Opening Keynote At GDC 2005

RobotWisdom writes "Alice of the Wonderland weblog has managed to transcribe and post the opening keynote address by Raph Koster from the Game Developers' Conference. It was based on his book, 'A Theory of Fun'. My favorite quotes: 'Fun is the feedback the brain gives while successfully absorbing a pattern.' and 'The differences between Cheers, Friends, and a medieval morality play are NOT THAT BIG.' Very upbeat, thought-provoking and inspiring." As an FYI: I'll be leaving for the sunny western coast in less than 8 hours. Expect coverage all week starting as soon as I get over jet lag tomorrow.

Comments

Why San Francisco...?

[__aaclcg7560]

Hi, I'm Chris and I'm an ex-video game tester looking for a job.

Anyway, why is the GDC in San Francisco instead of San Jose?

Re:Why San Francisco...?

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you looking for more testing opportunities? Atari in Sunnyvale was looking for testers last month. Drop a line to Lori Der at lori(dot)der(at)atari(dot)com with your resume and info. She's head of HR there, and they purportedly treat their testers very well, with more options to stay permanent and move upwards than some other studios in the bay area. The hours are very long though.

The GDC moved to San Francisco due to required space. The conference has grown so big over the last few years that it needed the room.

Best of luck in your job hunt Chris.

Re:Why San Francisco...?

[__aaclcg7560]

Atari in Sunnyvale was looking for testers last month.

Actually, Atari was my last company. I left at the end of June last year after being there for six years. I think the only reason why they won't let me return -- I did inquire last month -- is because I have an active social life that interferes with the long hours.

My initial comment was a joke off the opening comment made at the keynote address. But I am looking for a job in software testing, programming and/or networking, but not necessarily in the video game industry.

Re:Why San Francisco...?

[Lemmy Caution]

Anyway, why is the GDC in San Francisco instead of San Jose?

Have you ever been to the Moscone Center?

1. Sony Metreon - geek play-land, including the horribly named new "Walk of Game," a Warhammer store, a Playstation Store, a "gadgets" store, an anime/comics shop, and free wireless. In a cool, if already slightly dated techno-utopian piece of boom-era architecture.

2. Yerba Buena Gardens.

3. SF Museum of Modern Art.

4. The best restaurants in the US.

5. Culture.

6. It's San Francisco. Even when it smells like pee, it's better than just about anywhere else in the US not smelling like pee. And it doesn't always smell like pee.

San Jose is so... south bay.

Re:Why San Francisco...?

[__aaclcg7560]

It's San Francisco. Even when it smells like pee, it's better than just about anywhere else in the US not smelling like pee. And it doesn't always smell like pee.

You forgot to mention Pier 39, which smelled a whole lot worse than pee when I was up there a few weeks ago. I wonder if EA is taking their people on the Alcatraz tour to prove to them that there working environment is not that bad in comparison. :)

San Jose is so... south bay.

Uh, huh. While San Francisco is so... leftish... that Bill Clinton is a Republican? :P

Re:Why San Francisco...?

[Anonymous Coward]

Meh. I lived in San Jose for an entire year and never once went to San Francisco. The closest I ever got was flying over head on my way up north.

Also, whot he fuck is Alice in Wonderblog or whatever? And who the fuck is Ralph whateverwhosit? /who cares

Re:Why San Francisco...?

[Anonymous Coward]

What's your point? You can live in an urban sprawl cultural void without ever seeking out something better, even when it's only an hour away?

Well, I guess that's a skill.

Re:Why San Francisco...?

[Anonymous Coward]

You wouldn't happen to be a shut-in that lives on Foster Road in Portland, OR currently, would you?

Re:Why San Francisco...?

[Anonymous Coward]

7) The Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre

Review of his book

[Orbruelor]

Slashdot recently reviewed his book, and after reading the excerpt in TFA, I'm even more interested in checking his book out.

Review here

What he said definitely rings true with me. I enjoy playing games, but once I can read the patterns, it becomes monkey work to implement them - hence not fun. Similarly I find the same is true at work. I enjoy work that involves problem solving or analysis, however if the patterns seem too easy - I see it as monkey work and am turned off.

Main point I took away: Fun lies between too easy and too hard, at the point where you "get" the patterns.

