Personally, I would say ignore those n00bs below dissing you for your comment, coz you are right in ur attitude, albeit an impossible one to follow if you are a real gamer.
Us older gamers can remember when games were made by developers because, well, they liked playing games, and wanted to make good games - their hearts and souls went into it, and people were constantly awed by the stories and gameplay.
Warren Spector has always struck me as this kind of person, as is Peter Molyneux and Ian Livingstone (who I had the pleasure of working with very closely at one time).
Of course, Warren became a marketable item. It was ok when everyone was looking for the next best thing from John Romero, and Warren was very much in the shadows, creeping in with the Thief series and System Shock, but with the surprise hit of Deus Ex (and the failure of Daikatana), all of a sudden, Warren was da man!
But, you see, with that kind of attention, the publishers (Eidos, in this case, but they all do it) suddenly want to make sure the next game is a definite hit, and thus stick their oar in. While he was happily working in the shadows, noone really took much notice what he was doing, so he had a lot longer leash, but no longer, and thus, you have the ruination of another potentially great game (DX2).
As for most of the development being temps and contractors... what do they care? They have no real cause to care whether the game does well or not... they get paid either way.
Thus, those who once lived for games, pouring their heart and soul into their projects, are now gone, and you are left with mindless automatons doing the work, and then you all moan coz the games are boring or unoriginal.
Until we, as consumers, stand up and say 'no, we're not buying your games', the situation will become worse. And at the moment, while mass-market is still quite strong, that is unlikely to make much difference, but that is waining too - it's just a matter of time (and again, the signs are there)
It's too late, imho - any real gamers are now enmeshed in MMORPG's or going back to older games or even pen & paper RPG's, because at least you have control over what is going on. The core-market is gone, and no market can live without it's heart.
Strangely, I predicted this over 3 yrs ago, but noone listened then and I doubt anyone listens now, but the signs are there - I'm just waiting for the big crash, when I can happily go back to being 'that weird guy in the corner that plays games'. At least then there may be someone with the balls to make something interesting...
...I didn't realise we were only talking about the present...this moment...right now, as though time was a static entity.
In which case, we daren't mention Christianity, which has been around for about 2000 years, which kinda makes my 20 years paltry.
In fact, I was ordained (by my gf) as the religious leader of my own religion not 5 mins ago, called VILOGAME, in which the doctrine is to play violent games all night, eat pizza and drink copious amounts of beer - is that up to date enough?
The point I was trying to put across is that things have not changed, and in fact were (or seemed to be) a lot worse many years ago, when gamers were considered wierd by the general population anyway, gaming was relatively new, and the church was a much more powerful force to contend with. In the current MTV days, the political correctness and general apathy most people have towards religion (especially in the West - except for in the Bible Belt, where... oh, let's not go there), the cries of horror from the churches are usually drowned out by teenagers screaming 'Yeah man, did you see me blow his f*****g head off!!'
It hasn't changed in years, it will never change, because the church is an archaic form of control which is rapidly becoming redundant... although there will always be someone willing to wail and moan about it.
Personally, I'm not overly sure they are wrong sometimes - I find the whole idea of using Chenobyl as a backdrop for a game involving freaks and mutants completely repugnant - there are still people living in the area who have had to deal with the after-effects for years... if that doesn't get the 'holier-than-thou' ones going, I think we win!
I've never really seen much of a clash between video games and religion. For the most part, the industry seems to battle more with racial groups, anti-gun groups, and parental groups. Most of the people that back these kind of groups in public are lawyers and politicians, take that for what you will.
It seems you may be too young to remember the 'wailing and gnashing of teeth' 20 yrs ago when D&D first became popular... or even the Fighting Fantasy books.
My parents, caring in their self-righteous religious way, almost had me locked up for even daring to play them... and the propaganda that flew backwards and forward almost certainly helped push games forward rather than backwards... let's face it, the more religion pushes, the more people are interested...
I can't see that much would have changed nowadays, other than the fact that I am old enough to ignore the idiots, and declare it a waste of breath to argue with them.
The other day you were all moaning how the lack of originality was ruining the industry.
