Friday, February 6, 2009

Game Design is Hard, Part II

If you are wondering about the slowdown in posting on this site of late, I refer you to the title of this new blog post. It would appear that I am coming home so mentally fatigued at this point, that I don't have much left in me except the desire and ability to zombie out in front of the television screen or World of WarCraft.

I'm not complaining, though: At this point, all of us who have jobs, let's be thankful that we have them. And, hey, I love my job. It's ridiculously fun and rewarding, and a privilege, really, to be paid to do this for a living. In my younger days I had some of the same crappy jobs as everyone else: I washed dishes at a Japanese restaurant; I was a delivery boy in Los Angeles; I served burgers at a craphole in Berkeley where the most common customers were insane homeless people, stoned students, and, on one memorable Saturday afternoon, a 300 pound naked guy who walked in, sat down, and poured a big tabletop container of sugar into his mouth until the police came in and carted him away. I've also had dreary white collar jobs, where I sat in my cubicle all day in a frozen state of boredom and misery, fantasizing about stabbing my incompetent bosses and running off to Hawaii to sell pineapples on the beach. So, yeah. I consider myself awfully lucky now.

Still: refer to the title above. As I get deeper into the collaborative process here, it becomes clearer and clearer to me just how complicated the business of making a game is, and the near miracle it is to get all the people involved aligned and understanding of what it is you're trying to do, to get the money and time you need, to stay true to your vision while making all the inevitable and heartbreaking compromises. And I say all this while still only being one foot--at most--down from the tip of the iceberg. I know I haven't seen anything yet, really.

It was inevitable, of course, but I find it kind of funny that a lot of people ask me now if, knowing what I know now, would I go back and change the way I reviewed games? Would I go easier, knowing how difficult it is? The answer to that is a resounding no. I would not. I do understand more deeply why a lot of developers can't stand the press, or have no respect for them. Frankly, the majority of the gaming press doesn't deserve much respect---though I said that throughout my career in the press, so that's nothing new and no change of heart on my part. The lack of common journalistic standards and practices, the often weaselly ethics, and, heck, the sheer inability to form grammatically correct and cogent and interesting sentences all speaks to a subset of the media that is really nothing more than amateur fanzines with a budget. Still, not ALL the gaming press is like that--and certainly every site linked to on this blog to the right falls into a different category entirely. These are smart, literate, educated people writing with intelligence and insight and humor and perspective about a hobby that many of us love. That takes skill, too--just like game development.

So even though I have a much deeper understanding--though I still have a long way to go---of what goes into making a game, how compromises arise, how elements you would think would be "no brainers" to have in a game suddenly become impossible to do for reasons outside your control, I still would not go back and change the way I did my old job. Why? Because this shit doesn't matter. Not to the consumer, not to the folks spending their money hoping you are going to entertain them. This is our problem, not theirs. Consumers don't need to know or care how much of your heart was invested in the game, how many dinners you missed at home because you were working late, how, well, you *really* would have had this cool multiplayer component but there wasn't enough time. As Tony Soprano's mom would say: Poor you. It's neither the critic's job nor the consumer's concern to take into account how sincere you were in your efforts. No matter how great a person you may be, how hard you worked, how much your team *tried* to get things right, the only thing that matters in the end is what's in that box (or digital download!). The game disc doesn't come with a written explanation of what you tried to do, or a list of reasons why, okay, yeah, maybe the marketing and PR from the past year, and on the game box itself, doesn't quite match what's in the game. If you failed to deliver, if you blew it, if you didn't meet expectations---that's not the press's fault, or the consumers.

Oh yes, like I said, plenty of critics are morons, and might be reviewing your game for all the wrong reasons, or with terrible attitudes, or with unfair expectations. Nothing you can do about that, really. What you can, do, though, is be honest with yourself while you're making the game, to realize that those decisions you're making have consequences, and to separate out the more valid and intelligent criticism from the nonsense and noise. Being blind or hostile to criticism, to dismiss it all as "they don't get what we do" does you no favors in the long run.

All of this said, I am stating here, though, that if MY game doesn't get the 10 out of 10 it so richly deserves--especially given everything we have to deal with!--then I will personally hunt and kill every no-nothing, lazy, incompetent "critic" out there. Why don't you guys try making a game yourselves!

Jeff

(err, sorry, this post was originally supposed to be about Lost and BSG and Depeche Mode and The Verve and almost hitting Level 80 in WoW. LOL.)

