Editor’s Choice

In response to “Ten Things That Don’t Suck About the Game Industry” from The Escapist Forum: I’m 20. I’m just entering my third year of computer science. I have intended for 15 years now, in that naive, childish way, to “make video games“. That goal’s evolved somewhat: I want to enter the industry as a developer, and through hard work, unique accomplishments, and pitches to the higher-ups, become a designer/director. Hard ladder to climb, but I don’t care, because reading articles like this make me smile and when I feel good about the games industry I feel good about me and where I’m gonna be ten years from now.

You hear that world? Here’s an eleventh thing that doesn’t suck: We, the Developers, who live and love gaming! Screw the crunch, screw the burn-out. We rise above it to make the best damn entertainment on the planet.

– BobisOnlyBob

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In response to “The Crystal Ball” from The Escapist Forum: I hope that digital distribution doesn’t overtake physical copy sales.

Like a lot of people, I like having something that I can hold, something I feel like I own; a game box, a CD case. Something I can show and lend to my friends; something with artwork and a manual (even if manuals these days are about as interesting as a big business handbook).

With digital distribution also comes the problem of DRM. Microsoft, well, isn’t doing such a good job with it. We need much better DRM policies if digital distribution is going to take off anytime soon.

– zoozilla

I mostly agree with you, however :

“Games will be respected soon because gamers will grow up and become politicians.”

Ahaa no. There is a difference between being a gamer and playing games. while it is LIKELY (55%) that a politician who plays/played games will exist, they will not be a gamer.

“And as for developers, they’ll likely continue to coalesce into more formidable entities with more business savvy than ever.”

This is being optimistic. It also requires developers to grow some balls, and say no to selling out completely. It will be slow, and in the ideal state, the publisher will merely take the finished game, and distrubute it and provide advertising.

Another way it could go is that the indie scene will dwindle due to people being not brave enough to join it, and publishers will take away more from the developers at every cycle.

I for one would like it to be the first catagory, but I’m not sure on what will happen.

– Jackpot

In response to “A Three-Year History of Gaming” from The Escapist Forum: another great article, Mr. Pitts. Yes, the industry has indeed come quite far in its short life span. I’m excited to see where it will go from here. personally i hope this trend of dumbing games down doesn’t continue. As of late i’ve been turning back to classic games to get my complexity fix. I can understand making games more appealing for the larger market, but i hope at least a few companies keep making games for the more in depth people like myself.

– the_tralfalmadorian

I enjoyed this article very much. I’m pleased to see that Myst made it into this broad overview, since it is a particular obsession of mine (but no, I haven’t bought the DS version, either.) I have a question, though: When you say that “It took almost a decade for anyone to follow [Myst’s] lead,” what are you referring to? From my point of view, no game (excluding Riven) has tried to do what Myst did since… But if so, I would be very interested to check it out.

Oh, and by the way, hi everyone. I’m Steven. I’ve been reading this fine publication for some time; it’s an honor to finally become part of its community.

– Rampancy

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In response to “The Age of the World-Builders” from The Escapist Forum: An interesting read, but all you’re essentially saying is that as technology has improved, developers are able to create more realistic and interesting environments. I’m disappointed that you’ve just stuck to RPG’s and (of all things) MMO’s. I also disagree with the early quote regarding characters: in MMO’s especially, the character is treated more as a vehicle for traversing the game world, and most certainly are not a “character”. Perhaps this is different in the CoV/H games, where customisation actually counts for something.

There’s more to world building than terrain and architecture, and Oblivion is one of the games that I think just didn’t have that extra *something*. Something that makes you feel like you aren’t just increasing your character’s stat block as you hunt down orcs, or as you venture into the mountain cave, that you’re trying to take down a dragon because it’s actually important to do so, and not just because you want the next epic armour piece in the item set, or the XP or quest reward from the (usually completely static) NPC you found.

Fallout (the original), now THAT had something. Lots of games have it. I think even GTA 4 has it, and is one of the titles that would have been a better example.

But as a rule, MMO’s don’t, and (in my opinion) nor does Oblivion.

– darkhart666