Bring it on, I say - this sounds great - hope they make one for London...
Slashdot Mirror
Us older gamers can remember when games were made by developers because, well, they liked playing games, and wanted to make good games - their hearts and souls went into it, and people were constantly awed by the stories and gameplay.
Warren Spector has always struck me as this kind of person, as is Peter Molyneux and Ian Livingstone (who I had the pleasure of working with very closely at one time).
Of course, Warren became a marketable item. It was ok when everyone was looking for the next best thing from John Romero, and Warren was very much in the shadows, creeping in with the Thief series and System Shock, but with the surprise hit of Deus Ex (and the failure of Daikatana), all of a sudden, Warren was da man!
But, you see, with that kind of attention, the publishers (Eidos, in this case, but they all do it) suddenly want to make sure the next game is a definite hit, and thus stick their oar in. While he was happily working in the shadows, noone really took much notice what he was doing, so he had a lot longer leash, but no longer, and thus, you have the ruination of another potentially great game (DX2).
As for most of the development being temps and contractors... what do they care? They have no real cause to care whether the game does well or not... they get paid either way.
Thus, those who once lived for games, pouring their heart and soul into their projects, are now gone, and you are left with mindless automatons doing the work, and then you all moan coz the games are boring or unoriginal.
Until we, as consumers, stand up and say 'no, we're not buying your games', the situation will become worse. And at the moment, while mass-market is still quite strong, that is unlikely to make much difference, but that is waining too - it's just a matter of time (and again, the signs are there)
It's too late, imho - any real gamers are now enmeshed in MMORPG's or going back to older games or even pen & paper RPG's, because at least you have control over what is going on. The core-market is gone, and no market can live without it's heart.
Strangely, I predicted this over 3 yrs ago, but noone listened then and I doubt anyone listens now, but the signs are there - I'm just waiting for the big crash, when I can happily go back to being 'that weird guy in the corner that plays games'. At least then there may be someone with the balls to make something interesting...
In which case, we daren't mention Christianity, which has been around for about 2000 years, which kinda makes my 20 years paltry.
In fact, I was ordained (by my gf) as the religious leader of my own religion not 5 mins ago, called VILOGAME, in which the doctrine is to play violent games all night, eat pizza and drink copious amounts of beer - is that up to date enough?
The point I was trying to put across is that things have not changed, and in fact were (or seemed to be) a lot worse many years ago, when gamers were considered wierd by the general population anyway, gaming was relatively new, and the church was a much more powerful force to contend with. In the current MTV days, the political correctness and general apathy most people have towards religion (especially in the West - except for in the Bible Belt, where... oh, let's not go there), the cries of horror from the churches are usually drowned out by teenagers screaming 'Yeah man, did you see me blow his f*****g head off!!'
It hasn't changed in years, it will never change, because the church is an archaic form of control which is rapidly becoming redundant... although there will always be someone willing to wail and moan about it.
Personally, I'm not overly sure they are wrong sometimes - I find the whole idea of using Chenobyl as a backdrop for a game involving freaks and mutants completely repugnant - there are still people living in the area who have had to deal with the after-effects for years... if that doesn't get the 'holier-than-thou' ones going, I think we win!
Tal
I've never really seen much of a clash between video games and religion. For the most part, the industry seems to battle more with racial groups, anti-gun groups, and parental groups. Most of the people that back these kind of groups in public are lawyers and politicians, take that for what you will. It seems you may be too young to remember the 'wailing and gnashing of teeth' 20 yrs ago when D&D first became popular... or even the Fighting Fantasy books. My parents, caring in their self-righteous religious way, almost had me locked up for even daring to play them... and the propaganda that flew backwards and forward almost certainly helped push games forward rather than backwards... let's face it, the more religion pushes, the more people are interested... I can't see that much would have changed nowadays, other than the fact that I am old enough to ignore the idiots, and declare it a waste of breath to argue with them.
... my life isn't depressing enough...
The other day you were all moaning how the lack of originality was ruining the industry. Bring it on, I say - this sounds great - hope they make one for London...