68 comments:

Anonymous said...

first

8bitmike said...

actually i think its the A+ you are looking for, not the 10/10

Jibrell said...

Now the question is, will Jeff write a third blog post titled: "Game Design is Hard, Part III" in order to make it a trilogy?

You know how much Game Devs love their trilogies.

Anonymous said...

Jeff,

Great post, as always.

In your GFW / 1UP days, you used to make a distinction between your preferred style of review, which provided a subjective analysis of the game, versus other publications' reviews that were of the "consumer shopping guide" type. So it strikes me as somewhat strange that you now define your review audience as "the consumer ... the folks spending their money hoping you are going to entertain them."

Just as a lot of recent film reviews forgave certain aspects of The Wrestler because of its budget, I think there is room for a type of game review that takes development factors into account.

Just my anonymous two cents!

Anonymous said...

I think a lot of people don't appreciate how hard it is to give a negative review to begin with. It's easy to be snarky and insulting, but actually sitting down to write that, in fact, the highly anticipated FragZone: Death to Noobs is a mess takes a lot of effort if you want to do it right.

None of this, of course, is as hard as making a game. But it's not like game journalists sit around waiting for a pinata to thrash.

Fred said...

Weird. I drove into work this morning listening to that fateful episode of GFW Radio dated March 20th, 2007, where the Brodeo discussed the game developer sentiment at GDC that game reviewers can't review a game until they've made one themselves. I was going to ask you listen to that discussion again Jeff, and ask you to comment on it knowing what you know now. But now I don't have to. Yay for Jeff's clairvoyance! But if you could comment on that discussion looking back, that would be great.

Another thing, about being mentally exhausted when you get home. There is no worse thing you can do for your health when you get home mentally exhausted than to lay around and veg out. When you feel like crap after a long day, consider hitting the gym or the treadmill instead of kicking back. That fatigue you feel isn't real and goes away after a couple miles jogging and you'll feel like a million bucks afterword too. Just a little pro-tip for you there, Jeff. :P

Jeff Green said...

"n your GFW / 1UP days, you used to make a distinction between your preferred style of review, which provided a subjective analysis of the game, versus other publications' reviews that were of the "consumer shopping guide" type. So it strikes me as somewhat strange that you now define your review audience as "the consumer ... the folks spending their money hoping you are going to entertain them." "

The thing is that I don't think these two review styles are necessarily mutually exclusive. The best critics, in fact, can merge this approach. Offering subjective analysis while also putting in a recommendation or not. That's what I personally tried to do---with mixed success--over my years as a critic.

Slapshot said...

Best thing to do, Jeff, would be to ghost write your own review and freelance it to 1UP.

Devon said...

Amen brother Jeff. I'm just coming to realize the cozy relationship between the press and developers, from the developer point of view and it makes me pretty upset at the state of things. Good intentions don't always make a good game. That's what a review is about, not how our high hopes and plans could have maybe ended up. If we work a ton of overtime and make a 5/10, then that's what it is. Welcome to the grind.

Unknown said...

Hurry up with a Lost blog! I've got good comments/questions lined up!

Anonymous said...

"Best thing to do, Jeff, would be to ghost write your own review and freelance it to 1UP."

Please Jeff has way too much integrity to BWAhAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Who are we kidding? He worked in the gaming press, so he has no scruples!

Look forward to a 100% rating in PC Gamer by new freelance reviewer Greff Jeen.

Anonymous said...

Did I miss something? Isn't Sim Animals already in stores? Are you working on something new now?

Erik said...

"(T)he sheer inability to form grammatically correct and cogent and interesting sentences ..."

Red sticky on edge of manuscript: Jeff, increase usage of the word 'and' by 63%. - Ed

Michael Adamek said...

"I will personally hunt and kill every no-nothing, lazy, incompetent "critic" out there."

Somewhere out there a man named Yahtzee got the chills.

Unknown said...

"this post was originally supposed to be about Lost and BSG and Depeche Mode and The Verve and almost hitting Level 80 in WoW. LOL"

Damn, Jeff, I want to your opinion on all of those things! Except WoW. Over it.

Anonymous said...

Or how about this one:

When people find out what I do for a living they'll send me their novel (at my place of work, even though I never provided them with my work address, or even said that I wanted to read their novel.)

Inevitably, after I've sent their work back to them, they'll say to me the next time we meet face to face: "... do you have any idea how long it took me to write that story?"

