You want rants? I'll give you rants

[SirBruce]

So, one of the sessions at GDC this week was "Burning Down The House - Game Developers Rant" where a bunch of curmudgeons got up and complained about the state of the game industry.  Unfortunately, the actual transcripts won't be available for some time, but Alice of at Wonderland has provided a fairy summary transcript of what was said, and it's some pretty hot stuff:

http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/2005/03/burn_the_house_.html

I was at the session and all I can offer to elaborate on that is that Greg Costikyan's rant got the most favorable reaction, and I thought it was the best rant of the bunch.  He basically said that the publisher-developer relationship is fucked and needs to be totally thrown out.

Brenda Laurel's also got big applause at the end, but at the start it was pretty quiet, especially when she was bashing Bush, and later when she said (not quoted) that all public companies are evil, because they "trick" consumers into thinking increased shareholder value is a good thing.  She railed at how big companies were basically turning us all into mindless consumers and cogs in the corporate machine.  Frankly, she was so far left, if she wasn't a Green, she was a fucking Communist, and listening to her actually turned my stomach.

All of the rants were well received by the crowd, though.  When the full transcripts become available, I'll be sure to link to them here; I'm sure you'll find them enjoyable.

Bruce

[schild]

I can see all the publisher people sitting in the audiences, fingers in ears, screaming lalalalalalalalalala.

[Arctic Circle]

That was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Best part of GDC.

Many developers agree with this, no matter where they are from. Now we just need system to cut away publishers (maybe easy to pay internationally directly to the developers steam or bittorrent system). We need to find ways to develop game closer to €/$200k than €/$20m. There are enough players who are interested of dead genres like flight simulators, adventure games, space sims or turn based strategy combat simulators if development costs are reasonable and you can buy game around 20-10 euros/dollars.  Like Valve's Gabe Newell said that most developers currently get only $7 per each game they sell.

[schild]

Alright. So I just read that. Seriously. This is crowdpleasing. However:

Warren: I never minded piracy. Anyone who minds about piracy is full of shit. Anyone who pirates your game wasn’t going to buy it anyway!

It seems Warren Spector and I are on the same page.

Other than that, I really don't know what to say. It's ok for Haemish, me, or whoever to rant like that, and no one listens. No one important at least. And if they do, we don't see changes.

Game Developers rant like that they are either told to by their publisher (sorry guys, you are so their bitch) or, well, you're going up shit creek.

Of course the developer-publisher relationship is fucked. Many developers don't have the balls to stand up and stay something when it's time, or else, well, you're replaceable. That's why I chortled when it was said that Wright or Miyamoto can innovate. Miyamoto stopped innovating during the Super Nintendo era (yea yea, mario 64, blah blah, it was obvious progression. Sorries). Wright is a mastermind. But he takes an ass long time to produce anything. But yea, they're allowed to innovate because they make fun games.

YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO INNOVATE BECAUSE YOU DON'T MAKE FUN GAMES. Wait? What did I just say? Can you hear over that racket? I can't. That's the publishers laughing at what you think is fun. Innovation without quality is cute, and maybe progressive, but it won't let you keep a powerful job. Nor will your publisher give two shits about your little innovation if your last booby raider sold 5 million copies. You're making another one. Life sucks, get a helmet.

That bit about everyone being in the industry because they love games? Yes, of course, duh. And duh. Unfortunately, developers rarely discuss the fun of games during work hours unless it's in passing. And in design-centric studios, the only person that gets to have "fun" during work hours "inventing" is the lead designer. Simply how it is. It's his vision. You are a slave. When they're not talking about fun, it's milestone this, milestone that, cutbacks from the publisher. Blah blah blah. Structured correctly, gaming companies - much like many movie studios should be their own publisher. Unfortunately we aren't there yet, and all the business savvy people work for publishers instead of game companies. Either that or there's one business savvy person at the development studio and he takes calls from the publisher and gets paid a lot to take the heat.

More on innovation: You can TELL when someone had fun making a game. The game bleeds passion. It bleeds the charisma of the developers. Spore will bleed passion. NFL2k6 will not. NBA for the PSP will not. Once we (gamers and developers) grow a backbone and and start thinking with their heart, true history will be made in the industry. As excited I am about March, how many games will exhibit the sort of heart I'm looking for?. Over 50 games are coming out in the final 2 weeks of March. Lumines, Death Jr., Archer Macleans Mercury, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and God of War, and Call of Cthulhu will may have that passion. Stolen might, also. The rest? Nah. As much as I'd love Ren Goku, Red Ninja, Dungeon Lords, Wario Ware: Twisted, Time Splitters, and MxO to be more than stillborn children, it's just not likely.

That rant session really seemed like a lot of "not our fault" complaining. Different distribution platforms, publishers suck donkey dick, Nintendo's self fulfilling prophecy, DRM, and consoles. That's a mighty long list of problems. Not a single one mentioned the fact that most development housing are cowering dogs at the feet of publishers. Until you recognize that, stand up, and go toe to toe, well, shit. You don't have anyone to blame but yourself. Want to make a difference? Make the stand. But don't take too big of a stand or your publisher will drop you like a buttered watermelon, say "whoops" and laugh.

