Gamasutra Podcast on GDC Radio

Gamasutra Podcast Talks To Shawn Elliott On Moving From Journalism To Development

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:27:00 GMT

Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our regular GDC Radio podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.

For today's podcast, we present an interview with Shawn Elliott, newly appointed associate producer at 2K Games, Boston. He was previously senior executive editor of 1UP.com's PC coverage after having served prior stints as Features and Previews editor at Games for Windows and Electronic Gaming Monthly magazines. Before retiring the show, Shawn was also a co-host of the rambling and rambunctious GfW Radio Podcast. Shawn has been a staple in games coverage since 2003 after starting out his career at EGM.

Over the years, Shawn has proven to be an observant and vocal commentator on, and participant in the video game and PC enthusiast press. He has brought his background as an English Literature major and his graduate studies in creative writing to his career.

Although to date he hasn't worked in game development, he literally made it his business to examine and reflect on the factors and mechanics that make games compelling, and to write about his experiences playing games in a manner that both served the enthusiast press. Yet, he still ventured outside of the solid practice of writing about games as consumer product.

Our interview starts with a word of explanation from Shawn about his decision to leave games journalism and enter the field of game development, including Shawn's thoughts about the applicability of his work experience, advice for aspiring game developers, and some direct answers behind his motivations to shift his career.

We discuss Shawn's opinions about the difference between writing for print versus writing for the Web. Shawn muses about the end of the print incarnation of Games for Windows Magazine. We then talk about his background, specifically his decision to pursue his given fields of study and how gaming intersected with his other interests.

Shawn further explains how his academic background informed his thought process and writing about games, including his shifts in language and attitude depending on the audience. We also discuss his approach to writing reviews -- how he tries to capture the experience of playing a game and to explain in a tangible way exactly what makes a game compelling to him -- plus the various implications of attaching scores to reviews.

We transition to Shawn's advice for aspiring game writers, both in general and specific terms. He then muses on the genres of games that appeal to him and why, including some personal anecdotes relating to his fascination.

He goes on at length about the fulfillment one feels regarding mastery and competence in games as far-ranging as the Soulcalibur series and Company of Heroes. Shawn then tries to explain the motivations behind his creative griefing, and some very general behavioral observations of online communities while playing games, comparing his virtual pranks to some of the stunts that he's pulled in reality.

We close out our conversation with some thoughts about unacknowledged gaming treasures and developer and publisher leverage in the marketplace. Because we recorded the interview before the launch of Spore, we speculate on what features of gameplay we were anticipating in that title.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast interview with Shawn Elliott, new associate producer at 2K Boston.

In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.

Gamasutra Podcast Talks With GameCity Director Iain Simons

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 3 Jun 2008 20:27:00 GMT

For today's podcast, we present an interview with Iain Simons, writer and live events coordinator of Nottingham's GameCity Festival. Besides serving as the co-creator of GameCity -- now going on to its third year, Simons is the author of three books: Difficult Questions about Videogames, BFI Film Guides 100 Videogames, and Inside Game Design -- part of which was recently excerpted on Gamasutra. He is a tireless advocate for the cultural significance of games.

In the course of conversation about the festival, which grew out of and evolved from initially more informal alcohol- and curry-fueled get-togethers, Iain speaks passionately about various subjects such as the role of game advocates as apologists of the medium, the lack of a human face to the games industry, and the reluctance of game publishers to discuss the process of creating games as opposed to promoting finished product. He also takes the comparison of games and cinema to task, particularly regarding what that analogy implies about the aspirations of the form.

He talks about themes that have been going through his mind recently, such as non-threatening entertainment, the removal of player-character death from modern game design, and safety and the permission to explore in-game environments.

He also discusses how to make games and game culture more palatable to non-gamer audiences. These include directly addressing the creative process of making games -- getting to questions that one might ask of any creator working in better known contemporary mediums.

Finally, Simons discusses ideas that didn't quite make it into his latest publication, Inside Game Design, and what factors defined which ideas made it into the book or not. He also shares some wonderful personal anecdotes about developer involvement with both GameCity and Inside Game Design. And he closes with Nottingham Trent University Undergraduate and Post-graduate programs' support of GameCity's latest project: an archive of early to current game artifacts and history.

Interview with John Davison of What They Like

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 6 May 2008 17:28:00 GMT

November 8th interview with John Davison of What They Like / WhatTheyPlay.com.
Copyright (c) 2007-2008 CMP Media LLC.

Full transcript of interview:

Gamasutra: You're listening to the Gamasutra Podcast on GDC Radio. This is Tom Kim and today I'm talking to John Davison. John is the president and co-founder of WhatTheyLike and jointly manages the daily operation of the company and directs all the content generation for the brand and its various products.

John brings more than seventeen years of experience in the interactive entertainment industry to his role at WhatTheyLike. With expertise in every sector in videogame media, he's contributed to a variety of well-respected print and online consumer and trade publications in the U.S. and Europe. Prior to WhatTheyLike, John was Senior Vice-President Editorial Director of Ziff-Davis Game Group. John and his wife have two sons.

I think that last little blurb might be the best qualification you have for WhatTheyLike.

John Davison: That I have two sons?

Gama: That you're married and have two sons.

JD: Yeah. That was a big part of... both myself and Ira Becker who's the other the other co-founder of WhatTheyLike, we both have two kids each. We'd been thinking about how our own attitudes towards entertainment in general -- and we've been hearing a lot of stuff anecdotally -- we were both at the 1UP network. Ira was the General Manager. He ran the sales team. And we'd been talking to a lot of people and it was clear that there was a big shift going on in gaming in a lot of areas, both on the development side and also, just the media mix.

Increasingly we were seeing that there was this huge hole. And that was that the 18-34 year old core gamer is more than sufficiently catered to in terms of media coverage. But there's this growing need from other demographics for information about games. Particularly parents. And we would talk to people that were either just terrified of games 'cos they don't understand them. Or there's actually a big sector in our generation coming through that have grown up with games but they're sort of lapsed gamers, where they would play 5... 10 years ago, and were really into it. And then as they settled down and had a family, they just stopped.

And now, there's a generation of kids going through that who have never known a time where videogames aren't a big part of entertainment. You know? It's been there since birth. And the kids are demanding it, and it's becoming more and more part of the way franchises are being developed. And there's nowhere really for parents to go to be like, "Alright, I don't care if it's good or not. My kid just wants it. What do I need to know about it?" That was the core of it, really.

Gama: Was that decision based off of just your anecdotal observation of trends in the industry? You're talking about serving a growing, and perhaps a different market. So, were you seeing financial evidence there of the need to cater to this broader audience?

JD: The Entertainment Software Association published a bunch of data about how much more powerful the parents were in terms of making buying decisions, and so that really helped! We were just seeing more and more, there were parents that were getting a lot more engaged, and we were seeing more research. But then also, when we were speaking to publishers and retailers, that they were like, "Hey, the untapped thing is definitely the whole family thing."

I think early on, it was easy to just generalize that there's the Wii and DS effect on everything, and everyone was thinking about family games a little more seriously. Much to the disappointment of a lot of hardcore gamers who are definitely pushing back a lot on a lot of what we're seeing happening right now. You know, I was reading a piece about Smarty Pants the other day where people were like, "This is another symptom of the decline of the way games are being built."

Smarty Pants is a Wii game from EA and PlanetMoon Studios. And it's a trivia game that uses the Wii remote as like, a buzzer. And it's designed so that the questions can be tailored for families to play together. So there are kids' questions and grown-up questions. And it's all an "E"-rated thing and it's all done in kind of a jokey, silly way, but in a way that's very family-friendly. And I think it's indicative of a lot of the kind of things that we're starting to see, particularly on the Wii.

There's a lot of these experiences being made now by developers and publishers that want to tap into different areas and grow out of the core demographic. I think some of it also is driven by the fact that as an industry, we've all grown up together and we're all at an age now where we're settling down and having kids and starting to look at things differently. And, you know, there's a lot of guys on the development side that I've spoken to that are like, "You know what? You know what I'm working on at work's not for me anymore." And I think that... that's a really important part of the culture shift that's going on in the industry right now.

It's not very long before... you know, I think we're starting to see it across everything. The really important part of, I think, the evolution of videogames. And, you know, you hear a lot of people with the sound bites about let's bring the consoles out of the bedroom and into the living room. Well, you've got to bring a certain kind of experience with it for that to work. And I think there's these trivia games, these quiz games, these party games and they're important: they're the first stages. But I think they're the things that are going to bring the consoles into the living room and get parents looking at videogames and going, "Okay. This isn't the thing that I thought it was." You know. 'Cos they read all the bad press and they'll hear about how awful Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt is, and make sweeping generalizations about videogames based on that. I think it's good to be able to get these more positive experiences in front of parents.

Gama: Perhaps you could talk about how WhatTheyPlay functions, or how WhatTheyLike functions in terms of just organization. Because there seems to be two sides of it. There's the side which is kind of editorially covered by you and your writing partners and contributors. And then there's a community side which is covered by the people who participate in the site. Maybe you could explain why you did that separation and exactly what kind of services you're hoping to offer.

JD: Sure. So the company name is WhatTheyLike. The intention is for WhatTheyLike to be a platform. The reason we did games first with WhatTheyPlay is I think it's a part of the media that's under-served. Secondly, the data structure for organizing a database for videogames is really complicated. You have multiple SKUs and things that have the same name, but have different functionality. So we wanted to nail that one. Plus it was kind of our core competency anyway. So, we built a database, and the goal is editorially, to be completely objective. We're not going to offer any criticism on the editorial side of the product. The goal is to put the information that parents need into context. So, look at what they're faced with: the demands that are coming from the kids -- if they do want to do any research, the things that they're going to be bombarded with; or, if they're in a store and they pick up the box, what it is that they're going to be faced with -- and try and help them understand it a little more. It's parents, so they're definitely time constrained. So we want things to be quick and really easy for them to find.

The write ups of the games are going to be descriptions of the experience, descriptions of just kind of the themes that come out of the game, and then also to address the ESRB rating and the ESRB content descriptors. Just be able to say, "Alright, so my kid wants Gears of War. And it's 'M'-rated and it says, 'blood and gore, intense violence and strong language' on the back. Alright, I got a pretty broad idea of what that means, but what specifically is it?" And just be able to say, okay, so this is what happens in a game that warrants those descriptors.

