Slashdot Mirror
The Future of Game Dev (Except in St. Louis)
ksquire writes "Ben Sawyer, of Digitalmill, has published an interesting article at Avault.com about
the past, present, and future of game development.
Sawyer argues that the game industry is going more and more toward 3rd party development tools and '4th party' publishing -- meaning that game developers are essentially tool developers for game enthusiasts to create mods (also using tools like Alienbrain or Discreet's
GMAX).
I'm really curious as to whether the Slashdot community thinks we'll see a future era of standardized game tools and developers courting modders, or if we'll continue to see more specialized game engines. Maybe a greater PC / Console split?"
Meanwhile, over in St. Louis, the Free Expression Policy Project has filed an
amici curiae brief
by 33 media scholars saying that "Most studies and experiments on video games containing violent content have not found adverse effects."
They're trying to stop the county from banning violent games --
Wired has the story.
ksquire points out that "Sawyer also wrote an article, Serious Games: Improving Public Policy through Game-Based
Learning and Simulation, which was
discussed on slashdot."
netphilter and TCPALaw get credit for the Wired link. Previous Slashdot stories on violent gaming include this one and this one.
TCPALaw's full comment was (minus a dangling modifier): "Wired has a nice story on the St. Louis ban on violent video games. If the ban sticks (it was upheld by Judge Limbaugh against a constitutional challenge... Rush Limbaugh's uncle ... the same judge who struck down the federal ban on junk faxes as an abridgment of free speech - go figure) it could be extended to MP games available to play over the Internet."
I've seen a HUGE decline of arcades here because of this ruling, many of them have closed. The local mall near me used to have an arcade...until they put in a police substation across the hall. I hate it here because of stupid stuff like this.
I've seen alot of companies hiring people based off of their proven abilities in the mod field.
Likewise, I've seen people use their contacts in the mod community to get better jobs.
With some of the newer games coming out with good tool support (Unreal 2k3 has dedicated programs included, for example) for people to make their own content (be it maps, models, sounds, what have you), I fully expect game companies to actively search out mod teams.
Obvious case in point:
Think about what Valve would be doing right now if it wasn't for a very small number of mods.. (Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, Action Half-life, etc... Especially Counter-Strike)
Did personal camcorders eliminate hollywood? Did affordable video equipment and home computing force ILM to close?
I know that I'm dating myself here, but arcades haven't been the same since the demise of pinball. I stopped going into arcades when I realized that everyone in the joint was giving me the hairy eyeball because I was some weirdo who wanted to play the lone analog game in the place.
It's never black and white with anything. Do video games cause all kids to commit violent acts? No. Do some video games cause some kids to commit violent acts? Probably.
Children that watch other kids do things mimic them but the way to overcome that is to ensure that there is a good moral foundation ( which comes from parents )
Have we seen a spike in violence in children since video games became more prevalent? Yes. But why is the question. You'll note that this is the same time that most families had to start having two working parents ( to supplement income ) and so there isn't somebody to monitor tv, games and other media. Nobody there to comment on this being done in the game. Nobody to say "we don't do that in real life".
Studies and statistics are often misleading and misused. A prime example that we learned in a Psych 101 is that of Churches and Crime rate. Did you know that in areas with more churches there is a higher crime rate? Considering that astounding revelation we should ban churches since they obviously lead to crime.
The issue is that there isn't a direct relation, but rather a common factor between the two. Where are there more churches? In higher populated areas. Where is there more crime? In higher populated areas. The problem for higher crime is increased population, not churches.
However, those in congress and those doing this study use common link evidence and say it is a direct relationship as if anything is so black and white
I think the underlying assumption is still sound, especially when most consoles now have HD's and network connections.
Even before those were availiable some games let you at least edit levels and save them on memory cards.
With network support, we might well see console makers host a mod site that would let console owners post new levels or perahps even TC's (like UT mods when the current UT client is put on the PS2 or XBox).
The exciting thing about console makers hosting mod sites is the possibility they could pay for licences in some universes (like Star Wars, or The Simpsons, or Land of The Lost [how much would that licence be? $9.99??]) and then hold contests to have people create legal mods using licenced content. At least that's what they would do if they had a shred of sense.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
...meaning that game developers are essentially tool developers for game enthusiasts to create mods (also using tools like Alienbrain or Discreet's GMAX)
This is pretty flawed thinking. Because by that same logic, there should be little market for softare because clearly we can all just go get MS Visual Studio, or Perl, or PHP, or any number of other programming languages. Who needs application developers! Just give the masses programming languages.
Just because you give someone a tool doesn't mean they can create greatness. GMAX is definitely a "dumbed down" version of a more sophisticated package, but in no way has it streamlined the users (artists) creativity or imagination, not to mention sense of aesthetics, balance, and proportion.
A game engine that allows a user modification later is just gravy. We've pretty much have seen this as a marketing tool to get our game off the shelves and into the hands of gamers. The great success of the Quake and Unreal engines prove this. At first, just to play the Counter-Strike mod, you had to purchase Half-Life.
