Jump to content

Interesting articles


Recommended Posts

Thought it may be a good idea to have a thread dedicated to websites articles we post from time to time, the "Other games" thread is getting confusing :)

 

--

 

Anyhow, IGN has a new section I found interesting to read through, called Life Support, it's about games that have been cancelled, indefinitely postponed (Duke Nukem Forever), suddenly come back to life/development, etc. It's a fun read.

 

It's not by any means complete of course, an obvious example (to us) is the missing X-Com Alliance and X-Com Genesis, but oh well, it's entertaining :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

It's going to be a difficult to be an auteur in the games industry, unless you're doing it all yourself as an indie, or overseeing a very small team. When you get to be in control of a major project, how do you oversee dozens of artists, programmers, designers, scriptwriters and imprint your vision on them? Where do you find the time? How do you even do it, when you won't necessarily understand how they do what they do? It's nothing like film or music, where you can pick and choose your staff with ease, selecting a cinematographer or producer for specific stylistic reasons. If you're making a game, you have your studio, and you can outsource this bit and that bit, and you might poach someone if you're lucky, but that's it.

 

Games deaden the effect an auteur has anyway, because currently the medium doesn't give a shit if you're an auteur or an arsehole, it's focused squarely on the technical aspects of the medium. This is just as retarded as one book being better than the other for using a finer grade of paper or more varied inks or fonts, but that's the way it is.

 

There are precious few games that you can point to and say "Only [insert name here] could have designed that." This is because [insert name here] hasn't done much work, but it's more to do with the fact that the industry regards unique visions as dangerous. To make a truly unique game is to take a risk, and pubs/devs would rather make a shitty game and money than make a great game and a loss.

 

And Bioshock was shit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

That Google/Zynga link could be horrific - I don't want any more bloody Farmville/Mafia Wars/whatever-the-heck-crap-it-is-next clogging up Facebook any more than it already is. I hope Google is just investing in them so they can then bury them deep underground near the centre of the earth, there to remain for the next billion years.

 

The world needs mroe games like that like *insert inapprorpate phrase here*.

 

Rant over >:]

 

Oh, plus if Google ever bought them out they could become "Gynga" which just isn't good at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm going to bend the definition of "article" a bit here, but it's worth the share.

 

Fear The Boot RPG podcast talks with Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance fame) about role-playing, writing, the magic of reading, life experiences, novel ideas, the importance of community, plans for the future and more.

 

It's an interesting, fun listen so put a brew on and check it out:

 

- part I

- part II

 

::

 

>:]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
  • Create New...