Journey Creator: Games Aren't Good Enough for Adults

[Moonlight Butterfly]

There are tons of things you learn from video games. Problem solving, reaction time, teamwork, lateral thinking. I think this guy isn't looking deep enough into how computer games affect the players.

My young geordie friend got a job working as a team leader at his company because of skills he had learned leading a guild in WOW from the age of 16.

However, gaming does have a lot of potential. It would be very easy to make a game that teaches you another language or improves maths or English skills. You don't really see that kind of adaptation in games. The recent trend of dumbing down games is worrying as working out the subtleties of Baldur's Gate for example takes a lot more effort than playing Dragon Age 2 or Gears of War.

Adversely there is also the aspect of 'vegging out' if you are working in a stressful job the last thing you want to do is go home and mentally jump through hoops in your leisure time.

There is room in the industry for both types of games.

 

[Tiamat666]

Actually I'm inclined to believe that most games today aren't good enough for KIDS. Most AAA games today involve mature themes, the most obvious ones being violence, sex, and drug abuse. And many indie devs are turning the boat around and creating involving games that do not rely on these attention grabbers to be successful.

Seems to me he has it all the way around.

 

[jklinders]

I don't really pay any attention to PSN games as I don't use PS3 so my only previous exposure to this title was through a Jimquisition video. Sterling has his own reasons for disliking the concept and I will not argue against it having not played it myself. It looks like a very pretty game in a very simplistic way and Chen has every reason to be proud of it.

But, that does not forgive his arrogant assumption that just because he does not like mainstream type games then other mature players don't either. Apparently, to him I am an overgrown child because I am not engaged by the same type of entertainment he is. He probably didn't mean it and was speaking from his own taste but he was still rather insulting.

After I get home from childish job I will have to decide which of my childish games to play I guess. Maybe they are a little childish but from my perspective, after dealing with hard reality I have earned that.

 

[him over there]

Actually I'm inclined to believe that most games today aren't good enough for KIDS. Most AAA games today involve mature themes, the most obvious ones being violence, sex, and drug abuse. And many indie devs are turning the boat around and creating involving games that do not rely on these attention grabbers to be successful.

Seems to me he has it all the way around.

I'd just like to throw something in here and say that I love that most independent games while some may be violent are taking a much more kid friendly approach. I hate how the world is almost devoid of games for kids now except for Nintendo and horrible shovelware. The latter I'm sure exists because people don't believe that children have their own standards or will know a good game from a bad one. I mean there is a whole demographic to tap into that people are just ignoring. The games industry sort of grew up with the original gaming generation, as the people who play them got older the games got more adult. Everybody is competing for the same slice of pie.

 

[him over there]

Actually I'm inclined to believe that most games today aren't good enough for KIDS. Most AAA games today involve mature themes, the most obvious ones being violence, sex, and drug abuse. And many indie devs are turning the boat around and creating involving games that do not rely on these attention grabbers to be successful.

Seems to me he has it all the way around.

I think you are confusing mature themes with adult themes. There is nothing mature about violence.

I don't think violence is inherently immature, but I certainly can't think of anything that has utilized it well for the sake of complexity or importance in recent memory.

 

[Woodsey]

"For adults to enjoy something, they need to have intellectual stimulation, something that's related to real life. Playing poker teaches you how to deceive people, and that's relevant to real life. A headshot with a sniper rifle is not relevant to real life."

I may be taking this way out of context, but that's just wrong.


Real life applications doesn't inherently make something more intellectually stimulating.

Yeah, I can agree up until "something that's related to real life", but they're talking about it in terms of skills. 'Intellectual stimulation' comes from stuff that's related to real life, yes, but by way of feelings and ideas - stuff that you can identify with or that makes you think in a new way.

That doesn't mean there's no intellectual stimulation in stuff that can teach you skills, but that'd be found in stuff like EVE Online (which suits the poker comparison), and not at all in Journey. He seems to contradict himself in those two quotes.

 

[Doom972]

That's narrow-minded of him to say. It doesn't have anything to do with adulthood but with open-mindedness.
I guess younger people tend to be more open-minded.

 

[Xanadu84]

I think he has a point, but he underestimates even the shallowest of games. Sure as a gamer, we may see our favorite whipping boy Call of Duty (Funny, I love playing all the call of duties, and defend them in debate, but I STILL use it as "The problem" in explanations...) as an expression of the lowest, basest of gaming pleasure. However, you still learn the basics of cooperation, you get a sense of the chaos and unpredictability of combat, you learn to react to your enviornment, you experience a narrative where the main character you are in the shoes of can die, which at least was kinda innovative, and they always (to various degrees of success) include some sort of "shock" moment that changes how you think about certain ideas or concepts. In general, the stupidest of games still encourages you to approach its world in a goal oriented, practical way, and contains at least the basics of the Heroes Journey.

