Tragic Geek

While perusing Massively I came across an article about Love. If you haven’t heard of Love yet, it’s an MMO that is being developed by a single person: Eskil Steenberg. It seems that he is at GDC today (Another thing that makes me want to be at GDC!) giving a presentation about his work on the project. For the less fortunate, such as myself, a long copy of his presentation can be found on his blog here.

A screenshot from Love

The presentation, in online-blog-form, makes me hope there will be a video available at some point. Steenberg’s opinions on where the game industry pipeline needs to head is a feeling I have been having also. The ability to create a virtual reality doesn’t equal the ability to populate a virtual reality. Development time on games is only increasing as the industry matures, and we need better tools.

But do better tools equate to better games, or just more games? Quantity does not equal quality. During the High Renaissance, artists would have to do sketch upon sketch upon sketch to get composition, figure and form correct before moving into actually painting. The reason for this was the production time involved in creating the paint itself. Tubes of paint weren’t readily available and artist had to mix them by hand. Then, En Plein Air painting comes along because of advances in tools; mainly, storage containers for paint. With this advancement in painters tools, what do we get besides lots and lots of landscape art? We get Impressionism, since artist can now play around with natural light more.

Steenberg’s vision of the industry’s future could produce something for our medium as much a force majeure as Impressionism was, but there is also the possibility of it just allow there to be a lot of shitty games being made. Look at places like YouTube, 4chan, MySpace, etc. These are all platforms that support user generated content, which is really way Steenberg is talking about: giving the general populace tools to create. The problem is that in a true UGC platform, there is no editorial control. Who decides what is good and what is bad comes after the creation of the end product instead of during the production cycle.

Of course, the industry buzz word to throw at this is ‘iteration’. By allowing the artist to modify, change, destroy, create, mutate or other wise alter their creations at a rate fast enough, they can be ahead of the horde of critics pounding down their door to drag them screaming into the night.

The big personal lightbulb that went off while I was reading the presentation was the section on designers.

You have 199 people trying to cut down the ToDo list and one person trying to make it longer. My first advice to anyone who is trying to cut costs is to fire your designer. To have a person who cant produce art or code, be in charge of deciding what art and code you produce is madness. Design is not as many think about ideas, it is about choice, and unless you know what it takes to make things you shouldn’t make decisions about it.

A year ago I would have disagreed with this statement. Now, I put a gold stamp of approval on this. Yes, designers do have a place in the industry, but the pure designers are a rare breed. I get the chance to work with those kind of people at my job, and I see what they do. The person I was a year ago went to school with people that wanted to be that pure designer, but I can tell you they fall far short of what is needed for that role.

For all you people still in school that get nothing else from this post, at least get this: Learn To Program.

Today is the first day of GDC 2009, and I am in San Diego. I wasn’t able to afford the ticket to GDC this year (or the time off) and had to pass on it. I’m really bummed about this as I wanted to see all of the people I had met last year, but it seems like a lot of people that I know in the industry aren’t going to make it this year because of financial reasons. Or it could be the fact that a lot of the people I know in the industry started last year.

Something hit me today, though. This is the one year (give or take a couple of weeks because of the different days that GDC started from last year to this year) anniversary of my true path into the industry. It was one year ago that I wrote about Raph Koster’s World’s In Motion keynote that started my track to getting a job at Metaplace.

Okay, that’s a lie. The big thing that led me to getting the job at Metaplace was working on a demo, and I got a chance to work on that demo because of a recommendation from Brenda, but part of it was also meeting Raph, getting the IGDA Scholarship to attend the conference in the first place and hanging out with Tim Longo, going to visit Three Rings….lots and lots and lots of things that made me feel like I was a part of the industry instead of just studying it at school. There is a major difference between a 100% academic knowledge and real world. Experience.

There were a lot of firsts on that trip: first time to the west coast, first time flying in an airplane across country, first time hearing different speakers talk, first time at an exhibition hall passing out resumes.

How much did this little event affect me? I know live on the West Coast in San Diego working for a Virtual Worlds MMO company as one of the few content designers with some of the top people in the industry. This might be to little to late, but everyone that is interested in getting into games has to attend this conference. It will change your out look on the industry forever.

Last weekend there was a release of Conflux, the newest expansion for Magic: The Gathering. Years ago I used to play MTG fanatically, but dropped it after a year or so. I’ve played off an on since then, but not nearly as much as I did before. At Metaplace, there are a group of guys that play together about once a month with lots of very good food. I go there to hang out and play some MTG and generally be social.

I live in the least social area of San Diego. There is literally nothing to do around here, and as such my social life has been hurt. I had the idea to go to the release tournament for this MTG expansion to meet people. After all, back in the day I used to meet lots of people through MTG. In fact, the crowd I hung around in high school (after I had given up the game) were all old Magic buddies.

So, one rainy afternoon (yes, it rains in SD) I’m driving to this comic book/card game/board game/desktop RPG/nerd haven. I’m rather excited for what may become a good day of just hanging out and meeting people.

