Romero, Sirotek move to casual facebook gaming

[Dele]

http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/03/loot- ... exclusive/

"Rattling off the bios of these founders is like taking a walk through video game history. Hall will be the studio head and game designer at Loot Drop’s Austin, Texas studio. He has worked with Romero at places such as id Software and Ion Storm. Most recently he was an executive at KingsIsle Entertainment, maker of the popular Wizard 101 online virtual fantasy world that was inherently social from the start. Robert Sirotek, co-founder of Sir-Tech Software, will serve as chief executive of Loot Drop. Sirotek’s previous company released 138 games over 26 years, including Brathwaite’s Wizardry and Jagged Alliance series."


“We have satisfied hardcore gamers for decades. Now it’s time for the rest of the world. Our opportunity is to teach the rest of the world how to play games.” -Romero

None of them have made anything worth mentioning for a decade or something so i suppose it changes nothing,

 

[Mangoose]

You know what? I just had the odd thought that someday a dev is going to make a GOOD facebook game. The platform is essentially the same as any browser-based gaming, simply with easier accessibility, and there are some decent browser games in the past.

Eh what do I know.

 

[ortucis]

Casual gamers already have it good. What is out there far exceeds their expectations. So don't expect developers to do anything else but switch to a new game theme with one new feature for every new game.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I thought him and Tom Hall hated each other or some shit?

Maybe it was Romero and another older dev that he used to work with?

Also, one has to really ask, how smart is Romero really? If he does have some intelligence, he's arrogant enough to keep doing the same stupid mistakes over and over again (big teams, big promises, lousy game ideas, pissing people off, etc).

I wonder what he's like in person. Probably an arrogant fuck who thinks waay too highly of himself.

 

[Dr.Faust]

None of them have made anything worth mentioning for a decade or something so i suppose it changes nothing,

You said it. Nothing of value was lost.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Richard Garriott, founder of social game startup Portalarium and the veteran creator of the Ultima series of games, feels the same way and is preparing to launch original games in direct battle with Zynga. Brathwaite says, “There is a ginormous fish in social games, but it’s a giant sea.”

I have this hilarious image of all these bearded, slightly obese veteran game developers facing off against the titanic, world-consuming cartoon cow known as Zynga. And then, when the great beast lies defeated, the battle-wearied warriors look around at the followers they have lost and the sacrifices they made to gain the world they wrested from the monster, and realise...

No, Romero. You are the Zynga.

 

[Destroid]

Are there any modern superstar developers making good games? The only modern dev I can think of that is a personality is that Gears of War fuck and Todd Howard.

 

[Hobo Elf]

It's like every old developer goes full derp at some point of their careers. Sid Meier could've been considered the last survivor, up until the watered down Civ5 (though the 4th installment was already considered the decline by many).

How easily you forgot Carmack. Even if his games aren't all that then at least the tech will be.

 

[Sceptic]

I thought him and Tom Hall hated each other or some shit?

Mmm? The first person Romero invited into Ion Storm was Hall. You're maybe thinking of Carmack? I don't remember anything being said in public between him and Hall, but Carmack's never made a secret of his dislike of Romero. Then again Carmack's had fights with just about every single one of the old id guard, up to and including Adrian Carmack leaving not too long ago.

Also, one has to really ask, how smart is Romero really?

Nothing to do with intelligence or arrogance, he's just a damn good designer with shitty management skills. Every game he's made where he was involved purely in the design was great.

I wonder what he's like in person. Probably an arrogant fuck who thinks waay too highly of himself.

Not the impression I got from interviews with him, but most of these were from the 90's. He always came across as living on his own little cloud, with the other id members (specifically Cloud and Wilbur at the time) acting like the "anchors" to the real world. The one who always came across as arrogant was Carmack actually, which I always found weird because he's so dedicated to open sourcing the id engines and making formats as transparent as possible to the end users (he and Romero pushed for the WAD format at the time, while Cloud and Wilbur were strongly agaisnt it), yet every time I've seen him talks he sounds like he thinks he's god amongst men. I suspect he's an undiagnosed aspie (it also explains a lot of things about his lifestyle, like buying 2 Ferraris but continuing to live in a tiny rented studio back in the Doom days).