I've never said this to any of these people, but the honest answer to that question is simply this: it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter if you quit work and dipped into your child's education fund to finance the writing of your novel. It doesn't matter if, while writing your novel, you had three nervous breakdowns and ended up divorcing your spouse. It doesn't matter if you edited your novel five hundred times, or completely re-wrote it twice. It doesn't matter if you spent five, ten, fifteen, twenty years writing your novel - it just doesn't matter, if your novel is bad, then it's bad.

Granted, most people who have actually completed a novel and successfully placed it with a publishing company will say that they now have a greater regard for writers, and for the publishing process in general - but that doesn't mean that they become less critical of books when they're reading them.

If you've completed a novel and had it published, then you're still going to think that Harry Potter sucks if indeed you think that (and why wouldn't you?).

Having a greater understanding of a creative process doesn't translate into a greater enjoyment of a finished product.

That said, I suspect that had Green gone through all of this while still writing for GFW then his review scores would've risen across the board.

Catwoman, for example, would surely have received a much more favorable review if Green had had a great appreciation for what the game designers had gone through in assembling that masterpiece of game design.

I am convinced of this.

That's the thing about Greenspeak: every damned thing that gets written here has to be digested with a grain of salt.

John Rivett said...

Not to sound like a dope, but what the hell is a Raclette?

Jeff Green said...

Raclette: yummy melted cheese on potatoes, but fancy soundin' cuz it's French!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette

Anonymous said...

You know, I'm really beginning to have faith in this Wikipedia thing.

At first, I was skeptical of the assertion that 'all of human knowledge' will one day be available to us online. But it seems now that virtually every time I encounter something I've never heard about, if I Google it then I'll be provided with a link to the corresponding Wikipedia entry.

For example, my Scotch neighbor came over to visit me one Saturday morning. He was suffering from a 'monstrous' hangover, and when I asked him if there was anything I could do for him, he sad that, yes, in fact, he wouldn't mind having some... and I kid you not about this... porridge.

When I started stirring the porridge with a wooden spoon I was immediately scolded for doing so. The wooden spoon was incorrect - what I should've been using to stir the porridge with, my neighbor informed me, was a spurtle.

The round bowl on the end of my wooden spoon, I was informed, would cause the oats to break apart.

A spurtle was what I should've been using.

I thought that he was playing a joke on me - but seriously, look it up.

Mickey Moose.

Anonymous said...

Also, here is a new recipe for you to try Jeff:

3 Granny Smith Apples
2 Golden Delicious Apples
1 Onion
1tsp kosher salt
1tsp pepper
1tbsp Brown Sugar
1/2 stick of Butter
8 Bratwurst (the good kind)
1 6 or 12 pack of beer

Sauté up the apples (finely chopped) and onion (again finely chopped) with the other ingredients over Med-High heat until they have all blended together and become soft and tender. Cook the Brats to taste and consume together. Goes together well with a lighter beer. Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

But to your post, it is well said sir.

I worked for a year with one of the EA studios in the marketing dept just as a certain game with a man in a cape was launching. And you are right. Just because you start with a great idea and are forced to cut and slash because of time/money/tech does not excuse you in the end for what is in the box.

That being said I can't wait until The Sims 3!

Also, I couldn't help but note that your list of great news agencies on the side of your blog did not include UGO. :-)

Stephen said...

I recommend gamers NOT to buy Sims 3. This way we'll save Jeff from struggling, re: moaning & groaning, through the design ordeals of making a Sims 4. ;-)

Which DM album are you listening to? They have a new album (Sounds of the Universe) due out mid April. Guess they found studio time in between Gahan's rehab visits. I'm looking forward to it.

Have you heard Greg Laswell's Three Flights From Alto Nido, Duke Spirit's Neptune, or Fleet Foxes self-titled release? Highly recommended.

Kadayi said...

Glad to hear things are going ok Jeff. With all the news of layoffs at EA I was getting worried, or do you count as Maxis staff?

TheMeanBoss said...

Less typing.
More gaming.
Get back in there.
Kick their butts!

Unknown said...

Jeff:

Ben on Lost killed an entire village full of innocent people, including his own father. Regardless of what else he does on the show at this point, he will always be a bad guy.

Unknown said...

But Ben's dad was kind of a douche.

Anonymous said...

Jeff, you might've read this already, but I'm posting it anyway.

PC Gamer awarded Fallout 3 with its Game Of The Year Award. Emil Pagliarulo, one of the chief developers of Fallout 3, included this text in a sidebar.