And for the "M"-rated stuff... you know... you have different degrees of violence and blood and gore in different games. But then, when you get down into the "T's" and "E's," some of the descriptors you get there... It can be kind of tough to work out what it is exactly, that you're being faced with when you have, "Mild Suggestive Themes," or uh, "Comic Mischief." And it tends to be very different from game to game. I think it's important to know, specifically what you are being faced with. The "Mild Suggestive Themes" can be anything from a piece of dialog buried three hours into the game, to a girl with a huge cleavage and a low cut top. You know? It can vary very much from game to game.

Gama: The ESRB already exists. There is already a ratings system in place. Why do you feel that parents might need an extra layer of qualification above looking at a ratings system which to most gamers would appear to be fairly clear in terms of how it delineates what kind of content's inside that experience?

JD: We came at this with, we didn't want to reinvent a ratings system, we didn't want to challenge the ratings that they were giving. It was to help parents understand it a little more. Particularly because the descriptors aren't really a constant from game to game. The words on the descriptors are, but what they relate to can be very different. So if you look at "violence" as a term, and you look at a game like Halo 3. and then you look at a game like Jericho, or Manhunt, and what you're faced with is... you know, there are some similarities, but the effects can be very different. So I think it's important that, because the ESRB rates within the context of the product so there's no sort of general line in the sand for, you know, this is what it means when it's "violence," and as soon as you step over here it's "intense violence." It's not communicated where that line is. So we just want to be able to say, "Okay, this is what this game has in it. If you allow this game into your house, this is what's in it." So it's got, hacking people up with chainsaws, or it's got girls with big boobs.

Our attitude throughout the whole things is that the best possible parental control is parents. You have all these tools, you have all this information. But I think the more context you have, so that you as a parent are able to make an informed decision about something... Very often, I've found that the best way with some things is to sit down and play the damned things, you know? To know whether it's okay, A: if my kids can play it; B: if it's okay for me to play it with my kids in the room... There's a lot of games where me, personally I wait 'til everyone's gone to bed to play them. There's lots of different needs that parents have in terms of letting the games into their house, and then the situation in which they can be played. So I think the more information they have, so that they can say, "Okay, I'm cool with this being on." You know?

Gama: The converse way of looking at this is, these ratings systems exist for other media as well. To some degree for music, but certainly for motion pictures. And parents don't seem to have a difficultly with making a judgement call on movies, even though an "R" rating might be very different for one movie versus another. Just like ratings on the games side are context-sensitive based on the product or the experience as well.

JD: Uh huh. And I think this is something that the ESRB would acknowledge if you tried to push them on it. And I think there is a gap right now between "T" and "M." And I think there's a pretty good chance, I would think, that they are going to do something about this. And I think it's important because I think of any of the ages in that scale, I think that time between 13 and 17 is when, as a family, your line in the sand is likely to be the most different from the family next door. I think to be able to make a judgement of just how able to deal with this is your 14-year-old. And I think there are very mature 14-year-olds, and there are very immature 14-, 15-year-olds.

So I think whether it comes to making a judgement as to whether, particularly an "M"-rated game is okay, I think parents that are really engaged, that are really paying attention to this stuff, they need to think about, "How is my kid going to respond to this specific type of content?" It's probably a really difficult time for a lot of reasons for parents. And I think to be able to, you know, have the information to make that judgment...

In movies, they have PG-13, which increasingly is a way of slipping out an "R"-rated movie with a little bit taken out. I think "T" kinda does that. I think there's some room for something in between. to kind of help with some of these experiences where they're a little bit violent.

Gama: And also to have the comfort that you're not the only one who's got to make these judgements and have a context of a number of voices to talk about their situation. I think that could be very helpful.

JD: Yeah.

Gama: So what do you think is going on there in parents' heads and why are they not quite getting it to the degree that perhaps they should with games? And how do you think that interfaces with the kind of service that you'll be offering?

JD: The first point you made about movies... this was actually one of the little epiphanies about starting the company as a network of these things as opposed to just focusing on games. And that was, I started to notice the way that my kids would react to things that you make assumptions are kid-safe or kid-friendly. I noticed that in the Pixar movies, in order for them to establish the pace of the story, there's always a scary bit. In Finding Nemo, it's the sharks, in Cars, it's Frank the combine harvester thing. And, uh, my kids were terrified of 'em. And my wife had said, "Why does no one ever tell anyone that?"

It's "G"-rated, so there's this assumption, okay it's perfectly fine. But it's very hard to find any anecdotal stuff where it's like, "This is what a movie is about, uh, but it's got this bit in it that if you've got little kids, they might find it's a bit scary. " And I think just knowing that, 'cos like my little one, when the DVD was on, he'd know when the Frank part in Cars was coming. And he'd ask us to skip it forward so he didn't have to watch it. And it was just like one of those little moments when you're like, okay, there's a little bit of this in everything. There's these pieces of information that particularly, if you don't have kids, you don't notice it.

Before you or I had kids, if we sat down and watched Cars, we probably wouldn't have even registered that there was a scary part in it. And it's not a big deal, but I think just need to know, hey there's this one bit and it's about 20 seconds and it's got... you know, this happens. Your kid might be a little spooked by it. And I think there's... all entertainment there's a little thing like that in it and I think there's a tendency for the media, because it's focused for the most part on criticism, saying whether it's good or not, as opposed to... I think there's a lot of things in entertainment, particularly where kids are involved where the decision about whether to consume it or not is made irrespective of quality.

We are going to go and see Ratatouille whether it gets reviewed well or not. My kid is going to want to play PokÃmon whether it's great or not. I think there's a lot of that now. So I think as a parent, you're like, "Alright, what I need to know is, what's in it. Is there gonna be a part that spooks them?"

Gama: Your service, at least from an editorial perspective is to provide kind of an independent, informative resource.

JD: Uh huh...

Gama: You're not interested so much in making those qualitative judgments?

JD: Not at all. We won't be telling you if it's good or not. We also won't be telling you if it's appropriate or not. What we're gonna do is just give you the information that you need as a parent in order to make that judgement yourself. I think some of the mistakes that have been made in the past, having to do with videogames is, people have come in and they've tried to make sweeping judgements.

But every family is different. Every family's line in the sand of tolerance for different things is in a different place. So who am I to come in and tell you that this is too violent for you or that this is too sexy for you? But I'll tell you what's in it so you can make that call, so you don't have to play through it.

And some of this stuff is buried really deep in the game. We were just playing Final Fantasy Tactics on PSP. And one of the content descriptors on the back is "Drug Reference." And we were playing it, and playing it, and playing it. And we were looking at each other, and we were like, "There's no drugs in this. What the hell were they talking about?" And you play through it a bit more, and you start to be like, "What was this though? Is it potions? Is that what they're talking about? Is it the fact that you're taking these, like..." And then twenty hours into War of the Lions, you encounter the opium trade. But it's that deep into the game that the reference is made.

To me, it's kind of innocuous. Fine, the opium trade. Whatever. But to some parents it might be like, "Okay, I don't want my kid seeing that." But you do have to play them to find them. So the, I mean the ESRB does it's job and, you know, when people submitting, they're saying it has this, this, this and this in it, I think it's important to talk about in a little more detail than you can fit into that tiny little box on the back of the packaging. Talk about the nature in how it appears. 'Cos drug reference can be Bioshock, where you're jabbing a needle into your arm every five minutes, or it can be a five minute scene in Final Fantasy where it's a bunch of guys peddling opium.

Gama: On that qualitative side, is that more of a resource that you're leaving for parents to hash out amongst themselves? Namely, among your community features?

JD: Yeah, so the model is um, it's kind of Trip Advisor for games in a lot of ways. So we'll do an objective description of the experience. And then, what we want is for all the subjectivity to come externally. We are going to reference external criticism. If it's warranted, we'll talk about that the game has generally been reviewed really well, or acknowledge criticisms that might've been made, but not make them ourselves. So then, what we want to encourage more than anything is for the parents to share their subjective views on the game.

So we'll say, "This game has this, this, this and this." And we want the parents to say, "We have this game, and I was fine with it because of these reasons." Or, to actually get into the specifics so that people tend to not think of. LIke some parents have issues with the soundtrack. Very often you hear, "Yeah, I really liked Burnout, but the music was quite angry. I'm not sure if I wanted all that angry punk and metal. You know? I'm not sure if I want my kids..." Because that's where their sensitivity is on that. Whereas other people are like, "Yeah, Burnout was fine." Or it'd be like, "Oh, the car crashes made my kid start slamming his car into the furniture." And there's a lot of things that anecdotally, they're like, after playing this game, this is kinda how it affected my kids. Or this is how my kids felt about it, or how I felt when I walked in the room and saw this particular part. I think there's a lot of that anecdotal stuff...

What we found in the enthusiast stuff, when I was doing 1UP and EGM, is we found increasingly that with the core, that the coverage was validation more than it was advice. If you're saying that something was good, very often the core would be like, "Well I already decided that's good, so you know, you just validated my opinion of that." I think what we're going to find on the parent's side is that when parents see their peers expressing something that they feel the same way about a game that they did, there's some validation there as well. You know, they don't feel alone in being oversensitive to something or to being okay with something.

They're like, "My kid plays Halo. Am I weird for letting him do that?" And I think the community can confirm, "Okay, it's 'M'-rated. But I think it's okay for a... 14-year-old, say." And then to have the parents to be able to say, "Yeah, you know, it's okay. It's mostly blue and green blood so it's fine." And I think the more of that that comes out, and to get that kind of dialog and parents talking about, "Look, it's okay for us all to have our threshold somewhere different. And this is where mine is, and these people agree and these people don't." That's kinda where we want the subjectivity to come out.

Gama: How much of that are you getting in real life? Like, among parents that you know, do they hit you up because they perceive you know more about the subject than they do?

JD: I used to talk about this stuff on 1UP Yours. Every Friday when the show went out, if I talked about playing Crackdown in the middle of the night, or I talked about how my growing Oblivion habit was taking place at 2... 3 o'clock in the morning because it was the only time I could play, all these dads would come out of the woodwork and be like, "Thank god you said that, 'cos I do that, too!" And then, when the news came out that I'd left, I started getting the same kind of outreach through Facebook as well. Like a lot of people have been like, "Hey, you know I heard that you were doing this." And so there are a lot of parents coming out just sort of unprovoked in that fashion. And then the other thing is just, as we are getting the information out about it, we're hearing from parents groups wanting for us to come talk to them about it because it is a big part of what's going on in their homes, you know? They're like, "Oh, my kid really wants to play videogames. But I know nothing about it. Can you come and help me?"

