Warren Spector's PAX Keynote, or "I am disappoint"

[Data4]

http://pax.gamespot.com/video/6275271/? ... Btitle%3B4

For half the video, he goes to great lengths to establish his nerd cred, and then spends the rest of it preaching that we must embrace the casuals. While I get what he's trying to say, he doesn't clarify that there's a balance that must be struck between catering to casual gamers and keeping standards high. I got pretty disgusted and stopped watching before the end, so maybe he does.

Obviously, from a marketing standpoint, you want as many people playing your games as possible, but at what cost?

 

[SCO]

welcome to 2005

 

[zeitgeist]

We're almost approaching the time when it will be possible to give a somewhat accurate historical analysis of various game industry celebrities and their actions from the beginning of the industry (or their involvement in it) to the end of the "golden age". We're not quite there yet, but it's getting easier and easier to discern who had a dream or a crazy obsession, who was just a grunt doing their job, who was in it for the money or fame, who simply lucked out into collaborating on a classic and so on.

Given the current incomplete data, what would Codex say about Spector?

 

[Topher]

Every year for the last 10-12 years I've been hearing about how the industry needs to "cater to the casual" and to an extent it does but it doesn't need to cater exclusively to the casual. I look foreword to industry speaker in hopes that I'll hear some interesting thoughts on design; it's so boring hearing the same speech year after year about making games accessible. It was interesting for a while but it's gone well past beating a dead horse. These days I don't even bother to follow coverage of industry events.

 

[Kingston]

Casual is a bullshit term. It doesn't mean anything. Real people have better tastes in gaming than the so called "hardcore." The Xbox360 and PS3 games are full of the popamole. The Wii, which sells to everyone excluding the people who like the aforementioned consoles, has no respawn chambers, cover systems or stupid story bullshit. I know I've said that before many times, but I think it needs to be said a lot more.

The casuals play games that are actually more hardcore. Funny how that works. Once the Xbox360 and the PS3, aka "the industry" are gone, we can return to roots of gaming. Remember gents, classic consoles like the NES were aimed at "casuals."

 

[Achilles]

Remember gents, classic consoles like the NES were aimed at "casuals."

I'm not sure that is entirely accurate. I think those consoles were targeted mainly at kids, and a kid has all the time in the world and all the dedication to play the game again and again.

On the other hand, today's casual audience also includes adults who are crap at games and too stupid/can't be bothered to get better at them or play something with deeper gameplay.

 

[Tycn]

Casual is a bullshit term. It doesn't mean anything. Real people have better tastes in gaming than the so called "hardcore." The Xbox360 and PS3 games are full of the popamole. The Wii, which sells to everyone excluding the people who like the aforementioned consoles, has no respawn chambers, cover systems or stupid story bullshit. I know I've said that before many times, but I think it needs to be said a lot more.

The casuals play games that are actually more hardcore. Funny how that works. Once the Xbox360 and the PS3, aka "the industry" are gone, we can return to roots of gaming. Remember gents, classic consoles like the NES were aimed at "casuals."

'Casual' generally doesn't refer to the Wii but shit such as Wii Fit (which happens to be one of the platform's bestsellers).

 

[Felix]

And what's wrong with Wii Fit?

 

[Tycn]

It's casual.

 

[Felix]

I don't know, you must be pretty 'hardcore' to achieve highest score on some of the harder mini-games, it has some kind of arcade value to it.

 

[kingcomrade]

They just need to make games that are fucking fun to play and are actually games instead of movies where you move from one scene to the next manually.

 

[Kingston]

Remember gents, classic consoles like the NES were aimed at "casuals."

I'm not sure that is entirely accurate. I think those consoles were targeted mainly at kids, and a kid has all the time in the world and all the dedication to play the game again and again.

On the other hand, today's casual audience also includes adults who are crap at games and too stupid/can't be bothered to get better at them or play something with deeper gameplay.

So how exactly would you define the group entitled "casuals."

Btw, I do think the NES was also aimed at people who didn't use the computers of the day. All the PC people looked at it as a "casual" box.

It's casual.

Yeah, you're gonna have to define the term.

They just need to make games that are fucking fun to play and are actually games instead of movies where you move from one scene to the next manually.

No no, you don't understand - games are art.

 

[commie]

We're almost approaching the time when it will be possible to give a somewhat accurate historical analysis of various game industry celebrities and their actions from the beginning of the industry (or their involvement in it) to the end of the "golden age". We're not quite there yet, but it's getting easier and easier to discern who had a dream or a crazy obsession, who was just a grunt doing their job, who was in it for the money or fame, who simply lucked out into collaborating on a classic and so on.

Given the current incomplete data, what would Codex say about Spector?

I'd say Spector tried to hold out longer than others. Sid and Mouldynewx gave in long, long ago for example. Though that might be due to the fact that he hasn't done anything since Thief 3 back in 2004.