Not the Keynote to GDC

[VonGuard]

Raph Koster was not the keynote speaker for the Game Developers Conference, as this story states. Raph Koster was the keynote speaker for the Serious Games Summit, a smaller event that takes place at the GDC. The real keynote speakers will be talking later this week, and are from Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. Sony consoles, that is, not Sony online, like Raph.

Gaming's future

[MrWa]

Koster is known for two things: Ultima Online and SWG. Now, which one of those games is fun? When it came out UO was revolutionary and, ignoring the few people that remember Meridian 59, launch the graphical MMORPG or whatever the current "in" abbreviation is nowadays.

The real question, now, is who can be trusted to make fun games that are not work (i.e. EQ). Is there any game designer or publisher willing to put out a truly innovative and fun game, something that doesn't rehash the same basic game design points that we have been playing the past 6 years? FPS frag-a-thons with improved graphics, MMORPG's better graphics and more delivery quests, RTS clickfests, turn-based strategy games...nothing new has come out in a long time that was also fun.

On Marketplace today they discussed the GDC and the growing interest of Hollywood. With the growing dominance of EA and the interest of Hollywood, are we looking at the beginning of the decline (so far as quality, innovation, and "fun" are concerned) and the introduction of a new phase of "gaming" as pre-packaged entertainment for the masses?

Does anyone else fear that when gaming no longer has the "I'm MrWa. I'm a gamer" connotation and becomes mainstream that the development stage - and the fun with it - has ended?

Re:Gaming's future

[MuNansen]

nothing new and fun? ummmmm, Katamari Damacy?

Re:Gaming's future

[__aaclcg7560]

nothing new and fun? ummmmm, Katamari Damacy?

Sounds like Daikatana to me... :)

Re:Gaming's future

[Anonymous Coward]

Man, Good point. There is nothing better than hanging around with a group of geeks. Play video games, write code, whatever. I am not being sarcastic here, it is the gosh darn truth. Maybe that is why so many of us geeks love Linux - it is the frontier we have to ourselves :-) Just think if Linux becomes mainstream some day - will we love it as much? Or will it become another Windows? Hmmm... Either way, looking forward to hearing the news this week coming from the GDC - wish I could go myself!

Re:Gaming's future

[startled]

I also had a lot of fun with Gish, which was pretty out there.

And stay tuned for Psychonauts, when we finally push that bad boy out the door. :)

Re:Gaming's future

[Anonymous Coward]

What you call the frontier, I call the the sidelines.

Re:Gaming's future

[Ford Prefect]

Darwinia is pretty cool - in a unashamedly retro-gameplay kind of way. Kind of Cannon Fodder meets Tron, with a liberal helping of Space Invaders along the way.

I had great fun playing the demo last night, but I can't decide whether to get the full game or not. The demo seemed a bit glitchy, and it felt more like an incredibly polished, atmospheric shareware game than a 30-quid one. Still, it really reminded me of when I first discovered computers, where the bugs in games could be overlooked thanks to the sheer enthusiasm of it all...

Re:Gaming's future

[tartley]

How about Katamai Da... er... Dama... er... y'know? That Japanese thing.

Re:Gaming's future

[Scarblac]

mmoarrrrpg

Everything is done by puzzles (e.g., advanced tetris-style games). A ship sails because the navigator plays the Navigation puzzle, using movement points created by people playing the Sailing puzzle, in ship vs ship battle people play the Gunnery puzzles to load guns, ships can grapple after which everyone fights each other hand to hand in Swordfighting puzzle games. That's different from yet another graphical MUD!

Re:Gaming's future

[American AC in Paris]

Does anyone else fear that when gaming no longer has the "I'm MrWa. I'm a gamer" connotation and becomes mainstream that the development stage - and the fun with it - has ended?

Not really, no.

I mean, we've had books for--how many centuries, now? We burn through entire forests printing drivel that should never have been scrawled to a page in the first place, yet we still have brilliant authors producing everything from fun, entertaining stories to landmark works of literature.

One can argue that games require substantially greater investments in time and talent, but that hasn't stopped games like Counter-Strike from becoming mind-bogglingly successful. Every year brings new tools, new resources, and new venues of distribution for the small-time developer.

