Today at the GDC, the first real signs of mud slinging are starting to form via veiled jabs on the part of Microsoft’s J Allard regarding Sony PlayStation 3. Rumors from various sources all say the PS3 is mega powerful, much more so than Xbox Next/2/360. Maybe the jab was a bit of concession to this unconfirmed fact, or just a means to rile the competition, but what he basically said was the PS3 might be wowing tech-heads, but who cares how powerful the thing is if it’s too hard to make games for. Which is nice and all, but if you’re number one, it doesn’t matter if your stuff is hard to program for true, since at the end of the day they’ll have to learn. Lest we forget all the horror stories regarding the PS2′s complexities?
As for Allard’s keynote speech (which you can read in its entirely here), its long and not terribly exciting to most of course, but I did find his use of the term “the remix generation” in which everyone is all about customization, to be rather interesting since its somewhat true.
From what I could gather from his speech, and I’ll be honest, I sorta skimmed the last 40% (Hey, its long! At least I’m being honest here.), Allard talks about a need from all game designers to allow customization in their games at every level. Hey that sounds awesome and all, but that’s a pipe dream. Speaking as a designer, you create rules to help shape an experience, to make sure something is “fair”, and countless other reasons. If someone doesn’t like it.. well tough shit. That’s the way it is. To constantly cater to the wants of the player is admirable on paper, but besides being a logistical nightmare, its just far too pandering and ultimately leads to a flawed experience. Afterall, every game has rules, even the ones that don’t seem to have them. They’re just skillfully hidden. The key word here being skill.
Then again, I’m the kind of gamer who doesn’t need a custom soundtrack, I want to know what the designers wanted me to hear, to appreciate it. To change the music in Daytona USA is like wanting to change the music in Star Wars. Basically, a dumb idea.
Otherwise, not much to report today, but real quick: here’s a story of some Star Wars Galaxies (the MMORPG Star Wars title) diehards who’ve been… very loyal to the Empire. So much so that they get a surprise visit from Darth Vader himself. Funny stuff.
Lastly, and I can’t believe I forgot to mention this before, but chiptunes are finally coming to your town. The Data Destruction Tour 2005 finally starts this coming Friday night!
The tour both starts and ends here in NYC, and unfortunately they’re on the worst possible nights for me (more on this later), but I’ll do my best to attend at least one. Come on everyone body, time to support 8-bit music!
Pingback: Citizen Gamer