305: What They Say

[The Escapist Staff]

What They Say

We wanted to know how the videogame industry was doing, so we asked the people who make the games themselves.

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[Wuggy]

When I saw the tags in this I was terrified. Mainly because I saw "3D" and "Motion Controls" combined with something that has to do with the future of the game industry.

However, this was an interesting read. They bring up some good points, as well as some that make me want go to a corner and cry.

 

[IndianaJonny]

It's a real nerdgasm to sit here, read this and know that your beloved industry is (largely) in the hands of people who know their beans, know what needs to be done, don't take success for granted but analyse it when it happens and are doing their upmost to bring the industry forward.

 

[Vault101]

It's a real nerdgasm to sit here, read this and know that your beloved industry is (largely) in the hands of people who know their beans, know what needs to be done, don't take success for granted but analyse it when it happens and are doing their upmost to bring the industry forward.

I thourght it was "fucked" ...aparently

 

[IndianaJonny]

It's a real nerdgasm to sit here, read this and know that your beloved industry is (largely) in the hands of people who know their beans, know what needs to be done, don't take success for granted but analyse it when it happens and are doing their upmost to bring the industry forward.

I thourght it was "fucked" ...aparently

"Leave the worrying to doom prophets, and the hating to Yahtzee"
Sorry, I couldn't resist it.

 

[Vault101]

It's a real nerdgasm to sit here, read this and know that your beloved industry is (largely) in the hands of people who know their beans, know what needs to be done, don't take success for granted but analyse it when it happens and are doing their upmost to bring the industry forward.

I thourght it was "fucked" ...aparently

"Leave the worrying to doom prophets, and the hating to Yahtzee"
Sorry, I couldn't resist it.

hahaha yes very true.....I should also spend less time on the internet

 

[IndianaJonny]

hahaha yes very true.....I should also spend less time on the internet

Touché.

 

[ActionDan]

Robert Ludwick (Senior Game Engineer for Meteor Games, LLC): Not allowing cross-platform online gaming. Forcing 360 owners to only game online with other 360 owners bolsters Microsoft's case to get more gamers on their platform, but as a whole the industry needs cross-platform gaming.

No. This is a very good thing. Online play with consoles and PC's belong in two seperate areas. the advantage the PC would have over the consoles would completely break the balance scales in half.

And no this is not a PC fanboy rant, this is just pure and simple fact.

 

[beema]

I dunno, reading this didn't really give me a whole lot of joy. A lot of what they had to say was true, but a lot of it I didn't agree with. Overall it seems everyone wants to move away from the type of game experience that I love and in to some new realm.
Almost every response felt like "blah blah blah Facebook, blah blah blah Indie revolution! Blah blah blah online interaction blah."

Those things have their places, but for me, the best gaming experience has always been a lengthy, deep, story & exploration-driven single player experience.

My favorite quote though:

Greg Kasavian:
Want to play that exciting new PS3 title? Then better get ready for a 15-minute system update, a 10-minute day-one patch, five different unskippable splash screens before you get to the main menu, long loading times, and so on. It's little wonder some people are flocking to the relative ease-of-use afforded by browser games or mobile games.

So sadly true. I just wanna play my game!!!!

Joel Windels' example of Angry Birds being a gateway to CoD felt especially stupid though. I'm pretty sure more people play CoD than Angry Birds. CoD is more of a casual-gamer game than anything else out there.

No. This is a very good thing. Online play with consoles and PC's belong in two seperate areas. the advantage the PC would have over the consoles would completely break the balance scales in half.

And no this is not a PC fanboy rant, this is just pure and simple fact.

Judging by the example he made after that, I think he was more referring to play between Xbox and PS3.

Although I don't see why there couldn't be more co-op based cross PC/console play, as with Portal 2.
Competitive play might suffer from the problems you speak of, but co-op not so much.

 

[Azaraxzealot]

I'm going to say games are more fun. Why? In large, they are more accessible, less obtuse/frustrating, and there are more people playing them. In other words, more people are having fun. Though there will always be the vocal minority that still yearns for the challenge of an intricate PC-style RPG or simulator or the punishing "NES-hard" masochism, that sort of gameplay is a turn-off for the larger audience. Just look at how popular the simplified Street Fighter IV is compared to the hyper-complex systems of the niche-ified fighting genre.

this. this. oh GOD this!
i'm tired of PC elitists and classic RPG hipsters going about saying "GAMEZ IZ TOO EZ!!!" because, overall, if they are then that's nothing but an amazing thing for the industry as a whole. because it brings in more people and makes our hobby look less like a niche nerd thing that just prevents you from getting laid.

i only see good things coming from accessibility, as i am one of those people who needs to have things be made accessible to him.

they talked a lot about "breaking down the barrier of entry" in the article, and that is something i preach all the time (to no avail, however...)

