In 2000, an anonymous game developer wrote the Scratchware Manifesto:
“The machinery of gaming has run amok… An industry that was once the most innovative and exciting artistic field on the planet has become a morass of drudgery and imitation… It is time for revolution!”
In 2005, Designer X, Greg Costikyan, wrote in the Escapist: “Death to the Games Industry”.
Two years ago, speaking at a conference in the UK, Warren Spector said “The publishers have to die, or we are all doomed” – to cheers. And this year, at GDC, I ranted on the problem – and received a standing ovation.
Costikyan then talks about rising development costs:
As recently as 1992, the typical development budget for a PC game was as little as $200,000. Today, if you want a title that will be taken seriously by the retailers – an A-level title – your minimum buy-in is $5m, and $10m for a triple-A title is common. With the next generation of console hardware, the talk is of $20m budgets – not as something that will be unusual, but typical.
Now, listen closely to what he says next. Remember, this is 2005.
On a theoretical basis, the rise in development costs is driven directly by Moore’s Law. As hardware becomes capable of displaying better-detailed graphics and higher polygon counts, it becomes mandatory to provide them. If you do not, your competitors will – and your games will look inferior by comparison to directly competitive product. In the accompanying graph, you’ll see a huge rise in the ’90s; that was driven by the adoption of CD-ROMs. Before CD-ROMs became common, games had to be delivered on floppies – and even if you did a game with several floppies in the box, your application size was still measured in single-digit megabytes. CD-ROMs provide more than 600 MB – and once you had the capability of providing that much data, doing so became mandatory. You had to generate enough assets to fill the disc.
He is saying that as hardware becomes better, it is mandatory to make better-detailed graphics.
In other words, graphic glitz is the first barrier you must surmount. If you don’t have it, you won’t get greenlit; if you don’t have it, you won’t get distribution. Maybe, someday, way down the road, the actual quality of the game will matter to someone – a reviewer, an actual gamer – but you don’t even get a chance to get to them if you don’t have the graphic right stuff. In other words, gameplay may affect ultimate sales – but it won’t get you shelf space.
The reverse isn’t true, though – poor gameplay and great graphics will work just fine, as far as the market is concerned. 80% of all game sales occur in the first two weeks that a game is available; all you need to do is blow through your inventory before word of mouth catches up with you. The industry is full of best-selling, lousy games. Can you say “Driver 3?” I knew you could.
Here, he is saying the market just wants better graphics. The quality of the game doesn’t matter to the market, according to the author.
When I read this in 2005, I was cheering. Video games were going off the rails. I even began working on making my own games because I was so convinced that the games I thought the world needed were in demand even if they didn’t have the latest production values. Remember, at that time I was still playing my NES, SNES, Genesis, and DOS games unending. I wanted a ‘new’ game, but I did not want an ‘Industry’ game. (In order to get good at any craft, you need a minimum of ten years working at it. And the beginning is the roughest time.)
When I saw the Wii, codenamed ‘Revolution’, I said, “Hot damn, baby! That is what we need!” In his first major speech as Nintendo president, the Heart of the Gamer speech, Iwata said it was time for game developers to make games the market wants, not games they, themselves, wish to develop. The ‘Revolution’ was not trying to go in a huge traditional hardware upgrade like the expensive Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. The Wii controller resembled the NES controller. There was the Virtual Console. There was even a reappearance of the light gun (the plastic shell at least). Iwata spoke of the Wii as trying to get back to what the NES did.
Needless to say, I was ecstatic. Nintendo began to show they were serious when a new Super Mario Brothers game was released on the DS. Mario Kart DS was made to recapture the SNES Mario Kart gameplay. And the DS was being positioned to sell to non-gamers… which is exactly what the Atari and NES did. From the DS in 2004 up to the DS Lite release in 2006, you can tell the trajectory of the company that Nintendo was on.
Naturally, the ‘game analysts’ all considered the Wii dead in the water. Some predicted Nintendo would exit the video game business. Others said Nintendo made the Wii because Nintendo could not ‘compete’ with Microsoft and Sony. Others said Nintendo’s gamble was to outsell the Xbox 360 and PS3 by positioning the Wii as a ‘secondary console’. The conventional wisdom ended up being totally wrong.
The Wii showed that the masses do care more about gameplay than graphics. The Industry, who thought these new and returning gamers were idiots (perhaps the Industry thought this due to their experience with how easy it is to manipulate the hardcore), tried to make a ‘Casual Games Industry’ where they would put out awful, poorly crafted games called ‘casual games’. Retailers eventually stopped carrying all this shovelware because no one was buying it.
