The interesting thing about it is I can’t figure out what the logical conclusion of his point is supposed to be.
Is it:
“Don’t ever make licensed games”
or
“Only losers make licensed games”
I guess there is a point that licenses won’t push the market forward, but I’m not sure it’s a good one.
TOON was a brilliant game. Paranoia was fantastic conceptually, and great to play with the right group, but it was bogged down by clumsy mechanics.
I still wish someone would do a Paranoia game for the PC, though. Sorry, Greg… ;)
It looks to me like he’s just ranting without making any kind of coherent point. After reading more about him, I still think he’s a great game designer, but sheesh, wotta blowhard.
It’s a blog. It comes with a contractual obligation to rant, so it probably shouldn’t take it too out of context.
But it doesn’t help that Warren Spector is witty and has a number of well-argued points to his credit.
Now I didn’t actually see the movie, but didn’t it essentially feature naval combat in space? How does that make the game radical?
Now I didn’t actually see the movie, but didn’t it essentially feature naval combat in space? How does that make the game radical?[/quote]
How does it find its audience? Will the people who go to see a Disney cartoon movie aimed at kids be interested in a somewhat hardcore strategy game of naval combat? Will the gamers who are interested in playing a game of naval combat – in space no less! – have any inkling that a Disney cartoon game might fit the bill?
To me it seems like the natural audience for the game would be people who would have little interest in seeing the movie, and that the people interested in seeing the movie (kids mostly) would have little interest in playing that kind of strategy game.
The stores didn’t know how to handle it either. Besides being hard to find, when I could find it, more often than not it was in the “edutainment” section next to Carmen Sandiego and Backyard Baseball.
Ah, thanks. I’m not familiar with “blog” standards. So maybe he’s not such a jerk?
I think when an animated film gets turned into a strategy game, as opposed to an action/adventure game, it’s a radical departure from the norm. How many strategy games can you think of that were based on properties licensed from other media? I’m sure there are some, but I can’t think of any right now – oh wait, Birth of the Federation was one. If the Treasure Planet game had followed the usual course, it would probabaly have been turned into an arcade shooter or some such.
It was made into an arcade game. I believe there are three different Treasure Planet games.
Wow. I didn’t know they were doing that much merchandising for it.
X-Com: UFO Defense
Dune 2
Dune 2000
Emperor: Battle for Dune
Starship Troopers
Braveheart
JRR Tolkien’s War in Middle Earth
Super Robot Wars Alpha
Mobile Suit Gundam: Perfect One Year War
Mobile Suit Gundam- Giren’s Greed “Blood of Zion”
Star Wars: Rebellion
Star Wars: Force Commander
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds - The Clone Campaigns
Star Trek: Armada
Star Trek: Armada II
Star Trek: Away Team
Star Trek: New Worlds
Star Trek: ConQuest Online
Starfleet Command
Starfleet Command II
Starfleet Command II: Orion Pirates
Starfleet Command III
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars
That was me.
Okay, I guess I have to take back X-Com, because they changed the name to avoid paying a license.
And goddam, can’t believe I forgot one of my favorites:
Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, a licensed strategy game adaptation of a rock musical!
Gads. It’s a good thing that licensed games are all crap or we’d have to say that was a damn impressive list of titles that Jumping Jesus just posted.
Some of them don’t even suck, or wouldn’t have sucked if they weren’t licenses, or something.
Damn you! I was going to say that one! That’s alright, I can play too!
Wargames
Waterworld
Fantasy Empires and Birthright, both D&D licenses.
Wow. I didn’t know they were doing that much merchandising for it.[/quote]
Yeah, several games, game demos included in McDonald’s Happy Meals, etc. I think it bombed at the box office, though. That undoubtedly hurt game sales too.
I’ve been reading some of the fallout from this article all week. Positively ridiculous.
A game is a game. A license does not make a game good or bad, fun or not fun (sorry Tom). Game design does.
Working on licensed properties is not factory scutwork unless you let it be. Working on your own IP isn’t necessarily more successful creatively than working with a license. And anybody who believes that they have something revolutionary to contribute to game design better take a long, hard fucking look in the mirror and ask themselves if they really think they’re such hot shit.
:evil:
Sounds a little too much like a self-help slogan. If the game you’re working on sucks balls and you’re not the producer/lead designer, there’s not much you can do to “let it be” other than factory scutwork.
A pretty reactionary statement. Glad you’re not a schoolteacher. (I hope.) Sounds like you’d be telling the kids to ditch their dreams and go work at Wal-Mart like god intended.
Re-Animator. Best. Disembodied Head. Cunningilus. Scene. EVAR!!11!
(EVAR [tm] 1999-2003 Fark, Inc. Used with Permission.)
The extended-pineal gland thing is from From Beyond, though, so you need to fine tune your pop-80’s-Stuart-Gordon-films-reference gland by poking a bloody q-tip into the hole and swirling it around until things click. From Beyond has the best Barbara Crampton interracial dominatrix sex scene ever, though (with Ken Foree from Dawn of the Dead playing someone named “Bubba Brownlee” - my last name!). So you’re close.
By the way, interesting anecdote about the Re-Animator “giving head” scene. Apparently, at the premiere of Re-Animator, David Gale (who played Dr. Carl Hill, said decapitated head) brought his wife along, who stood up in the middle of that particular scene, walked out and immediately initiated divorce proceedings.