Christian Allen's Corner

I call Bullshit...

Normally, I enjoy Game Informer magazine.  Compared to others, it is a well rounded mag with good info, well written articles, and balanced reviews.  This month, however, something caught my eye that prompted me to post.

Aug '08 GI has an article; "The Art of Writing: Today's Game Scribes Are Ushering In A New Era of Interactive Storytelling."  This article is about the evolution of storytelling in games, and features quotes and notes from writers of notable recent games regarding storytelling.

None of the writer's quotes grabbed my attention, they are pretty much the standard fare about the current state of "next gen" storytelling; good stuff.  What got me thinking and typing was a line by the article's author that stated the following: "While it will likely be a while before games reach a level of writing consistency and quality delivered in other forms of media..."

Wha?  What forms of media are you talking about, GI?  What form of media has a higher level of writing consistency and quality above games?

Movies, maybe?  Have you checked out the bargain bin at Blockbuster?  How about USA channel at 2 AM.  Yes, there are stand out movies that crush any current game writing, but I would put Wasteland or Starflight, not to mention Bioshock or Portal, up against the AVERAGE DVD movie, or even most blockbusters.  Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, anyone?

Books?  Is that the medium that has a higher level of consistency and quality that smashes game writing?  I don't think so.  Go to Barnes and Noble and pick a random Sci-Fi book off the shelf.  Then compare the writing in that book to Mass Effect.  Yes, Niven or Peter F. Hamilton is better.  But the average shovelware that gets printed every month?  No thank you.

And TV?  Don't even get me started.

My point is not that game writing is any better than traditional forms of media.  My point is that even within our industry, there is a perception that our great game writing can't stand up against other forms of media, no matter the comparison.  This is bullshit.  Is the best of our stuff as good or better than the best of theirs?  That's debatable.  But on average, I'd take the eloquent stylings of Bad Dudes vs The Dragon Ninja over the latest crap serving from the majority of Hollywood or New York shovelware book publishers.

I give teenagers heroine and make them pregnant…

Or, I might as well, according to this douche.

"I hate video games, on or offline. I hate the way they suck real people into fake worlds and hold on to them for decades at a time. I hate being made to feel hateful for saying so, and I hate being told to immerse myself in them before passing judgment, because it feels like being told to immerse myself in smack and teenage pregnancy before passing judgment on them.

This is not because of anything wrong or bad about video games or heroin or teenage parents. It's not even because of game-induced homicide or web-grooming of little girls by perverts - serious problems, but statistically low-risk. It's because, compared with everything else on offer in a kid's life, video games and heroin and teenage pregnancy are a colossal waste of time."

Of course, I do wish my parents were more like him. If my father had never brought home that Apple IIe, or my mom had never bought that Atari 2600 from a garage sale, I might never have developed a passion for games. I would have never gotten stuck in this dead end job dreading every day going to work with no opportunities to advance in a short time frame. I would never have had to travel to all those crap holes like Paris, Montreal, Montpelier, London, San Francisco or New York. Maybe if my wife hadn’t been introduced to games, she would have a proper job instead of being a “Senior Franchise Manager,” whatever that means.

If my parents were more like him, maybe I wouldn’t produce the equivalent of heroine and pregnancy for kids.

It is interesting that a writer hates an alternate form of media. I wonder if he lets his kids read books, or if he makes them put down that drivel and GET OUTSIDE! I’m trying to think of things I hate as much as this guy says he hates games. I guess Nazis…maybe the 2 party system. Definitely Rush Limbaugh and Bill Maher. But a form of entertainment? Maybe slam poetry?

Piracy Doesn't Matter? O....K....

The effect of piracy on PC gaming has been a hot topic lately, starting with Michael Fitch’s rant against PC piracy (Michael Fitch wrote how piracy contributed to the collapse of Iron Lore, and in the interest of disclosure, in the past I’ve worked with Michael Fitch, as well as folks high in the ranks of Iron Lore), along with Id’s change in focus to console gaming, and recently updated with the article by Brad Wardell. 

I have to say, as developer that has been focused on console development (I’ve only peripherally contributed to PC titles), I’m commenting on this subject from the outside. However, Wardell’s blog compelled me to post. 

Fanboys have responded with great fever, on all sides, arguing the impact of the pirating of console games in the Philippines or China to how “try before you buy” doesn’t actually hurt sales. That’s great and all, but I’m interested in what effects developers.

Now, back to Wardell’s article. I have to say that his article, at least to me, doesn’t do a good job to convince me that piracy doesn’t significantly hurt PC game sales (which I think is his point). Mainly, my takeaway is that putting work into anti-piracy software on PC games is a waste. That, I generally agree with. I’ve never seen a game with anti-piracy software not cracked within a day or two of its release. In my (humbly personal) opinion, all anti-piracy software does is keep the super-honest person honest, and screws a great number of consumers who want to be honest but get fucked by the bugs in the anti-piracy software. And yes, I have been one of those consumers when I have tried to install PC games.

So while I agree that PC game anti-piracy software is largely useless in stopping piracy, I don’t understand how Wardell takes this argument to come to the conclusion that PC games are (supposedly) floundering because of lack of innovation. He brings up his Galactic Civ: II as an example of a game with no copy protection, and somehow brings the attention of the gaming press into the equation, as well as developer’s focus on the “coolness” factor. I don’t see what the attention of the gaming press has to do with piracy, nor why “cool” games should suck.

Again without commenting on any specific title, I have in the past had privy to some gaming stats. A certain PC title(not one I worked on) I looked at  the online stats for sold around 300k in the first month after launch. Three days BEFORE the game launched…one MILLION people were playing online. Now of course those numbers are approximate…but I don’t see how anti-virus software and the apparent “coolness” of the mainstream game approach can touch those numbers.