That the soulless content machine is waxing does not automatically mean that the creative spark must wane. It's still there, and it'll continue to give us give us good, fun games.

Re:Gaming's future

[JFMulder]

nothing new has come out in a long time that was also fun.

I won't say Katamari Damacrai because somebody already said so, and anyway, I haven't played it.

What I'll say tough is as far as PCs are concerned, yeah, maybe there's nothing really new. I can't really say, I dropped PC gaming a years ago in favor of consoles.

For something fresh and new, the DS is probably what the industry needs. Just look at the gameplay elements in Castlevania DS, Yoshi Touch and Go and Wario Ware Touched. Those are great ideas and in the case of Yoshi Touch and Go brand new gameplay ideas.

As far as TV based consoles go, I think the most refreshing game I've played on this current generation of consoles (owning only an Xbox) was Beyond Good and Evil, whose only fault is that it came out when a lot of AAA sequels came out and didn't get enough coverage. It a stleath game that doesn't piss you off like the original splinter cell did. It's got some fighting in it, and has great gameplay mechanics to earn money and solve missions.

Re:Gaming's future

[Anonymous Coward]

To all the people replying with Katamari Damancy:

Yes, it was new. No one's done a ball rolling game where the objective is to run over stuff to roll it up. However, ball rolling games are old. There was Marble Madness for the NES. There was Super Monkey Ball. I'm sure there are a thousand I'm missing. It's not exactly a new idea.

Katamari Damancy was fun, but it's not the holy grail of gaming. It was fun for a whole 20 hours or so of gameplay. Then it was over. Yay.

I'd say that, if anything, Katamari Damancy proves the parent's point. If that's the best new, fun game the gaming industry can come out with - well, we're in trouble!

The fact that the only new, fun game people can come up with is Katamari Damancy really seems to prove the parent's point. And even that gets old, too. Once you've played through it - then what? Would you play through a second time? It has no replay value. It's only fun for the novelty factor. Once that's worn off - well, that's it. The end.

Re:Gaming's future

[servognome]

With the growing dominance of EA and the interest of Hollywood, are we looking at the beginning of the decline (so far as quality, innovation, and "fun" are concerned)
I don't think there is a decline in any of those aspects. "Fun" is different for different people, the introduction of new segments of society to gaming have also changed the kind of games being played.
Madden football is definately "fun", but the reasons are different than what traditional gamers like. Madden football is more of a social experience, get together, drink beer, play football. Personally I don't think Unreal Tournament or other frag-fests are fun, but they appeal to a different audience.
In terms of innovation, it's always difficult to define. In some respects pretty much every game has been done already. RPG's harken back to "adventure", MMOs are just graphic MUDs, Katamari Damacy is just a new take on Pac-Man/loadrunner, etc.
As for quality, it's a toss up, try playing an old game, sure it won't crash, but the UI may be annoying, or the presentation is lacking.

Re:Gaming's future

[88NoSoup4U88]

Hehe, is that the (PS2?) game where everything in your surroundings stick on you ? Ifso, defenitely looked like a lot of fun ; Haven't come around to play it yet.

On another note ; I find the Wario Ware inc. games also very 'new' amd 'fun'.

Being stupid = fun?

[hsoft]

Would it mean that the key to have fun is to be mentally disabled (it makes sense to me.)?

Thus, a mentally disabled person could forever perform a simple pattern, like throwing a ball or watching a flock of bird take off, without ever understanding it, and having fun every time?

Ignorance is bliss.

I was about to write something about EQ players, but I will sure be modded as Troll :)

Annabeth Gish?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, she is fun to hang out with, although I haven't spoken to her in a while... :-(

It would violate the restraining order.

Predicting patterns

[_iris]

I would argue that fun is the positive feedback that your brain recieves after successfully predicting a pattern. How many times do you hear people say, about card games, for instance, "It was fun once I got the hang of it."

about Raph Koster and others...

[Shivetya]

Jessica from Biting the Hand Fame (now a Turbine executive) and Raph Koster are two people's whose writing I enjoy a lot. However once they get on the other side of the system; managing, designing, and implementing the games; they just to seem to lose track of what they espoused earlier.

UO was very amazing when it came out. It was also very buggy and had some serious lag issues. Jokes of "step, step... lag... lag... lag" were common. Rollbacks and server downtimes were considered common events. Yet have games really progressed much since then? Technically yes but other than that I don't see it.