"Only by playing games and immersing themselves in this wonderful industry will developers ever truly know what's good, what's bad, what's expected, what's been done before, and what's fresh and exciting.

There's a second component to that, and it sounds simple, but it's the toughest thing in the world: Devs, play your own games!

And don't do it with blinders on.

If you create gameplay and it sucks, be honest with yourself and make it better. Because if you think back to the best games ever made, one theme is really apparent. They're playable and fun. And that's because whoever created those games wanted to make something that they'd play.

I think this industry gets too wrapped up with demographics, focus testing, and genre classification.

You know what gamers want? Good games. So find your passion, understand what your audience wants, and work your heart out to make it happen."

Okay, some of that is pretty obvious - but sometimes it's the obvious stuff that gets overlooked.

It's interesting, because I'm always saying the exact same thing to writers. A writer will tell me that he's having a tough time writing his novel, and that the writing has become 'a daily struggle'. Okay, well, that's interesting - because if a writer isn't having fun writing a novel, then what are the chances that the reader is going to have fun reading it? If the novel is meant to be a commercial work then it has to be fun to read. It's amazing how many writers seem to forget that - or just don't know how to do it to begin with.

Can we please stop it with this word verification nonsense - every damned time I attempt to post something at this blog thing I end up getting the damned verification incorrect.

The Moose.

Unknown said...

Jeff I really hope you read this because it's a distinction I have had to make it my professional life. The work is separate from the artist.

Point being there are plenty of douchebags who make great art (Radiohead) and plenty of great people who make shitty art (too many to name). But the converse is also true, making good art DOESN'T make you a good person (see: Goya, Warhol, Pollock) and vice versa.

I don't know what I'm trying to say here other that I would love it if there was a ay to decouple people's self worth and their art work.

RJC said...

A Saying : Games are like Sausage...you REALLY don't want to know how it's made.

Unknown said...

I envy your job but sympathize with your exhaustion. No matter how fun or amazing a day on the set of a movie shoot goes - there's no feeling quite like laying down after a long day of work. There's also no feeling quite like trying to get out of bed the next day. I assume you're basically doing that 7 day/week. I'll laugh now but I graduate this spring with a gaming degree so I'll feel the pain too eventually ;)

- Nicholas Allain
www.nicholasallain.com

JSD said...

Heh, as a resident of Hawaii, I can attest that pineapple sellers on the beach must be naked, so you'd better be in shape. Actually, on the North Shore, the juice-and-soda-and-tshirt sellers are Pakistani. Is there any place in the world that doesn't have Pakistani retailers?

Well, my comment verification word is "bedapt", so that must be a sign to get in bed at my apartment, since I have work in the morning.

Great post, Jeff. Thanks for sharing, as always.

Anonymous said...

Yikes! I do/don't look forward to the hard days ahead in the business. Good luck to you Jeff!

Anonymous said...

Jeff, I was a huge fan of your old GFW podcast. With all the GFW guys making podcasts now, do you have any plans to make one? Maybe with Shawn Elliott. You guys had great chemistry and were hilarious.

Brian said...

Oh CGW/GFW/Dana/Jeff/Thierry/Lloyd/Shawn/Tom/Bruce/etc - you are missed.

Two questions for you Jeff:

- What is keeping you on wow? Not that it's not great, but this longtime (est. 2004) yet casual wow player has just run out of gas midway through 74. It's just starting to feel like the same old thing. What am I missing?

-Are you the voice on the Staples easy button? Is there something you're not telling us?

Signal to Noise said...

...and Jeff's blog entry 3~4 weeks later:

"Game Design is Hard, Part III"

I hung myself today. The end.


DON'T DO IT, JEFF! SAVE YOURSELF!

Anonymous said...

The Picard, I used to wonder about WOW addiction myself.

Although I played this game for about a week, in the end World Of Warcraft did absolutely nothing for me - and I suppose I should thank god... well, I don't believe in god, actually... I suppose I should thank Allah for that.

The thing is, I've learned not to ask the question that you just asked, because the truth is, there is no answer.

Did you ever see that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which everybody on board The Enterprise became addicted to a game which Riker had brought back from the planet Risa? Wesley Crusher and Ashley Judd began an investigation into the 'odd behavior' of the crew, and discovered that the game was basically a tool used to assimilate whole cultures. I think it was maybe a Borg tool?

Well, at least Wesley and Ashley were able to solve the problem there.

With WOW addiction there is no solution as of yet.

As far as this blog is concerned, I'm just mad - I'm mad that we're not getting more regular updates. This job thing that Green has got is getting in the way of all this.

