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Rare Q&A With Rockstar Games Head Sam Houser
Paul Williams writes "Develop Magazine has posted a fascinating multi-part interview with Sam Houser, president and founder of Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games. Houser is rarely quoted outside of press releases, and almost never does interviews. So, reading his frank views on things like Rockstar's critics, the creative secrets that make games like GTA IV a success, and how the developer rejects things like focus testing — a common practice at the likes of EA but an 'anathema to creativity' according to Houser — is very interesting. Houser has even written a mini biography of his career with some fun references to the Hot Coffee scandal: 'July 2005: Residue code found in San Andreas. Hackers modify it and it turns into scandal known as "Hot Coffee." Get dragged into legal nightmare, ending in trip to Washington in February 2006 to sit in front of federal trade commission staff — for nine hours.'"
Of all things, storytelling is one of the areas that in some ways has the furthest to go.
Indeed. Please drop the whole "scripted storyline" concept and make a super fancy algorithm so that the story derives from whatever the player does and whatever happens as a consequence. It would be a tremendous paradigm shift, instead of have a linear story, or a branching storyline in which choices and such make the story branch out, every single of your action would influence more or less the future, and instead of cutting the story into missions in which you just do scripted missions until you succeed at each and every of them, let the player evolve with no safety net.
Therefore not only would you have to make complex decisions, but the way you execute these decisions would be crucial, and you wouldn't know if it was a good idea before you see it works and as long as you're there to see that there were no negative consequences.
Sure, that's a hell of a lot of R&D that would be involved, but that would kick a whole new level of arse!
You just got troll'd!
Well in GTA:4, although there is lots of eye candy, where are all the cool side missions? No cash for wheelies?stoppies? Heck, where is the TANK, i spent hours upon hours just seeing how long i could go before i blew up or the tank flipped, cant do that now :( Can't even take the Dodo for a joy-ride. I dont think i will be purchasing any further games in the series, if you think that you can sell me a game for $60 then turn around and sell me all the good content for more $$$.
And it seemed to make that a much better game.
Rockstar sold out and is only giving downloadable content to the 360 owners, once you beat the game it's fucking BORING.
We donâ(TM)t believe in focus testing ideas (itâ(TM)s like asking an audience what album they want to hear â" they donâ(TM)t know until they hear it!)
In art, the offer creates the demand more than the opposite. However if you're a marketing type and you want a sure shot, a product that you're sure people will want, you have to find out what the demand is.
Two different approaches really, an art-oriented risky but genre-defining approach, and a non-innovative but safe approach a couple of trains behind (i.e. the public follows the successful innovator, the EA-like company follows the public).
You just got troll'd!
And when I dream, I want a pony.
If you're buying GTA IV for "jetpacks" and "parachutes" methinks you're buying it for the wrong reason. There is a very deep and satisfying story element to the game. You're missing out if all you want to do is fly a jetpack. Although you can fly a helicopter and drive a speedboat if you wish. Both of which I found very satisfying since overall GTA IV didn't have to resort to "gimmicks" to make the game fun.
Why put 2 links to different pages of the interview? Just link to the first page of the interview and that's it. We'll find out that he talks about why he rejects focus testing while reading TFA.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
"Slow and steady wins the race" from the Tortoise and the Hare by Aesop
Here's the deal, most marketing is useless bullshit, just noise. It's a ridiculous cancerous growth on commerce, a growth facilitated by the way publicly held corporations focus only on the short term...next quarter's profits better but up! Gotta throw more $$$ into marketing research!
Like the fable says, those who plan for the long term will win.
Focus groups vs. "making games WE like to play" is not just a "different tactic" it's the difference between being a loser vs. a winner.
Specifically with EA sports: Let's look at what new game innovations were created due to focus groups vs. game innovations thought up by designers who love games. We'd find that the innovations that came from focus groups were generally regarded as useless by actual gamers (unless you hire the same people who did the focus group to do surveys of the effectiveness of the new innovations their focus groups lead to...)
This kind of marketing is a self perpetuating hydra spewing filth in all directions.
Thank you Dave Raggett
I hate how this interviewer softballs his questions:
"GTA IV asks the players to make a few key decisions during its story, and weâ(TM)ve seen another Take 2 game, BioShock, experiment with similar ideas. How further can that model be pushed? Is it something youâ(TM)d like to take further in future games?"
As if we haven't seen games providing two plot choices that affect game outcome in the past. Dark Messiah of Might and Magic jumps out as a very recent mediocre game that fits the bill there. The only thing exciting about Bioshock's decisions were that there were manifest benefits to selecting the immoral choice.
Railroads with junctions are not some new-fangled 'model' who's limits are waiting to be 'pushed.' It's old and stale.
Jism jism ee eye ee eye oh!
Gta4 while great lacked a great deal of things to do once the main storyline is over. I think they should stop talking so much shit about how great they are and get to coding some more shit for gta.
I thought it sucked balls, personally. San Andreas was the much stronger title.
Escort service? You have a phone, don't you? And money, preferrably lots of it.
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Tell me how you introduce new graphics, animation and game play into a console port that has been stamped out on a DVD:
Rockstar Games...initially denied allegations that the minigame was "hidden" in the video game, stating that the Hot Coffee modification..is the result of "hackers" making "significant technical modifications to and reverse engineering" the game's code. [T]his claim was undermined when Jay FNG Philbrook...released an "Action Replay Power Save" for the Xbox console, and codes for the PlayStation 2 Action Replay game enhancer... These new methods of accessing "Hot Coffee" demonstrated that the controversial content was, indeed, built into the console versions as well.
The creator of the original PC mod, Patrick Wildenborg...rejects Rockstar's claim that the mod required significant technical effort, pointing out that he only changed a single bit in the installed game's "main.scm" file, and that there is absolutely no new content -- every piece of the required code was already in-game, just not available to the player. The PC mod itself is just an edited copy of the game script files with the bit changed. The mod was also made possible on the console versions, by changing the bit inside a user's savegame...
The possibility of enabling the minigame by changing a single bit of code shows that the sexual intercourse content is part of the game's original data, and not new content inserted into the game by the mod. [It] is not possible to access the sexual content simply by playing the game... The fellatio animations are however clearly visible in the background of an early mission, "Cleaning the Hood", even in the re-released game. This may explain why the mini-game was not simply removed when the decision was made to cut it from the game: its assets were in use elsewhere. Hot Coffee minigame controversy
The problem with Hot Coffee is the precedent it set.
This is the most poisonous scenario:
1 Embed easily accessible X-Rated content into an M-Rated game.
2 Spread the word around quietly - while retaining "plausible deniability." Let the modding community take the hit if anything goes wrong.
3. Profit
Bonus points if the developer has a reputation for pushing the envelope, ultra-violence, racial and sexual stereotyping, and cover-your-ass PR.
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There were the "Chose Your Own Adventures" and "Fighting Fantasies" in paperback. Deathtrap Dungeon
Maniac Mansion for the C-64 and other home computers.
I'd do it myself, but my mod points expired ten minutes ago.
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." - Bob Dylan