Finally. Finally. Finally. The Wii was showing the ‘Game Industry’ that what they thought people wanted in a video game console was wrong. The mass market doesn’t care about graphics as much as they thought. What the mass market does care about are really fun games like Wii Sports.
This was actually predictable. When the NES came out in America, computers were going 16-bit and the NES seemed ancient in comparison. At the time, the ‘Game Industry’ (which was the computer game industry), laughed off the NES. Game market analysis today only begin when the PlayStation came out and completely ignore Generation 4 and below.
The question of Generation 7 is: “The Wii did everything that ‘Designer X’ wanted. It showed the masses did not automatically buy crappy games with good graphics. So why do game developers hate the Wii?”
Hindsight is 20/20. Listen to what Designer X says below (which is from the same article):
The problem is that once something becomes technically feasible, the market demands it. Gamers themselves are partly to blame: Indie rock fans may prefer somewhat muddy sound over some lushly-orchestrated, producer-massaged score; indie film fans may prefer quirky, low-budget titles over big-budget special FX extravaganzas; but in gaming, we have no indie aesthetic, no group of people (of any size at least) who prize independent vision and creativity over production values.
Costikyan isn’t interested at all in a ‘gaming revolution’ as in ‘gaming for the masses’ or ‘spread of gaming within society’. Costikyan’s interest is purely selfish. It can be boiled down to one statement: “The definition of video game creativity is the removal of all expectations: market expectations, hardware expectations, graphic expectations, fan expectations, and so on.”
In other words, the game developer feels entitled to make whatever he wants.
This is what I call the ‘Lifestyle Developer’.
The Lifestyle Developer is modeled after the ‘Lifestyle Writer’ or the ‘Lifestyle Movie Director’.
Ever since it was said, “By the sweat of thy brow, thou shalt eat bread,” every Human being must work. We toil for money. And then we die. Our children continue the cycle. This is life on Earth.
But the ‘artist’ feels he exists on the plane of angels and is above ‘real work’. “What!? I am expected to get a real job? Blasphemy! My precious creativity, which is superior to every Human being currently living and dead, where it surpasses even Nature herself, must not be contradicted by mundane matters such as business concerns.”
This ‘artist’ believes life should exist as an end to itself. His aim in life ends up only to create a lifestyle. And in this ‘lifestyle’, he can properly apply his ‘imagination’ (because he exists on the plane of angels beyond the filthy working class peasants).
This ‘lifestyle’ is no different than the lifestyle of a child. Their definition of creativity is that everything must be play. There can be no ‘work’. In fact, if there is any ‘work’, it is an affront to their creativity and should be removed immediately.
Have you wondered why your gut feeling when watching actors is that you were watching children? Or when listening to movie or television directors, you also sense you are listening to children? And the same reaction with writers, musicians (especially rock stars and rappers), and game developers? It is because they are children. People ask, “Why does Shigeru Miyamoto seem so boyish and playful like a child?” Perhaps it is because he is a child. He’s never had a real job in his life.
Why do 99% of game developers choose their profession? It is to escape the ‘real world’. The same goes for writers, for rockstars, and for actors and movie directors.
The desire is NOT to make games people want to play. The motivating desire is to ‘not have to get a real job’.
Because this is the desire, every young person throws himself at the ‘game industry’ in droves. Young people wish to escape the cruel ‘real world’. This identical phenomenon exists in acting, music bands, movie directors, and writers.
You wouldn’t believe that around 99.9% of wannabe writers are not interested at all in writing what people want to read. They just wish to become a writer because of the ‘lifestyle’. This meant they wouldn’t have to have the harsh lifestyle of a ‘real job’. In fact, when a writer makes a best-selling book, it is considered a victory not because the book was written that many people enjoyed. It is considered a victory because the writer is now allowed to enjoy a ‘lifestyle’ that is free from the ‘real world’.
When asked about what was his favorite video game, Shigeru Miyamoto said, “Donkey Kong.” Why? “The game freed me to do what I wanted.” And we can clearly see a process where a product, which should be made for continued success (e.g. more Super Mario Brothers, the best selling video game ever), is suspended based entirely on the selfish desires of one man. “I don’t want to make that anymore!” Meanwhile, “Here is more 3d Mario!”
The ‘Lifestyle Developer’ solves many of the paradoxes of the Seventh Generation:
Despite showing the mass market was interested in gameplay and not graphics, why did game developers hate the Wii?
It is because, unlike the ‘hardcore’ HD Twins, the Wii game developer has LESS ‘creative freedom’. The mass market is, ironically, pickier than the niche market. This is why Costikyan advocates ‘indie games’ like the movie industry. The aim is not to make gaming more interesting or popular. The aim is for the game developer to act purely selfish.
