30 Quotes From GDC 06 55
Next Generation has a piece with 30 notable quotes from last week's GDC conference. From the article: "Mitch Lasky, Senior VP of mobile EA - 'There are too many bad games. The fact is, most games suck. It's the greatest danger to the future of this business. There's a real danger of an Atari 2600 episode here, given the oversupply of poor quality content, followed by consumers abandoning the platform.'"
People Unclear on the Concept (Score:5, Funny)
Phone == communication device. What part of this is unclear?
Re:People Unclear on the Concept (Score:5, Insightful)
The part that lets companies grab at your wallet every chance they get.
Re:People Unclear on the Concept (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:People Unclear on the Concept (Score:1, Offtopic)
Doesn't that make it a gimmick? I don't mind calling cameras, games, ringtones, and tv on phones gimmicks. I just want a phone that has a clear way of communicating all the phone information I need to me. I can take pictures with a camera, carry a Game Boy for games, and type notes into an old PDA.
But I can't don't have the cash or pocket/belt space for that, so I got me one of them fancy phones. I don't play games or take notes on it though. Jus
Re:People Unclear on the Concept (Score:3, Funny)
The problem is, all of these newfangled developers use Java. To them, phone instanceof CommunicationDevice. Damn that ExpensivePointlessGamingThing extends CommunicationDevice class!
Re:People Unclear on the Concept (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:People Unclear on the Concept (Score:1)
As I see it it's a simple segregation(sp?) of the market, and there will always be phones for people who only need the phone function.
Re:People Unclear on the Concept (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:People Unclear on the Concept (Score:2)
EA Quote (Score:4, Funny)
General manager
EA L.A.
"One new feature or fresh take can change everything."
This from Electronic Arts?
Re:EA Quote (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:EA Quote (Score:1)
Re:EA Quote (Score:2)
Re:EA Quote (Score:1)
Re:EA Quote (Score:3, Funny)
Favorite bug quote... (Score:5, Interesting)
I was going to ask him to step through the code to find out exactly what the problem was to be absolutely sure that it was fixed, but I didn't want to risk breaking anything else because of that. Bad enough they waited until the last build to remove the animation of one of the kids flipping off the pitcher when striking out and remove all the background phallic imagery. It was a children's game, btw.
Re:Favorite bug quote... (Score:2)
Re:Favorite bug quote... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Favorite bug quote... (Score:2)
Re:Favorite bug quote... (Score:1)
In my case, it was shorthand for "I don't know what code was causing the problem described, but I do not see the described behavior in the current build."
Communication issues between QA and Dev teams can be amazingly huge, doubly so when the dev is an external studio. Oftentimes I'd get bugs back from the publishers QA department and wonder if they were really testing our game, because they would use completely different terms
Let me be the first to say (Score:4, Insightful)
General manager for games and entertainment
Sprint Nextel
"We reject about 30 games a month because so many of them are offering the same gameplay over and over again. Lots of these games just aren't fun, offering wretched controls. Many of them are mediocre at best."
Wow. If this is at all indicative of the behaviours of other publishers, then let me be the first to say...
Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:2, Insightful)
To me the big comment was about casual gamers (Score:4, Insightful)
That, to me, is the lesson of Nintendogs.
When the gaming industry wakes up to that one is when games explode into life.
Who defines a "bad" game? (Score:3, Insightful)
As for the Atari 2600, I've still got most of my cartridges; and if I had a functional console I'd still be playing them!
Does this mean I'm out of touch? Maybe... but I'm willing to be there are millions of us "out of touch" people who would love a quick game of astroids.
Solution to your problem.. (Score:1, Informative)
Of course, this only has 10 games on it.. but I'd expect in the future (when these games come out of copyright.. or whatever is holding them back) to see a 100 or more. I'd love to finish Pitfall2!
Re:Solution to your problem.. (Score:1)
Re:Who defines a "bad" game? (Score:1)
> functional console I'd still be playing them!
Why not just play them on your PC?
http://stella.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
Re:Who defines a "bad" game? (Score:1)
Besides... my favorites are not available anywhere: Superman and Indiana Jones!
risk (Score:2, Funny)
"We do not run from risk. We run to risk. We move beyond current boundaries."
What he's actually saying: Risk 2000 is being developed for the revolution! Finally bring a good boardgame to the console!
Re:risk (Score:1)
Darwinia (Score:3, Interesting)
- One of the creators of Darwinia, accepting the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.
