Interview Richard Garriott: Game designers suck (except me and a couple of my buddies)

[janjetina]

What baffles me the most is that he named Peter Molyfaux as an example of a good game designer. Molyfaux owes his success to other people who worked on his early games and a great talent for self promotion and taking credit for the work of others. Once he got rich and took complete control, he started producing games that showcase his level of talent.

 

[Volourn]

garriott is a moran. 'Nough said. L0L Molyfake has yet to make a game barely worthy of being referred to as 'slightly above average'. LKMFAO

 

[Syl]

Find a second method to beat that boss? Don't worry, they will patch it out before your ban expires.

 

[Ogg]

One word, "Pets!"

Seriously, who's getting surprised that a guy who calls himself "lord british", puts himself as the good king in nearly every game he's created and spends his millions on a travel to space also happens to be an immature, egotist and arrogant asshole?

Why immature and egoist?

-egotist, not egoist. Or to be correct, I should've written egotistic. A synonym for egomaniac and show-off: "Hey! Look at me! ain't I the greatest game designer of all time?! Hey! Look at me, I've been to space!"
-and immature cause sensible and wise people have learnt to be humble. That and of course "Pets!"

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

-egotist, not egoist. Or to be correct, I should've written egotistic. A synonym for egomaniac and show-off: "Hey! Look at me! ain't I the greatest game designer of all time?! Hey! Look at me, I've been to space!"
-and immature cause sensible and wise people have learnt to be humble. That and of course "Pets!"

Dude he made Ultima and Ultima Online, he has no reason to be humble.

Too bad that he later went to shit decline, though. I guess, his post Ultima VII career cancelled his right to claim being the best designer evar.

 

[Jaesun]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/03/21/editorial-an-interview-and-its-aftermath/

When [Garriott] says that “Behind the inaccurate inflammatory headlines extracted from a longer dialog…” he’s clearly referring to a number of news sources that chose to repeat his provocative statement, but failed to take the time to fully examine and independently interpret the whole story, or even follow up on their own with Garriott to ask what he was getting at rather than just blurting out the most provocative thing they could. That’s tacky.​

PC Gamer does not publish “gotcha” headlines. They’re gross. I was present for much of the interview, as was David Swofford, Director of Communications of Garriott’s Portalarium development studio. The majority of the discussion followed from Garriott’s assertion that “…other than a few exceptions, like Chris Roberts, I’ve met virtually no one in our industry who I think is close to as good a game designer as I am. I’m not saying that because I think I’m so brilliant. I think most game designers really just suck, and I think there’s a reason why.”​

He went on to explain that he believes the dearth of good designers is a systemic problem, not a matter of a lack of individual talent: “We’re leaning on a lot of designers who get that job because they’re not qualified for the other jobs, rather than that they are really strongly qualified as a designer.”​

…​

…Sometimes when something unpleasant happens it’s best just to move on as quickly as possible – especially considering the unseemly inclination some folks have to sensationalize intemperate remarks and stir up resentment.​

That’s not our style. It’s not the kind of traffic we’re after, and the people who gravitate towards that kind of thing are not really the audience we want to cultivate. The interview we published offered insight into game development by the one man most responsible for drawing me towards a career in the videogame industry, for which I’m grateful. It’s unfortunate that our interview led to some nasty remarks and high-octane snark that spread, flu-like, over Twitter, but we can’t control how our stories are covered and discussed after they’re published.​

 

[Davaris]

He went on to explain that he believes the dearth of good designers is a systemic problem, not a matter of a lack of individual talent: “We’re leaning on a lot of designers who get that job because they’re not qualified for the other jobs, rather than that they are really strongly qualified as a designer.”

I find it interesting what he says about designers, because I can almost always tell if a game has a designer-designer working on it, as opposed to artists that also design, or programmers that also design. It always feels as if something is missing.

IMO to be a good designer you have to throw yourself into it 24/7 and give up programming or art for good. So I am wondering where they are sourcing their designers from? Speaking for myself, wouldn't be looking at people with literary degrees (as I think they might be doing), I would be looking to recruit from the board gaming, or PnP RPG community, as they can make games relatively quickly and learn what works.

 

[EG]

IMO to be a good designer you have to throw yourself into it 24/7 and give up programming or art for good.

Well, MCA certainly gave up playing games to design them . . . o_O

 

[Lockkaliber]

I think Obsidian have the right idea, since they view Dungeon Mastering as a big merit when they hire interns. Instead of video game design classes they should have DM'ing classes to see who actually has any idea as to what they want to do in the industry. The best thing about that way of doing it is that it's all you and your ideas, pretty much no limits.