Made a new Gamasutra article: The danger of letting the gaming industry curate its own history

[Destroid]

I recall finding System Shock extremely clumsy when it was still relatively new, but I was very young then.

 

[Gerrard]

Nintendo didn't let shit like this get published on their console.

Uh-huh.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Get back to me when you find an NES game landfill.

 

[Echo Mirage]

You mean the angry video game nerds basement?

 

[Archibald]

Obviously there were bad games on NES/SNES like on every system. Licensed games usually were worst offender (already mentioned Ljn) just like we usually have now. But NES/SNES also had tons of games that changed gaming forever... every couple of months.

I know that we all like to talk about how shit consoles are, and I agree that they suck... now. But back in 8/16 bit era? Another story.

 

[Damned Registrations]

You mean the angry video game nerds basement?

The one filled with atari games you mean?

 

[Gerrard]

Get back to me when you find an NES game landfill.

hurr durr Atari landfill
The only reason there isn't one for NES is because it wasn't Nintendo's responsibility to get rid of all those shitty unsold games, and none of the makers of those games were stupid enough to make 5 million copies in advance.

Also, you are the one who brought up Atari even though it wasn't mentioned.

 

[MapMan]

felipepepe You have no fucking idea how hard I raged just after the first paragraph of your article. The people you mention in the article are the next generation of developers. Even bigger problem, I fear, is that they are being schooled by people pretty much like themselves. It makes you loose hope when even the developers are sheeple who enjoy popamole and want to develop popamole. Where's the fucking ambition? I started to learn how to mod/develop games when I was like 13 years old in goldsource and quake engines and sometimes I feel like I (or more like we - the modding community) had bigger ambitions when it comes to game design than the current students of game development/design. I mean, just imagine if all future movie directors/producers have only seen the new hobbit and fifty fucking shades of gray. I think it's time for me to commit sudoku, I can't take it anymore.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Just read the article, and I've been saying so to myself a long time ago while comparing to the movies industry: Even if the last game was praised as the 2nd coming, it's own project leader will say its outdated while showing his next project, which will be far superior. One interesting thing is that they're sometimes right about that. Skyrim is an improvement over oblivion. The problem is not noticing (ignoring) oblivion problems at first. But it also happens when a previous game is actually good with no flaws at all. Like the prince of persia sands of time trilogy was kind of bashed when developers were presenting that 2008 reboot turd where you couldn't die.

In the movies, directors aways praise previous movies as inspirations and even mention how they trying to homage a specific scene, or live up to it. Unless they're dumb directors with a teenage mentality, which is mostly on the same level as game developers today.

 

[felipepepe]

felipepepe You have no fucking idea how hard I raged just after the first paragraph of your article. The people you mention in the article are the next generation of developers.

Let's be honest (and cruel) here - they aren't. I have little respect for game design schools, they seem to be all about teaching people how to "think inside the box - i.e., latest design trends = what you should do - and teach them a bit of everything, but nothing in-depth. I have friends that graduated in game design here in São Paulo and regret it deeply. Maybe in gringoland they are better, I don't know.

Here, someone graduated in design is a better artist then them, and someone graduated in computer science is a better programmer, so there's little reason to hire them into a big team for specific tasks. And indie devs are usually self-taught, they have the initiative to go after stuff, research and learn for themselves. Of course, there's also one or two geniuses, but usually those are the ones that will hear that Daggerfall still holds up, arrive at home and try them.

 

[mindx2]

I recall finding System Shock extremely clumsy when it was still relatively new, but I was very young then.

I just don't understand why people have problems with System Shock or Ultima Underworld?!! I don't have any hands and never had a problem playing them... Those two games are in my top computer games EVER MADE and I still play them almost once a year!!

 

[SCO]

Behead those who never finished ultima underworld

 

[Destroid]

Behead those who never finished ultima underworld

What happens to those who never started?

 

[SCO]

They can still be saved.

 

[mindx2]

Behead those who never finished ultima underworld

What happens to those who never started?

