» Fri Dec 31, 2010 6:54 am
Hey Enfedel, looks like these late nights with work are gunna make my responses always look late for the party! I reloaded the topic a number of times today and came up with some interesting things I wanted to share but most importantly I want to address two main things, the gamespot post and the direction of the game industry. I figure if I at least get my feet wet here in the forums then the words will flow much more freely in the future.
For those of you that don’t know me, I am an avid gamer, aspiring developer, and long time mapping buddy of Enfedel. If you need stats because you can’t take my word for it, just look me up on the internet, I am pretty easy to find. For those ready to move on, I should warn you… I have a lot to say…
Now lets start with the latter of my two topics, the direction of industry. I like to simplify the industries games and platforms into two branches that are both very different but very stable ways of thinking about players, their attitudes, and their console preferences that all existing simultaneously. I like to sum the console world up with a loose metaphor of Communism. Now there is some negative connotation with the word but think for a second of a land of games that exist in a world of equal. You put your money down and know that for X number of years, you are going to be covered. Its kind of like getting married or creating a team. You like a specific configuration and wish to learn how to explore all the facets of that. The platform is set and known, leaving the game to do most of the walking and talking. The developer no longer has to spend precious development cycles on new drivers, or compatibility issues. It instead becomes more about the game and how it uses the platform create its on identity within those boundaries. (I will come back to this point later so let it sink in)
The metaphor I use for Personal Computers, whether you like PC or Mac (more recently) compares games and players to Capitalism. Times are changing every day, technology is improving, and the short of it dictates that the biggest bang is going to draw the crowd. Maybe the console has a good fireworks display with a number of colors, but when that giant atomic bomb bursts on the horizon, everyone is sure to turn their head. PC games often times are marketed in a way to do just that. During their evolution they have grown more complex with the power of the processor and the easiest way to draw people to play was most of the time graphics. It makes sense, when I buy a computer for 5 grand, I want to be able to say, my computer is the only computer I know that can run this new game. It is what validates my purchase. On the other hand, if I buy an expensive thing and never use it, well then maybe next time I am not so quick to jump on board. So the trend I have seen year after year, and trust me I am an old guy as gaming is concerned, is to say well my game/computer has the best ___. It is an easy way to quantify some things capital and lets all be honest. Gaming is a business.
Now my personal take on business is much more aggressive which may affect my reasoning. Lets agree with, most people want to do well at what they do. Each and every individual I know wants to walk away from something they did with a sense of accomplishment. Hey I climbed that mountain, I built this house, I raised my kid to be a great father, or even I made a really impactful game.
So, making games is both a business and a passion, and knowing your audience is important in being a great game maker. I am sure that Yerli, Camarillo, Lancaster, Soderbaum, and Larbrant (and if you don’t know who these people are you should. I will give you a hint, they are last names) are avid PC Gamers. It is only logical for them to be as passionate about the games they play to want to make their games the way they do.
Well I will let you in on a little secret, actually its not so secret, Previously Crytek has been a developer that has existed for the PC world, creating new benchmarks with their technologies as they also as a company have evolved over the years. But something happened a number of years ago when Console gaming started becoming more popular. The seed that became the branch that makes console gaming possible, grew large enough to interfere with the Console Market. And then two other things happened. The first, and I am so sad to say it, was World of Warcraft. Just like 3rd party Wii titles struggle to make a profit on the Wii, PC games post WoW showed great losses in projected revenue. (I will get to the second later)
So as a business what is a company to do when they have a title that exists on a platform where the competition is catching up? Well the answer is easier said then done. They innovate! You see this a lot on the consoles because there is a ceiling and a floor. The growth for the industry and the draws for the people to keep interested must come from innovating. On consoles, there is a limit to how good something can look, so each game does it a little better, that’s usual growth, but Console games are given a positive handicapped to innovate because of the foundations the games are being created within.
So what does the PC world of gaming do? Well, what they did was create a platform. This is actually how Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony all got started. They decided that there is a moment when you have reached a saturation point with the market and the only way to continue growing is to expand. So you create a platform. PCs did this, the first step was through creating game engines. I am sure everyone has heard of Unreal by now. (If not you should look up a company called Epic) They made the process for making games easier by providing a stable foundation. It then became the Studios focus to innovate within those rules. Huh, not so different from console gaming. But growing for the industry didn’t stop there, as many of you know and will probably use the service to buy your Crysis 2, Steam showed up. Same platform idea, but now bringing games together in a single place by creating a platform.
