Incline 'This model of game making is so fundamentally broken.'

[DragoFireheart]

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/192820/This_model_of_game_making_is_so_fundamentally_broken.php

Following recent layoffs at RIFT developer Trion, departed studio GM and CCO Scott Hartsmanresponded on social media, saying "This model of game making is so fundamentally broken."

In an interview with Massively, Hartsman expanded on his comments, clarifying that he wasn't condemning individuals but an overall system.

I don't know of anyone who's hired with the intent of treating people disposably. No one ever wants that, even the companies frequently perceived as "evil." The industry is generally full of good, smart people trying to create the best entertainment they can. I think what's become broken is the traditional AAA style of development and distribution, MMO or otherwise.
Hartsman pointed to rising triple-A development costs as a key factor in recent studio meltdowns and layoffs. "We're approaching the point at which AAA projects need to be blockbusters just to sustain everyone in the ecosystem," he says. "The movie model worked when companies could absorb missteps and teams could hopefully learn from their mistakes to fight another day. As the absolute costs go up, fewer and fewer companies are capable of doing so. That's what's broken."

Hartsman also hailed developers such as Riot and Mojang for forging new paths outside of the triple-A ecosystem. "With any luck, we'll see more endeavors where the balance of power returns to the product creators and the audiences they're trying to serve in the most direct relationship possible," he says. "That's powerful and exciting."

Also:

Ramin Shokrizade
23 May 2013 at 7:05 am PST

I think the biggest problem is that our industry no longer serves our customers, it serves itself. Let me explain. The industry is trending VERY rapidly towards women being the majority gender in games. Our increasing mobility also means our play preferences are trending towards LOW immersion games.

AAA is almost synonymous with high immersion games for men/boys. The industry MUST contract until what we produce matches what consumers are seeking. What they are seeking is AAA *low* immersion games that are female-friendly or at least gender neutral. I can't think of one game that matches this description, and thus the majority of potential consumer spending is left unrealized.

The result is very high failure rates and lots of unemployment in our industry at a time when consumer demand for games is unprecedented. It is not the fault of the consumer, and we can't blame the programmers or the artists either.

What do you think? Is traditional triple A gaming done for?

 

[mondblut]

Triple-A my triple-Ass. Good riddance, and not a tear will be shed.

 

[evdk]

Triple-A my triple-Ass. Good riddance, and not a tear will be shed.

There is no "riddance," there simply will be shitty AAA games of a different kind.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Triple-A my triple-Ass. Good riddance, and not a tear will be shed.

There is no "riddance," there simply will be shitty AAA games of a different kind.

"Lower immersion, aimed at females or is gender neutral".

AKA more bioware shit.

 

[mondblut]

Triple-A my triple-Ass. Good riddance, and not a tear will be shed.

There is no "riddance," there simply will be shitty AAA games of a different kind.

*shrug* I don't give a fuck about triple-ass games today, I wasn't giving a fuck about them for years before, and I sure as hell am not going to care any bit further than that tomorrow. All I care about is triple-ass bubble bursting = mass layoffs = more talents potentially able to do something not so shameful for a change, be it a turn-based RPG or a child rape simulation.

The sooner the Kodexxx as a whole thoroughly forgets this shit exists in the first place, the better for us all. Are wargamers aware and concerned about Barbie and Lego industries? And neither should we.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

WTF is a "female-friendly game", games with high social interaction maybe? We already have MMOs, doesn't get more social than that.

Sounds like WCDS talk.

 

[Telengard]

Female friendly? That's 1) games where the core audience is female. The Sims. That Facebook farming game. Etc. ie, he's saying make more of those to make the overall gaming environment more appealing to a female audience. And 2) adding romance and parties and other social events to middle-of-the-road games. And 3) toning down any content that would be considered male-oriented. Such as, breast fetishism. Etc.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Curtail the ecosystem (i.e. cut the fat), get back to basic no-nonsense game development with medium-sized teams and no celebrity shit.

There. Costs are sustainable again.

 

[tuluse]

WTF is a "female-friendly game", games with high social interaction maybe? We already have MMOs, doesn't get more social than that.

Sounds like WCDS talk.

I think it's code for games that aren't about killing people.

 

[Micmu]

More clothing customization.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Female-friendly = dumbed down LOW immersion trivia.

 

[DefJam101]

If AAA titles are high-immersion then what the fuck is low immersion? Passing someone else instructions while they play the game in your place?

 

[deuxhero]

I find the idea of making "female friendly" games silly because some of the long running franchises with the highest female percentage in their player base don't follow ANY of what companies seem to think makes a game "female friendly" (sticking female skins in the latest popamole game, casualshit).