The reason why the Wii explosion occurred was because, for the first time in twenty years, Nintendo ceased to act selfishly. They actually made games they didn’t want to make. Around 2008, with the Wii’s success at their backs, Nintendo began to act extremely selfishly. How else to explain games like Mario Galaxy 2, Wii Music, or Metroid: Other M but as acts of extreme selfishness? Nintendo ended up destroying their own console.
Why is Will Wright praised even after disastrous flops like the overhyped Spore?
Why do we worship developers instead of the games? Again, people are not actually praising Wright. They are praising the Lifestyle Developer. Will Wright is one of the few people who can do whatever he wants. Since every game developer wishes that, that is the true reason for the praise.
Why did Miyamoto become a ‘god’ despite the N64 and Gamecube sales collapse? How did he become, and remain, a ‘god’ despite the utter collapse going from 2d Mario to 3d Mario and going from Ocarina of Time to Wind Waker?
The answer is the same as the one above. The praise for Miyamoto is not about his games and definitely not about the sales impact of those games. The praise is about the Lifestyle Developer ideal which Miyamoto, like Wright, represents.
Why is handheld gaming largely ignored by the games media?
For those who complained that graphics outsell gameplay, the rise in handheld gaming should be considered good news. The fact that handheld game consoles outsell home game consoles in Japan should be hailed as marvelous!
Instead, it is ignored.
Why?
It is because the issue has nothing to do with games of ‘less development’ or ‘less graphics’ outselling games that are superior in both. Handheld game makers do not represent the Lifestyle Developer. This is why they are ignored. This is why Japanese handheld gaming outselling home console gaming is yawned at instead of examined with interest.
If handheld gaming was representative of the Lifestyle Developer, everyone would be jumping up and down for handheld gaming.
Why is Notch given countless awards while everyone ignores Minecraft?
Minecraft represents everything Game Industry games are not. Minecraft is a game of crappy graphics (really crappy) with a ton of freedom for the player. However, there is little interest in why people are buying Minecraft. Instead, every story about Minecraft is about Notch turning into a ‘Lifestyle Developer’ (meaning he becomes rich enough to do whatever he wants to do).
The awards and attention given to Notch and Minecraft really have nothing to do with either. They are only about the Lifestyle Developer.
And if you want more proof that the Lifestyle Developer is the end of all means, take a look at what Greg Costikyan said in 2009. When Epic president, Capps, said that it is unlikely that a top game company to expect 40 hours a week from an employee but should expect 60 hours a week, those who believe game development is a ‘lifestyle first’ went ballistic. Folks, any top company, in a very competitive industry, is going to make high demands of their employees. The employees, if they wish to work at such a high profile company, are going to be working hard. But the employees get rewards as well. Henry Ford was able to get the best employees because he paid them well beyond any other car company.
I’ve never known anyone who won in life by having a ‘comfortable’ lifestyle. If video games are to defeat the monsters of disinterest, game developers cannot be comfortable. It is common that once the starving artist is well fed and living large, the art ceases.
Costikyan said of Capps:
Costikyan points out that such a stance would be plausible coming from an industry exec, were Capps not also a board member of the IGDA, “an organization,” Costikyan writes, “the ostensible purpose of which is to support game developers. Not, you know, to support management dickheads.”
It is Human behavior to believe everyone’s hour of work is equal. Sitting down and being a science fiction writer, or developing a video game, despite whatever long hours, is nothing compared to being a firefighter, dodging bullets as a combat soldier in the military, being a door-to-door salesman (I’ve done this, and it is hard), or working on an oil rig. At least you are sitting down and in an air conditioned environment as compared to some other ‘real jobs’. You get to eat Doritos and Fritos all day. The work may be taxing, but your body will not fall apart because of it.
Gaming, to game developers, is not about making customers or even about making games. It is about making a lifestyle.
When you hear game developers talk ‘business’, they are not really interested in making a business. The purpose of a business is to make customers. Their interest, instead, is to create a pleasant lifestyle they control. This is why you, the poor gamer, are paying through your nose for DLC. This is why you, the unfortunate gamer, are constantly manipulated to believe a crappy game is the ‘best video game ever made’.
The reason why the Game Industry is falling apart is the same as any other entertainment industry. The only person who has a right to be selfish is the customer. Poets forgot that. Today, poetry no longer exists as an industry in any form in America. Theater thinks it gets to be selfish. Today, plays are no longer a mass medium and about half of all plays performed, today, are by Shakespeare. Hollywood is in decline, no matter how much 3d gimmickry is thrown in, because Hollywood keeps acting selfish.
And video games are also in decline because game developers believe they have the right to be selfish.