There needs to be a working prototype of a plan to eliminate publishers. Someone, somewhere needs to come up with something so fantastical (and not on a publishers time, prior invention, yada yada) that the entire industry shifts gears. Props to Wright, but procedural math isn't going to do it, despite the fact it's old as the hills. Steam is a step in the right direction, but bleh. Valve is slow, irrational and horribly unpredictable. Trust them, but with as much grain of salt as you do your publisher. The obvious other delivery mechanism is Bioware's. But I can tell you, the moment you start offering 7gig games for download; you're going to start working your ass off coming up with a way to make games smaller. So, what's next? Self-publish? Worked for Puzzle Pirates. Worked for ATiTD. Worked for, uhm, hmmm. I can't even think of a console company.

As such, I've found myself bored and incapable to jabber more. Pointing fingers in the wrong direction and yelling like Haemish isn't going to fix the game industry. Particularly not when it's developers doing it at a gaming convention where the main draw on the panel - Spector, just jumped ship and had a bunch of vague press releases. Smells like the panel was a 3-ring circus. And it's a shame. I'd like to see someone say some of that shit to a publisher on the night a milestone build is due.

Oh, one last thing. Stop comparing games to movies. Companies to studios, sure. But movies? No. It takes a few (3-5) months to adapt (write or ...adapt) and film a movie. A couple months to edit a movie. An Oscar award winning independent film can take as short as 6 months from start to finish. A studio film takes about 8-10 months due to more red tape. Some take exorbitantly longer (Gangs of New York, Waterworld), but they are anomalies. Games take 1-5 years. And the time & heart put into the game shows. We love you, developers of games. But don't think for a moment we wouldn't stab you in the back if you fuck up. It's a fine line you're walking, here's to hoping you step off unscathed.

You've got a long day tomorrow, your E3 demos are probably due for code freeze in a few weeks when this rant & Costikyan's rant & everyone else's rant will be forgotten because the spectacle publisher's will give us will remind us why they exist. Money. Fucking weasles.

I hope I win a Hummer...





from a booth babe.

Edit: Just wanted to say. Even the worst examples of doomed games can have some heart. I also like how I'm able to get pissed at Lucasarts in yet another thread.

[schild]

Ho ho, off topic but this is from wonderland.

Here's some information:
3D Realms
      George Broussard
      3960 Broadway Blvd #235
      Garland, TX 75043
      US
      Phone: 972 271 1765
      Fax..: 972 278 4670
      Email: georgeb@3drealms.com

Call George and ask him 2 things:
Can you be in his little club?
Why is he running a little club when he should be shitting on the corpse of Duke Nukem?

Get to it, my social termites. These silly assholes don't deserve fun if we don't.

Edit: keeping track of shit is hard.

[SirBruce]

Game Illuminati is still supposed to be a secret, but there was talk going around about at GDC.  I don't know exactly who runs it, but many of the "names" are in it, like Raph.

Bruce

[schild]

Who gives a shit? They have a website. Get a shifting IP address and hop over to dyndns if you want secrets.

Secrets are supposed to be fun and grant some sort of nice thing.

They don't get nice things.

[HaemishM]

YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO INNOVATE BECAUSE YOU DON'T MAKE FUN GAMES.

Addendum to this rule:

You aren't allowed to make innovative games if you can't deliver a game that doesn't shit itself without a patch.

[Rodent]

YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO INNOVATE BECAUSE YOU DON'T MAKE FUN GAMES.

Addendum to this rule:

You aren't allowed to make innovative games if you can't deliver a game that doesn't shit itself without a patch.

And yet many of us love Bloodlines.

Hell even Sids Sim Golf shat itself for many people ( though if I remember correctly it was because of Securom ).

[HaemishM]

Bloodlines only pissed the bed. I'm talking really take a nice Cleveland Steamer on the matress, then start flinging the leavings all over the wallpaper. You know, like Shadowbane.

sb.exe my ass, pigfuckers.

[Margalis]

Honestly I don't really understand the rants. They want 20 million to make a game, and are willing to pony up none of their own money - what do they expect?

[SirBruce]

That don't want $20 million to make their games.  They can innovate and create compelling gameplay with $1 million.  They need the other $19 million because publishers demand blockbuster titles that look like the last game that sold a bunch of copies, and THAT game spent $20 million and had lots of shiney, so they make developers make another game like that.

Like Hollywood, they demand the next Spider Man 2 or the next Gladiator, so they spend millions to make those movies.  Unfortunately, sometimes we get Alexander and Waterworld.  Meanwhile, we have lots of developers who want to innovate and make Clerks or The Blair Witch Project, but they can't even get the little money needed for that.

Bruce

[schild]

Meanwhile, we have lots of developers who want to innovate and make Clerks or The Blair Witch Project, but they can't even get the little money needed for that.

Self-inflicted. They've relied on publishers so long I can't even come up with an alternative source of money off the top of my head. Besides a bake sale.

[SirBruce]

That's part of it.