Why? Because these guys talk a better game than they actually implement. They manifest all the problems they rail about. Read BTH and then look at Jessica at Turbine. Pot meets kettle. Raph is really no different. What I found interesting about SWG were some of the same issues found in early UO.

Right now the MMOG scene seems to focus too much on forcing the player down a path with little allowed deviation. Worse too many are relying on PvP to solve the inability to stay ahead of their gaming populations. Look how many games on PCs are relying more on head to head to offer a challenge than the game itself. Consoles are starting to head this way. A recent story covered Privateer being brought back. An world of rich history many today will not connect because they don't know its WC roots. Yet it is a game with both freedom and a story. Starflight was a TBS of similar nature. Where are these games now?

I remember some great strategy games of days gone by that had serious AI lobotomies once they became multiplayer capable (civ and moo come to mind immediately). Are we that much better players or is no one putting the emphasis on better AI design when compared to art? I would think with all the progress of today's computers we could find a challenging game that doesn't require the AI to cheat. It is rare to find any strategy (RT/TB) that beats even games like Empire. Where are the designers now?

End of my rant.

Re:about Raph Koster and others...

[Winterblink]

Ah, but then you have MMOs like EVE Online, a game that is virtually "path-less". PVP is there, but it's there as a reality of venturing into unregulated space. You don't HAVE to participate in PVP, you can stay in relatively comfy empire space and pursue a research career, manufacturing, etc. There's no singular path defined for a character at all. Sure you can put more skill into science rather than combat skills, but that doesn't mean you can't fight.

Essentially what we have here is a virtual sandbox consisting of thousands of star systems and a player driven economy (that works). So why isn't it as hugely popular as others? If I were to venture a guess, it's that when people play these games they NEED that direction, some path laid out for them to follow. I've heard EVE being described as being "hardcore", and I'd have to agree -- beyond the initial tutorials, you're thrown out into the universe to make your own way. Those of us who play it love it, but I can definitely see a segment of the gamer populace shying away from it for that simple fact.

Re:about Raph Koster and others...

[Creepy]

I don't think there really were AI lobotomies in Civ or MOO multiplayer, just that humans tend to gang up on AI characters. Having a truly trustworthy ally at your back can seriously turn the tide of a game like that. Then again, that's what many of these strategy games lack - dependable allies. With a person, if I need to leave a city undefended for a turn, I can usually trust them - with an AI, that city is gone as soon as I leave it and I'm at war with my former "friend." The hardest game of MOO2 I ever played was when I went to war against the human player right away and by the end of our spat we were minor players in the galaxy (and eventually, both human players lost - me by being crushed by the brainy Psilons and my opponent by vote, where he was WAAAY behind the Psilons and Meklar).

Another thing is most human players stick to a strategy and don't oversaturate. Civ is a prime example, where the AI saturates the area with diplomats and cheap troops at the expense of rapid expansion or heavy troop mobilization (I prefer the former, a friend the latter). In Civ, usually the _first_ thing I build is a settler, and then a cheap defense troop. After that, I either build another troop for exploration or another settler, and that strategy worked from Civ 1-3 and really pays off vs human opponents that play the "conquor" method, IMO (which essentially is never build settlers until continent is taken, only build troops and attack and take nearest city - switch directly from dictatorship to something pro-military like Communism and never use pro-growth governments).

San Francisco

[MatthewNewberg]

I was kinda upset at frist about the change becuase it completely surprised me( I guess I should of planned ahead). There have already been a few advantages for me anyway.

Cheaper Flight (I got a real good deal out of the blue).

More Hotels within Walking Distance. (If you look at a map, and not the distance off the GDC website).

Now I welcome the change, and hopefully I will get to see some of the stuff in the area. There is just so much to see at GDC, You just dont have enough time to see it all.

Retro Nintendo

[cmstar]

Wouldn't be great if Nintendo announced they were rereleasing the NES with a slightly faster CPU and more Ram. 8-Bit goodness. Everything truly good about gaming was done on a NES. http://www.psps4free.com/default.aspx?r=286409

San Jose is hosting Cinequest 15 right now.

[Not-a-Neg]

That's why.