Everyone we reach out to, it's like, "Yeah, don't tell me what to think. Just help me think better." And we've actually been able to grow, um, Tom Byron who's our VP of marketing, he's been building this kind of mom's group as like, an advisory group for us. Which is growing very quickly because, you know, we invited some people in and asked them to invite some more. So there's a very viral effect to this advisory thing. And it's, what do you want to know? What's important to you? What are the things that really bother you? And being able to reach out to parents and concerns tend to come in the same places. There's the obvious stuff, which is all the stuff in the press like, do I really need to worry about the violence, or whatever.

Gama: What are some of the things they've told you that have really surprised you?

JD: The thing that surprised me the most, I guess, it being the first thing on the list is almost everyone has been like, "How long is too long? My kid locks himself up in a room for hours and I wanna put a time limit on it. But because I have no frame of reference for the experience, I don't know where to put a cap on it. My gut is, I dunno, an hour." We hear anecdotally that, "I told my kid he can only play for an hour. And then I call up and say, you gotta turn it off now. And he'll say he's not played it yet. How is that possible?" And you go, like, "Well, you know, what games has he been playing?" "He's playing Forza 2." And I'm like, "Well, he could be spending an hour painting his car."

And what's coming out of that is there's a need for parents to understand that the games aren't just the action. There's a lot of thinking about piecing things together an setup. And in Forza, it's making the car you want and in a sports game, it's setting up the team to be the perfect way that you want. So I think the flip side of that is, there's an opportunity there for parents who are intimidated by the controller and, you know, they don't wanna go, "Hey, let's play a game together" and be rubbish. But to be able to say, "Hey, let's sit down together and set up a team together." Or, "Let's sit down in Forza and build the car I had when I was 18." I think there's ways to reveal to parents that there are ways to use games to bring the family together that aren't just playing.

Gama: Well there seems to be such a... I don't know, lack of information out there. Because just anecdotally on my side, it's not so much products I get asked about when I go to my local EB -- some of the managers know me and send parents my way. It's things like, if I were a parent and I didn't know much about the industry, I'd be tremendously confused about product SKUs right now. Of course, a big question is, which console to get for my kids. So are you planning on having any kind of content on hardware, or anything other than just the games, themselves?

JD: Yeah. And we want to come at it from... For a parent that has a rough idea of what it is, we just wanna be able to say, "Okay, this is what the console is. These are the costs. These are the hidden costs that you might not know about. Here are the parental controls that it offers." You know, just a lot of the things that as a parent, you might need to know. But then, there's another layer down from that, and this is the... the grandma, kind of, part of this. [Laughs] Which is that, "My kids love videogames." "Okay, what do they want?" "Well, they want this new... they really love Cars. They want this... this 'Mater' game." "Okay, well what console do they have?" And at that point they're like, "Well, I have no idea." "Well is it white? Is it black? Does it have a green ring on the front?" You know, "Is it hand held?"

Just to be able to get into the... providing a resource for these people so they can come and just be like, "Alright, what is an Xbox?" [laughs] You know? And from my enthusiast background, I think there's some stuff where the first instinct is like, "Well, duh. Of course." But there's a lot of people out there that just don't know. They have absolutely no idea what it is that their kids have. Even if it's in the living room under the TV, they probably couldn't tell you what it is.

I think there's a lot of education that needs to be done because it is so confusing. And beyond the hardware, if you sort of do stray into the enthusiast communities... Or you know, anything that is more enthusiast focused, it has its own language, it has its own attitudes. It's kind of intimidating.

Gama: Yeah. Very much so. I mean, it's perhaps yet another lever that kids use to assert their individuality from their family and parents.

JD: Oh yeah. Big time.

Gama: That might be disconcerting for the players that their parents are actually speaking in an informed way about their personal hobby.

JD: [laughs] Can you imagine how spooky it would be to a 14-year-old boy if dad walked in and went, "Hey, the animation on that's kinda janky, huh?"

Gama: That could be terrifying. They might take up macrame as a response. Personally, what do you play with your kids?

JD: My kids are young. My oldest is four. My little guy is two.

Gama: So a little young to be playing some of the more traditional deep game experiences then.

JD: Yeah. They kind of started with Leapster -- Leapster has a handheld that has these Flash-based games that are... You know, there's a Spongebob one and a Cars one and a Dora one. So they kinda started with that. And then my oldest is obsessed with anything to do with cars, like me. So, when I would be playing -- if I was playing for work or just myself -- so if I was playing Need for Speed or Forza or Burnout, he would want to sit with me. And that was kind of his entry into wanting to play console games. He wanted to play driving games with me. And he picked it up remarkably quickly. The thing about driving games is that they're all pretty much "E"-rated. And if they do get anything more than that, it's usually because of the soundtrack. I think Burnout's an "E-10" because it has some... I think lyrics is the justification for why it gets the "10." So it was a good place for him to start and for him to learn the controls.

And then, obviously when we brought the Wii into the house, there was a way for him to really feel like he was doing something. So we've been playing, um... He's really been getting into sports right now. He's kind of discovering soccer and football, and we've been playing the family mode in Madden and in NBA Live. You know, the thing that just lets you use the Wii-mote and kinda press a button, and you're not really controlling. You're just timing shots or timing a pass or whatever. And he's kinda getting into that, and we play Mario Party.

And he kinda got into the DS as well. It's really surprised me, 'cos I thought some of the DS stuff might be a little complex. Again, some of the sports stuff -- he's been playing Winning 11, believe it or not, on the DS. Because it has the touch screen thing, so that the penalty shooter in Winning 11, it's like a six piece grid, and basically you pick where you wanna shoot, or where you want your goalie to jump. He gets that. So he's starting to understand how the interfaces work. So then, as we've kinda moved into other games, he's relating to other things that he's had.

The thing about the Wii that was really unusual for him. I mean, he's young so... But his first kind of video game experience was joypad and controller oriented. So when we brought the Wii into the home, it was a bit alien to him. It took him a while to get used to the fact that you were pointing at the screen. So it was kind of the flip side of the sort of intuitive thing that Nintendo wants for you to point the thing at the screen. If you have any experience with previous videogames, it's a little alien at first.

Gama: How do you feel about the Wii? There's been some talk online about... Sure, it's a big enough install base that publishers can't ignore it now. But some people seem to think it's a fad, some people seem to think that there's no quality control on the platform. But it would seem, especially for your product and your service, that it's something you're definitely keeping an eye on.

JD: Well, yeah! I mean, I think it's great. A lot of the things that the real enthusiast in me kind of was like, "another one, really?" But I think anything that makes people... It's almost, anything that makes people think of videogames as not videogames is good. You know, there's this barrier in a lot of people that they associate videogames with a certain kind of experience and behavior. And if we can kind of get past that, so that they don't think of it that way, then I think we're on the right track. You know, there are these people that will play -- kind of the cliched argument -- they play Minesweeper and they play Bejeweled and they play Zuma, but they don't think of that as videogames.

But I think if they were to expand that into all of these other experiences so that the market kind of moves in that direction... And it's like, "Yeah, we'll sit around and we'll play Smarty Pants..." We've been playing Buzz on Playstation 2. Have you played that? Another trivia game... I think "trivia" is the new "party" right now. But it's great because there are ways that you can bring four people together and they're playing a videogame, but they don't realize it. I think that's really important. And the fact that the Wii caters to that so well, I think that's the real benefit to it. It's this kind of transparency of the experience.

A really good Wii party or trivia game means that you never have to actually have to think about the mechanics of the game, ever. And that's what videogames really need. I think when the enthusiast press, in particular reviews a videogame and it comes under fire, it's that it gets too bogged down in the mechanics. The reviewers... why are they talking about frame rate? And why are they talking about all the mechanical bits?

I think the reason that you can't review a game purely on the emotion and the experience or the artistry is that very often it gets interrupted by something technological. The underlying technology isn't completely transparent yet. Until it is, games criticism is always gonna veer into the mechanical. It's like, "This is fantastic, this is fantastic, but it choked here. Or it did this thing I didn't want it to do here." And I think it's necessary in games criticism in a way that it's not really necessary in any other kind of entertainment criticism. So I think one of the good things about the Wii is that the types of games that are being designed are that they bypass that. Because it is just about pointing at something and pressing a button and having fun. You never really have to think about it.

I think this is what we're starting to see some of the casual guys doing. You look at the way a lot of the casual games -- and it blows me away that there are casual game franchises now where there are games with multiple sequels -- and what I've noticed on the casual side is that these games are becoming the games that I played 20 years ago with different skins on them. If you look at Luxor 2, it's like matching gems or whatever, but it plays like an old Amiga shooter. It's what was 20 years ago would've been a hardcore gamer game with a pretty skin on it. And I think that the ways these games are developing on it, they're kind of dragging the audience into more complex game experiences. And I think that's good. I think that there's a lot going on in gaming right now beyond the real core enthusiast stuff. I think, three, four, five years from now, I think it's all gonna come to a head and everything will be mixed up pretty nicely.

Gama: You said something interesting earlier about games criticism being bogged down in the mechanics, and I think it's an interesting thing to look at how the community at WhatTheyPlay will talk about games because it is a different audience. Perhaps there'll be a different kind of discourse about the content.

JD: For a start, just describing the games... I think the first time through when we try and write one of these things, I found that I was reverting into the language that I knew, and it'd be like... Just recently I was writing up Orange Box, and my first inclination was you know, "Orange Box is unique... It's five first-person games." And it's like, "Well, what's a first-person game?"

So you have to kind of get into, not being condescending or patronizing in any way. But you do need to think about how you communicate these concepts that we all take for granted as gamers or as part of the games industry. Then it's just like, well how do I characterize that? You have to talk about how this is a game that you see as though it's through your own eyes. This is how the experience is relayed. And you don't have to go on at great length, but I think that you have to kind of keep double checking yourself on the language that you're using. So that an important part of bringing parents in is subtly educating them on the terms.

Gama: I'm sure you can't completely contain your player's instinct or your journalistic instinct to give some kind of a qualified, or I guess a critical overview of some of the products you present. But your model right now is really to provide an objective resource. Is there a mechanism on WhatTheyPlay where you can actually talk criticism -- about context -- in a different way than just presenting an informational overview of a product?

