they are being paid for, they exude that vibe in a lot of cases. Add to this that these huge development budgets go to human resources, with the development budget largely being what a design team decides it wants to pay itself, and it's really hard to take "oh, pity us poor tormented creative souls" arguements seriously.

I'll also be honest in saying that "Alan Wake" represents one of the two major examples of prima-donna attitudes among game developers. Largely because while decent, it's NOT the game people wanted, or what was promised, and yet people who criticize that seem to be looked down on. To date we're still waiting for a sandbox survival horror game that delivers on the promises made here. The second is of course my much rehashed criticism of Bioware over them asking for feedback on "Hawke" in Dragon Age II, getting a negative response, and then trying to present it as something else while going right ahead doing whatever they want to anyway... asking for input your going to ignore if you don't hear what you want is one of the things that really slots me off. The third is of course Blizzard's (in)famous "we make games, not promises" response to not delivering on what they promised the community, though that has faded with the passage of time, I still get irritated when I think about it. Whether or not I agree with them or not on actual issues being discussed, the game industry acts like a group of Olympian gods elevated that far above their fans, even while they occasionally deign to try and make a show out of pretending "oh hey we're just like you" when they think it can help sales. When you add a huge "QQ" rampage to the whole thing it's positively maddening.

Of course game developers are prima donnas. It really revealed itself when they started to equate second hand sales to piracy. Like their products are "special" and shouldn't be considered the same as every other consumer product.

 

[Rad Party God]

Fantastic article. This is why I started visiting The Escapist in the first place (hint: not because of ZP), thank you for reminding me of that.

I never got the chance to play this game back when I had a 360 and it's a shame it didn't got released in more platforms outside the 360.
I would've loved to play the game.

 

[ChillShark]

I feel the biggest mistake that the publisher made was to make it an Xbox exclusive. The time for platform exclusives have drawn to an end. As it is, I haven't played awake yet because it was only on the 360. So I was wondering, How much doe awake relate to the Sam Neil movie "In the Mouth of Madness"?

 

[ProGrasTiNation]

Alan Wake is the only game i would consider getting an xbox for,but its just not worth it for 1 game.
Im no fan boy but release it on the Ps3 & watch the sales fly through the roof,the sony faithful would love to play this game.

 

[SlugLady28]

Amazing article. You brought up alot of things i never thought about. I honestly thought the game designer and copies of AW at the lodge was just a joke from the developers, but this makes alot more sense.

Alan Wake seems like an underrated classic to me. There were a few disappointing moments, but overall, a good game and story. I'm not completely sure why so few payed attention to it, besides the character models.

 

[tzimize]

Great read. Decent, if somewhat disappointing game.