 

[RA92]

Robert Ludwick (Senior Game Engineer for Meteor Games, LLC): Not allowing cross-platform online gaming. Forcing 360 owners to only game online with other 360 owners bolsters Microsoft's case to get more gamers on their platform, but as a whole the industry needs cross-platform gaming.

No. This is a very good thing. Online play with consoles and PC's belong in two seperate areas. the advantage the PC would have over the consoles would completely break the balance scales in half.

And no this is not a PC fanboy rant, this is just pure and simple fact.

Well, MS did try doing that, and it didn't work out too well. ^_-

Though co-op might work out nicely, as someone already said.

OT: Awesome article, especially glad to hear from the guys from Stardock.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

In reply to Jon Shafer wondering if 3D could actually have any utility at all in strategy games of it would just be a cheap selling point, imagine if in Homeworld you could actually see what was going on without tons of overlays and moving the camera around for perspective. When the 3DS was announced I was playing Sword of the Stars and thought how useful and convenient it would be if the galaxy map was displayed in 3D. For a more traditional flat board game it would be more of a gimmick but sometimes I forget that board games might be about squares and hexes but computer games are more naturally about circles and spheres. I'm playing Shogun 2 at the moment and would it be strategically useful to quickly see that my Matchlocks don't have a clear line of sight to the enemy? You bet it would.

 

[xavhorse]

No. This is a very good thing. Online play with consoles and PC's belong in two seperate areas. the advantage the PC would have over the consoles would completely break the balance scales in half.

And no this is not a PC fanboy rant, this is just pure and simple fact.

That's not necessarily the case. If cross- platform gaming was implemented, there would be a great deal of work done on governing balance. Plus, you're assuming that cross platform is limited to console versus PC as opposed to console versus console. The main limitation to overcome with cross platform is hooking up the Xbox server to the rest of the internet. It used to be said that PCs and Macs would never game together but now both WoW and TF2 now cater for both PC and Mac on the same servers.

 

[xavhorse]

I have to say, I really like the idea of Biometrics being used in game. That might give the Horror genre a well needed boost.

 

[Xman490]

Mike Wilson: "People don't want the plastic, and they don't want to pay $60 for more than a few huge games each year."
Indeed. I'm probably holding out on Alice: Madness Returns and Duke Nukem Forever just because of the price. On the other hand, Portal 2 was relatively an impulse buy when I saw it offered with a free copy of Portal on Steam (which another developer respected). Steam's "high-low" pricing strategy is similar to that of most stores, and I love the fact that playing Portal or something is just a double-click away instead of disc-swapping and wire-checking.

Edit: I really hope Nintendo realizes that its Mario "expansion packs" that they call "ca-CHING!" will go down in price to follow cost. I'd love to play Mario Galaxy 3 or 4 online and with DLC every few months.

 

[maantren]

I thought this was a great set of questions, in that they allowed the interviewees to take them where they wanted. V interesting to see how some people immediately drilled down into detail, while others took a more strategic industry view. There's a third group that just repeats things they've heard elsewhere, but that always happens. My own two cents would be that the interviewees were skewed heavily towards North America-based developers, and the possibilities of emerging markets outside of developed countries didn't seem to be on the radar much.

Cheers

Colin

 

[Verlander]

Good read, but a bit long in parts

 

[vxicepickxv]

I'm actually going to disagree when it comes to augmented reality as a gaming gimmick. There's two reasons why I'm going to disagree.

1. AR will not be limited to gaming
2. AR will be very easy to implement, but not for home consoles.

Augmented Reality is an interesting feature for the 3DS, and while it might appear to be simply a gimmick on the system(because it is), the practical applications for AR alone will actually remove the gimmick, and gaming, features.

Personal advertisements, special directions, plus other neat functions will make AR somewhat interesting, if not actually unique and fun for the future. Think about being able to have a small HUD that shows you addresses for businesses, without having to turn your head, look, slow down, or any of that other stuff. It's actually brilliant, if you know what you're looking for.

Disclaimer:Maybe I just read too much Shadowrun 4th edition.

 

[de5gravity]

I have to say I feel a bit ignorant not knowing many of the names in the article. Very interesting read indeed.

 

[Susan Arendt]

I thought this was a great set of questions, in that they allowed the interviewees to take them where they wanted. V interesting to see how some people immediately drilled down into detail, while others took a more strategic industry view. There's a third group that just repeats things they've heard elsewhere, but that always happens. My own two cents would be that the interviewees were skewed heavily towards North America-based developers, and the possibilities of emerging markets outside of developed countries didn't seem to be on the radar much.

Cheers

Colin

We can't print the answers of people who didn't respond when we asked them to, now can we?