JD: Not when we launch, but soon after. So the core of the site when we launch is going to be a product database and feature. The features are gonna be experience based... educational... so things like, you know, the terminology and the language. We want to shed some light on that. We want to interview people and talk about, sort of more parent-friendly videogame features.

And then soon after we're gonna launch a small blog network. You know, maybe three, four blogs. We'll start with one and then see where it goes. You know, there might be a dad blog and a mom blog and a teacher's blog or something. And that's the place where I want the subjectivity to come out from the editorial side. And I think the way for us to do it there is... Full-time editorial staff right now is myself and Zoe Flower. People might know, she worked for me back on Official Playstation Magazine, and she's been around the industry a long time. She's a mom, and I think a lot of people know her and really respect her. And we want to talk about a lot of these experiences from a personal standpoint in those blogs.

So, the WhatTheyPlay position will always be the objective broad description. And what I want to establish is that, you know, the only place where I or Zoe can lay down the law and say this is how it's gonna be is in our own homes. And I think in the blog what I want to be able to do is talk about, alright so this game came into the house, and this is how I dealt with it. So that it's not saying, "This is violent. No one should play it." Which tends to be what happens, you know, in a lot of places when this subject comes up.

So I think what I was saying going back to what I was saying earlier on about the sort of validation of seeing how somebody else responded to something, I want to be able to say, this is what happened when we played Rock Band together. Or this is what happened when this game that had you know, one tiny bit of touchy content in it, this is how I chose to deal with it. I think it's important for people to say, as well, you know, "Okay, well I probably would've responded that way as well." But I don't want to be making these sort of blanket judgements and saying, "This is how everyone should think."

Gama: On a side note, from a gaming journalism standpoint, a lot of sites, magazines, publications have kind of an editorial voice that they put on, you know, certainly previews. I'm not sure about reviews -- policies differ between publications. But to introduce a first-person writing perspective into that kind of discourse, I think that's another interesting diversification of WhatTheyPlay and how you plan to cover this material that isn't being done in a traditional games journalism way, certainly.

JD: It's something that's come out of -- I need to be honest -- out of doing podcast stuff and seeing how an audience can relate. How they relate to individuals when you do a podcast. And I'm sure you've found it as well doing this, and I found it doing 1UP Yours and this stuff. Sometimes you would say something and people would relate directly to you and said, "I want to talk about this more." And to be able to have the editorial voice, but then also to be able to bring out this personal stuff. And to establish it as, this isn't the blanket opinion of everybody here, but this is just my opinion.

And I think, you know, it's coming out a lot in the blogs. And I think it's happening a lot in the videogame blogs right now where we're really getting to learn who Brian Crecente the staff around him really are in just the way they insert themselves into the blogs. And I think it's a great luxury to have editorially. I think when you're set up as a 1UP or an IGN or a GameSpot, there's a different set of pressures on what you represent when you're writing. So it was good to kind of push reset on the whole thing and be like, "Alright, starting from scratch, thinking about a completely different kind of audience, how do we want to talk to them?" And it's been quite a cleansing experience to be able to do that.

Gama: What's going to happen in the future when everybody who, as parents has grown up playing games? How soon do you think that's going to happen, and what do you plan to do with yourself then?

JD: [laughs] Oh, I don't know. Well hopefully, there'll be a lot of people contributing stuff on the user submitted side. I think it would be great to have the audience building a lot of the content for us so that early on we're prioritizing stuff based on what's selling right now, and what's in demand right now. But we want to backfill a lot, and particularly I think one of the big challenges for us moving forward is, as more and more back catalog is opening up online, the focus isn't always what's coming out this week anymore. It's the need for backfilling a database on what's available is going to be really important. So without getting all Web 2.0 about it, I think it's important to have an audience that is getting increasingly engaged and into it so that they wanna contribute. So I think that's a big part of it.

But to the point of, how long before... I don't think we're that far away from a generation that kinda came up with videogames from day one. I mean, games are what -- 20-30 years old? I think over the course of the next 10 years, we're gonna have a lot of shifts in a lot of different areas that impact videogames, whether it's families or politics or where, you know, people are familiar with it and they aren't afraid of it.

Gama: Thanks for sharing your time today and talking about WhatTheyWant and WhatTheyPlay.

JD: It's been a pleasure! Thanks, Tom.

CCP's Petursson: Economy, Council Bring Structure To EVE

podcast@gamasutra.com — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:56:00 GMT

Speaking as part of an in-depth Gamasutra report on EVE Online's Fanfest held in Reykjavik, Iceland, CCP executive Hilmar PÃtursson has been discussing how the complex economy and new elected 'Council of Stellar Management' bring structure (and therefore focus) to the PC space trading MMO.

When discussing why the EVE Online community, which has grown steadily to over 200,000 active subscribers, is so invested in the game, PÃtursson suggested:

"I would say what ties it all together is the economy. The economy of the game is very much controlled by the players. All prices are decided on the market, CCP doesn't set a price on it... And then the game very much focuses on [the fact] that you're always at risk in terms of all the players attacking you or taking something away from you. So that creates very interesting interactions between war and the economy."

Though the economy in EVE Online is much more complex and modeled than many other MMOs, PÃtursson suggests this leads to a more interesting and competitive game:

"War and economy is something that has created a lot of events in human history. That is essentially what we maybe have put in place to drive the storyline. But then, the players have used those systems to create something much more spectacular than we could ever have envisioned in the beginning. So I would say, the economy is the tool to create this."

Interestingly, PÃtursson also discussed how to easily garner feedback from the increasingly large player base of the game, revealing that the company is adding an officially elected council to exchange feedback between CCP and the community:

"For soliciting community feedback, we have used various methods throughout the four years. And we're trying to evolve those as our world has evolved. You use different methods for a community of 50,000 players than you do for a community of 200,000 players. Especially when all those players live in the same world. It's different when you have sharded worlds down to smaller shards, and you just have more shards. And you have to tackle the community of each shard. Then you can use the same method, but scale it up.

But when the community fundamentally grows as it has in our case, then you have to adapt and evolve your method of soliciting community feedback. And we're now, at this Fanfest, introducing a new idea which we call the Council of Stellar Management which involves allowing the community to elect representatives for a council. And we'll do this through voting. So this council will then be a venue for exchange between the community and CCP so that it is a more meaningful discussion than us talking in a non-structured way with 200,000 people which... um, achieves very little in its current form."

You can now read the full Gamasutra report on the subject, including full coverage of the Fanfest itself, as well as more comments from the CCP CEO on the state of the game and technical and design plans for the future.

The Strange History Of Gamecock's Mike Wilson

podcast@gamasutra.com — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:48:00 GMT

For today's podcast, we present an interview with Mike Wilson, Grand Champeen of Gamecock Media Group, who we caught up in Chicago with after a marketing and promotion planning meeting with Wideload Games.

Co-founder Wilson has a vital business role in game history over the past 15 years - working at id, setting up the influential GodGames, and now running his upstart publisher (Dementium, Hail To The Chimp), and this latest Podcast, he talks about his storied career and intriguing plans.

Gamecock's business philosophy sees it stretching themselves to leverage very asset from box designs, guerrilla marketing to reach untraditional audiences, and direct communications with gamer communities. It also secures approval from the developer on all phases of marketing, advertising, promotions, and PR.

This philosophy stems from Wilson's deep history in game development and publishing, starting out at DWANGO and id Software, and moving on to Ion Storm, and his first venture in artist-driven publishing, Gathering of Developers. Wilson generously shares his personal experiences and observations working in the game development and publishing industries, and how he has refined his personal and professional approach along the way. Although Gamecock Media Group is a new venture, Wilson reveals how the principles on which the company was founded have been in existence for more than a decade.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: The Strange History Of Gamecock's Mike Wilson (.MP3, 54 minutes, 25 MB). Today's podcast is also being simultaneously offered as a feature on Gamasutra.com.

In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.

Gamasutra Podcast Talks To Penny Arcade Adventures, EVE Devs

podcast@gamasutra.com — Fri, 5 Oct 2007 15:32:00 GMT

For today's program, we wrap up our interviews from this year's Penny Arcade Expo with double-header conversations with both president and CEO Vlad Ceraldi and COO Joel DeYoung of Penny Arcade Adventures developer Hothead Games, and CCP Whitewolf's Peter Golan and Noah Ward, marketing director and lead game designer of EVE Online.

In the first part, Hothead Games' Ceraldi and DeYoung describe the challenges studios faces from quality of life for older employees with families, staffing and outsourcing pressures, new technologies, and as-yet still small installed bases. The two talk particular Hothead strategies such as taking advantage of alternate distribution platforms, adopting novel production models for games using a best-fit supplier model and scalable staffing to maximize efficiency. They also discuss how these strategies don't mean that a developer has to sacrifice on quality.

Next, Peter Golan and Noah Ward discuss the longevity of their lead franchise, EVE Online. EVE has been on the marketplace since 2003, far longer than most MMOs. Interestingly, EVE has always had great subscriber retention and a steadily growing base since its launch. Golan and Ward explain how they aren't afraid to make a specialized experience for a hardcore audience, and in fact how their focus has lead to their ongoing success.

In their upcoming expansions, they state that CCP has no plans to simplify their game, but are interested in providing tools to the player to more clearly introduce new players to the options their game has to offer. Although they don't seek to make their game more mainstream, they discuss their efforts to ensure that everyone has a significant role, regardless of their experience or rank.

They talk about how most of the changes to the game to date have been directly driven by their player base and how their design philosophy has always allowed their players to dictate a remarkable level of input and control over the lore and design of the EVE universe.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: PAX 2007 Interviews with Hothead Games and CCP Whitewolf (.MP3, 32 minutes, 14.8 MB).

Gamasutra Podcast Talks Indie Spirit With Gamecock, Flying Lab

podcast@gamasutra.com — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:46:00 GMT

Today we present a two-part show featuring live interviews at PAX with Richard Iggo of GameCock Media Group and Joe Ludwig and Rick Saada of Flying Lab Software, developers of the upcoming MMO, Pirates of the Burning Sea.

Much has been made of the cavalier attitude and indie spirit of GameCock Officers, Mike Wilson, Harry Miller and Rick Stults. After taking some hard licks with the implosion of their previous publishing venture, Gathering of Developers, the founders of the new company are capitalizing on their experience and giving indie publishing another go.

Prior to its untimely demise, GodGames's PR antics often upstaged the fact that they managed to make the relationship-based publisher model work and released a number of critically and commercially successful games.

