I hear people talking about when so and so was in his prime, he made this and that game, but then he "sold out", "declined", "aged", "became a SJW", etc. The idea is that so and so stopped making good games, and people can't make heads or tails of this. I read a lot of explanations, and it always makes me think of that picture where blindfolded guys are feeling an elephant with a jew face, and call it wildly different things.
When the truth is, broad strokes here, 90 percent of it is mental. At some point in a guy's career, he's just done it enough. He was hungry and had a big dream, but eventually he gets fed and that dream has come true, so how do you get up and do it again? Marvin Hagler, legendary boxer, put it this way: "It's rough to get out of bed to do roadwork at 5 am when you've been sleeping in silk pajamas".
So the question is: how do you do it? And mentally, you largely don't. As a semi-professional athlete, I draw a lot of my experiences from the gym. At the gym, they say a fighter can grow old overnight. Once they lose that hunger, they stop training as hard, they start eating junk, don't show to practice on time, they leave practice early, etc. But you don't see them compete every day, and only see them once or twice a year in the octagon, so question becomes - what did they do in the last 6 months?
With game devs, you see the fruits of their labor every 2 years for some of the top guys, 5 years for the average guy. So you really don't see a guy "decline" overnight.
And so what it comes down to: what did he do in the last 3 years? Did he get up every morning at seven, only the project on his mind or did he have wife and kids to think about? Did he work till 8, then went home, had a meal and then researched till eleven, or did he leave office at 6 and left work at work? Did he put his miles in regardless of whether it was raining outside? That's what he did when he was hungry. Did he do that in the last 3 years? Is he still playing video games for research and pleasure? Does he still play tabletop? Is he still exploring ways to get better all the time? Does he still hang in there?
So when I see VD saying he hasn't played this or that game when it's been MONTHS since it was released, it does make me reflect back on all these things.
When I see George Ziets say he hasn't played Disco Elysium "yet", it does remind me of all these things again.
Another great example of this is Avellone who notoriously doesn't play games at all. And I don't even have to mention Tim Cain who didn't know what a speedrun was until a month ago.
It's just grades of "doneness". Tim Cain is well done. Ziets and MCA are medium well. VD is probably medium to medium rare. ZA/UM are fried chicken bones due to their latest success that they can never match again.
What I'm offering to you is that none of them are blue rare.
When the truth is, broad strokes here, 90 percent of it is mental. At some point in a guy's career, he's just done it enough. He was hungry and had a big dream, but eventually he gets fed and that dream has come true, so how do you get up and do it again? Marvin Hagler, legendary boxer, put it this way: "It's rough to get out of bed to do roadwork at 5 am when you've been sleeping in silk pajamas".
So the question is: how do you do it? And mentally, you largely don't. As a semi-professional athlete, I draw a lot of my experiences from the gym. At the gym, they say a fighter can grow old overnight. Once they lose that hunger, they stop training as hard, they start eating junk, don't show to practice on time, they leave practice early, etc. But you don't see them compete every day, and only see them once or twice a year in the octagon, so question becomes - what did they do in the last 6 months?
With game devs, you see the fruits of their labor every 2 years for some of the top guys, 5 years for the average guy. So you really don't see a guy "decline" overnight.
And so what it comes down to: what did he do in the last 3 years? Did he get up every morning at seven, only the project on his mind or did he have wife and kids to think about? Did he work till 8, then went home, had a meal and then researched till eleven, or did he leave office at 6 and left work at work? Did he put his miles in regardless of whether it was raining outside? That's what he did when he was hungry. Did he do that in the last 3 years? Is he still playing video games for research and pleasure? Does he still play tabletop? Is he still exploring ways to get better all the time? Does he still hang in there?
So when I see VD saying he hasn't played this or that game when it's been MONTHS since it was released, it does make me reflect back on all these things.
When I see George Ziets say he hasn't played Disco Elysium "yet", it does remind me of all these things again.
Another great example of this is Avellone who notoriously doesn't play games at all. And I don't even have to mention Tim Cain who didn't know what a speedrun was until a month ago.
It's just grades of "doneness". Tim Cain is well done. Ziets and MCA are medium well. VD is probably medium to medium rare. ZA/UM are fried chicken bones due to their latest success that they can never match again.
What I'm offering to you is that none of them are blue rare.