How easily you forgot Carmack.

No, fuck no. Carmack went full derp years ago. I'd put the very latest possible date as Doom 3, but the signs were there back in the Q3 days too. Just because he's not making Facebook aps doesn't mean he didn't go derp.

There's also Caneghem, who is in charge of the new C&C, but I think everyone and their moms are waiting for the worst on this one, and rightly so.

I keep telling myself it cannot possibly be worse than C&C4, but I am wary. JVC was awesome, but he's been out of the loop for years now.

 

[Hobo Elf]

So are you gonna tell me why Carmack went full derpy or are you going to mime what others have been telling you?

 

[MetalCraze]

Richard Garriott, founder of social game startup Portalarium and the veteran creator of the Ultima series of games, feels the same way and is preparing to launch original games in direct battle with Zynga. Brathwaite says, “There is a ginormous fish in social games, but it’s a giant sea.”

I have this hilarious image of all these bearded, slightly obese veteran game developers facing off against the titanic, world-consuming cartoon cow known as Zynga. And then, when the great beast lies defeated, the battle-wearied warriors look around at the followers they have lost and the sacrifices they made to gain the world they wrested from the monster, and realise...

No, Romero. You are the Zynga.

Brian Reynolds was the Zynga first

 

[Admiral jimbob]

That's the heart-breaking mid-game twist where the heroes find out their old mentor has fallen to the dark side and is now one of their greatest foes.

 

[Digital Monocle]

Maybe Romero will make Daikatana 2 for Facebook

 

[Sceptic]

So are you gonna tell me why Carmack went full derpy or are you going to mime what others have been telling you?

Play Doom 3, then you tell me.

 

[Hobo Elf]

So are you gonna tell me why Carmack went full derpy or are you going to mime what others have been telling you?

Play Doom 3, then you tell me.

I'll just re-quote myself.

How easily you forgot Carmack. Even if his games aren't all that then at least the tech will be.

 

[Nael]

I thought him and Tom Hall hated each other or some shit?

Maybe it was Romero and another older dev that he used to work with?

Also, one has to really ask, how smart is Romero really? If he does have some intelligence, he's arrogant enough to keep doing the same stupid mistakes over and over again (big teams, big promises, lousy game ideas, pissing people off, etc).

I wonder what he's like in person. Probably an arrogant fuck who thinks waay too highly of himself.

From how I remember it Romero didn't get along with ANYONE. Time heals all wounds though, as they say.

 

[Destroid]

The tranny on Matt Chat said Romera wasn't as smart as herself and Carmack.

 

[MetalCraze]

How easily you forgot Carmack. Even if his games aren't all that then at least the tech will be.

The one for consoles right?

 

[torpid]

Aren't all these guys pretty much irrelevant nowadays? I mean, aside from name recognition, what does Romero really bring to a Facebook game?

 

[Burning Bridges]

They need money.

 

[Quilty]

Romero has a freakishly wide head. It's as if it's being pulled apart by the forces of incline and decline.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I wonder if that's the case, that they really are broke, or rather low on funds (by their standards). Who knows.

It's also a possibility that they're trying to re-capture their old fame by attempting to enter a new market with something huge. Or, which is more possible, Romero doesn't like playing second fiddle to anybody. Though that's just Romero's reasons. No idea on Tom Hall's. He's a completely different animal as far as I'm concerned.

 

[asper]

Seriously, who cares about Romero? 90% of gamers nowadays probably don't know who that is, and for the other 10% he lost any credibility a long time ago.

 

[Luzur]

he lost what honor he had left after Diakatana.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

“We have satisfied hardcore gamers for decades. Now it’s time for the rest of the world. Our opportunity is to teach the rest of the world how to play games.” -Romero

This quote is at least good. Not pandering to retards with shitty games, but teaching them what good games are. Lets be honest, simply porting Doom to a web browser game with multiplayer would be an almost infinite from what we have now.