Likewise, Gamecock certainly attracts its share of interesting PR. But there seem to be some more serious activities going on behind the scenes. GameCock VP of Marketing, Richard Iggo takes a moment from his duties wrangling his bosses at PAX to talk about GameCock's efforts to repeat the behind the scenes successes of GodGames with the benefit of its founders' hard earned experience.

For the second interview, Joe Ludwig and Rick Saada of Flying Lab Software share a long and storied history of the independently developed MMO, Pirates of the Burning Sea. Starting out as a small-scale casual title, Pirates of the Burning Sea has grown to a full-blown MMO with loads of content and an impressive set of features. Joe and Rick talk about how the growth of their game influenced the growth of their company, and what they have learned along the way.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: PAX 2007 Interviews with Gamecock Media Group and Flying Lab Software (.MP3, 34 minutes, 16 MB).

Gamasutra Podcast: 'Does The New E3 Work?'

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 03:38:00 GMT

For our July 30, 2007 show, we present a round table on the new format of the E3 Media and Business Summit. The panelists discuss the new format of the show and reflect on their impressions resulting from these changes.

Representing the gaming press, we have Susan Arendt of Wired's News Blogging team at Game | Life, N'Gai Croal, General Editor of Newsweek and John Davison of the Ziff Davis Game Group's 1UP Network. From the developer and technology services side, we have Todd Northcutt, Director of IGN / GameSpy Multiplayer Technology and Denny Thorley, President of Day 1 Studios.

This year's E3, spread out over several hotel suites and the Barker Hanger at Santa Monica was an effort by the event's organizers to offer a more viable environment for exhibitors to present their products and to conduct business.

Susan Arendt of Wired commented initially on the changes in the podcast: "E3, to me this year, felt more like it was being done out of habit than anything else. There weren't any big surprises, really. Just about every game that we saw we knew was coming had already seen at a game day event. With rare exception, we pretty much had already heard everything everyone had to say. It just felt like we were all kind of there because we all get together for E3 every year."

The panelists discuss how access to materials was affected by both the invitation-only attendance as well as the physical layout of the expo, spread out as it was between multiple locations.

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal added of these issues: "Obviously there was no Kentia Hall, so there goes a lot of the obscure, the Korean, the sort of the variety of stuff that you would see over in Kentia Hall. That was deliberate on the part of the ESA. In previous years they had allowed a range of smaller publishers to draft on their coattails as they saw it, and this year they decided not to do that... For me, coming from Newsweek I tend to have to cover some of the bigger games with a mix of smaller games, and I am personally more interested in indie games than I've been in the past, and again, because I couldn't get over to Barker Hanger I couldn't see those."

Their reports weren't all critical. Particularly from the developer side, the panelists go into some specifics about how well the format worked for them in terms of doing business. And on the press side, the journalists appreciated the quality of access they got unfettered access they got directly with the developers themselves.

The panelists wrap up their commentary by speculating on how the ESA could address some of the perceived deficiencies of this year's format, and some of the challenges they might have to face to do so.

Newsweek's Croal particulary noted: "I go to a news conference for news, and little news was being made... You have all these companies, these video game publishers that are based in the United States, yet Sony and their third parties just announced a whole slew of new games in Japan [immediately following E3] and it's not even Tokyo Game Show. What does that say when those games could have been announced at E3?"

He concluded: "I know the Japanese market needs a boost as far as the PS3 is concerned, but what does that say about North America's position in the global game market - when Sony can just have its own event not even a full week after E3 and unveil a slate of new games from itself and third parties, and itÃââs not even TGS?"

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: 'Does The New E3 Work?' (.MP3).

Gamasutra Podcast: Costikyan Preaches His Manifesto

podcast@gamasutra.com — Sat, 7 Jul 2007 03:20:00 GMT

For our July 6, 2007 show, we feature an interview with Manifesto Games now open for a couple years, we check in with Greg Costikyan to see how the independent digital distribution service has fared. In the years since the service has opened its doors, the gaming landscape has changed perceptibly, though even with many more distribution channels emerging on both the PC and consoles and a broadening of the market, Manifesto Games still offers titles that appeal to particular interest groups that conventional games don't.

Despite the varied offerings of casual games portals such as Pogo, online distribution services such as Steam, and classic games and new content services such as GameTap, Costikyan says that he does not feel that the marketplace is crowded. Rather, he feels that games are now common cultural currency, perhaps to the degree where people can be convinced to check out games in subjects that appeal to them, whether they are self-identified "gamers," or not, and says success is really a matter of identifying the right markets for the titles that each service offers.

Costikyan explains that one of the most significant challenges for the indie space is to convince the public that games produced by independent, smaller teams don't equate to poor quality, but instead says that individual creators can work with a more singular vision to craft worthwhile experiences. The games that have done best for Manifesto, such as Impact Games' PeaceMaker and Wadjet Eye's The Shivah, says Costikyan, distinguish themselves by being particularly innovative in theme and topic or game play.

In the course of the interview, Costikyan addresses Manifesto Games' plans to appeal to community building to foster a relationship with the audiences who are most interested in the kinds of games Manifesto offers. He talks about his general impressions about the indie games scene, and the emergence of digital distribution services such as Xbox Live Arcade and Sony's PlayStation Network. And he shares what accomplishments he is most proud of, and what we might expect out of Manifesto in the future.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: Interview with Greg Costikyan (.MP3, 32 minutes, 15 MB).

Gamasutra Podcast: 'Pachter, Pricing, And The Power Of Predictions'

podcast@gamasutra.com — Thu, 5 Jul 2007 20:17:00 GMT

For today's show, we feature an extensive interview with Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter.

His unvarnished opinions and gutsy predictions have garnered him and his firm a high profile among the gaming community.

But, says Pachter in the course of the interview, "I don't solicit all this press coverage. The press finds me. I think that the press finds me because I'm colorful, I'm not shy, I have an opinion and I frankly really don't care if someone agrees or disagrees with it. I'm willing to share."

"The controversy - the invective - that I get comes primarily from the games industry people always writing me emails and asking me, 'what do you think about this?' You know, 'what do you think when one of your competitors said "something"' that I thought was stupid. I wrote back that the guy was naive. And boy, headline: 'Pachter calls other analyst naive.' Today someone asked me, 'what do you think about the Sega marketing guy saying the Wii is a fad,' and I responded. Boy, headline."

We talk about the method behind his madness, delving into some of the thinking and methodology behind his analysis. He talks about how his coverage of the entertainment sector, and games in particular, differs from other categories covered by sales side analysts. We discuss his thoughts on investor-friendly publishing and consumer desire, and why the two might not be mutually exclusive.

In true Pachter-ian fashion, he straightforwardly addresses his cult of personality among message boards and gaming communities.

"I publish my monthly console and handheld hardware numbers because the NeoGAF guys think it's so fun," says Pachter of the infamous messageboard. "But no one's ever asked to see my annual forecast for all those things. I'm spot on, for my annual forecast. I'd love to see those guys put out a contest for annual forecasts for the next five years and then we'll compare my numbers to theirs, because I've been spot on for five or six years now."

"The average NeoGAF visitor isn't equipped to actually prepare those things," says Pachter, "because it requires you to make an assumption about pricing, and I've been great on that as well. It's hard to do."

Pachter shares some of his biggest industry surprises of the past few years, and his personal pick for most under-rated company in the game industry:

"I love the innovation. I love the opportunistic rapid market response. I think this company's going to earn a lot more money than most people do."

And, finally, responds to earlier comments he's made that next-gen game prices are too low and that "consumers are getting a gift":

"I'm just making an economic argument, not so much a suggestion," says Pachter. "[Prices of next-gen games] aren't going up. You're seeing collectors editions at $70 -- you're seeing the GTA collector's at $90. Guitar Hero -- $90. People don't even blink. They stand in line for the thing."

"I just meant that the public is willing to spend more for the content that they want," he adds. "Again, adjusted for inflation, the old PSone game in 1995 that came out at $49.99 would be probably about 70 bucks right now, just at 3 percent inflation compounded for the last 12 years, you'd be up over $70. On an apples to apples basis, $60 is a bargain. And the content of a PS3 game is a lot greater, or an Xbox 360 game, than the content of the first generation PSone games."

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: Interview with Michael Pachter (.MP3, 48 minutes, 22 MB).

In addition, you can subscribe to the GDC Radio podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.

Gamasutra Podcast: 'Somatone's Kane Minkus'

podcast@gamasutra.com — Thu, 5 Jul 2007 20:15:00 GMT

For today's show, we feature an interview with Kane Minkus, principal and founder of Somatone Interactive Audio.

Although you might not be familiar with Somatone, you are probably quite familiar with their work. Somatone scores and produces music, sound effects, and voice overs for over 120 titles a year, including some of your favorite console, casual and downloadable games, such as EA's Medal of Honor series, PlayFirst's Diner Dash series, 3-Rings' best of IGF winner, Bang Howdy, and PopCap's fiendishly addictive Peggle.

Not only does Somatone handle music composition, sound design, voice overs, and mixing and mastering, but they are also responsible for developing a highly optimized, high quality sound and music technology specifically tailored for downloadable games.

In the interview, Kane talks about his motivation for starting up Somatone, specifically with an eye, or ear, toward servicing the game industry. Kane explains how their movement into the downloadable casual space has been a great challenge to the sound designers and composers at Somatone in terms of the breadth of styles and the diversity of the audience for those games. Also, how Somatone's tight integration of technology for their clients allows them a more cooperative and creative role in working with the game development team.

He addresses some of the technical considerations in the development of their audio technology for downloadables, and how it shapes the feature set of their production tools. The end result being a highly optimized, very efficient and surprisingly flexible solution.

Kane also talks about some of the unique process that Somatone applies to score games, including their use of Laban Movement Analysis, a systematic means of describing and deconstructing motion. Finally, he talks about the musical inspiration behind the score for Peggle, which turns out to have the same controlled randomness as the game itself.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: Interview with Kane Minkus (.MP3, 36 minutes, 16 MB).

Gamasutra Podcast: MTV News' Stephen Totilo

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 8 May 2007 15:01:00 GMT

For today's show, we talk with Stephen Totilo, reporter for MTV News. Stephen is perhaps the only full-time reporter hired by a mainstream news outlet to cover games exclusively. He covers online, on-air, and broadband offerings with MTV News, as well as posting his own Player Two blog at stephentotilo.com.

