At this year’s GDC, a panel of people
(Warren Spector, Greg Costikyan, Jason Della Rocca, Chris Hecker, and Brenda
Laurel) held a “we hate the games industry” rant entitled “Burning Down The
House.” Jason and Chris sounded sensible, Brenda waxed ridiculous, and I have issues
with what Warren and Greg had to say. This is my response, for whatever it’s
worth to you. Please note that as no official transcripts are available, I’ve
used the Alice transcript (http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/2005/03/burn_the_house_.html)
for my quotes. If they’re incorrect, I apologize in advance.
I
have a lot of respect for what Warren and Greg have accomplished in the past
and hope that neither of them will take what follows as a personal insult. It’s
intended as constructive criticism of their position, not an attack on them as
people or game developers. Again, these guys are extremely accomplished.
There’s no denying that. However, that doesn’t mean they’re right. My viewpoint
is that they are talented people who are caught in the past, unwilling or
unable to adapt to new realities.
To put my views in context, let me briefly
summarize where I’m coming from. I founded and run Iron Realms Entertainment. A
more indie game developer would be hard to find. We self-publish. No
relationships with any sort of games aggregate sites, no investment from anyone
in the games community, etc. Plus, we make text MUDs/MMOS. Pretty darn niche. There
aren’t too many genres less likely to reach a mass market than this one.
I
started Iron Realms (formerly known as Achaea LLC) in 1996 as the sole full-time
developer. I did everything, from design to coding to the pathetic “marketing”
we did back then. We’ve now got four successful, profitable text MMOs and 10
full-time developers. I love what I do and I believe so does everybody that
works with me. We don’t have to put up with crunch time, we don’t have to deal
with anyone censoring our content, and we have complete creative control over what we do. We’ll never be as polished
as Worlds of Warcraft is and we’ll never be awarded Game of the Year by major
publications, but on the other hand, they’ll never approach the depth certain aspects
of our games achieve, and they can’t even dream about the amount of design
freedom we have.
And yet, according to Warren and Greg, we
and others like us apparently don’t exist at worst or are aberrations at best.
That’s nonsense and I’m calling them on it.
Warren
Spector:
OK. I
don’t feel very ranty actually. I tried to bail on this panel. But I have to
say something so I want to say how this business is hopelessly broken. Haha.
We’re doing pretty much everything wrong. This is at the root of much of what
you’re gonna hear today. Games cost too much. They take too long to make. The
whole concept of word of mouth, remember that? Holy cow it was nice.
What is “too much?” Is the right amount
defined by what they cost when you got into the industry? You sound remarkably
like most MUD/MMO players, who consistently complain that the game was better
when they started playing (regardless of when that time period was.) In fact,
as I write this, one of our admins on Achaea just said, “Don't players ever get bored of talking about how much
better things were when they were
newbies?”
And guess what? You’re free to make games
that operate by word of mouth. Our single biggest source of customers, with a
200% advantage over the 2nd biggest source, is word of mouth. I am
positive we are not unique. Are you going to make a game that sells 2 million
copies this way? Probably not. But then, it’s not going to cost anything like a
game that sells 2 million copies will either.
“Wal-Mart drives development decisions now.
Wal-Mart drives development decisions from
people who choose to make games to sell in Wal-Mart. No more, no less. If you
want to make games that Wal-Mart will sell, be my guest. Lots of money to be
made there, no doubt about it. Of course, many developers will have to censor
themselves to even get a game on its shelves. There’s nothing inherently wrong
with self-censorship, but let’s not pretend that the only way to support
yourself while making games is to work on the AAA titles that Wal-Mart carries.
My
first game cost me 273,000 dollars. My next one is BLAH millions. How many of
you work on games that make money? 4 out of 5 games lose money, according to
one pundit who may be lying, admittedly. Can we do any worse if we just trusted the
creative folks entirely instead of the publishers?
Sure, we can do a lot worse. The restaurant
industry loses 90% of new restaurants according to restaurant industry people
I’ve talked to. 80% would be a big improvement. The people starting those
restaurants are a LOT like most startup game developers. They think that because they
like food, they can run a restaurant.
If you want to make a game that costs
$273,000, why not go ahead and see what can be done on that amount? I think
quite a bit can be done, particularly if it’s interesting games and not just
eye and ear candy that is the appeal. Are you going to be on the cover of PC
Gamer from a $273,000 game today? No. Are you going to make millions on a $273,000
game? No. But then, did you make millions from your $273k game way back when?
