Don't Die: A Videogame Confessional Forum to Mitigate the Industry's Growing Rifts
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http://www.nodontdie.com/
A couple Polycounters have been posting articles from this project from David Wolinsky (killscreen, Motherboard VICE).
To me, especially as someone who's barely just got started making video games with others, this is a fascinating read to me about what it means to live this day in and day out. Above the technical challenges, apart from the "dream of making video games." I personally yearn to talk to the more seasoned men and women about topics like this, because it IS reality. And it's a coming reality, at least to me. Something I know I'll be encountering if I commit to game devleopment for that long.
I think you guys might find this not just fascinating, but useful as a community of developers. And it'll probably one of the few places where we can honestly air laundry out and have some emotional reprieve.
A couple Polycounters have been posting articles from this project from David Wolinsky (killscreen, Motherboard VICE).
To me, especially as someone who's barely just got started making video games with others, this is a fascinating read to me about what it means to live this day in and day out. Above the technical challenges, apart from the "dream of making video games." I personally yearn to talk to the more seasoned men and women about topics like this, because it IS reality. And it's a coming reality, at least to me. Something I know I'll be encountering if I commit to game devleopment for that long.
I think you guys might find this not just fascinating, but useful as a community of developers. And it'll probably one of the few places where we can honestly air laundry out and have some emotional reprieve.
Replies
I read through a couple interviews so far and I loved the level of honesty on display. Great stuff.
Read that too, good one. But that last paragraph about truism is weird without a context.
Many mistake shitting on work as shitting on a person, as in "taking it personal", We make products and consumers say what they mean in a crude way.
I'd go down the same route and say no happy person can ever... when related to how you'll react to negative feedback on ones work, an unhappy person will never take it well.
I think it's more obvious in characters. To choose something less controversial, making a protagonist an immigrant isn't a decision made randomly or in a vacuum.
What I would like is for genres like RTS, RPG, FPS even to develop some completely new gameplay mechanics, especially less of a reliance on violence to earn your XP etc. I sometimes wish for a new S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with more of a focus on exploration and story and less on shooting.
All the violence is just too much, the world is a violent enough place already without games, and all the beefcake-massacre / click-kill-loot stuff has just lost its shine long ago. It's like, can I have a new game? Yeah, here, a game where 4 people play against a monster. Oh cool, sounds new. What do you actually do in the game? Er, shoot a lot ...
Sorry I simply said that. (I'm also someone who makes AND plays games, at least I sometimes try to get into playing games again, though usually not for long.)
So yeah, gamer/developer identity crisis. Probably off-topic, but "people who stopped playing games" just hits a nerve currently.
This x 100.
I love the process and I stress to anyone looking to join the industry to truly love the process as well. Without it, it's just another job. When the honeymoon phase is over (and it's over fast), it's still a 9-5 job. Love it or find something that you do love or you risk become "that disgruntled employee."
exactly this. love what you're doing
"Heres a truism: No one happy goes out of their way to shit on other peoples work. No one Id want to be friends with would find that a useful or productive use of their time. So the only way to deal with people like that is to remove their power by not paying any attention to them."
I also picked this quote out as important.
Its part of why I get annoyed with the walking dead thread here in GD - I just don't get the point of shitting on other peoples creative work - games, TV, books, shows, art galleries or whatever.
Some people are determined and capable of putting their creative energy to good use, in a constructive way. People who aren't capable of that typically aren't successful, and resort to lashing out at what other people are building out of frustration.
Everything is open to criticism. But does anyone other than myself have to care about my opinion? No. Might others find they also dis/like the same things I've mentioned? Maybe. And if we're really worried about what TV producers think of online comments then we should probably die of shock at what some professional book critics do to some authors.
Not that pure abusive and petty 'criticism' doesn't exist, but not all people saying, 'hah, that plot point was dumb' is 'happily going out of their way to shit on other people's work'. These writers etc aren't infallible, and I hope no one here thinks otherwise...
We're in a golden age of the games you just mentioned, so you're sort of giving up as it's just getting started. "Gone home, the vanishing of ethan carter, papers please" these are all just the tip of the iceberg. A tiny fraction of a new wonderful and imaginary selection of games that has come out.
One of the biggest hits this year so far is cities skylines, a game about building cities.
Bloodborne might have killing but it's also the most recent entry in a series that did something new for gameplay and how we play games, it's rightfully celebrated.
The problem though is that the industry is making people unhappy, not the audience.
Low job security, low salaries, overtime, hard to settle down etc.
But then it turns into "I don't like it so I wont say anything". I love the walking dead, yet I still think people should have the ability to shit on it if they feel that way about it. It's all fair game as long as it doesn't spiral down to talking shit about individuals.
We're talking work that is made for the public, products, peoples opinions are going to matter. It's all part of a healthy system.
"shit on" is different from critique.
It seems like the two are getting combined together.
Like, there's Al Lowe talking about Sierra and how cooperate bussiness really changed creating games. And the Chris Crawford rambling on about women being social creatures and pretending there's no such thing as a sim genre and he's totes inventing it right now. And there's people talking about the sameness of games, while others feel that AAA games tend to be too polished and unearnest. And also people talking about how games like to pretend they are the only game you're playing etc.
There's a lot of good stuff on that site, and you don't need to agree with all of it, but it makes some gears shift, and that's nice.
Edit: I do agree with Crawford that there's a lot of value to be found in humanities, but I do get annoyed at his dismissal of people not daring to attempt complex simulation, or for that matter, not understanding why people might find him neurosexist.