What those franchises seem to have in common are heavy character interaction and more "thoughtful" gameplay over twich (While puzzles are big, this also includes tactics/strategy, time management and character building). These games rarely have female leads (though do have healthy numbers of female side characters due to the first point) and generally star predefined male protagonists (in fact, when media of any kind with female protagonists has parity in its demographics, they are generally "cute" girls, not "rawr strong female rolemodel!", as that alienates men and women find it silly/unappealing.).

 

[DragoFireheart]

I find the idea of making "female friendly" games silly because some of the long running franchises with the highest female percentage in their player base don't follow ANY of what companies seem to think makes a game "female friendly" (sticking female skins in the latest popamole game, casualshit).

What those franchises seem to have in common are heavy character interaction and more "thoughtful" gameplay over twich (While puzzles are big, this also includes tactics/strategy, time management and character building). These games rarely have female leads (though do have healthy numbers of female side characters due to the first point) and generally star predefined male protagonists (in fact, when media of any kind with female protagonists has parity in its demographics, they are generally "cute" girls, not "rawr strong female rolemodel!", as that alienates men and women find it silly/unappealing.).

So even women want the lead role to be male?

 

[deuxhero]

I'm seen finding the leads "hot" is at least one factor, but I think the biggest problem is that the leads tend to try too hard and defined by being a woman (again, character interaction). Due to their age, many of them have had female leads at SOME point, but their popularity always seem to lay with the "waifu" demographic, not the women in the fandom.

 

[Infinitron]

Triple-A my triple-Ass. Good riddance, and not a tear will be shed.

There is no "riddance," there simply will be shitty AAA games of a different kind.

"Lower immersion, aimed at females or is gender neutral".

AKA more bioware shit.

Not really, Bioware shit is "high immersion" according to this guy's standards. What he wants is an AAA Bejeweled.

 

[Athelas]

Aren't we already on the cusp of a revolution? Where companies are turning to KickStarter because there's no other way for them to make the games they want to make? I don't see how the triple AAA gaming scene can get any more homogenous and bland. Even a shit game like Telltale's 'The Walking Dead' seemed to have sparkied a reaction of 'Holy shit, we can make games about something other than killing people' among the manstream game critics (apparently these critics were all born in the 2000's, since they seemed to have missed the entire adventure game genre).

 

[DragoFireheart]

I don't see how the triple AAA gaming scene can get any more homogenous and bland.

They can't. A crash will happen soon.

 

[DalekFlay]

It's a huge clusterfuck. The old styles and genres do not have the audience to justify larger and larger budgets, yet those larger budgets are not increasing sales. Publishers feel like they can't stop pushing budgets and production values because if those end up unimportant their entire existence is pointless.

Women like social and casual games, yet everyone seems to think this will somehow transfer to "core games" with the right formula. It won't however, in any real capacity, and thus is a red herring.

In the end the big guys all come crumbling down and we're all better off for it, I believe.

 

[Dr Tomo]

What do you think? Is traditional triple A gaming done for?

First I would like to start off with laughing at this guy for joining a inept publisher which follows to my next point why in his eyes "triple AAA" gaming is dying. Triple AAA gaming is done and it is not because of the dumb shit (pardon) that GM said with blooming budgets. It is because almost all the studios & publishers that exist are ineptly managed and I am surprised that this guy was unaware of this fact while working there all those years.

I remember when Rift was just starting in beta and there was threads foreshadowing the eventual fail post release because the owner of the studio is the same retard responsible for Everquest 2 which was a complete flop. Hell Square Enix releases/publishes stand alone titles all the time which does well financially and they are still in the red, how is this possible? Again inept management. Here is a quick band aid fix since which actually might save the "triple AAA" as it is obvious which studios/publishers learned these skills organically and which ones didn't.

http://www.pmi.org/

I still am surprised that no one mentioned that this is the only industry that hasn't adapted to the modern era and still conducts business like it is still in the 80s and 90s. Every tech company employs people that has these skills because you can't have retards in charge blowing their resources on dumb shit (pardon) and the fact that they lasted for a decade amazes me. Hell companies besides tech employ people with these skills in order to maximize the investment given to the teams working on different projects inside the company.

a child rape simulation.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Triple A gaming is not crashing.

It's just crashing for the inept, shortsighted, greedy and mismanaged puplishers that were chasing after a demographic that never really existed.

 

[Ninjerk]

I really expected this to be another Warren Spector quote. Anyhow, the game he just left is RIFT. 'Nuff said.

 

[Caim]

This situation is like the ill-fated "beer for women". More men than women drink beer, so in order to have women drink beer they made beer for women that was sweeter, low on the calories and whatnot. But that shit didn't sell, because the women who were already drinking beer sticked to their normal beer, whereas the women who do not drink beer keep drinking wine or whatever because they're not interested in beer anyway. They tried the same for energy drinks and failed just as hard.

The thing is, if you dumb down to reach more of a certain demographic you will lose those who you are already catering to.

 

[Ninjerk]

Mich Ultra would like to have a word with you.