Transcript Microsoft Certified Partner

How “hard core”
attitudes hold back the
video game industry
Dr. Lewis
Pulsipher
Copyright 2009 Lewis Pulsipher
Teachgamedesign.blogspot.co
m
Pulsiphergames.com
pulsiphergamedesign.blogsp
ot.com
Who am I?
Designed my own games from a very young age
Began playing commercial wargames in early ‘60s
Early video game experience: Atari 2600, DOS
Designer of six commercially-published board wargames (most
recently, foreign language editions of Britannia, Nov ‘08)
 Worked in computer support (programming, chief of
PC/network support) at Womack medical center 9+ years
 First to teach game design in North Carolina as far as I know
(Fall ’04)
 Presently writing book(s) about how to design games, and how
to teach people to design games
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Teaching is my profession, game design my avocation
Games good to me (met wife thanks to D&D!)
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Pulsipher.net
http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/
http://teachgamedesign.blogspot.com
July 18, 2015
Note about the slides
 Slides are provided primarily for those
who want detailed notes later, not as
an accompaniment to the talk
 Consequently, they are “rather wordy”
 Available at
http://pulsipher.net/teaching1.htm
 Or just go to pulsipher.net (not .com)
and look for teaching material
July 18, 2015
My objectives
 Help game creators realize how atypical
they are as players/consumers
 Help game creators realize how industry
discussions are skewed toward “hard
core” attitudes
 Do you make games for yourself? NO!
 Encourage a broad view of game design
and game creation
 This was created for the Triangle Game Conference, 30 minutes
is insufficient, but we’ll try
July 18, 2015
What makes a game good?
 Let’s make a brief quick list, then I’ll ask
some questions
 Audience suggestions
July 18, 2015
(I don’t bite)
Are games good…
 ...when you can have fun playing the game with your friends/family?
 ...when you can make the best moves and slowly (or swiftly!) crush
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your opponents?
...when it makes you think about life and serious matters?
...when it presents really interesting problems for you to solve?
...when you’re surprised?
...when it appears to model some part of reality, or an imagined
reality, very well?
...when it tells a good story?
...when it puts you in the position of an historical figure who must
make important decisions (usually about war and diplomacy)?
...when it teaches you how to do something?
 Not everyone will say yes to every question
 Keep your answers in mind as we explore this topic:
July 18, 2015
Hard core gamer and game
creator attitudes hold back the
industry
 As exemplified in:
– Gamasutra and other developer sites
– Books about game creation
– Web sites about playing games
– Online forums
– Talking with the “hard core”
July 18, 2015
Four Categories
 The “holy grail” of technological immersion
 “Shooter disease”
 Domination by programmers (“developers”)
 Envy of more mature industries
 (No time to include “graphics disease”—which
is related to immersion)
July 18, 2015
Is technological “immersion” the
primary goal of game design?
 Immersion through technological
means, photorealism, destructible
environments, etc.
 “Immersive”: “generating a three-
dimensional image which appears to
surround the user” Webster's New Millennium Dictionary
of English (second definition)
 Examples: the Star Trek holodeck, the
Matrix
July 18, 2015
The “holy grail” of immersion
 Best expression of the notion that “immersion” is necessary to
video games: “Making Experiences” by Rick Ellis, PC Gamer Feb
2009 p. 84:
 ”...what we create are experiences, not
‘games’.
 “...we get to play with your emotions, get you
attached to your characters, provide the
unexpected, and influence your heart rate.
When we do our jobs well, you forget that
you are playing a game, and the events in it
feel very real and matter to you.”
 “...are all about: immersion, escapism, and
creating emotional believability.”
 Sounds appealing; but only to a minority!
July 18, 2015
What immersion is NOT
 “Immersion” is NOT synonymous with “I enjoy it”!
– My experience with Gamasutra article
 Not everyone wants to be immersed in a game. In
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fact, most don’t.
How many of the characteristics we listed, how many
of the questions I asked you, required techno
immersion?
Most game players want to relax, to enjoy the
company of others, to learn—they have no desire (or
time) to be “immersed” in an emotional journey
So why do we hold up immersion as the ideal of
game design?
Because the hard core (players and creators) like it
so, because they tend to prefer high immersion
July 18, 2015
Technological immersion is
undesirable in many game types
 Role-fulfillment vs. rules emergence
 Escape from reality is not enjoyable for many
people
– And looks very bad to outsiders
 Models of reality don’t require immersion
– Game designer is an idealist, not a realist
 The “most realistic” games are often not the
most enjoyable to play
world) (Crysis)
(experience of the non-electronic
 Emotional “experiences” could be created in
games (especially Dungeons and Dragons)
long before the love affair with technology
July 18, 2015
What do people actually buy?
 What’s the best-selling console? The one that
does not provide technological immersion
(Wii
 Handhelds with their tech limitations are
more common than most consoles (see
VGChartz.com)
 What are the best-selling games? Not the
immersive ones . . .
– “games for Nintendo systems accounted for some
49 percent of all U.S. [console & handheld] game
software units sold” in 2008. (Gamasutra/VGchartz)
– Top 5 selling games 2008 worldwide: Wii games
 What’s the big growth area in video games?
Casual (2D!) games.
What should we conclude?
 Why focus on high-tech immersion?
– Most players don’t want it most of the time
– Most kinds of games don’t benefit from it
– It’s terrifically expensive and time-consuming
 Designers should not focus on “immersion”
through photorealism and related technology;
most won’t have the opportunity to achieve it (at least, not
soon), nor do we need to
 Make games that other people like to play!