We do not run from risk (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:We do not run from risk (Score:5, Informative)
All of the things that you list as Nintendo shying away from are actually things which everyone else in the industry considered the safe bet. When everyone was going to CD, Nintendo took a risk and stuck with the access times of cartridges. 10 years ago when everyone said that online console gaming was now, Nintendo correctly said that the time was not yet right.
With Pokemon, Virtua Boy, Nintendogs, Kirby, Brain Games, Bulky Drive, etc, it is hard to fault their originality. Nintendo routinely does really bafflingly odd things.
Re:We do not run from risk (Score:1)
Re:We do not run from risk (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure, the gamecube just about tied with the xbox in terms of worldwide, product lifetime sales. But Nintendo also sells gameboy's (advance/micro/DS) by the absolute containershipload. And unlike Sony and MS, who are selling their stuff at a loss, Nintendo makes money on each system sold. Plus they make money on the games, which
Re:We do not run from risk (Score:2)
I think the Atari 5200 could be considered a "major system" of its day, even if you don't want to count the Vectrex.
And all that before Nintendo even thought of creating a home video game console. There were video games before 1986, you know.
Kids these days. And keep off my BGCOLOR="#00FF00"!
Re:We do not run from risk (Score:2)
Re:We do not run from risk (Score:2)
Re:We do not run from risk (Score:2)
A few of the things on the list are on the edge, as you'll find a few early system that use re-writable mag-op media, for example. But none of them were successful, and none of them were using it in the same way or at the same time.
Re:We do not run from risk (Score:2)
Online in what sense? If you are referring simply to telecommunications capability, then the first would actually be the Intellivision (via the PlayCable device) [intellivisionlives.com], followed closely by the Atari 2600 (the Gameline modem) [wikipedia.org]. If you are referring to Internet access, then the first would be the Dreamcast. Either way, Nintendo was not first.
the first analog stick (on a major system)
Well, being the first to get somebody else's idea to sell big is still not innovation, and they sh
Re:We do not run from risk (Score:3, Interesting)
Example - the N64. No CDs. Why? Nintendo didn't consider it to be worth it. Look back at all the previous consoles that had CD capability (SegaCD, NeoGeo CD, Jaguar, 3DO, and so on), and you'll see that they all tanked. They had all kinds of technical
Re:We do not run from risk (Score:1)
Product Placement in games quote: (Score:5, Insightful)
"Don't tell me you'd stop playing Grand Theft Auto if you saw a Gap ad instead of some generic fake brand."
Yes I would. GTA has satirical adverts. They criticise the media, the insulting way they treat the public, and make an good social comment which improve the game no end. This is what sets it apart from EA rip offs.
We've enjoyed a medium near enough free from advertising. And it is our duty to preserve this. If I pay £40 (and next gen £50) to buy a game, I buy the freedom from ads. You can put them in, but then you must make the game free. There is no middle ground. An XBOX 360 game full of ads won't cost less than some fantasy game that doesn't have them. If you think it will, I am sorry but you are fooling yourself. All it does is succeed in making genres that are not "advertising friendly" less financially viable.
Just because american TV lost the battle to product placement (as the UK might, if the EU stops product placement being illegal), that doesn't mean it's ok for games to lose too. Because this is what this is - Product Placement.
And most importantly, I think it's fair to say most people who play games on slashdot want games to be seen as art. Want them to be acknowledged as a new , creative and meaningful media. And how can that happen if the people making the game have no fucking respect for their own creations.
To quote the late, great, Bill Hicks:
"Here's the deal, folks. You do a commercial - you're off the artistic roll call, forever. End of story. Okay? You're another whore at the captialist gang bang and if you do a commercial, there's a price on your head. Everything you say is suspect and every word that comes out of your mouth is now like a turd falling into my drink." - Bill Hicks
unclear on the concept (Score:4, Insightful)
Wait, isn't XNA and the Xbox development kit super expensive? Thus cutting out the "two guys moonlighting" entirely?
Re:unclear on the concept (Score:2)
Thanks to XBox Live Arcade, the XBox 360 is now the cheapest platform to target. I'm a Nintendo developer, so this both
Innovate? (Score:2)
President
SCE Worldwide Studios
"Our job is lead and innovate. We've done it faster and at higher price points."
The Playstation 2 is a great machine, with a great library of games. But when you get right down to it, it's a Playstation 1 with more RAM, more muscle and more storage. And the Playstation 1 was an SNES with more RAM, more muscle and more storage.
And the Playstation 3 is... well you get the idea.
Just because they're in first place doesn't mean they're leading. $10 says the PS3 gets an
I dont know if this counts but... (Score:1)