I left the shop about five minutes after I got there. I honestly walked in and the first thought in my head was I can’t do this anymore. I have to relinquish my Nerdcore standing. The crowd of people in there didn’t reflect who I think I’ve become in the last 15 or so years. Now, I don’t think that MTG is a kids game, I still play it, but that scenario just wasn’t for me. I’d rather be out doing something more social, or with a different crowd.

/nerdcore off

So, I have a gripe with something. I’ve been a WoW player since pretty much launch off and on. I don’t have an 80 yet, I play too many alts, yadda-yadda. That’s not where my complaint comes in. This is my complaint.

This Alarm is On

problem I have is the Alarm Enabled button. I do a lot of the front end UI design and UX at work, and this button bothers me for one reason

The button informs you of the current state instead of what will happen when the button is pressed. This is counter-intuitive in my opinion. Clicking a button is an active choice and the button should inform you of what your choice does, not the state of the activity.

If this button said “Enable Alarm” and when I press it the alarm turns on, that makes perfect sense to me. Combining Feedback information with call to action information leads to confusion.

Don’t get em wrong. I think that Blizzard’s UI/UX design is one of the best in the industry. How many products have absorbed the Warcraft or Diablo interface? I think they set the bar in a lot of areas, which is why this bothers me so much.

Perhaps I just need to write an add-on to change this so that I don’t keep turning off the alarm when I want it on.

I have a history with RPGs, both computer and paper. I know what Thac0 is. In fact, I know that the list of saving throws is on page 101 of the 2nd Edition AD&D Player’s Handbook. (If you are surprised by this fact, you need to double check the domain name.) But there is one brand of RPGs that I just can’t get into: JPRGs (Japanese RPGs).

I remember in my youth playing the hell out of Final Fantasy II. I had everything in the game and maxed out my money, and this was back in the stone ages before the internet and cheat guides. But it seems that either my tastes in games have changed or the games themselves have.

About three years ago I picked up Kingdom Hearts. My family’s second religion is Disney, and I thought this would be great! I’d get to play a game that isn’t Disney but involves Disney characters.

After 15 minutes I put the game away and didn’t touch it for three months.

Why? Cut-Scenes! For the love of god, if I wanted to watch a movie, I’d rent a movie. I had gotten through other Squaresoft Square Enix games in the past couple of years (FF8 and FF9), so was used to the cut-bathroom-break-get-something-to-drink-do-your-taxes-scenes, but Kingdom Heart was too much! The first 15 minutes is cut scenes with minor game play.

Since then, I haven’t found much interest in JPRGs or the like (such as Devil May Cry). It just seems that there is more focus on story, and I like my games full of crunchy gameplay goodness.

And yes, three months after my first stint I tried again and lasted about an hour. I think that it has been enough time, perhaps, to give it a second chance. I guess the first step is to buy a television.

So, what is a game? This is something that gets asked all the time in most academic classes about game design. Of all the explanations I’ve heard, I enjoy Greg Costikyan’s version the most.

This is a game.

Onto the Rubik’s Cube. I recently got interested in this fascinating little puzzle device and it’s history. (Yes, I just referenced wikipedia as a source for history. Sue me!)

So, what is a Rubik’s Cube in the Costikyan game terms? Does it fall into the puzzle category? I don’t think so, since it isn’t static. It does have the interactive elements that games have (visual feedback, decision making, etc), I’m not sure it’s exactly a game either. You could say a toy, of course, but there is a defined goal (getting all six sides to match in color).

The Rubik’s Cube isn’t really a puzzle, and it isn’t really a toy. It is a game (according to Costikyan), and here’s why.

• Decision Making - The player’s interaction with the Rubik’s Cube changes it’s current state. Any decision you make (to move the corner piece) immediately changes the state of the cube. While there is an infinite level of undo (if you can memorize or other wise mark down your moves), that doesn’t mean that you aren’t making decisions on what steps to take.
• Goals - Obviously solving the Rubik’s Cube is the goal of it, but there is replay-ability also. Even though there is a formulaic method for solving the cube, with it’s own notation system, there is always the tried and true method to extended replay - TIME ATTACK! How fast can you solve the cube? How many moves can you do it in?
• Opposition - The Rubik’s Cube offers opposition in the same form as a game of solitaire: your opposition is the system itself. The limiting moves that you are able to take (by only being allowed to rotate columns or rows of blocks) is the opposition in this game

I could go on and on explaining this, but hopefully you have figured this out by now. If you need further reasoning, the Rubik’s Cube won the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year Award) in 1980.

I’ve been trying to maintain a blog on and off for quite some time now. I usually keep up with it for a bit, but school used to always get in the way. Now I’m working 40+ hour weeks. What makes me think I can keep it up this time?

Two things: boredom and a desire to keep up-to-date on the industry.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve fallen off of the band wagon when it comes to staying up-to-date. I figure I’m at the point in my career when I’m trying to pay my dues and learn as much as possible by actually working, instead of just reading.

So, with the New Year, I’ve decided that my blog is going to be my medium for keeping track of all of those random thoughts that pop into my head.

I’m planning on posting information from the perspective of someone’s first year in the industry for those interested in entering the industry. Perhaps I can help out those people that want to get in, but don’t know how.