Now that that’s posted, as soon as the new episode of Futurama is over, I’m going to buy Sins of a Solar Empire. I hear it’s fucking awesome. Looks like Homeworld 2 on crack.

The Game Dollhouse

I was playing with my daughter tonight when I realized that her doll house is pretty unique.  Not for the house, but for it's occupants.  Imagining Master Chief, Batman, Piglet, and Han Solo having a tea party cracked me up.

Spitzer FTW!

It's moderately satisfying to see yet another politician who has partially built his credibility on bashing games fall from grace, due to his inability to stick to his preachy roots (and his inability to keep from banging hookers).  While it is nice to see the hypocrisy of any politician exposed, I have one request for future scumbags hypocrites.

I have no problem with prostitution, being a libertarian myself.  In fact, I think it should be legal.  But if you base your career on rooting out "evil," and include video games as evil, when you finally decide to succumb to eventual corruption that power breeds and get caught committing a felony, please don't drag your wife up on stage with you.  It's got to be hard enough for her to have the hypocrisies of her husband called out in public; at least spare her the humiliation of standing next to your while you scrabble for the last hope of your career.  Oh well; at least Spitzer will have plenty of time to play GTA now that he can't nail high-priced prostitutes in Washington, DC. 

GDC 08

Another year, another GDC.  This year was a bit unique for me, as I wasn't a speaker.  It's the first time in four years that I haven't had a presentation, so I got to take the show as a consumer, a developer, just enjoying the talks and the atmosphere without having to spend hours in my hotel room practicing a talk I would give.  Kinda cool.

My take this year is that the quality of the talks was better than last year...I was happy to rarely hear (except from recruiters) the term "next-gen".  The term I heard too much was "democratization."  I saw great talks from Clint Hocking, and a predictably crappy talk from a certain writer who should NOT be at the talk again next year.

Networking was good.  I saw folks that I see every year, I got drunk with RSE folks and the crew I usually get drunk with.   The one thing that got to me this year was the number of students.

Specifically, the number of students about to graduate.  There seemed to be a huge amount of students
the were about to graduate from X school of games.  This included when I was working the (out of the way) Bungie booth, and in general when I was hanging out; there was a human wave of students looking to get jobs.  Now, I think school is great.  If you have a choice between attending a game program and not going to school, game programs are great.  Hell, if you know anything about me, you know that I attended the Art Institutes (although I dropped out to join RSE, and went back and finished after I was already an established game designer).

What worries me is the pure number of students graduating from these game programs (or technical programs) that seems to expect to go straight into game dev jobs.  If you are one of those folks that are in college game programs and your instructors have told you you will walk into a game design job; I have something to tell you.  Chances are, you have been screwed. 

There are tons of people competing for your job.  Yes, you may happen upon an entry level job at one of the "big" publishers (who held a wonderful talk at GDC sponsored by gamecareerguide.com that happened to cut off comments before I got to the mike); but those chances are slim.  And if you expect to walk into a job at an established studio, you better kick some major ass, and do something to stand out from the mass of grads who's resume's look EXACTLY like yours.

When I decided to get into the industry it was 2000.  I got hired in late 2002.  That's almost three years of networking and work, even after I had become established as a mod maker for the company I eventually got hired for.

I'm not trying to discourage students.  If you have the will, passion, fire, and talent; you can and will get in.  But don't expect it to be handed to you.

Rant over.  Frag Dolls are cool.

Oh, and GRAW2 won a GANG award.  Rock on to the audio team, you kicked ass!

Bungie Podcast

So I did a podcast with the Bungie crew last week.  Interesting feedback from it, from many facebook friends invites from people I don't know (because I mentioned facebook in the interview), to Kotaku taking my comments to mean that I might be working on a "platformer with fluffy clouds, kids in puppy suits and fully-integrated co-op."

Anyways, you can check out the podcast in the following link.  And yes, I suck at Halo. 

http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=13219

Video Games are "Satan's Sudoku"

Ah, another week, another journalist calling out the gathering fall of our civilization because of video games.  This time it's The Time's Janice Turner, in her column titled "Xbox is crack for kids."

I guess I should be offended...after all I am one of those "evil" people who create games, and "Even the crappiest cartoon or lamest soap teaches a child about character, plot, drama, humour, life. Playing videogames, children are mentally imprisoned, wired into their evil creators' brains"

Maybe I SHOULD be offended (I haven't been called evil since I worked as a Child Support Enforcement Officer) but I'm not.  I think I actually take a perverse pleasure in seeing idiots like this spout off complete bull**** because they don't have anything worthwhile to write.  I guess feel a camaraderie with the likes of Elvis and Judas Priest, who's music was worried about by older, less blog-savvy idiots without anything worthwhile to write.   

I guess the next time I'm sitting on my couch, playing Surf's Up with my daughter, I should stop myself, turn off the 360, and fire up an episode of Teletubbies, leaving her mesmerized by the non-language babble and epilepsy-inducing trash on the screen, so that my daughter doesn't get wired into those evil brains in Montreal.

Summit Strike in 07? Game Informer thinks so...

I was happy to see that Game Informer listed GRAW2 in it's "Top 50 games of 2007," and then cracked up when I saw a GR2: Summit Strike screenshot instead of GRAW2.  And to top it off, it's one of the snowy shots from SS.  C'mon, guys, the one thing that WASN'T in GRAW2 was snow! :)

Blasphemy!

Lets see how many people this will piss off...