Newsweek General Editor N'Gai Croal calls him, "the best cultural correspondent covering games." Given Stephen's strong convictions about bringing in more enterprise and initiative into gaming news, his stories consistently define a unique perspective within the games press.

We address the ongoing debate about the role of formal schooling and training in journalism, how to bring more relevance to entertainment media coverage, the power of effective reporting and the true values of journalism, the proper separation between games journalism and game development, and the need to address the curiosity and concerns about game-related cultural experiences. Stephen also talks about his editorial freedom covering gaming news outside of the traditional enthusiast press.

We talk about the recent departure of more seasoned and talented games journalists from the field directly into game development or the game industry overall, and some of the possible factors behind this flight.

Stephen brings up the need to feature more people in game reporting, and some of the obstacles that might apply specifically to the gaming press to cover that kind of story. And the balance between that sort of coverage and the typical reportage seen in the games press.

He proposes some access to alternate coverage that he would like to see from game developers and publishers regarding more interesting ways to talk about their products to the gaming press. And how they could perhaps leverage their fans' deeper curiosity about the process and the people involved with making games to get beyond canned statements and product points.

We discuss how games coverage might differ from traditional news reporting, specifically with regard to blogging and non-traditional first person writing. And lastly, we talk about what might hold games back from being a truly mainstream entertainment and how games might become more accessible to a larger audience.

Gamasutra Podcast: GameRecruiter's Mencher Talks Industry Careers

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 21:33:00 GMT

For today's interview, we get some advice from veteran game industry recruiter, Marc Mencher. Marc and his staff at GameRecruiter.com have 18 years of experience recruiting the technical, production, and executive talent who make up game industry companies.

Marc and his firm specialize in strategically important and un-advertised jobs in all segments of the game industry. These are the kinds of positions you won't find in the classifieds or on job boards. Marc believes in a career-building approach, rather than placing candidates in one-off positions.

Marc draws on his 25 years of experience to impart advice to anyone looking to get, and keep, a job in the game industry. We discuss the absolutely crucial role of networking, how to introduce and sell yourself at industry events, how to use job postings as a lead source to take control of your job hunt, and how to stand out among the hundreds of candidates applying for a given position.

In separate segments, Marc shares some practical tips on how to break into the game industry, how to build your skills with the goal of assembling the right work samples, and how to start building your industry mentors and contacts. And he gives his opinion on the value of attending a specialized game school.

For those of you with a few releases under your belt, we talk about how to track industry trends very specifically, and how to keep yourself employable and valuable in the market. We also discuss the impact, from a hiring perspective, due to new consoles, production pathways and agile development, outsourcing, and freelancing.

Marc also provides some insight into the career viability of new growth sectors, such as the mobile and MMO markets, and some of the forces defining the influx of talent from other entertainment fields, and the departure of veterans from gaming into other industries. To round out the discussion, Marc shares his take on this year's Game Developer Magazine annual salary survey, and how it stacks up against his experience.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: Interview with Marc Mencher (.MP3, 63 minutes, 29 MB).

Gamasutra Podcast: Intel Talks Games, K2 CEO Talks Free Play

podcast@gamasutra.com — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 03:37:00 GMT

For today's show, we feature two interviews from the Game Developer's Conference. The first is with Dan Snyder, the PR Manager of Intel Corporation and the second is with Joshua Hong, the CEO and founder of pay-to-play MMO company, K2 Network.

In my interview with Dan, we discuss Intel's resurgence and refocus in the gaming market and community. Dan addresses Epic VP Mark Rein's statement that Intel is killing PC gaming, speaking in particular about the bad rap of integrated graphics and its impact on game developer's market presence.

He also comments on Intel's work to improve support, providing more robust and efficient drivers and working with game developers to achieve the best possible performance on Intel hardware including development on multi-core processors on multiple threads.

Finally, he addresses some of Intel's plans for the future including the next generation of 45nm "Penryn" processors, new mobility tools and integrated SLI in notebooks, their new streaming Symbion instruction set, SSE4 with 50 new instructions, many of which have direct applications to gaming, and their functioning 80-core prototype chip set.

Joshua Hong talks about how MMO companies should be service companies as much as they address development and publishing. He talks about the importance and difficulties of maintaining a thriving gaming community, especially when that community comprises between 8 - 9 million users worldwide.

Joshua explains how K2 is introducing free-to-play model and adapting the service to Western tastes. He explains how free-to-play is more than a pricing structure, but how it has significant implications for distribution, product development and service as well. And how selling in-game items is not limiting game play, but is actually empowering choice by enabling customers to shape their experience to their personal level of comfort or commitment. In other words, to only have to pay for the content they want to experience.

He also expresses K2's philosophy regarding their product portfolio, and how their business model allows for continuous yearly, monthly, and even daily enhancements and expansions to the game.

Gamasutra Podcast: '20 Questions With N'Gai Croal'

podcast@gamasutra.com — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 03:01:00 GMT

For today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast, Tom Kim follows up on the '20 Questions With Phil Harrison' session at this year's DICE Summit by turning the tables on Harrison's interrogator and conducting an in-depth interview with Newsweek video game/technology writer and general editor N'Gai Croal.

In the interview, Croal discusses his interview technique, the differences, as he sees them, between coverage of games from the mainstream press versus the enthusiast press, his passion for new forms of media dissemination such as blogging and podcasting, working as a minority in the gaming press, and his take on critical game industry trends. This interview was recorded prior to the GDC, so the listening audience can decide for themselves how accurate his pronouncements actually were.

GDC Podcast: 'IGN VP Jamie Berger'

podcast@gamasutra.com — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 15:25:00 GMT

For today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast we feature an interview with Jamie Berger, senior vice president and general manager for the consumer products division of IGN Entertainment. Berger is responsible for overseeing IGN's subscription, digital distribution, and e-commerce portfolio, including FilePlanet, 3D Gamers, GameSpy Arcade, Direct2Drive, GameSpy Arena, and IGN Insider.

In the course of our conversation, we talk about IGN's entry into the digital distribution business, with direct downloads of PC games including top tier releases such as Supreme Commander and Jade Empire, as well as niche and legacy titles like Planetside, with Berger explaining that its game sales business isn't a conflict of interest with its game reviews business.

We also talk to Berger about IGN's upcoming channel for independent game titles and outreach program to smaller developers to help them manage and grow their business, and the site's launch of a new non-commercial indie game and mod building site intended as a resource for small developers and an interface between them.

Finally, Berger leads us through its GameSpy technology group, with its more heavily community driven push as late through features like Command and Conquer 3's "RTS As A Sport," which allows players to act as spectators and commentators of streaming or downloadable online matches, and touches briefly on GameSpy's partnership with Nintendo for the DS and Wii, with hints on how its online space might develop.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, Interview with Jamie Berger (.MP3, 23 minutes, 10.5 MB).

GDC Podcast: 'Novint President Tom Anderson'

podcast@gamasutra.com — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:23:00 GMT

For today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast we feature an interview with Tom Anderson, president and CEO of Novint Technologies. Novint's most recent push into the gaming space has come in the form of the Novint Falcon 3D touch feedback device, new hardware that the company calls "a small robot which lets users feel weight, shape, texture, dimension, dynamics and force effects when playing enabled games." Using the Falcon, Novint says, "players experience a full range of realistic touch sensations that allow them to control a game more naturally and intuitively."

In the course of our conversation, Anderson talks about the upcoming commercial launch of the Falcon, arguing that the device is a platform rather than a peripheral, and says why he thinks it will fundamentally change how people interact with the PCs, and possibly even their next-gen game consoles. He discusses the differences between the Falcon and other specialized gaming peripherals that have come before, and why Novint has chosen to pursue the gaming market as opposed to other business where they could just as easily apply their technology.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, Interview with Tom Anderson (.MP3, 13 minutes, 6 MB).

GDC Podcast: 'AGEIA's VP Of Marketing Michael Steele'

podcast@gamasutra.com — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 15:22:00 GMT

or today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast we feature an interview with Michael Steele, vice president of marketing at physics hardware manufacturer and developer AGEIA. The company has been continuing to make strides at mass-market adoption, most recently announcing both expansion of the company's processing units into mobile hardware, as well as working on original games that take advantage of AGEIA's specialized physics engine, including the action title CellFactor and Warmonger.

In the course of our conversation, we discuss the pivotal year AGEIA has ahead of it, facing competition from ATI's Crossfire and NVIDIA's SLI boards, and how the company can make the case to core gamers that its hardware can provide solutions for real, perceivable improvements in game mechanics, beyond visual effects.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, Interview with Michael Steele (.MP3, 10 minutes, 4.9 MB).

GDC Podcast: 'Qualcomm Game Group Senior Director Mike Yuen'

Fri, 9 Mar 2007 16:21:00 GMT

For today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast we feature an interview with Mike Yuen, senior director of the game group at Qualcomm, responsible for overseeing the direction of the company's BREW solution for next-generation mobile technologies.

In the course of our conversation, we discuss Qualcomm's attempts to stabilize platforms for mobile development regardless of handset or carrier, improving mobile interfaces and decks for game promotion, and the company's recently announced partnership with Microsoft to bring its Live Anywhere services to the mobile sphere through BREW.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, Interview with Mike Yuen (.MP3, 9 minutes, 4.2 MB).

GDC Podcast: 'Telltale Co-Founder Dan Connors'

podcast@gamasutra.com — Wed, 7 Mar 2007 16:20:00 GMT

For today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast we feature an interview with Dan Connors, co-founder of episodic adventure game studio Telltale Games, whose most recent work includes CSI, Bone, and Sam & Max.

In the course of our conversation, we discuss Telltale's faith and success in its model of episodic gaming in light or Epic Games' Mark Rein's comments that episodic gaming was a "broken business," its partnership with online service GameTap, and the company's plans in bringing its lineup to Xbox Live and the Wii.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, Interview with Dan Connors (.MP3, 18 minutes, 8.3 MB).

GDC Podcast: 'Pogo Vice President Andrew Pedersen'

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 6 Mar 2007 16:16:00 GMT

For today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast we feature an interview with Andrew Pedersen, vice president of Electronic Arts' casual games portal Pogo.com.

In the course of our conversation, we discuss the importance of community to Pogo, its newly announced partnership with NBC Universal's iVillage, the possibility of bringing the Pogo brand to the console space, and casual gaming in general.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, Interview with Andrew Pedersen (.MP3, 17 minutes, 8 MB).