I’m guessing not. Are you really concerned about games, or are you just pissed
off that you’re not getting a bigger piece of the pie?
We’re
the only medium that lacks an alternate distribution system.
I guess I wasn’t aware that I could make my
own movie, head on down to Loews and get it shown in their cinemas, and then
head on down to Blockbuster and Hollywood Video and have them carry my movies. I
guess I didn’t know that I could film my own tv pilot and head down to NBC to
have it aired. Silly me. What exactly is the alternative distribution system
for a tv show or movies?
Besides, we don’t lack alternative
distribution systems. Downloadable or web games are clearly viable. They may
not be viable for all kinds of games (obviously) but so what? A game based
around cooking the perfect risotto isn’t viable either. Should we be bitching
about that?
Developers..
why should we get a huge return? We’re taking some of the risk, but the $10m,
the marketing space, the retail space all belong to someone else. We have
winner-take-all business that carries a lot of risk. So .. we have
to find alternative sources of funding. Chris Crawford used to rant about how
we need patrons.. I don’t care if it’s wealthy patrons, I don’t care what it
IS, but it’s critical that we divorce funding from distribution.
Now you’re talking sense, Warren I can tell
you that none of the funding we’ve gotten for our games over the years has come
from anything related to distribution. The same is true of games like Three
Rings’ Puzzle Pirates or the wildly successful Runescape, by Jagex.
We
need alternative forms of distribution too. I’m not saying publishers suck,
although I do believe that in many cases. [laughter] If the plane went down
who would care about the marketing guys?
You would care, because your games would
sell jack without marketers. Most of your potential customers have never heard
of you and don’t care who you are. They’re buying your game either because of
the word of mouth you deride as no longer relevant or because the marketers
have convinced them to.
If you want to make games with a $25
million budget, deal with the baggage that comes along with it. If you’re just
interested in making interesting games, stop worrying about making $25 million
games. When you go smaller, you lose a lot of that baggage.
Has
everyone bought Bioware’s online modules? JUST BUY THEM, OK, even if you don’t
have the original games! We HAVE to get games into gamers’ hands.
Weird. I guess I didn’t realize that when I
purchased Halo 2 I wasn’t getting a game into my hands.
So
I’m not saying publishers are evil.. if we do all this and go direct to our
consumers with games funded some OTHER way than EA or whoever.. we’ll keep more
of the money.. we have to find someone to pay for it and find a buyer after. We
need Sundances. Independent Film Channel. Equivalents of those. Just try to
find some way of funding your stuff that doesn’t come from a publisher.
Finding ways to fund games isn’t the issue.
What you seem to want to do is create Jerry Bruckenheimer movies without studio
money. If you want to create games without a publisher, nothing is stopping
you. Anybody can take an extra mortgage out, max out their credit cards, borrow
from friends and family, etc. Hell, for our last 3 games all our investment
money has come from inside the community of Iron Realms players. You wouldn’t
believe how passionate some players are about seeing that the games they want
to see made get made. Is that method going to get you $20 million? Hell no.
But, it sounds to me like you want someone else to front the risk you want to
introduce to the process via attempting unproven game designs that aren’t
licensed and aren’t sequels. That’s a very laudable goal, of course, but it’s
also risky, and investors with $20 million to spare are generally in the
business of minimizing risk and maximizing returns…and rightly so.
The
movies have this now: the studios don’t fund everything that happens out there.
I’m not holding the movie business up as a model of great business practice,
but you can get $ from a wide variety of sources.
Same with games. Developers have gotten
money from governments, from angel investors, from VCs, from their own partners
or employees, and so on.
At
the very worst we need publishers to ask more than that one question: is this
going to generate max profit. For most games this is NOT THE RIGHT QUESTION.
Volkswagen owns rolls Royce….
Heh. Volkswagen owns Rolls Royce….and
charges massive sums of money for the products. Are you advocating $1000
single-player games? Do you seriously believe that VW execs are sitting back
thinking, “Hmm, shareholders and market be damned! Let’s just make a kick-ass
car!” (Incidentally, I singled out single-player games because some players
will spend way more than $1000 for MUDs/MMOs.)
You’re also kind of contradicting yourself.
Earlier you talked about getting developers more money. Now you’re attacking
that motivation when it’s a publisher trying to make more money.
Greg
Costikyan:
The
story of the past few decades is not about graphics and processing power, but
startling innovation and industry.
What? You really believe that? Tell me the
first thing that games market to people. I’ll tell you something. It’s not
their AI or their design. I can’t say I’m happy about it either, but graphics
and processing power have dominated the industry at least since the
SNES/Genesis wars. Go google “screenshot.”