The two sides evolved together, online chat, platforms, game services, multiplayer gaming, creative content, and so on but still manage to be different from one another. Why? Well some might argue power of processor, or drive to customize, but I think it can be viewed as I originally outlined.
The PC world doesn’t understand the Console world because they, like communism and capitalism, exist mostly independently from one another.. The people from each branch have their sites set on different things, maybe one being the best at one thing, and the other having the most new things. Lets move on,
Now I am finally getting to the second thing, the recession. This put a pretty big squeeze on the game industry and even the larger companies were grossly effected by the way things changed. Again, coming closer to a saturation point in the market the Industry has decided to innovate. This time, instead of a platform for other game companies to creating something within its own branch, why not create something that spans both branches. I think that is where the seed for CE3 came from and the reason we are seeing Crysis2 being introduced on the consoles.
The world is a mixing pot like it has never been, now with console and PC players even occupying the same forums. A lot of it is passion to be something greater and a lot of it is to find a way to share growth and innovation with others. Will both genres be diluted at first so that everyone can move forward together? maybe so. But what is more important to me is seeing how the industry adapts and changes in a world where everyone can exist on a more common ground.
Well that is the iceberg tip of what I wanted to say about the second thing. Now on to Gamespot. Gaming is an industry and a long time growing too. EA celebrated 25 years recently(with the last couple years). That may be even older then most of you reading this, if you have the patients to still be here. With long histories like that castles have been created, boundaries forged, alliances made and broken. My point is that there are major businesses involved in some very grown up commerce.
Now I am not a conspiracy theorist but think about how giant companies like Blizzard, EA, Activision, and Venvedi are? Yes I am aware there 4 of those are in essence the same company. So now imagine no matter how powerful or big your empire had become, your castle was still under fire. Remember I mentioned recession earlier which effects game sales, and share values. A company like EA who had stock at 50-60 dollar a share on a bad day, now saw those values split in half twice, lucky to get 20 bucks a share in an awesome year. EA is a giant company and when the water raises, all the boats in the see are elevated. When the swells lower though, there are a lot of boats scrapping to get by, a lot of studios looking for a way to stay afloat. So the executives sit around in a big office and make a decision. What is it? You should know that by know, it is an ongoing theme today. They innovate! How do they do this? Well first you open your own studio at your Headquarters. You know you can trust the people their. Then you use your leverage as a large company to get the people you need to make the game right. You change the formula, you give it a make over, and then you market it. Nintendo is great at this, look at all those 1st party titles. Gamespot has nothing to report on if they aren’t given information and if the company they get the information from favors a particular project, well then the reporter might also.
Maybe it is coincidence that Game Spots Best PC Game (Dead Space 2) was the game that was developed at the Studio created at EAs Headquarters and not a game (Crysis 2) created at a studio that the Publisher has partnered with (Crytek) ? But I like to think it is strategic planning. Don’t get me wrong Dead Space is a great innovative game and Extraction was beautiful for a Wii title. But then I realized a point I made earlier which was, Dead Space was created across all platforms but found ways to be inventive and innovative in each. It pushed the PCs urges by delivering create graphics for a more mature audience. But it also redesigned how we think about HUD elements by hiding dialogs with cinematic, or health bars on your character or gun. It became more immersive because of these new innovations which make it refreshing to play. And that brings me back to the gamespot video. I think that the interviewers at the end hit it right on the head. In the world of PC gaming, the keyboard and mouse are standard and a consumer base that is unwilling to move beyond that, limits the games that can be created. Because Kirby was traditionally a kids platformer it gets a bad wrap. But look at how it innovates beyond the controller. It uses an art style that aids the game. The natural movement and flow you’ld expect from cloth, the way it crumbles to shorten gaps, or pulls over you character who travels around that space. It reaches beyond the normal box of swinging your arms or shake your wrist movements and delivers that through every aspect of the gameplay. No element of the game can be removed without diluting it. How awesome would Crysis 2 be if it wasn’t just 3D but used Kinect and Move controls to really put you in the suit. Did Crytek make the leap to push their game by plucking the obvious extensions of gameplay and incorporate them into the design? I would love to feel my arm swing the arm of the nano suit. Maybe its all conspiracy theories. Maybe it’s the result of an industries sensitivity and realizing we must all coexist in order to keep moving forward? Here is another one for coincidences, I noticed a lot of asian influenced games winning awards this year and remember tons of articles pointing out how Japans game market was dying last year. Everyone is trying to do the best they can which makes me really excited to see what is coming next. I love the identities that are emerging every day in the world and industry of gaming but what I would love more would be to sit with someone like Cevat Yerli to thank him for his contribution to my past and offer him some money making solutions for the future.