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

Illegal?

[Oddly_Drac]

"in Elite, we made shooting another space craft illegal, so the player had to think before opening fire."

Unless you'd chosen the path of a pirate, which although risky did have the rewards you'd expect for trashing a Python inbound to a rich system.

Mind you, I don't think that many games will reward trading narcotics in these slightly moral times.

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.

No death please, we're not normal women

[carndearg]

I was lucky enough to work for the publisher of one of David Braben's earlier games, and in my opinion he is a rare voice of sense in an industry populated largely by vain sefl-obsessed tossers.

However in this case I do not necessarily agree with him. I think his point of communicating emotion by body language is a very interesting one and I will certainly have a look at Dog's Life but I do not agree with him that "pointless killing and death" is keeping women away from gaming. He is right that games like the Quake series are not necessarily babe-magnets but he should watch women playing other games. Pocket tanks is the example that I always think of because my fiancee and her colleagues are hooked on it. No shortage of death and killing there but that doesnt seem to bother them.

In my view the hurdle is not in the games themselves but in the delivery, quite simply the industry markets to young males not young females.

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

[inkless1]

Watching my girlfriend use the flamethrower on passerbys in GTA, and score 200 kills in Dynasty Warriors 4 - I'd have to say there is wisdom in these words...

Quake Deathmatch has grown boring not due to lack of socialization, but because it's simply grown boring. Most games don't make the effort to make it challenging with bots, and so humans become the only real target.

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)?

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.

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).

elitist bastard

[bigbigbison]

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

So instead of promoting his own style of game on its own merits, he does so by turning up his nose at another style of game. I love it when people who are in a field like gaming that is looked down upon by elitists become elitists themselves by denegrating the work of others in the field.

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!