Have developers lost their passion?

[Baldr]

The pace in technology has changed and the refinement has changed. It like other sports, you don't complain at MLB or NFL because little changes in the rules, because they been refined to a point where it would be stupid to change them. Same goes for a FPS for example, if it works, it works after years and years of play testing.

They went from 8-bit to 16-bit to 32-bit in a short amount of time, then 3D modeling technology came out, then more and more and more until there was nothing really new to develop or it took time, the game making tools only gradually get better, there are no such things as giant leaps anymore.

You also changed, you gone through the gambit of experience, that once was new feeling only last once. If there are slower advances in technology and refinement, the "golden age of video games" is over. Doesn't mean the games are any worse, it just not going to be the same.

 

[DarkRyter]

The number of developers who are passionate today is roughly equal to the number of developers who are passionate in 1998.

 

[Bvenged]

Nostalgia dude, and you're generalising big-time.

Take Bungie, for example. They're doing things for the community who hang around on their website forums ALL THE TIME. They really are a good bunch of people, and they repeatedly state how they would love to talk about "destiny" but can't. If they didn't care for making games like you'd expect, they wouldn't allow the community to integrate with their social circles as well. Every week they open a forum "Mail sack" where they read everyone's questions poised to them, and answer them at the end of the week in a news article. That's consumer dedication, a dedication to please fans of their games.

Also, Bethesda. Sure their games can have more holes than a sieve, but damn are they passionate. The sound-tracks, the lore, the sheer amount of free stuff they keep throwing in, the consistent patches. If they didn't give a shit, hardly anything from their games would be memorable, which is far form the case.

Final pro, Dice. they're consistently patching BF3 to make it as balanced as possible, listening to tweets from fans and adding what we want to see. I asked them via twitter for a "quit" button between rounds in multiplayer. They replied positively and now in the latest patch we have that.

But like I said, generalisation dude.

Take one look at the new Infinity Ward, and tell me how a developer can be passionate about that lump of broken turd MW2 turned out to be. At least with MW3 they're giving away a small map or 2. But that doesn't excuse them in my eyes for making millions off of MW2, which was nothing short of a shit stain. I saw 2, maybe 3 attempted updates to fix/balance it - they didn't succeed and appeared to just gave up in the end. Oh, and good luck trying to play MW1 online with all those glitched lobbies.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Developers didn't lose passion. They lost creative control when they sold their souls to publishers. I'm not saying that happened with all developers.

 

[DoPo]

It's the publishers that're the problem, not the devs. The publishers are all money changers, fast food salesmen, bankers & similarly clueless people who have no place in artistic enterprises.

Guys with lots of money & no balls rarely have anything useful to add to the conversation but:

"I don't think that's such a good idea..."

&

"Oh! Can we charge for that?"

-.-

They're like Chucky from "Rugrats" minus the heart of gold, and plus one raging hard on for pocket change.

This and

Any skilled game developer can make significantly more money in another industry.

The notion that they're doing it for money is a bit ridiculous really.

this.

To elaborate - no the developers haven't lost their passion. As a matter of fact, if they didn't have the passion, they wouldn't be game devs. If you want moniez, you don't really go into the gaming industry, you do it if you love games and want to see it prosper (or something along those lines). However once in the industry, it's not really your call. You want to make the next awesome game? Well, tough luck, your company is making Modern Shooter #5067, get cracking.

Most of the game devs are employees, they can make a change in the industry as much as a sales assistant can affect the market supply and demand.

Sure, there are indie ones. Why not go for them? After all, they are in very roughly a similar position as the devs from a dozen years ago.