Maxis Co-founder Talks Oddworld, Zero Punctuation

Logan Frederick

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Maxis Co-founder Talks Oddworld, Zero Punctuation



Jeff Braun of Maxis fame works with Oddworld on a new Oddworld title and remarks on modern games journalism, highlighting Yahtzee's videos.

Invited as a guest speaker at Wilfrid Laurier University, Maxis (The Sims) co-founder Jeff Braun broke the news that Oddworld Inhabitants is working on another title in its Oddworld franchise that is still years away from release.

"They're such a talented group of people and I really trust their ability to create compelling content," boasted Braun.

Oddworld Inhabitants, a studio that announced it would split its resources between game development and movie studios, and claims it can now produce games with movie-quality animation.

Braun elaborated, "The rendering tools are getting so good now for 3D animation that you can literally create a linear animation and create a video game using the exact same objects... . The tools are finally getting to the level where we can come out with a show and we can come up with a game."

As he continued his lecture, he turned his focus on what he sees as ailing gaming journalism.

Braun stated, "I think the future is [blogging]. I don't read any trade, I do the blogs. I don't care anymore about these game magazines. I don't care what they have to say."

Because of his belief in blogs, he is a fan of sites like Joystiq and Kotaku.

"I like the idea of how there's attitude behind the blogs," he continued. "They call the shots. The video games magazines never used to call the hard shots - because they're advertisers and they would piss everyone off. The blogs, they don't care - they will just trash anybody and say anything."

The Escapist's own Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw was praised as "the future of gaming journalism."

Braun explained, "It's right on, it's the scariest thing. This guy is sharp. That would have never happened on Gamespot - the way he trashes the whole industry."

He considers Yahtzee's reviews "one of the most brilliant things I've seen in the games industry in a long time... . It's a shot of something good into the blood of the industry. It was such a kiss-ass world before - people want the truth."

Source: Cord Weekly [http://www.cordweekly.com/cordweekly/myweb.php?hls=10034&news_id=1747]

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Teleios

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More Oddworld please.

I loved Abe's Odyssey. I'm excited about the prospect of another game.
 

pasquinelli

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i thought oddworld inhabitants was all like, "the game industry doesn't allow us enough creativity, we're making movies or commercials or some shit now instead"

i guess they had a change in heart, which makes me happy.
 
Feb 13, 2008
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He considers Yahtzee's reviews "one of the most brilliant things I've seen in the games industry in a long time...snip... It was such a kiss-ass world before."
Now isn't that ironic, don't you think?
 

Incandescence

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Logan Frederick said:
The Escapist's own Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw was praised as "the future of gaming journalism."
To think I was just beginning to believe that gaming journalism was starting to weasel its way out from under the self-inflicted curbstomp of its sensationalistic "yellow" period. Oh well.

Then again, it's from a man that only reads blogs, so maybe there's still hope.
 

Dejawesp

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The_root_of_all_evil said:
He considers Yahtzee's reviews "one of the most brilliant things I've seen in the games industry in a long time...snip... It was such a kiss-ass world before."
Now isn't that ironic, don't you think?
Well no it's not ironic. He says that he likes that Yatzee does'nt kiss the ass of big games unlike the other reviewers and gives him praise for that. In order for it to be ironic he would then have to for example praise gamespot for giving good reviews to big games.

By your definition of irony it would be impossible to praise any critics at all for not pulling punches.
 

Melaisis

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Dejawesp said:
The_root_of_all_evil said:
He considers Yahtzee's reviews "one of the most brilliant things I've seen in the games industry in a long time...snip... It was such a kiss-ass world before."
Now isn't that ironic, don't you think?
Well no it's not ironic. He says that he likes that Yatzee does'nt kiss the ass of big games unlike the other reviewers
Ever considered he can do that because The Escapist chooses to advertise AMD laptops or holidays instead?

This ain't a personal attack, Deja, but I'm just pointing out that, frequently, it all comes down to advertising and money. Magazines would never get the option of advertising the stuff that blogs or whatever else now can, because back in those days businesses didn't think that magazines had a bigger reach than their specific audience anyway. The Internet has obviously changed such views, but taboo still exists in the printed industry. Thus, to call publications offline (who depend almost solely on advertising revenue) and the online world to be on the same playing field is just ignorance. Sure, gaming companies still pay to advertise (and probably bribe) on the bigger-named websites (like IGN and GameSpot), but again, a site which gets 100 million hits a month must not be confused with one which gets less than a tenth of that number.
 

Dejawesp

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Melaisis said:
Ever considered he can do that because The Escapist chooses to advertise AMD laptops or holidays instead?

This ain't a personal attack, Deja, but I'm just pointing out that, frequently, it all comes down to advertising and money. Magazines would never get the option of advertising the stuff that blogs or whatever else now can, because back in those days businesses didn't think that magazines had a bigger reach than their specific audience anyway. The Internet has obviously changed such views, but taboo still exists in the printed industry. Thus, to call publications offline (who depend almost solely on advertising revenue) and the online world to be on the same playing field is just ignorance. Sure, gaming companies still pay to advertise (and probably bribe) on the bigger-named websites (like IGN and GameSpot), but again, a site which gets 100 million hits a month must not be confused with one which gets less than a tenth of that number.
Eh? All I did was say that there was no irony in it. People love to call things ironic to a point where it just seems to replace "lol"

Irony is for example back when that lobbyist against seatbelt laws was killed in a car accident because he did'nt wear his seatbelt.

But I do appreciate this part

Melaisis said:
This ain't a personal attack
Warms my heart.
 

Melaisis

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Dejawesp said:
Melaisis said:
That stuff I wrote.
The stuff you wrote.
I know, but your first sentence made a point that I was just dying to bring up myself, heh.

And seriously; yeah. You can never be too careful when it comes to debating related issues in The News Rooom. ;)
 
Feb 13, 2008
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Dejawesp said:
The_root_of_all_evil said:
He considers Yahtzee's reviews "one of the most brilliant things I've seen in the games industry in a long time...snip... It was such a kiss-ass world before."
Now isn't that ironic, don't you think?
Well no it's not ironic.
Well...He does talk about it being a kiss-ass world before and then making puckering motions towards Yahtzee's rear.
 

LOLiver

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Dec 23, 2007
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He takes Yahtzee's reviews way too seriously in my opinion. I always thought they were supposed to be humourous diatribes on particular games.
 

Dejawesp

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The_root_of_all_evil said:
Well...He does talk about it being a kiss-ass world before and then making puckering motions towards Yahtzee's rear.
Taken out of context it would be ironic but what he is taking about is reviewers kissing the asses of big games but now I'm starting to feel petty and being right is losing priority. Group hug?
 

PedroSteckecilo

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Feb 7, 2008
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What's with all the Yahtzee hate? I don't get it? Sure he trashes popular games, and he's loud and opinionated and VERY biased towards certain titles but damnation! I mean really, he's funny, clever and REALLY observant.

Guh, I am confused, I wouldn't even know about The Escapist unless a friend had shown me Yahtzee reviews.

And for the record, I disagree with him on MANY accounts. I loved Uncharted, Smash Bros and several other titles he relentlessly dislikes, and yet I still find him quite observant and he tends to be fairly honest about game flaws, citing very specific examples about why certain things are problematic.