Gamasutra Podcast: MacArthur Foundation Panel, 'Do Videogames Help Kids Learn?'

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 16:07:00 GMT

Today, we are proud to present a panel from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's initiative on Digital Learning.

The panel, entitled, "Do Videogames Help Kids Learn," is part of a five-year, $50 million dollar examination on how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize and participate in civic life. The initiative is both marshaling what is already known about the field and seeding innovation for continued growth.

The panelists include Sasha Barab of Indiana University, who demos his latest project, Quest Atlantis, which uses an immersive online world to teach environmental impact and science to junior high school students. Nichole Pinkard, Director of Technology at the University of Chicago also shares her experience creating an innovative digital media after school program for Chicago's Center for Urban School improvement. And David Williamson Shaffer, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of How Computer Games Help Children Learn, discusses his latest research on games and learning.

The panel is introduced by Jonathan Fanton, the President of the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, and is moderated by Connie Yowell, MacArthur's Director of Education grantmaking.

We'd like to thank the MacArthur Foundation for the opportunity to air this discussion through GDC Radio and Gamasutra. You can find out more about the Digital Media and Learning initiative at www.digitallearning.macfound.org. And you can direct any inquiries about this or other Gamasutra podcasts to podcast@gamasutra.com.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, MacArthur Foundation Panel, 'Do Videogames Help Kids Learn?' (.MP3, 78 minutes, 38 MB).

GDC Radio Presents: Gamasutra Podcast Interview with Author And Halo Screenwriter, DB Weiss

podcast@gamasutra.com — Wed, 7 Feb 2007 21:58:00 GMT

For today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast we feature an interview with DB Weiss, the author of the noted video game-related novel Lucky Wander Boy, as well as one of the screenwriters behind the upcoming, but currently on hiatus Halo feature film.

In the course of our conversation, the podcast discusses such issues as his experiences working on the Halo screenplay for producers Mary Parent, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, some of the difficulties in capturing the essence of such a popular franchise while dealing with the criticisms of Halo's already rabid fan base, and even some of his classic gaming experiences growing up.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast Interview with DB Weiss (.MP3, 36 minutes, 16 MB).

GDC Radio Presents: Gamasutra Podcast Interview with Jason Della Rocca

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 22:45:00 GMT

For today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast we feature an interview with Jason Della Rocca, the Executive Director of the International Game Developer's Association.

In the course of our conversation, we discuss such varied issues as changing strategies of attempted game legislation, game ratings and lack of parity between other media and games, the importance of industry credit, awards and recognition, the maturation of game production processes and workforce education and improvement.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, Interview with Jason Della Rocca (.MP3, 32 minutes, 15.5 MB).

(c) Copyright 2007 CMP Media, LLC

GDC Radio Presents: Interview with Gears Of War/Bioshock Writer Susan O'Connor

podcast@gamasutra.com — Mon, 8 Jan 2007 21:30:00 GMT

Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our weekly podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.

For today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast we feature an interview with noted video game writer Susan O'Connor, whose most recent work includes Xbox 360 hit Gears of War and the forthcoming Bioshock. She has also done writing stints on Star Wars Galaxies, Dungeon Siege II, amd Act of War.

In the in-depth interview, she talks in depth about her influences, different aspects of her creative process, both practical and intuitive, as well as the difference between writing for games and other media, specifically referencing the games she's worked on.

Copyright 2007 CMP Media LLC

GDC Radio Presents: Game Reviews Roundtable, Part 2

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 21:17:00 GMT

Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast is part two of our panel on Game Coverage and Reviews, with John Davison, Senior VP and Editorial Director of the 1UP Network, Greg Kasavin, Editor-in-chief of GameSpot, and Greg Vederman, Editor-in-Chief of PC Gamer Magazine.

The first half of the Game Coverage and Review panel discussion dealt with how developers can take a more active role to work efficiently and harmoniously with the enthusiast press to get the coverage they want, and the panel's opinions on the value of game reviews.

In the latest edition of the panel discussion, the guests "discuss their thoughts on how to get more incisive and more useful previews and reviews, they all express their desire for transparency on where their opinions in the rankings are coming from, and posit a few insightful answers to the deceptively obvious question: what's it going to take for developers to make higher scoring games?"

You can read an edited transcript of the roundtable here.

Copyright 2006 CMP

GDC Radio Presents: Game Reviews Roundtable, Part 1

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 21:08:00 GMT

Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast is part one of our panel on Game Coverage and Reviews, with John Davison, Senior VP and Editorial Director of the 1UP Network, Greg Kasavin, Editor-in-chief of GameSpot, and Greg Vederman, Editor-in-Chief of PC Gamer Magazine.

As the show's introduction says:

"The holiday season is upon us, and with it comes the launch of not one, but two new consoles, and a veritable tsunami of games - some great, some not so great. With so many titles flooding the shelves, a lot of people turn to the enthusiast press and game reviews to help them sort out what to buy and what to avoid.

For this show, we present the first half of an expert roundtable on game reviews and press coverage. Our guests talk specifically about how developers can work more efficiently and harmoniously with the enthusiast press to get the coverage they want. They also share their opinions on the value of game reviews, how the process can be improved, how developers can take a more active role over their own communications, and how they really feel about gamerankings.com."

You can read an edited transcript of the roundtable here.

Copyright 2006 CMP

GDC Radio Presents: Gamasutra Podcast: Panel on Game Education, Part 2

podcast@gamasutra.com — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 16:15:00 GMT

Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast is the second part of our roundtable discussion about game education, featuring Dustin Clingman of Full Sail Real World Education, DigiPen's Claude Comair, GameCareerGuide's Beth Aileen Dillon, GameRecruiter's Marc Mencher, Paul Newell, course developer for the Art Institute of Vancouver, Parsons School of Design's Katie Salen, Dr. Peter Raad from the Guildhall at SMU, and USC's Tracy Fullerton.

The following passage comes from the show's introduction, as featured in the first part of this podcast:

"Often, discussions among game educators are reduced to the question of "how can these institutions better train folks for jobs in the industry." And although this panel did explore that subject, they also discussed the potential limitations of an industry-driven approach. As much as all of the educators on the panel agree that the medium is still emerging and defining what it might become, the field of game studies likewise is only at a nascent stage regarding its potential.

Indeed, the point that emerges most strongly is that the field is able to support a range of institutions pursuing a broad spectrum of goals. These educational programs offer real differentiated, and excellent choices for those seeking to pursue studies in game production, design, and theory."

GDCRadio Presents: Gamasutra Podcast: Panel on Game Education, Part 1

podcast@gamasutra.com — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 16:48:00 GMT

Part one of our October 10th panel on Game Education with Dustin Clingman (FullSail), Claude Comair (DigiPen), Marc Mencher (GameRecruiter.com), Paul Newell (Art Institute of Vancouver), Katie Salen (Parsons School for Design), Peter Raad (The Guildhall at SMU), and Tracy Fullerton (USC School of Cinematic Arts - Interactive Media).

Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast is a roundtable discussion about game education, featuring Dustin Clingman of Full Sail Real World Education, DigiPen's Claude Comair, GameCareerGuide's Beth Aileen Dillon, GameRecruiter's Marc Mencher, Paul Newell, course developer for the Art Institute of Vancouver, Parsons School of Design's Katie Salen, Dr. Peter Raad, and USC's Tracy Fullerton.

The following passage comes from the show's introduction:

GDC Radio Presents - Gamasutra Podcast Interview with The Advantage

podcast@gamasutra.com — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 06:32:00 GMT

Gamasutra is proud to present the eleventh Gamasutra Podcast, part of our series of weekly podcasts will alternate between two sources under the overarching GDC Radio brand - the Gamasutra Podcast, a new original podcast show, and GDC Radio Archives, which will exclusively feature the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.

Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast, presented by Tom Kim, features an exclusive interview with The Advantage, the California-based rock band whose entire catalogue consists of guitar-centered renditions of classic 8-bit video game tunes. The interview touches on the band's formation, its techniques, and its selection process for choosing among the literal thousands of available songs from the Nintendo Entertainment System's diverse catalogue.

GDCRadio Presents - Gamasutra Podcast Panel on Game Localization, Part 2

podcast@gamasutra.com — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:40:00 GMT

Part two of our August 8th panel on Console Game Localization with Bill Alexander, Nate Bihldorff, Heather Chandler, Victor Ireland, Ben Judd, Bill Swartz, Hiroshi Tanaka, and Bill Trinen. Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast, presented by Tom Kim, features the second and final part of a packed panel discussing game localization, including Atlus' Bill Alexander, Nintendo's Nate Bihldorff, Media Sunshine's Heather Chandler, Gaijinworks' Victor Ireland, Capcom's Ben Judd, Mastiff's Bill Swartz, Namco Bandai's Hiroshi Tanaka, and Nintendo's Bill Trinen. The assembled experts talk in detail regarding taking Japanese console titles and bringing them to Western markets.

(c) 2006 CMP Media LLC

GDCRadio Presents - Gamasutra Podcast Panel on Game Localization, Part 1

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 04:56:00 GMT

Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast, presented by Tom Kim, features the first part of a packed panel discussing game localization, including Atlus' Bill Alexander, Nintendo's Nate Bihldorff, Media Sunshine's Heather Chandler, Gaijinworks' Victor Ireland, Capcom's Ben Judd, Mastiff's Bill Swartz, Namco Bandai's Hiroshi Tanaka, and Nintendo's Bill Trinen. The assembled experts talk in detail regarding taking Japanese console titles and bringing them to Western markets.

(c) 2006 CMP Media LLC

GDC Radio Presents: Gamasutra Podcast interview with Jeff Green

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 5 Sep 2006 15:31:00 GMT

Our August 18th interview with Jeff Green, Editor in Chief of Computer Gaming World magazine. Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast, presented by Tom Kim, features an in-depth interview with Jeff Green, the Editor-in-chief of Computing Gaming World magazine. In it, Jeff discusses the reasons why he and his staff at Ziff Davis decided to re-brand Computer Gaming World as Games For Windows magazine, how to break PC gaming's image as the 'red-headed stepchild' of video gaming, and a plethora of other fascinating issues.

You can read a full transcript of the interview here.

(c) 2006 CMP Media LLC.

GDC Radio Presents: Gamasutra Podcast: Video Games Live Interview

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 18:42:00 GMT

Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast features an August 5th, 2006 post-show interview with Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall of the Video Games Live game concert events, conducted at the Chicago stop on their U.S. tour, and discussing the state of game audio and their motivations in founding the ongoing orchestral concert series.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: Video Games Live Interview (.MP3, 21 minutes, 22mb).