My friend, stop whatever you are doing (apparently wasting time on the Codex like me) and go get System Shock portable NOW!! You won't regret it.

 

[Delterius]

I recall finding System Shock extremely clumsy when it was still relatively new, but I was very young then.

I just don't understand why people have problems with System Shock or Ultima Underworld?!! I don't have any hands and never had a problem playing them... Those two games are in my top computer games EVER MADE and I still play them almost once a year!!

This is probably a good forum banner.

RPG Codex - Stop complaining. I don't have any hands and never had a problem playing these games.

 

[MicoSelva]

The good folks at No Mutants Allowed made an interesting article about this back in 2006, when the Fallout 3 previews began to appear. Although the press had loved The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - 94 on Metacritic -, less then a year later they had come up with a wave of new-found criticisms, of things they now considered broken in Oblivion and supposedly fixed in Fallout 3. I quote:

Nobody can look inside the heads of those reviewers, but why suddenly identify flaws in Oblivion now rather than a year ago, when it would still have mattered for opinion forming? Did they need a year to find these flaws? Do they not dare to criticize the game that early? Or can they only see flaws when they have something superior to compare it to?

And is this the future that awaits Fallout 3? When the TES V previews pop up, will they read "No more clunky character animations like in Fallout 3" or "No more childish aborted attempts at humor like in Fallout 3" or "This time, quest solutions really matter!" One thing is for sure, the gaming media is better at praising than they are at criticizing, since it takes them a one-hour demo to praise a game to high heavens, but a year to find flaws in a game once released.

(quoting for context)
How many of you predict that when next Dragon Age comes out, Inquisition will get trashed for its MMO-like design and 50/50 filler to content ratio and the new game will be lauded as such a huge improvement in these aspects? But at this moment - nobody cares. 'You can always ignore the filler parts if you want, you hater, you.'

 

[:Flash:]

felipepepe You have no fucking idea how hard I raged just after the first paragraph of your article. The people you mention in the article are the next generation of developers.

Let's be honest (and cruel) here - they aren't. I have little respect for game design schools, they seem to be all about teaching people how to "think inside the box

I always thought there were all about parting gullible people who want to become game designers from their money.

 

[tuluse]

I think at their best design schools train people to be trained by a video game company, and at their worst they do what Flash says.

If you actually want any reasonable skill it's best to go comp sci or 3d animation route to get into video games.

 

[MRY]

I'm very hostile to "professional" schools in fields that don't have entrance exams because (1) you can usually learn on the job and (2) by taking "professional" courses you are often forgoing the humanities or sciences, which teach skills valuable across fields (and valuable in and of themselves). That said, while I don't see much point in a degree in design theory, there are quite a few practical skills (like how to use version control, how to use flowchart software, how to speak and understand jargon, how to do 3D level design, how do to scripting) that aren't totally easy to teach yourself. On a small team, I'd never hire someone for those skills, in part because we don't have that kind of development infrastructure, in part because you need everyone to be a creative asset on a small team. But on a large team, being able to immediately use the tools and enterprise software would probably matter, especially if the candidate seemed to have enthusiasm for games (i.e., you if there was a chance of the person being a creative asset, then the confidence he would be a worker bee would probably be enough to get in the door).

I have no idea if that's what people learn in game development schools, though.

 

[Jaedar]

I know Jonas went to one of those gamedev schools, lets see if he wants to contribute.

But yeah, I have little faith in them. I worked with someone who had just finished one, and I was not impressed in the slightest.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

This is probably a good forum banner.

RPG Codex - Stop complaining. I don't have any hands and never had a problem playing these games.

you can have four hands and it won't help much if you don't have a brain

 

[Damned Registrations]

This is probably a good forum banner.

RPG Codex - Stop complaining. I don't have any hands and never had a problem playing these games.

you can have four hands and it won't help much if you don't have a brain

 

[hemtae]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=995453

The neogaf topic on the article. It's pretty complimentary so far.

 

[felipepepe]

Shame I was banned, would like to go in there are reply some of those comments... especially the guy going "games are iterative!"