Currently, only independent developers are using these third-party engines. The main reason is that they lack the resources ($$$, time and people) to create their own engine. These groups quickly find that their engine lacks the power or doesn't handle game functions as they would like. The best games will have the game design create the engine and not the other way around.
Let's face it. To have a AAA title, you need to have your own proprietary engine. Those that use a high-end Quake or Unreal engine will often have to strip out and insert new code to make it work. (Wasn't Half-Life 85% new code?)
I only expect to see more proprietary engines being created (as it always has been) and the ability to create user modifications as a marketing tool to increase sales.
I think the best source of game innovation is from players, and that doesn't stop with the modders. Look at all of the MMORPGs out there. Those players aren't creating mods, but by playing characters far better than any AI, they add to the level of game play for everyone. And they not only don't get paid, they pay the game company to play! "You mean you pay to play an elf, so someone else playing the game encounters a more realistic elf during their game?"
The modders are almost yesterday's news compared to the people who pay to improve the game by playing it. Now that's a business model. You get a better "AI equivalent" than anyone could write, and they pay you for the privilege.
Well I apologize for not reaching back to games like Miner2049er or Mr. Robot which did have a level editor (loved that game) but I did mention pinball construction set. I also remember a modded version of Pole Position for the Atari 800 where you could build your own tracks and the sector editors for Ultima to make your own maps there too (or to cheat). I could have also mentioned EA's Adventure Construction Set or a similar kiddie title that was from Spinnaker. I could have slipped these in but it seemed superflous to add that level of detail.
I learned to program on a Commodore Pet in 3rd Grade. I wrote my first text adventure on a Vic 20. However, the fact is that the FPS genre - especially under the guise of Doom and Half-Life have shown more and more where the future of development may be heading. Thus the focus does start there in terms of the piece.
Actually the article does say it could happen but not until there is a way to author content on the PC and then send it to a console using the Internet. Already we have one system with built in harddrive, and now two systems with online gaming (3 if you count the defunct Dreamcast). Once you have broadband out there and can effect network storage (a service Gamespy offers developers via an API) you could create a symbiotic relationship between PC based level design and modification and consoles.
No doubt it's a ways off. The level design might happen sooner than later, but complete mods might take longer given some of the problems inherent in console controls by the publisher. Still it's not out of the realm of thought or engineering possibility, you just have to start looking a generation or two down-the-line.
- Ben
Let me reply to this point-by-point.
>increased Monetization of Product Derivatives"
>- a.k.a. make gamers pay for mods.
My point was that at some point modders will be released from having to give their work away for free. The result is there will be some monetization of this and that could result in more mods and people supporting teams who produce good ones. It doesn't mean much of it won't remain free otherwise or by choice of the developer. Already some developers have done this in the form of boxing and distributing various mods like CounterStrike.
>"Complete Toolset Integration & Standardization"
>Ah yes, the glorious uber-prize that all
>people want to see. One toolset for all
>genres of games
Actually I didn't advocate what you are talking about. The "toolset" I'm referring too are more generic things like Bink, Renderware Studio, Havok, 3D Studio, Alienbrain, etc. Not a one-size-fits-all kit. I think I even said that there will be specific engines for specific genres. Also if you haven't played morrowind, EQ, or Asherons call, why couldn't you use an FPS engine to do a kick but RPG?
>"Development Teams Become More Transient" -
>In other words, we don't want to pay for a
>full-time team of professionals.
Again, misinterpretation. I'm talking about professionals who are hired in a different manner. In fact, the fmr. Xbox manager for MS recently wrote about this issue in Wired. Teams today are not very transient. They are hired in-house, and stay together as a unit for multiple projects at the same publisher. Instead if tools make it easier to manage the process I see publishers moving back to a time where they outsourced lots of development. It doesn't mean they will seek cheap unprofessional labor. It means that you're brought aboard a project, you do your job, and when you're done you leave and hook up immediately on another production elsewhere.
>Except for the cell-phone part. Hard-core
>gamers wouldn't have the guts to actually
>talk to another person from the game.
Actually the technology inherent in a number of cellphones and thus cellphone games makes it impossible to talk to someone during the game. Doing that requires you to drop out of the network and lose state. Overtime this will get fixed. However, in the article I didn't necessarily make this point vis-a-vis cellphone games. I pointed out that they, and PDAs, would at times offer supplemental access to PC and console titles, e.g. helping arrange a trade in madden2024 so when you got home the trade was done. Or corresponding with your characters allies in a wargame or game like EQ.
Middleware companies (I work for one) - produce solutions for game programmers in areas that are traditionally "hard". Few game developers nowadays produce their own graphics engine (opengl, directx, renderware are used). Physics middleware is establishing itself (havok and mathengine), and there is a feeling that AI middleware will be big when it comes.
Game developers think "why should I put 6 months programming into something that probably won't look as good as what the dedicated guys can do?" Game players nowadays don't want "just" good graphics or AI or sound or physics, they want a completely immersive experience, and this is often impossible for a single team of developers to produce in any realistic time-frame
Johns: Well, how does it look now? Riddick: Looks clear.