Swing of the Pendulum (Parallels with music)

[Abernathy]

Maybe developers will eventually get over all this graphical obsession business and get back to making decent games - after all, it's basically all just about 'new toys to play with' and joe public seems to love it.

I'm an old fart, I can remember the birth of the synthesizer and what bands like Kraftwerk and others did with this new technology - music was basically forgotten, these guys just bought all this neat new kit (which was bloody expensive at the time) and experimented with what noises they could make within a rough framework that could loosely be called 'music'.

These days it's all a lot more sensible. The technology is still there, but it's mature, a tool rather than a novelty, and it's used with discretion (mostly) and only where appropriate. It's no longer an expensive option - rather the reverse. You want a cheap sound, synthesise it!

Yeah, it's oversimplifying, but I need to get to my point.

Which is that I'm hoping the pendulum will swing for game development as it did for music. That what is now a shiny new toy will become a cheap device.

After all is said and done, the art of music is to make pleasing sounds. The art of gaming is to make pleasing games. N'est pas?

 

[Oarfish]

I'm an old fart, I can remember the birth of the synthesizer and what bands like Kraftwerk and others did with this new technology - music was basically forgotten, these guys just bought all this neat new kit (which was bloody expensive at the time) and experimented with what noises they could make within a rough framework that could loosely be called 'music'.

But wasn't that partially a limitation of the technology itself, rather than just its novelty? Kraftwerk's style owed a lot to the fact that it was bloody hard to synthesise decent sounding percussion with the technology available at the time. This is even more evident with bands like Tangerine Dream - who dropped the percussion entirely. There were also bands like Neu! who used real percussion along with early synths and guitar who though experimental, don't sound anywhere near as dated. Especially if you are a Stereolab fan

I do agree with your general point though, that once the need to improve the underlying technology to achieve 'realism' stops dictating game design then there may be a resurgence in innovative design.

That said, some of the greatest games (and music ) have come from technological experimentation, rather than top down design - Populous, Doom, Total War etc.

 

[Helioth]

C'est vrais.

While I haven't been around long enough to know which bands your talking about, apart from that they're German?
I do agree with your speculation.
I think once the arms race slows down a bit and we get to say. . .
5ghz, devs wont be thinking: "Ok, lets make this cool new lens flare refraction reflection water whatever system"
but "Is this really neccesary ? What else could we invest our time / effort in ?"
Or maybe there'll be a new split in the industry and some companies will just make engines ?

Well, I do hope gaming returns to its roots.
Unfortunately, we'll have to get rid of consoles first !

 

[Oarfish]

While I haven't been around long enough to know which bands your talking about

Most of them split up before I was born, I just have shitty taste in music .

 

[Zomg]

A technological plateau will do nothing, because such a plateau will only be reachable with hundred million dollar budgets (between production and advertising). Art costs go up every generation by, I'd guess, an order of magnitude; the art costs are going to be the limiting factor before the technology is. Nothing can ever be very good when it has to be crafted to appeal to enough people to cover such a huge level of investment - behold modern movie blockbusters. The industry is in a pattern of spend-more-or-crash.

The music analogy is spurious, because the cost of music production is minimal compared to the reach (particularly these days). My fantasy analogy industry for games would be the book industry, but that also has near zero cost production and is forced to compete with free libraries.

 

[Helioth]

While I haven't been around long enough to know which bands your talking about

Most of them split up before I was born, I just have shitty taste in music .

Hmm, you should try pendulum, kraftwerk isn't thatt bad, just a bit dated.

 

[TheGreatGodPan]

My prediction: the pendulum is never going back. Play text-adventures.

 

[Twinfalls]

We're off the pendulum and into the pit.

 

[Abernathy]

A technological plateau will do nothing, because such a plateau will only be reachable with hundred million dollar budgets (between production and advertising). Art costs go up every generation by, I'd guess, an order of magnitude; the art costs are going to be the limiting factor before the technology is. Nothing can ever be very good when it has to be crafted to appeal to enough people to cover such a huge level of investment - behold modern movie blockbusters. The industry is in a pattern of spend-more-or-crash.

The music analogy is spurious, because the cost of music production is minimal compared to the reach (particularly these days). My fantasy analogy industry for games would be the book industry, but that also has near zero cost production and is forced to compete with free libraries.

I'm not really talking about technology, per se. Just 'novelty value' really. Of course the graphics capabilities (and budgets and costs) are going to increase over time, but the novelty value might - if we're very lucky - wear off as it did in the music industry.

Music technology has gone through the roof in recent years, but the only really visible effect of that is that joe bloggs who wouldn't know a sharp from a natural can now make what can loosely be termed 'music' on his home PC. And just like today's shitty games, people actually buy this crap.

But I digress.

What has changed in the music sphere is that everyone now accepts the synthesizer, it's no big deal. No need to wave an "I HAVE A MOOG'" flag to show off. I'm hoping the same thing will happen with the "I HAVE A PIXEL SHADER 3.0" flag in games.

The pendulum will swing, with luck, and we will once again see more thoughtful games.

But maybe I'm just dreaming, huh?