How
often DO they perform human sacrifices at Nintendo?? My friends, we are FUCKED [laughter]. We are well and truly
fucked. The bar in terms of graphics and glitz has been raised and raised until
we can’t afford to do anything at all. 80 hour weeks until our jobs are all
outsourced to Asia.
Huh. So what you’re saying to me then is
that since we can’t afford to do anything at all, there will be no games
available for any of the next gen consoles upon release? I have to say, I don’t
get that. It seems to me that Sony, MS, and Nintendo are pretty sure to have at
least SOME games in development. I can’t imagine they plan to release their
consoles sans games.
And what is this talk of the bar being raised?
What does that mean unless you’re just interested in making the big flashy
games with huge budgets? Is the appeal there the fact that 15 year old boys
everywhere will think of you as a God? Is it inconceivable that people might
not need to work on the titles that get all the press attention? I’ve only met
you once, but I don’t believe that fame and money is what motivates you. And if
that’s true, why does it matter what the corporate giants are putting out? Why
the need to compete with them?
You have
choices too: work in a massive sweatshop publisher-run studio with thousands of
others making the next racing game with the same gameplay as Pole Position. Or
you can riot in the streets of redwood city! Choose another business
model, development path, and you can choose to remember why you love games and
make sure in a generation’s time there are still games to love. You can start
today.
Now you’re talking. I don’t actually have
anything against publishers myself (they publish a lot of games I enjoy, and
even more I don’t enjoy but can happily ignore), but right on. If developers
don’t like dealing with publishers, or don’t like the terms a publisher is
willing to give, then the developer needs to make a decision, as you say. There
are so many development models, so many business models, so many ways to make
games.
Brenda
Laurel:
Did
you ever notice there’s no place for the earth
on the bottom line?
Yeah, man, like, there’s no LOVE in the
bottom line I dig your far out vibe.
Games
keep essential social myths in place. So we have tropes in our business.
Criminals are cool. The commercial game business is a non-consensual
relationship between middle aged men and young boys. It’s worse than the
catholic church. These are guys who have really big tyres on their trucks … and
we all know why! [laughter] So the fantasies of these guys position these boys
as tiny little clones: so they force you to take your genius to create this ..
this .. we can’t have that fellas.
You’re basically crazy, right? Who put you
on this panel anyway?
we
need heroes, but what kind of heroes are we making? Where’s Malcolm X, or
Chavez? There hasn’t been a game about geopolitics that was worth a shit since
Hidden Agenda!
Oh my god. I’ll tell you where Malcolm X and
Caesar Chavez are: THEY’RE HELPING OPPRESSED PEOPLE. What is wrong with you?
Step out of your ivory tower and take a sniff of the world. It stinks. Who
gives a shit about video games on the global scale of human suffering. Video
games are played by the idle rich. People with things like access to clean
water, reliable electricity and enough leisure time to sit around playing
games. You know, things most people in the world lack.
I
have to tell you, Microsoft is the walking dead.
Yeah yeah. They kick puppies and run child
prostitution rings too. Grow up.
GIVE
IT UP ABOUT DRM. GIVE IT UP ABOUT OWNERSHIP. Cleave to open source! A
NEW ECONOMY IS COMING.
I had a dream once that little sentient
fireflies were causing the static electric sparks in my bedsheets in the winter.
Conclusion
The problem isn’t the games industry. The
problem is the way some people choose to look at it. If your focus is purely on
money, go be an investment banker. If your focus is on fame, you better enjoy
being worshipped largely by pimply teenagers. If, on the other hand, your focus
is on making games that can give you a decent living and keep your creative
desires sated, then why not go out on a limb and do something smaller and
different? Why this obsession with AAA titles if you are truly interested in
games? ‘Cause I hate to tell you this, but unless you’re Will Wright, a LOT of
small developers are making games a hell of a lot more innovative than anything
with a $20 million budget.
Anyway, please, just stop the whining. Stop
telling people about how horrible the games industry is. Stop telling them that
they can’t succeed without radical industry changes. It’s bunk and you should
know better. Are you intentionally trying to discourage people from getting
into the industry? Stop telling people that life in the games industry
universally sucks. Maybe it sucks for you. It doesn’t suck for me and I don’t
think it sucks for a lot of people. I don’t want the next generation of talent
to listen to the pessimistic, self-defeating viewpoints you’re pushing.
Matt
Mihaly
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