I've just done the rounds of all twelve bloggers that I've been following religiously as of late, and only one person updated hers. So now I'm just plain bored and despondent.

I have an idea though - Green ought to put a camera on his head that's connected via satellite to the internet. That way he wouldn't even have to blog about his day. We could just sit there in front of our computers and watch him doing his thing. We could watch him at work, at his residence, when he's riding on his bike... hell, even when he's playing WOW.

I've even got a name for it.

Are you ready?

The Green Cam.

Hell, Green could even charge a monthly subscription fee for this. With sound we could even listen in on what game designers actually do for a living.

God I'm a genius. I might end up becoming a millionaire one day.

The Goose.

Unknown said...

Will "Game Design is Hard, Part II" have any DLC (Downloadable Content) coming down the pipe?

Anonymous said...

Quoted For Truth: James said: "Will 'Game Design is Hard, Part II' have any DLC (Downloadable Content) coming down the pipe?"

Correction: the idiom that you wanted use there, James, my lad, was 'coming down the pike'.

Not coming down the pipe.

A pipe is a contained, tubular device, usually used for the transportation of oil or water. A pike is trough that's open to the air, and usually transports water only.

A Pike is also a tasty salt water fish.

Oh my god it's true, you actually do learn something new everyday!

ICallItFutile said...

I saw Dustin Hoffman on the cover of a magazine, for a second I thought it was you.

Brian said...

To Anonymous above - I certainly do remember "The Game" - Ashley Judd's glorious first appearance on the small screen or screen of any size for that matter (she actually had a bit role as Ensign Loeffler in the episode immediately preceeding that one). That episode was odd for no other reason than we see Nurse Ogawa and Dr. Crusher having orgasms in turbolifts and such - that and Star Trek don't quite go together.

What was this thread about again?

Brian said...

Check that - Judd's initial bit part was in "Darmok", four episodes before "The Game", not immediately before it. Dammit.

Anonymous said...

Ah, the magnificent Darmok episode.

Darmok, and Jalad... at Tanagra!

Shaka, when the walls fell.

Temba, his arms wide!

Yeah, great, great episode, that one.

But seriously, Ashley Judd had a bit part in that? I did not know that. So it's true then, you really do learn something new every day!

Damn, now I'm in the mood. I'm going to watch that Darmok episode again... cause it's been a whole two weeks since I last watched that episode... heh, heh, heh.

And by the way, last night, coincidentally, I watched The Inner Light, that superb episode from Season Five in which Picard lives an entire life within the space of about fifteen minutes (I must've viewed this episode at least 12 times). I always get a bit choked up at the point where Batai, who's supposed to be dead, shows up and says to Picard... hello, old friend... and Picard turns around and sees him sitting there on the step... "Oh! Batai!" he says.

And also at the very end of the episode when Picard, alone in the dark in his room on board The Enterprise, puts the flute to his mouth and stats playing. Great, great episode.

Yeah what the hell was this blog about again?

Sorry Jeff, you're important too.

Not QUITE as important as Star Trek, but this is your blog after all.

The Goose

Brian said...

Yes - Ashley and her Judds had a very brief line when she was in Engineering and LaForge asked her to do something when they were trying to disable the Tamarian ship.

Justin said...

The Inner Light.

Was that the one where Picard's artificial heart was about to fail him, and Q gave him a chance to live his life again?

Anonymous said...

Laughing Man, the episode you're thinking of was an episode titled 'Tapestry'.

The theme of this show was basically that if you don't take chances in life then you'll likely never get ahead.

Picard travels back in time... sort of... and re-experiences his past. This time, he makes all the 'correct' decisions. But in making all the correct decisions he realizes that the 'correct' decisions usually aren't risky decisions, and hence have none of the associated rewards.

This episode also introduces the Nausicaans, an insanely ugly race of unscrupulous alien like characters - these particular Nausicaans rig the dom-jot table in attempt to swindle Picard and his cadet friend, Cory, out of their money.

Of course Q is orchestrating all of this in order to teach Picard a lesson.

There's one scene in particular that's slightly uncomfortable to watch - it involves Captain Picard sitting at the table conversing with Counselor Troy and Commander Riker. In this alternate reality, Picard, because he never took chances when he was younger, never rose in the ranks, and so never became an officer. Here he's just a 'blue shirt', meaning that he's only a member of the science team. It's a difficult scene to watch because Picard has had all of his powers removed, and has essentially been reduced to the size of a pigmy. Imagine walking into a 7/11 store and seeing that the guy behind the counter is Barack Obama - okay, you get the picture.

