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

Re:Illegal?

[Oddly_Drac]

"But its your call: think than shoot (at least initially). This judgement *does* add value to gameplay, isn't that his point?"

I think, without going back to the article in question, that he was criticising the 'if it moves' model of Quake and other modern games, which is like suggesting that there aren't enough motorbikes in Olympic Pole-Vaulting.

Even in Counterstrike games, you do (assuming that your 'team' doesn't consist of fourteen year olds) start to find an evolutionary set of squad tactics appearing. If the aim is a team victory, then you do start moving in that direction naturally.

This idea of communication being difficult without body language...well, duh, which is why the communications methods start to evolve.

Emoticons, love them or hate them, are one method of stating intention in text.

Both sets of people have ignored one fundamantal difference between men and women that colours the whole gaming thing quite heavily and that's simply that men compete more readily than women.

Although marketing droids would have the world believe that there's a vast untapped market of female players out there looking for a fluffier world, at the end of the day some women think that engaging a machine in competition is stupid.

However I did get my ass kicked in SSX by a girl a couple of days ago, but that does involve being on the same sofa.

Re:Elite 3

[Yarn]

Ian Bell (the other half of elite) has indicated that he doesn't want to make a new elite until processors are up to real-time ray tracing, none of this cheating with graphics acceleration.

Re:Elite 3

[Asprin]

Thanks for the tip, but I can't get them to download because I use Firebird, and apparently, this site won't take you to a page with an actual link until you switch to IE AND agree to download all the spyware ActiveX components. Don't even mention the popups. Firebird kicks so much ass it burns.

However, despite that, Google answers all questions even though asking /. is more fun.

Ian Bell's Web Site has Elite and Elite Plus downloads, plus links to other k001 r0X0r1n9 sites...
...including this one, which also has manuals, guides and FAQs.

Cheerio!