Another part is that the Internet is a poor alternative distribution mechanism.  A movie that doesn't have millions of dollars of marketing to get on lots of screens, and which gets pushed out of the theatres in one weekend, can still find an audience and grown through DVD sales, rentals, cable, and broadcast TV.  But a game that can't get on the shelf will most likely languish in obscurity even if its good.  Look how long it took for Puzzle Pirates or Uplink to get in a box.  Shareware success stories like Doom are the exception, not the rule.

So even if you get your $1M to make your game and put it up on the Internet, even if its innovative, it won't sell nearly as well as it would if it was in a box on the shelf with reviews in magazines and the whole hype of the marketing machine behind it.  The retailers, publishers, and media are all closely coupled together, comfortable with their respective roles and how they make money.  They have no interest in changing the system.

Bruce

[schild]

The retailers, publishers, and media are all closely coupled together, comfortable with their respective roles and how they make money.  They have no interest in changing the system.

The retail and media role won't change. Not as long as there are boxes on shelves and skyscrapers on web pages. The problem is still the publisher.

[Strazos]

Bloodlines only pissed the bed. I'm talking really take a nice Cleveland Steamer on the matress, then start flinging the leavings all over the wallpaper. You know, like Shadowbane.

sb.exe my ass, pigfuckers.

That is Gaming Comedy Gold, my friend...GOLD.

[schild]

Gamespot just noticed the rant. They posted the whole thing, and it ends with:

Eric Zimmerman: All right. You can't shut us up, but we are finishing the conversation for now. Join the IGDA, join the revolution, it's up to you, each and every one of you. Let's change this industry! Thank you!

What the fuck IGDA? Last I checked, there were companies on the IGDA that were published by EA, MGS, and every other giant knobgobbling corporation out there. Just more validation that the entire panel was nothing but a 3 ring circus.

[HaemishM]

Wow, I couldn't even get through Spector's ramblings.

Put up or shut up. Also, things like Steam only move the industry forward when they fucking work. You aren't allowed to innovate unless you can make it fucking work. I'm looking at you, Troika/Activision, I'm looking at you, Ion Storm/Eidos, and I'm looking at you, ENTIRE FUCKING MMOG INDUSTRY.

[schild]

It looks as though there's no qualifications for joining the IGDA. It's just giving face. Someone please tell me what good the IGDA does for the industry. Because as it stands, many of these companies are plagued by the same issues "non-independent" companies are plagued with. Long hours, little to no overtime pay, mediocre benefits (post dotcom boom free sodas and gaming nights aren't "benefits" they are barely "perks"), and many, many death marches.

[HaemishM]

Isn't IDGA the same fuckers that fellated things like Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 as best games of the year or some such shit? In one of those useless awards shows?

[Flashman]

Response to the rants, posted on Terranova by Matt Mihaly of Iron Realms.

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2005/03/burn_baby_burn.html

I think the essense of his reponse is.. stop bitching all the time and make games. 

Key responses:

"If you want to make a game that costs $273,000, why not go ahead and see what can be done on that amount? I think quite a bit can be done, particularly if it’s interesting games and not just eye and ear candy that is the appeal. Are you going to be on the cover of PC Gamer from a $273,000 game today? No. Are you going to make millions on a $273,000 game? No. But then, did you make millions from your $273k game way back when? I’m guessing not. Are you really concerned about games, or are you just pissed off that you’re not getting a bigger piece of the pie?"

"If you want to make games with a $25 million budget, deal with the baggage that comes along with it. If you’re just interested in making interesting games, stop worrying about making $25 million games. When you go smaller, you lose a lot of that baggage"


Best response to Brenda Laurel's rant:

"You’re basically crazy, right? Who put you on this panel anyway?"

[Jain Zar]

So let me get this straight.  There were all these big names talking all Morpheus like about the game industry and some whiny assclown asks them a question crying about videogame rentals?

That thing that hasn't hurt the industry since it started back in the late 80s?  The thing that let a money limited lower middle income kid like me play some NES and Genesis games I would have never played otherwise?  That so many people still do because most folks can't afford 50 dollars for these 10 hour wonder games?

Who is this man and how can I hit him in the face legally?

[TheWalrus]

 You're not thinking forward enough. If you have a fairly clean record, you can hit the man and pretty much get away with it. Community service is no big deal. :)

[Sky]

a money limited lower middle income kid

Remember when we was just po' folk?

[Heresiarch]

Best response to Brenda Laurel's rant:

"You’re basically crazy, right? Who put you on this panel anyway?"

I'm at peace with my necroing now. Two things here:
1) omg this is good stuff. Matt Mihaly's reply is worth re-reading (and to a lesser degree the original rants and the commentary).
2) I think it's relevant to any "how do I get my game made?" discussion, like this one in Game Design/Development.

[Miasma]

This is the second time I have seen a SirBruce thread suddenly appear and the second time I have feared that he got unbanned and started posting again.  It is not a pleasant feeling.

[Margalis]

How much money did it take to develop Tetris? Poyu-poyu? Advance Wars?

Advance Wars could be made with one programmer, one artist, and a part time sound-guy.

The basic story is this: you can't make a 10 million dollar game without 10 millions dollars. So either find the money or don't make a 10 million dollar game.