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(Non-electronic game (hours played) examples Brit, D&D, Settlers)
July 18, 2015
Four Categories
 The “holy grail” of technological immersion
 “Shooter disease”
 Domination by programmers (“developers”)
 Envy of more mature industries
 (No time to include “graphics disease”—which
is related to immersion)
July 18, 2015
“Shooter disease”
 Fixation on shooters as the “ideal” holds back the
industry
 Yet shooters actually aren’t very widely played as a
category
– Pew survey, p. ii (10th of 14 categories at 47%)
 But they sell really well to the hard core
– Not many are made (too expensive = risky)
– Squeaky wheel syndrome--those who don’t play them aren’t
“noisy” about their preferences
 What characterizes shooters?
– Blow things up and kill things
– Reaction and movement rather than thinking
– Tendency to blood and gore (like “R” movie instead of “PG”)
July 18, 2015
Effect on Outsiders
 What does a shooter look like to
outsiders?
– Like child’s play, like immature dreams of
power, like escapism
– Like a major exhibit of games as promoters
of violence!
– Like a “waste of time”, or “killing time”
– (How many are going to call that “art”?)
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My mother-in-law cannot understand why anyone would ever teach people how to
create games—and shooters are a big part of the reason why
July 18, 2015
Shooters dominate terminology
 “Level design”? (What are you doing in this class?)
– Most games don’t have levels, it’s mainly a
shooter/actioner thing
– Let’s call them “adventures” (D&D) or “scenarios”
(Civilization) or “stages” or “episodes”
– Let’s get away from “level brainwashing”
 Left4Dead and “maturity”:
– Player “Getting old” because no longer interested?
– Instead, maybe the player grew up?
 I’m not saying, don’t play them, I’m saying,
don’t take shooters as an ideal type of game
July 18, 2015
Why let shooters dominate?
 There’s nothing wrong with making games
that millions enjoy!
 But we can stop letting shooters dominate
our discussions, dominate AAA game design,
dominate “ideals” of game design
 If this is what you like to play, play them, but
don’t presume that everyone likes them or
that they’re an example of what’s best in
games
 Shooters condemn video games to a
“ghetto”. Maybe the industry should “grow
up”.
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Jobs-Coca-Cola-Apple story
July 18, 2015
Four Categories
 The “holy grail” of technological
immersion
 “Shooter disease”
 Domination by programmers
(“developers”)
 Envy of more mature industries
July 18, 2015
“Game Developer” confuses
 To the “outside world”, “developer” means
programmer
– Except in non-electronic games where “developer” is a kind
of publisher-assigned subsidiary designer
 Before 1990, every game creator had to be a
programmer
 But nearly two decades later . . .
– Programming is a support function
– Programming is necessary for video games, but not
primarily creative in a maturing industry
– Game engines (CASE tools) are designed to reduce required
programming
– Programming is not an inherent part of games: there’s no
programming at all in board or card games
– Programming is the “necessary evil” of video games!
July 18, 2015
So why not “game creators”?
 Games are created by designers first, artists second,
programmers a distant third!
– Yet many games fail owing to errors in programming
 Why confuse computer-knowledgeable people?
 Confuse educators too—”game development” at
many schools is programming, not design or art
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Heck, ordinary people don’t know what “developer” means--“creator” is clearer
 So why do we say “game developer”?—it’s an old-
timer hard core thing rather than a sensible term
 And we still have “game developer” magazine, the
“game developers” conference, IGDA, etc.
 Let’s join the 21st century!
July 18, 2015
Four Categories
 The “holy grail” of technological
immersion
 “Shooter disease”
 Domination by programmers
(“developers”)
 Envy of more mature industries
July 18, 2015
Many game creators envy older
related industries
 An “inferiority complex”?
 Film Envy
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Take cues from film, want to emulate the film industry
No prestigious awards (Oscars), no prizes (Pulitzer)
But games aren’t inherently a story medium
Each medium has its own paths to success, why try to adopt
film paths?
– (Example: in film the consumer sees what characters do; in
plays consumer hears what characters say; in novels
consumer learns what characters think; what will the
method ultimately be in video games?)
 Art Envy
– Want games “to be taken seriously”
– But they’re certainly not inherently “high art”
• High art doesn’t get playtested!
July 18, 2015
Games and art
 You can make money AND make art!
– Beethoven and Mozart made “art” as a byproduct of trying
to make money!
 And what’s called “art” changes
– Louis Spohr, J. S. Bach
 Mechanical art vs. liberal art (J. Sharp)
– Mechanical—works of the hands
– Liberal—works of the mind—more respected
 Games ARE clearly “liberal art”, but the confusion of
programming with game creation associates game
creation with “mechanical art”
 Non-electronic game people don’t have “art envy”,
maybe because such games are clearly works of the
mind (no programming)
 Really, who cares? Not the game players. They
want to play (and enjoy) the game
July 18, 2015
So . . .?
 Why do we let “art” discussions muddy the
waters of game design and production?
 Do we need to be doing something
“Important”?
 If you make games that people like to play,
why care whether they’re “art” or “film” or
anything else? Games have existed for
millennia because they entertain.
– Whatever else a game does, if it does not
entertain, it’s a failure (Miyamoto, Knizia)
 Wait until someone exclaims “I LOVE this
game” about a game you made, and you’ll
understand
July 18, 2015
Four Categories
 The “holy grail” of technological
immersion
 “Shooter disease”
 Domination by programmers
(“developers”)
 Envy of more mature industries
July 18, 2015
Text versions of these viewpoints
 “Holy Grail”—Gamasutra 19 Dec ‘08
 “Shooter disease”—not yet completed
 Game creator, not “developer”—
submitted to Gamasutra (they “see it as
a lost battle”)
 Envy—not started, don’t know if I will
 Graphics disease—don’t know that I will
July 18, 2015
Questions?
Comments?
END