Journalism and bias in the gaming industry

[Amentep]

I am also pretty sure that even the most unoriginal and boring AAA title is still made by people working their tails off on art and programming.  The people phoning it in are most likely in management.  

 

I don't think anyone intentionally sets out to make a bad game.

 

Its always the unintentional stuff that gets you.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Capitalism for some, walking simulators for others

...did you just quote Hellraiser?

[Meshugger]

 

Capitalism for some, walking simulators for others

...did you just quote Hellraiser?

 

 

It was an abbrivation from The Simpsons: "American flags for some, abortions for others"

 

But where in Hellraiser is there a similar quote?

[Hurlshort]

Adrian Chmielars, the man behind games like Painkiller, Bulletstorm and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter has a good write-up on the closure of Tale of Tales:

 

http://www.theastronauts.com/2015/06/what-really-happened-to-tale-of-tales-sunset/

 

 

While I don't like to see anybody go out of business, my disposition to them gets somewhat soured when they go and say things like this:

 

Are they Kanadian?  Roofles!

 

Volo, they are stealing your schtick.  Sue them! 

Edited June 23, 2015 by Hurlshot

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

 

 

Capitalism for some, walking simulators for others

 

...did you just quote Hellraiser?

 

It was an abbrivation from The Simpsons: "American flags for some, abortions for others"

 

But where in Hellraiser is there a similar quote?

In the first film, when the protagonist meets Pinhead.

 

"Demons to some, Angels to others."

[Meshugger]

[Fighter]

I see their comments are about as intelligent as their actual games were.

[Keyrock]

Burning bridges - Always a smart exit strategy. 

 

They did a Kickstarter campaign, got in over their heads, lost their shirts when their project ultimately failed, and now it's everybody else's fault but their own.  I've seen this movie before.

 

I'd feel bad for them if they didn't go out full on ***hole style.  They were trying to make games that were different, more emotional, more, for lack of a better term, artsy.  I frankly don't think they made very good "games", but I appreciated their attempt to go down a different path and use the medium in a more unconventional way.  The thing is, there's a reason the term "starving artist" exists.  The VAST majority of artists fail, that's true now, that was true 1000 years, that will be true 1000 years from now.  

 

I get that telling your customer base to **** off and demonizing them can be cathartic, but it's extremely short sighted.  You may never intend to make another game right this moment, but what if you change your mind a year from now?  Guess what's going to haunt you?

Edited June 23, 2015 by Keyrock

[Orogun01]

Burning bridges - Always a smart exit strategy. 

 

They did a Kickstarter campaign, got in over their heads, lost their shirts when their project ultimately failed, and now it's everybody else's fault but their own.  I've seen this movie before.

 

I'd feel bad for them if they didn't go out full on ***hole style.  They were trying to make games that were different, more emotional, more, for lack of a better term, artsy.  I frankly don't think they made very good "games", but I appreciated their attempt to go down a different path and use the medium in a more unconventional way.  The thing is, there's a reason the term "starving artist" exists.  The VAST majority of artists fail, that's true now, that was true 1000 years, that will be true 1000 years from now.  

 

I get that telling your customer base to **** off and demonizing them can be cathartic, but it's extremely short sighted.  You may never intend to make another game right this moment, but what if you change your mind a year from now?  Guess what's going to haunt you?

I'm pretty sure that Van Gogh  would had burnt a lot of bridges if he had Twitter, plus the whole Da Vinci Michelangelo beef would had some historical record.

[Keyrock]

^ Yeah.  It's one of the myriad of reasons I stay away from social media like the plague.  I've left a job on bad terms before.  My blow up wasn't quite as spectacular nor broadcast nearly as loudly, but I still regret it and it did cost me.  I'd like to think I've matured a bit since then (some might beg to differ), but I know I am still capable of losing it and having a really stupid outburst.  I'd like to keep said outburst contained to as small an audience as possible.  Broadcasting it to the entire world would be less than ideal, methinks.

 

Twitter can be a really terrible tool when used impulsively, which is, ironically, exactly how it was designed to be used.  

Edited June 23, 2015 by Keyrock

[Oerwinde]

This is going to lead to the same bad arguments the comics community gets. When we bitch about changing established characters for "diversity" rather than creating new characters to fill the gaps, the main argument we get is "its too hard for new characters to get traction, so its better to change existing ones". Now we've been saying that if the SJWs want their art games that take 30 seconds to play, to make them themselves, and their argument is going to be "well its too hard to succeed doing that, so the established industry should just change to what we want"

[Amentep]

Not sure that comparison fits; there are independent comics out there that succeed far better than some mainstream comics.  So the industry is different.

 

The move of rebadging IP characters from the Big 2 in US Comics is heavily bound to the fact that the market where comics are sold is an increasingly insular one.

[Nonek]

A game can be emotionally engaging, complicated, deal with contentious issues and still appeal to a mass audience. This is not a binary situation. A small indie game can also be brainless, fun, challenging and violent as all hell such as Volgarr the Viking. Neither AAA or indie has exclusive rights on approaches.