I'd recommend that you don't take this show to heart though, because in reality, the 'correct', or 'non-risky decisions', are usually the right decisions. In other words, if you go around making risky decisions all the time, because you don't want to end up like Picard did on the show, then you'll probably just end up regretting mostly everything you do - I speak from personal experience here.

That beautiful blond woman sitting at the bar who looks like she'll reject you if you go up and try to have a chat with her, for example - yeah, well you can take all the chances you want to take, but she's still going to reject you.

I mean, probably she will. She might not do if she turns out to be a guy. But then, do you really want to go home with a guy pretending to be a beautiful blond? Probably not.

I mean, life is not like it is in Star Trek. At all. Which is a damned shame really. Transporters in particular would make my morning commute to work a whole lot more enjoyable.

See, this is why I love this blog, and a few others like it. I can write stuff like this and nobody I know will ever know about it.

I can be myself here.

The Moose.

Sang said...

I was rummaging through my old GFW magazines and randomly read your Greenspeak about Cudgel of Xanthor. Amazing. I can't wait. You should be in marketing.

TheMeanBoss said...

D-uh, d'uh, duh. Blizzard FINALLY admits they nerfed the hunter class!!!!!!! (http://g4tv.com/thepile/videos/36585/The-MMO-Report-Thursday-February-5th.html) It only took 10 million people to tell Blizzard to stop breast feeding the death knight. People 1; Customer Service 0.

Okay, lesson for Directx6 RPG hippo MMO: Admit she's not big boned, rubenesque, or phat. Don't go rescaling any part of her, take away the seaweed buff to see if it helps, or just to go pleasing the hippo parents. Serious! lol

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Cudgel of Xanthor, a lot of people are speculating that Joaquin Phoenix is doing something similar.

Did you see him on Letterman - spooky.

He claims he's quit acting to purse a career as a hip hop artist.

What's amazing here is that yet again we're seeing how people have an amazing capacity for the truth - the speculation is that he and some other guy are deliberately doing this to film a 'mockumentary'.

I'm not buying into it either.

John Rivett said...

Someone replaced Jeff's picture with Max Headroom 2.0

Anonymous said...

GAH! BEARD!

Unknown said...

SHAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stephen said...

Have the hockey playoffs started already, Jeff?

What's with the corn catcher?

Anonymous said...

That's not Jeff Green - it's Stephen Spielberg.

Anonymous said...

And the transformation of Jeff Green is complete. He's started thinking of game reviews from the developers point of view of "Give us a 10 because of how hard we work!" and not the facts that they give scores based on how good the game is. Wow, it's like he was never in the game review business for 10+ years.

Jeff Green said...

@MOT: Huh?? That's exactly what I said NOT to do, dude. :)

Hopefully you were kidding.

Anonymous said...

Sorry you didn't get it Jeff. I was trying to be ironic, backfired big time.

Jeff Green said...

MOT--I'm old and stupid. Just ignore me. :)

Peter Åsberg said...

Moose posted this earlier:

"There's a second component to that, and it sounds simple, but it's the toughest thing in the world: Devs, play your own games!

And don't do it with blinders on."

I can assure you that devs are (usually) more critical than anyone of their own work. When you play the game for a year or two, you can get quite sick of it, not to mention the fact that you get to see all the bugs and you know all the little quirks that inevitably creep in so in the end it's kind of seeing a wonderful painting with large chunks ripped out while what the consumer will see is a complete painting since they don't know what is missing. Unless marketing has gone mad.

We see the faults and a bit of game, consumers see the game and a few faults if you know what I mean :)

Also, no one sets out to intentionally create a bad game (unless they are idiots). Sadly there are a million billion reasons why a game turns out shit raging from incompetence to outside influences to disasters.

Green, best of luck with the new game, I saw Sim Animals in the store the other day and thought to myself; "Jeffs first game is out, must be a nice feeling for him"

And update more often damnit, we need your wise words! Twitter is only 140 characters, it's not enough!

Regards,

P

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Anonymous said...

Making a game is as hard if not harder than creating a full length musical album. It involves more (if not as many) people, years of technical expertise, ingenuity, craftsmanship, and artistic talent. But unlike a musical album, games introduce the element of interactivity, and hence the element of game dynamics and psychology. And at the end of the day, those lucky enough to be in the game design business are rock stars of their own like. Salute.

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