Game Developers Rant: Reality Is Broken And We're Supposed To Fix It
Not all of GDC is about what game developers are doing right, and certain designers got the chance to get that off their chests at the regular Game Designers Rant panel at GDC. This year featured Ubisoft's Clint Hocking, thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen, ARG designer Jane McGonigal, Everyday Shooter creator Jonathan Mak, and Puzzle Pirate's creator Daniel James. In their talks, most of the five settled on the idea that games were stuck in a rut, and weren't doing enough to live up to their potential. From McGonigal's rant:
Compared to rest of the world we have it all figured out. We invented a medium that kicks every other media's ass... We occupy more brain cycles, make more people happy than any other medium in the world. Basically, we've won already... The bad news is we rule the virtual world. In truth, reality is too messy, we don't want to fix reality, we want to create alternative realities. Reality is broken, [and] we are the people that are supposed to fix it, as the smartest people on planet.
Hocking's rant touched on similar ground, lamenting the fetishism of objects in game worlds over genuine human emotions and experiences. Chen also complained about the game industry's arrested development, wishing that game developers could give gamers a more mature environment that reflects their changing experiences. Mak's rant consisted of music, pantomime, and balloons while he passed out inspirational messages to the audience. James concluded the panel by pointing out exactly how far each segment of gaming has come in thirty years, and emphasized that game developers need to be aware of the responsibility they now have to not just a small segment of gamers, but now society as well.
GDC: Game Designers Rant On Making Games That Matter [Gamasutra]
Dawdle
Posted to GDC, Video Games on 23 February 2008
· Comments (1)
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Name: Dave
Jane McGonigal's rant was one of the most inspiring, awesome, Yahtzee-esque game-related speech I've ever heard. I've got it on audio file, partially corrupted but still worth listening to - I'll upload it if I can!