[Orogun01]

This is going to lead to the same bad arguments the comics community gets. When we bitch about changing established characters for "diversity" rather than creating new characters to fill the gaps, the main argument we get is "its too hard for new characters to get traction, so its better to change existing ones". Now we've been saying that if the SJWs want their art games that take 30 seconds to play, to make them themselves, and their argument is going to be "well its too hard to succeed doing that, so the established industry should just change to what we want"

Free market rules...or maybe they're incompetent.

[GhoulishVisage]

 

 

I think Broteam might be onto something with his assessment of them.

[Blarghagh]

"You're wrong because I name drop fancy names that smart people have told me are smart."

[Ganrich]

I listen to a genre of music that isn't popular in America. I doubt if I were in a band that it would win any grammies. I would likely play for pennies in the states.

[Keyrock]

I think people should just leave them be.  Let them crawl up their own ***holes in peace.

[Zoraptor]

 

 

I think Broteam might be onto something with his assessment of them.

 

Could have at least picked some gaming examples instead of Rocky.

 

Did Mike Thorton give up after he was betrayed by his employers, nearly killed and had everyone under the sun misspelling his name? No, he persevered and kept going, succeeded then went off on a speedboat into the sunset with his love interest. And yes, I'm counting Steve Heck as a love interest, he's the most bromantic guy in existence.

 

Evils of capitalism? Try playing Baldur's Gate where your equipment falls apart and you're trying to scrape up the money to get a resurrection from those extortionate Goldman-Sachs wannabe charlatans- but no, if you actually disbelieve you're going to The Wall, and not that cushy Game of Thrones winter holiday park wall either. To quote the well known libertarian and agnostic Ronald Reagan: Mr Kelemvor, tear down that wall!- in the local temple of Ilmater where despite being a destitute dragging several corpses around while half naked I need more signs of impoverishment to get a simple resurrect- that's real hardship. And where if you have SCS the enemies are all horrendous goose stepping powergaming munchkins, let alone that for the first dozen hours you're one critical hit from an xvart away from restarting or needing a resurrect. Still, persevere and you yourself can become a god, or retire happily with your love interest. Who will still get brutally killed if she's black, whatever you do.

 

System Shock 2? You can't even simply pull the trigger on a shotgun half the time and have to hit people with a plumbing implement, and when you can pull the trigger the evils of capitalism and its lowest bid mentality mean it will stop working after a dozen or so shots then you get eaten by a bloody over sized spider or a howler monkey a supposed scientist describes as a 'chimp'. But persevere and you get... Ken Levine saying 'nah' in a poor in game engine video and a hook for a non existent sequel. Maybe not the best example. But hey, don't sell the rights to Sunset, you never know if the game might sell 1.4 million copies*, fifteen years after it would have been useful!

 

Planescape Torment? You're a complete dong, albeit an amnesiac one, who has asterisked up the multiverse and has to live with that over and over. Or go fight in a perpetual (until a later edition tamely ends it, at least) war, forever, in penance. Merely quitting the game industry is pretty tame in comparison to fighting a perpetual demonic war, so chin up.

 

*Seriously, System Shock 2 has sold 1.4 million copies since its re-release.

[Hurlshort]

Not knowing Rocky doesnt mean you are out of touch with pop culture. It just means you are out of touch. It is an iconic piece of film. There is a statue up of it in Philly.

Edited June 23, 2015 by Hurlshot

[Orogun01]

Not knowing Rocky doesnt mean you are out of touch with pop culture. It just means you are out of touch. It is an iconic piece of film. There is a statue up of it in Philly.

The thing is that they knew enough of Rocky to make a quip about how it would be better to communicate to them in terms of more obscure directors which are lauded for their talent. So they clearly knew that Rocky as part of pop culture and they used the contrast to communicate a bit about themselves. Namely that they are pretentious twats that consume not for joy but because they want to feel superior to others. I don't think that they meant to come off that way but nature will out.

 

BTW, if you need a good contrast of what an actual cinephile behaves like you only need to look to our own Amentep who manages to be passionate about film without being smug about it. Kudos.

[Bartimaeus]

Well, Amentep is like the coolest person in general on these entire forums, so that's only natural, really...
 

[Calax]

So... uh... Kotaku's parent company might be dead if Hulk Hogan wins a law suit.

 

Specifically because Gawker posted the Hogan sextape on their website, and Hogan is suing for 129 million dollars.

 

http://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/hulk-hogans-129-million-sex-tape-battle-could-have-lasting-implications-for-privacy-attitudes/story-fno61i58-1227402778077

[BruceVC]

So... uh... Kotaku's parent company might be dead if Hulk Hogan wins a law suit.

 

Specifically because Gawker posted the Hogan sextape on their website, and Hogan is suing for 129 million dollars.

 

http://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/hulk-hogans-129-million-sex-tape-battle-could-have-lasting-implications-for-privacy-attitudes/story-fno61i58-1227402778077

Interesting, well I hope he loses the lawsuit, the last thing we want is websites like Kotaku to be closed down. Its important that basically almost  any website is allowed to flourish, how else would we get dissenting views on topics?

Edited June 24, 2015 by BruceVC

[Bartimaeus]

Why does the reason you hope he loses the lawsuit have nothing to do with the lawsuit itself? Shouldn't the merits of the lawsuit be evaluated before saying you hope he loses?