I love games. I work on games. However, I don't think the current course of the gaming industry is going to change for some years, and (amazingly) I don't actually blame the current crop of games publishers for the state of play. Yes, they're run by unimaginative money men, yes, they're only funding bankable titles etc. etc. But what would you do with someone else's $4 million if it was your job to ensure a reasonable return? Exactly. You push the cash to where you're most likely to get a reasonable payoff, which at the moment is the 15 year old 'kewl yoof' demographic. The general public buys Tony Hawks IIXIX and boasts about its 'realistic polycount' in the playground. No manner of bitching on/. will change that.
However, I think there is a ray of light... All my mates who used to play games are still playing them. No-one seems to be 'growing out' of them. My girlfriend's dad is addicted to Starcraft. I bought my dad a joystick and a WWII simulator for christmas (heh - irony;-). At the moment, the market is immature and the demand is for the latest, flashiest fad. But the ranks of discerning gamers are out there, and they're growing. The games industry is slowly maturing beyond hardware-driven drivel (who cares if Doom3 has 2 billion polys if it plays worse than Half-Life?). Soon we're not going to be able to tell the games machines apart, aside from their logos and controllers (and hey - they're looking pretty damned similar today).
I believe I'm going to be able to make intelligent, interesting games that aren't solely targeted at the lowest common denomenator. The catch is, we have to wait until the money guys realise they can make a profit on stuff that isn't utterly mainstream. I reckon this is only going to happen when the audience for games of all kinds is much, much larger. Fortunately, it looks like it's getting there.
Why would Sony shoot themselves in the foot like this? They're the current console market leader with millions installed, everyone's developing games for their system and they make money off of every title sold. Hell, in the console war, they're still selling a less powerful machine for more money than the others. All the while, Microsoft is bleeding on each Xbox it subsidises. So according to this article, they go and ruin it all by making the public think the Playstation2 is going to be outdated this year? I don't think so...
Um, Prey is a long way from being 'Excellent', although Chrichton's certainly had it in him to write superb SF. The problem is that it seems to be a rushed movie script with bad science and tons of cheesy buzzwords.
Example - in one sequence we learn how the threat is 'distributed' and 'entirely unpredictable'. Later on we are told the monsters have been 'programmed' to return to the lab regularly by evil executives. It's poor B-movie SF unfortunately.
Slashdot Mirror
However, I think there is a ray of light... All my mates who used to play games are still playing them. No-one seems to be 'growing out' of them. My girlfriend's dad is addicted to Starcraft. I bought my dad a joystick and a WWII simulator for christmas (heh - irony ;-). At the moment, the market is immature and the demand is for the latest, flashiest fad. But the ranks of discerning gamers are out there, and they're growing. The games industry is slowly maturing beyond hardware-driven drivel (who cares if Doom3 has 2 billion polys if it plays worse than Half-Life?). Soon we're not going to be able to tell the games machines apart, aside from their logos and controllers (and hey - they're looking pretty damned similar today).
I believe I'm going to be able to make intelligent, interesting games that aren't solely targeted at the lowest common denomenator. The catch is, we have to wait until the money guys realise they can make a profit on stuff that isn't utterly mainstream. I reckon this is only going to happen when the audience for games of all kinds is much, much larger. Fortunately, it looks like it's getting there.
Why would Sony shoot themselves in the foot like this? They're the current console market leader with millions installed, everyone's developing games for their system and they make money off of every title sold. Hell, in the console war, they're still selling a less powerful machine for more money than the others. All the while, Microsoft is bleeding on each Xbox it subsidises. So according to this article, they go and ruin it all by making the public think the Playstation2 is going to be outdated this year? I don't think so...
Um, Prey is a long way from being 'Excellent', although Chrichton's certainly had it in him to write superb SF. The problem is that it seems to be a rushed movie script with bad science and tons of cheesy buzzwords. Example - in one sequence we learn how the threat is 'distributed' and 'entirely unpredictable'. Later on we are told the monsters have been 'programmed' to return to the lab regularly by evil executives. It's poor B-movie SF unfortunately.
Why do robots need to wear safety construction helmets? ;-)