Disclaimer: This is not a thread about her private life (which I believe should remain private), nor is it about the state of games journalism (at least not in the same way people have been going on about it lately). Please don't make it about such.
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EDIT FOR CLARITY: When I said "games" (quotation marks) rather than games (no quotation marks) it was more to do with the question of what constitutes a game, not a slight against the quality of the product. A choose your own adventure novel isn't a game - it's an interactive narrative. There's a categorical difference. Minecraft technically isn't a game - it's better categorised as an electronic toy. The confusion comes where we've began to identify all forms of artistic interactive digital media as "games" simply due to it being a new thing and us not having a more appropriate (or I should say, less cumbersome) label for it. Depression Quest is not a game, in its literal sense. There are no win/lose conditions (something fundamental to games), it's just a narrative experience. Fake Geek Girl Detector is not a game either. That said, Jeff Goldblum Staring Contest and Realistic Relationship Simulator are games - incredibly simple (and poor, IMO) games, but they're games nonetheless and I wouldn't say otherwise. I guess that was lost on some people.
ORIGINAL POST: Apologies if this has been talked about elsewhere, but has anyone else bothered to check out Zoe Quinns game dev chops? She's a high-profile personality in the indie industry but she's only released one "game" (actually an interactive narrative) which is nothing more than text and hyperlinks (and a few photos/sound clips) built with existing text adventure software, and her game jam contributions are largely the same thing - text-based, built with the same software. Even thematically her (and her team(s) - even Depression Quest has two other guys in the credits) games are, though different, not particularly inspired or original (e.g. Fake Geek Girl Detector, which asks you a few questions before shoving the tired old "gamez is 4 evryone!" message down your throat). Hell, even her signature game Depression Quest is, to put it bluntly, just not written very well. The prose is very bland and descriptive[footnote]
[/footnote], which is possibly to emulate the style of old text adventures (i.e. written by programmers, not authors) or to thematically fit with the subject of depression, but the game suffers for it IMO. It's too boring to care about what's going on, and if you're not engaged with the protagonist (you) the game fails at delivering its intended message. But hey, maybe it's just not for me.
I know she's very enthusiastic and does a lot within the industry (hosting game design classes, and I think she built some software for newcomers that I haven't tried out yet), but as far as being a game developer... I haven't seen a single noteworthy thing about her - not even in terms of theme or design. Some of her stuff is a bit quirky (like Jeff Goldblum Staring Contest, where you literally just stare at a photo of Jeff Goldblum) but quirky =/= good. The stuff she's put out isn't really any better or more original then your average teenage girl on Tumblr (or what they would put out if they had some rudimentary programming knowledge), and when she's presented as a top female developer in the indie scene that's incredibly depressing.
So is there something I'm missing? Does she actually have some talent I haven't yet seen, or is she really only visible because she makes such a loud noise about being a female developer?
Captcha: bad egg. Now now, let's not be premature.
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EDIT FOR CLARITY: When I said "games" (quotation marks) rather than games (no quotation marks) it was more to do with the question of what constitutes a game, not a slight against the quality of the product. A choose your own adventure novel isn't a game - it's an interactive narrative. There's a categorical difference. Minecraft technically isn't a game - it's better categorised as an electronic toy. The confusion comes where we've began to identify all forms of artistic interactive digital media as "games" simply due to it being a new thing and us not having a more appropriate (or I should say, less cumbersome) label for it. Depression Quest is not a game, in its literal sense. There are no win/lose conditions (something fundamental to games), it's just a narrative experience. Fake Geek Girl Detector is not a game either. That said, Jeff Goldblum Staring Contest and Realistic Relationship Simulator are games - incredibly simple (and poor, IMO) games, but they're games nonetheless and I wouldn't say otherwise. I guess that was lost on some people.
ORIGINAL POST: Apologies if this has been talked about elsewhere, but has anyone else bothered to check out Zoe Quinns game dev chops? She's a high-profile personality in the indie industry but she's only released one "game" (actually an interactive narrative) which is nothing more than text and hyperlinks (and a few photos/sound clips) built with existing text adventure software, and her game jam contributions are largely the same thing - text-based, built with the same software. Even thematically her (and her team(s) - even Depression Quest has two other guys in the credits) games are, though different, not particularly inspired or original (e.g. Fake Geek Girl Detector, which asks you a few questions before shoving the tired old "gamez is 4 evryone!" message down your throat). Hell, even her signature game Depression Quest is, to put it bluntly, just not written very well. The prose is very bland and descriptive[footnote]
"You are a mid-twenties human being. You have a significant other named Alex who you are rather fond of, that you have been seeing exclusively for the past few months. The rest of your social circle consists of a variety of friends and acquaintances, some of whom you met at your day job which is a little boring, but pays the rent. You'd like to be doing more with your life, as would your parents, but you're still in the process of figuring out what that means and how to go about it."
I know she's very enthusiastic and does a lot within the industry (hosting game design classes, and I think she built some software for newcomers that I haven't tried out yet), but as far as being a game developer... I haven't seen a single noteworthy thing about her - not even in terms of theme or design. Some of her stuff is a bit quirky (like Jeff Goldblum Staring Contest, where you literally just stare at a photo of Jeff Goldblum) but quirky =/= good. The stuff she's put out isn't really any better or more original then your average teenage girl on Tumblr (or what they would put out if they had some rudimentary programming knowledge), and when she's presented as a top female developer in the indie scene that's incredibly depressing.
So is there something I'm missing? Does she actually have some talent I haven't yet seen, or is she really only visible because she makes such a loud noise about being a female developer?
Captcha: bad egg. Now now, let's not be premature.