Elite Creator On Attracting Mainstream Gamers

Thanks to BBC News for their article featuring a counterpoint to the view that games are just for 'geeks and guys', a point of view recently given publicity by Microsoft's Laura Fryer. The respondent, David Braben, co-creator of seminal 3D space title Elite, argues for the importance of empathy, and suggests that "the 'shoot-it-if-it-moves' mechanic of games like Quake [is] a fundamentally empty experience, unless you're fighting people you know well", even commenting that "...in Elite, we made shooting another space craft illegal, so the player had to think before opening fire." He also discusses his company's forthcoming Sony-published PS2 title, Dog's Life, a mainstream-aimed title which "seeks to create [an] emotional bond with the player" through cute, endearing dog interaction, and, uhm, a 'Smell-o-vision' mode.

Comments

Not all FPS are alike

[oni]

the 'shoot-it-if-it-moves' mechanic of games like Quake [is] a fundamentally empty experience

This is a discription of a deathmatch. Does anyone actually play deathmatch anymore? It gets boring very quickly.

Quake 3 really shines when you play a team-based game like freezetag or CTF. There's a lot more to it than just killing. Hell, even a 1v1 game is deeper than just "kill it if it moves" because you've got to learn to work the map and time powerups. Anyone who just comes after me with no thought to strategy in a FPS is going to lose.

Sorry, I just love quake.

Re:Elite 3

[nelsonal]

Elite 3 was called first encounters, and was pretty fun, with some impressive graphics for its time, it didn't get marketed well, and you pretty much had to find it in a bargin bin near you, there was someone who was hosting the British version of the game, (much better than the US release which had several major bugs) but I don't know if it is still around. I had it running under 95/98, but you'll need mo slow if you want to play it on anything close to new, or a Pentium one sitting around. They were working on an Elite 4, but I haven't heard much about that recently. There is a really cool open source game, Vega Strike, that is the best new space trading sim I've played, I think it works on Linux, OS X, and Windows, it's still in beta but pretty darn stable, (at least the Windows version was for me).

Re:No death please, we're not normal women

[superultra]

Five days earlier, I may not have agreed with you. But I think there may some truth in your post. My wife is very much a typical non-video game player, like the type of person Braben is referring to. Oh sure, by mere association with me she's played a great deal of The Sims, dabbled in Super Monkey Ball and Animal Crossing, but has otherwise left all the video game playing to me.

I picked up the surprisingly highly rated Simpsons Hit & Run. It's essentially GTA3/VC, but with Simpsons. She tries to play. So what does she do when she learns Homer can indiscriminatly kick people? She chases Ned Flanders kids around for five minutes kicking them around Springfield, laughing out loud every time the Flanders kid falls to the pavement.

Although I'm no fan of GTA, she's seen me play it a few times and given no more or no less interest than any other game. But here she is, very much exhibiting the "spirit" of GTA, but within the confines of a Simpson game. And enjoying it as much as a 13 year old male shooting up Chinatown in GTA3.

Maybe you're right? Maybe GTA4 should star a female character? What makes a game fun to women (besides being able to kick Ned Flander's kids around)?