After all, what are the other adult, intellectually stimulating endevors? Classic literature, like when Thor got in a dress because cross dressing is funny, got pissed and then killed everyone? Or that other one where they decided to enact a scene from Jackass, and the asshole Loki got Baldur killed, and then everyone killed everyone else? Or those deeply intellectual Greek myths where Zeus just bones everything that moves? Keep making games like Journey, absolutely, but even those, "Childish" games contain a little gem of value that makes the escapism worthwhile.

 

[Bvenged]

I can see what he's saying here, as for the past 2 years or so I've found it less entertaining (19yo) to mindlessly kill on CoD's campaign, or BF3's. I still enjoy Halo & BF3 online, but simple entertainment just doesn't cut it.

Now I ruthlessly enjoy games with exceptional direction and narrative (Mass Effect, TES games and FO games with lore); as well as puzzles and games that really make you think (Total War, C&C, BFME). It tests your metal as a gamer and intellectually, which is fantastic - you really have to plan things out and think ahead in some games like Splinter Cell and the old Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six's.

You know what, this guy speaks truth. He's a developer who voices his opinions, and I agree with him.

Oh course, it doesn't have to have a real-world application - but intellectually stimulating more so than mindless smushing[sup]TM[/sup] (my new awesome word) is quite on par. Everybody enjoys an hour on CoD when it goes well, but it get stale fast after that and the same goes for all smushy games.

 

[Aeonknight]

Since when did there have to be some hidden life lesson in a game for it to be relevant to my interests? Hell if the game itself prompts me to do something or go learn something new, that should be "good enough" to be relevant to me. And that's not even including the whole "it's nice to have fun occasionally" reasoning.

Sounds like someone still thinks of games as toys. Too bad it's someone who's making them... But to each their own.

 

[Xman490]

Jenova Chen is the new Jonathan Blow AND LIKE how Jonathan Blow is now.

It's funny how Chen mentioned playing poker when there are entire games dedicated to playing poker.

 

[Tiamat666]

Actually I'm inclined to believe that most games today aren't good enough for KIDS. Most AAA games today involve mature themes, the most obvious ones being violence, sex, and drug abuse. And many indie devs are turning the boat around and creating involving games that do not rely on these attention grabbers to be successful.

Seems to me he has it all the way around.

I think you are confusing mature themes with adult themes. There is nothing mature about violence.

Yes, you are right. I meant to say "adult" themes.

 

[spartan231490]

Wrong. Just wrong. How is watching football, or baseball, (the 2 biggest hobbies in the US to adults) relevant intellectual stimulation? What about golfing? What about fishing? Just plain wrong.

 

[Dominic Burchnall]

I understand where he's coming from, but I think he needs to take a broader aspect. Run-gun-fun games can make you experience stimulating emotions, as well as a few other aspects. For example, take one of the best zombie shooter time-wasters out there, Left 4 Dead 2. In its inital layout, the missions appear to be simple, repetitive, go-here-and-don't-get-eaten-along-the-way affairs. However, events within the missions are what make them enjoyable and interesting. On the Evac mission of the Swamp Fever campaign, all four of us were upright, but I had highest health and everyone else was in the red. We'd gathered by the gates ready for evac, and as they blew, I stayed behind as my team-mates ran for the boat, delaying the horde of infected until the others had a decent enough lead that they wouldn't be overrun.

In this sort of situation, not only is the heavy chatter of automatic rifle fire, the rushing horde and falling infected a terrific sight, as well as the adrenaline from a last-ditch stand, but it's interesting to see how different people react in such situations in-game. In similar scenarios, I've seen the rescue arrive and the one team member with the health, ammo and grenades leg it and leave the rest of the team up shit creek. If they haven't shown to be already, these gamers are the ones who act utter dicks in the next round, and as a result they're usually ignored when in trouble, while the rest of the team remember and repay bravery and aid throughout the campaign.

Admittedly, in the virtual reality, consequence free world of gaming, this sort of thing doesn't check against real life very well, but it does show some of the same aspects as Journey, namely that you're interacting with, and often dependant on for survival, other people that you don't verbally or physically contact. I think it's less a problem with games not being good for adults, and more a problem with games that don't achieve emotional stimulation just being bad games.

 

[kouriichi]

Really? Cause i have to say, ive enjoyed my copy of Dead Or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball for almost 8 years now.... And theres very little "intellectual stimulation" to it.

What about minecraft? I wouldnt exactly call it "intellectually stimulating", but it still happens to be one of the most popular games, and is enjoyed by a large audience of adults (myself included).

I think hes over analyzing it a little. A good game will be enjoyed by anyone, no matter how little "intellectual stimulation" it has. In the end, a game is a game. There can be hard ones, and easy ones, but its still a game.