netmonkey

Why Games Suck:

Recommended Posts

It's because game developers are nothing more than nerdy software engineers that want to make games that add up mathematical stats and simulate physics and emulate their favorite action movies when they were 10 years old, therefore we get poor results in games that are enjoyable. You never see a film camera engineer making movies... that would be just terrible! He would just try to make the best looking shot as possible. Sure, all the videophiles will think it's pretty, but it would suck so much ass because he has no clue what he's really doing. People who like watching movies would probably think it's dumb. (Take that, DOOM!)

Miyamoto didn't have an engineering degree, Keita Takahashi wasn't an engineer either. So, why do you need to be either an artist or an engineer to make games? Can't you just be a video gamemaker? A combination of both design and storytelling with a few programming theories involved?

Discuss.

Edit: I've revised my craaaazy ideas a little bit. See page 2.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Miyamoto and Takahashi were both working in their companies art departments before they made games... Miyamoto painted arcade cabinet art, and Takahashi was a concept artist... they were "artists or engineers" by trade, not "gamemakers."

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I suppose, but Miyamoto came out from a time were games were mostly on arcades and home consoles and computers were rather primitive. There was no room for storytelling until the early 90s when the super nintendo and computers that could play Monkey Island were around.

I guess the concept of a gamemaker changes dramatically with the release of more advanced techonlogy that allows more rich enviroments and such, in general.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh, so THAT's why games suck. I was wondering why I hated video games so much.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What if I, you know, uh... like games?

I'll agree that some things in gaming could be better if there was more artistry involved, but games have their foundation in computing and therefore logic which in turn means that knowing what is going on behind the scenes is useful for someone who is going to give form to an idea.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
one vital thing wrong with this argument = games dont actually suck at all.

That's what Sierra adventure fans thought before The Secret of Monkey Island came out. Or what any Tomb Raider fan thought before any action-adventure came out after Tomb Raider. ;)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

that argument donest make any sense

some games suck sure, for instance sierra games were always pretty sucky and tomb raider sucked from the word go, thats just one man's opinion though.

but saying 'games suck' is dumb

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Saying that isn't right, I agree with you there. I just want to know if that was netmonkey's point or if there was more to it that I failed to grasp. I mean, I can see some validity in complaining about how games in some cases feel a bit too stale and generally not very artiscally free.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think that you are wrong netmonkey when you say that games suck because "game developers are nothing more than nerdy software engineers". I think we all agree here to say that the content of a game is determined by a game designer or a producer... if you check in those guys' background you won't see software engineers.

Some games sucks because there's a million reasons for projects to fail and only a fistful reasons for them to succeed. That's all. The way you put it is amazingly stupid.

Sidenote-> Spaff, I have been wondering for a while : is your cap key broken or what?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
It's because game developers are nothing more than nerdy software engineers that want to make games that add up mathematical stats and simulate physics and emulate their favorite action movies when they were 10 years old, therefore we get poor results in games that are enjoyable. You never see a film camera engineer making movies... that would be just terrible! He would just try to make the best looking shot as possible. Sure, all the videophiles will think it's pretty, but it would suck so much ass because he has no clue what he's really doing. People who like watching movies would probably think it's dumb. (Take that, DOOM!)

Miyamoto didn't have an engineering degree, Keita Takahashi wasn't an engineer either. So, why do you need to be either an artist or an engineer to make games? Can't you just be a video gamemaker? A combination of both design and storytelling with a few programming theories involved?

Discuss.

Are you on drugs? Gabe Newell was a nerdy engineer in the windows department in Microsoft, and his company came up with Half Life. Tim Schafer was a computer science major and he is the most beloved gaming figure here in the thumbs.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Why do we have to talk in absolutes? There are no absolutes. One thing is true, tho. No geeky designer with only computer science, Sci-Fi and D&D on his mind (stereotypically speaking) has ever created anything worth spit.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think we need to get to the bottom of "What makes software engineers all nerdy and only interested in making games that add up mathematical stats and simulate physics and emulate their favorite action movies when they were 10 years old, therefore leading to poor results in games that are enjoyable?" I'll go mine some data and see if anything turns up.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Tim Schafer was a computer science major and he is the most beloved gaming figure here in the thumbs.

Well, he was also a creative writing major, which says a lot.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Kingsjester is getting it.

First, my post title is just a title. It's not an absolute, but I figured you forumites would get it. I guess I was wrong.

I'm not trying to say that games (the good games that are out there) are bad, but it seems that you guys are taking as objectively as a review on gamespot.

Let's take soccerdude's examples:

Gabe Newell was a nerdy engineer in the windows department in Microsoft, and his company came up with Half Life.

Half-Life is a good game, I agree. I think Gabe and the Valve team got it and they took it in the right step, but the setting is still science ficition future, and it's still a first-person shooter. Those are things nerdy guys like, and it's a game very much designed for gamers. Does your sister play half-life? It might appeal to her, if she's 1) nerdy or 2) a tomboy. I'm sure some people actually cared about the storyline but from what I've heard, the majority got into because of Counter Strike, which has nothing to do with the single player experience. I was actually more interested about city 17 and who were the characters and what they were doing instead of shooting shit around. Maybe I'm just weird.

Tim Schafer was a computer science major and he is the most beloved gaming figure here in the thumbs.

Tim Schafer also took creative writing, which lead him to write pretty crazy things that somehow ended up becoming games. But when he actually did programming on SCUMM, there was no physics or 3d mathematics for him to deal with. I wonder if he could have been able to get a job programming games right now in 2005.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It's also worth noting that Schafer originally planned for a career as a short story author. When he got out of college he had a database job lined up but that was a "pay the bills" type of thing.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Well, he was also a creative writing major, which says a lot.

That doesn't mean he is not a nerdy software engineer. Can't nerdy software engineers have other hobbies as well?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
That doesn't mean he is not a nerdy software engineer. Can't nerdy software engineers have other hobbies as well?

Sure, but he wasn't a nerdy software engineer first and a writer second, it was the other way around. Schafer wanted a career as a writer. He's a writer, with other hobbies such as programming, which he doesn't even do much of anymore.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Half-Life is a good game, I agree. I think Gabe and the Valve team got it and they took it in the right step, but the setting is still science ficition future, and it's still a first-person shooter. Those are things nerdy guys like, and it's a game very much designed for gamers. Does your sister play half-life? It might appeal to her, if she's 1) nerdy or 2) a tomboy. I'm sure some people actually cared about the storyline but from what I've heard, the majority got into because of Counter Strike, which has nothing to do with the single player experience. I was actually more interested about city 17 and who were the characters and what they were doing instead of shooting shit around. Maybe I'm just weird.

How about Halo? It's science fiction, a first person shooter, and supposedly a lot of extreme and cool people play it. And who said that nerds like to play FPS. So if girls don't play FPS'es that means all guys are nerds?

How about Will Wright. He's the biggest nerd if I have ever seen one, and he has created a game that all girls can play.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You have nerdy to a certain degree to do anything technical, but Schafer looks like he is more of a humanities guy, which I think is what I think works best for games that can appeal to everyone.

Didn't we learn anything from Revenge of the Nerds III? :shifty:

Will Wright usually invents his own type of game everytime he does something that is pure genious. And you're right, he is a nerd... but he gets it. He doesn't seem to base his games on his favorite movies. Unless he loves soap operas!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
You have nerdy to a certain degree to do anything technical, but Schafer looks like he is more of a humanities guy, which I think is what I think works best for games that can appeal to everyone.

Not only is this horribly bigoted, it is also incorrect.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.