GDC Radio Presents: Gamasutra Podcast Interview with John Baez, Part 2

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 1 Aug 2006 05:26:00 GMT

Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast concludes our previously published July 14th interview with The Behemoth executive producer John Baez, (Alien Hominid). This week, we discuss the independent developer's upcoming Xbox Live Arcade game, Castle Crashers, and how an independent developer can learn from its fans.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: Interview with John Baez, Part 2 (.MP3, 35 minutes, 14.5mb).

GDC Radio Presents: Gamasutra Podcast Interview with John Baez, Part 1

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 19:29:00 GMT

This week's edition of Gamasutra Podcast is the first half of our exclusive July 14th interview with John Baez, founding member of The Behemoth and executive producer of Alien Hominid where he talks about the challenges and rewards of building your own development studio and independent video game franchise - complete with full-sized body suits and action figures!

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: Interview with John Baez, Part 1 (.MP3, 26 minutes, 11mb).

GDC Radio Presents: Gamasutra Podcast on Next Gen Console Development, Part 2

podcast@gamasutra.com — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:58:00 GMT

This week's edition of Gamasutra Podcast is the second in a two-part roundtable discussion with top developers on the challenges of developing for next generation consoles. It features Brian Eddy of Midway Games (Stranglehold / Xbox 360, PS3,) Nicolas Eypert of Ubisoft Paris (Red Steel, Wii,) Todd Howard of Bethesda Softworks (Oblivion, Fallout 3 / Xbox 360,) Bryan Intihar (Previews Editor of EGM,) Aubrey Pullman of Microsoft Game Studios (Forza Motorsport 2 / Xbox 360,) and Evan Wells of Naughty Dog (Unnamed Next-Gen Title / PS3), discussing vital issues, including next-gen console game pricing and technical-related issues.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast Panel on Next Gen Console Development, Part 2 (.MP3, 24 minutes, 11mb).

Where are we going?

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 19:23:00 GMT

To those of you who might still be reading my blog entries (all three of you, I'd wager,) you might have noticed that I haven't posted follow-ups regarding my Gama shows. Sorry about that! I would still like fatpixels to have a second life as kind of a "director's commentary" on producing the GDC Radio shows.

So in the interest of following up on that, here are some links referencing the panel on Next-Gen Console Development:

Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PS3 - A Hardware Discussion - an excellent discussion on Anandtech.com on how hardware might influence the kinds of titles on each console.

Cross-platform game development and the next generation of consoles - Jeremy Reimer's fascinating predictions regarding the impact of real-world pressures for third-parties to concurrently release on multiple consoles.

Waiting on a Revolution: a look ahead at the next-generation console wars - Jon Stokes' in-depth overview of the technical differences between each box.

A Gamers' Manifesto - a pseudo-serious rant from two fans really know what they want from the seventh generation of game consoles.

Wikipedia's History of Video Game Consoles - up to the seventh generation. But who's keeping count?

Next-Gen Consoles - The Real Deal - Megagames' low-down on next-gen tech. Guaranteed hype-free.

Gaming's Surprise Winner - read it to find out who... From TheStreet.com.

Are Big Budget Console Games Sustainable? - Analysis from the expert staff of GameDaily.biz.

At some point, I'd like to do a fatpixels podcast on how to put together a podcast. For those of you who might be curious... What do you think? Email me at fatpixelsradio@gmail.com.

-Tom

GDCRadio Presents - Gamasutra Podcast on Next Gen Console Development Pt 1

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 07:14:00 GMT

This week's edition of Gamasutra Podcast is the first in a two-part roundtable discussion with top developers on the challenges of developing for next generation consoles, and features Brian Eddy of Midway Games (Stranglehold / Xbox 360, PS3,) Nicolas Eypert of Ubisoft Paris (Red Steel, Wii,) Todd Howard of Bethesda Softworks (Oblivion, Fallout 3 / Xbox 360,) Bryan Intihar (Previews Editor of EGM,) Aubrey Pullman of Microsoft Game Studios (Forza Motorsport 2 / Xbox 360,) and Evan Wells of Naughty Dog (Unnamed Next-Gen Title / PS3.)

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast Panel on Next Gen Console Development, Part 1 (.MP3, 26 minutes, 12.2mb).

GDCRadio Presents - Gamasutra Podcast on Gamer Demographics Pt 2

podcast@gamasutra.com — Tue, 30 May 2006 06:26:00 GMT

Part two of our April 7th Panel Discussion on Gamer Demographics with Chris Crawford, Nick Fortugno, James Gwertzman, Michael Pachter, Katie Salen and Martin Zagorsek. The latest installment of Gamasutra's original podcast show - aptly named "Gamasutra Podcast" and operating under the GDC Radio brand - continues our original May 2 discussion on gamer demographics.

The discussion is moderated by Tom Kim of Fatpixels Radio, the video game-related podcast which industry site GameDaily recently singled out as the only compelling video game podcast online. Joining Kim are veteran game designer Chris Crawford, gameLab's Nick Fortugno, PopCap's James Gwertzman, analyst Michael Pachter, and NPD's Martin Zagorsek.

The podcast also includes an introduction featuring Tom Kim and Gamasutra/Game Developer magazine Editor in Chief Simon Carless.

You can now now download the Gamasutra Podcast on Gamer Demographics, Part 2 (.MP3, 31 minutes, 14.5mb).

GDCRadio Presents - Gamasutra Podcast Interview with Dean Takahashi

Tue, 16 May 2006 07:25:00 GMT

Our May 5th interview with Dean Takahashi, author of The Xbox 360 Uncloaked.

In this installment of the podcast, Gamasutra Podcast exec producer Tom Kim took the chance to quiz veteran San Jose Mercury News journalist Dean Takahashi, who has just published the eBook The Xbox 360 Uncloaked. In a fascinating longform interview, Takahashi discusses the book, which charts "a true insider's look at the creation of the XBox 360 and Microsoft's multi-billion dollar gamble to become a leading force in the globalvideo game industry", and commented on Microsoft's efforts so far to dominate the home game console market.

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast Interview with Dean Takahashi (.MP3, 16mb).

Announcing the Gamasutra Podcast Show 1

Tue, 2 May 2006 08:40:00 GMT

Hello Fatpixels Radio Faithful-

Here is our very first show under the aegis of CMP Media LLC. I will be using the fatpixels website and feed to mirror the gamacast for those of you who have been with us from the first show.

On fatpixels radio, this space will be changing into more of a personal and informal place for me to give you a behind the scenes look, not only at the process of producing the show, but for related topics as well. For example, I will be posting some advice to aspiring podcasters out there, and discussing my continuing process of evolving the production of the gamasutra podcast. Including the continuing learning I am acquiring on the technique and content of improving each show.

To get started, I am looking for your feedback on what I should name the new Gamasutra Podcast. Now, being the consumate working advertising professional, I am somehow not content to just call it the "Gamasutra Podcast" and be done with it. I'd like to throw out to all of you an opportunity to weigh in on renaming fatpixels.

Because Gamasutra is such a venerable game developers' online resource, I'd like to keep some of that equity. The thought is to come up with a show title, something like "Politically Incorrect," which works as a phrase in itself, but also points to the theme of the show.

Some of the ideas that my fatpixels, er, gamasutra podcast co-producers and I have come up with are:

Gamasutra Game Pad
Gamasutra Control Panel
Gamasutra Dialog Box
Infrequently Asked Questions
Gamasutra's Expert Positions

So far, the leaders seem to be Control Panel, Dialog Box and Infrequently Asked Questions... I rather like Expert Positions, but it has so far been voted down by the consensus. My new editor-in-chief, Simon Carless, prefers "Control Panel." But I'd like to get some sense of what you guys and gals have heart for.

By the way, if you have any better ideas, I'm all ears. Keep in mind, I'd like to design some logo and graphic identity to go along with the new show -- for the website, podcast graphic, and funny hats...

Also, stay tuned. Coming up this Friday, May 5th I have an interview with Dean Takahashi, the author of Opening The Xbox. He will be talking about his new book, The Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Are there any questions you'd like me to ask him? Send 'em to fatpixelsradio@gmail.com.

-Tom

Gamasutra Podcast 1

fatpixelsradio@gmail.com — Mon, 1 May 2006 15:32:00 GMT

Part one of our April 7th Panel Discussion on Gamer Demographics with Chris Crawford, Nick Fortugno, James Gwertzman, Michael Pachter, Katie Salen and Martin Zagorsek.

For the Gamasutra podcast, the site is pleased to be partnering with Tom Kim of Fatpixels Radio, the video game-related podcast which industry site GameDaily recently singled out as the only compelling video game podcast online. Kim's excellent panel discussions with leading industry figures have made his podcast unmissable, and he will now be shifting his existing transmission to become Gamasutra Radio.

The first segment of Tom's first panel, on Gamer Demographics, is now available, and features veteran game designer Chris Crawford, gameLab's Nick Fortugno, PopCap's James Gwertzman, analyst Michael Pachter, and NPD's Martin Zagorsek discussing the changing demographics of video game consumers, in a fascinating and exclusive discussion. The podcast also includes an introduction featuring Tom Kim and Gamasutra/Game Developer magazine EIC Simon Carless, setting up the panel and explaining a little more about the schedule for these regular weekly podcasts, which will debut each Tuesday.

You can now now download the Gamasutra Podcast on Gamer Demographics, Part 1 (.MP3, 12.4mb).

(c) 2006 CMP Media LLC.

Gamasutra To Add Weekly Industry-Related Podcast

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 00:31:00 GMT

(From Gamasutra Industry News - April 18, 2006)

Gamasutra is pleased to announce that, as part of the continuing improvements to its network of sites that have brought an expanded Gamasutra Education section and the launching of sister site Serious Games Source, it will be launching a new weekly podcast in the days leading up to E3.

The series of weekly podcasts will alternate between two sources under the overarching GDC Radio brand - Gamasutra Radio, a new original podcast show, and GDC Radio, which will feature exclusively the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conference.

For Gamasutra Radio, the site is pleased to be partnering with Tom Kim of Fatpixels Radio, the video game-related podcast which industry site GameDaily recently singled out as the only compelling video game podcast online.

Kim's excellent panel discussions with leading industry figures have made his podcast unmissable, and he will now be shifting his existing transmission to become Gamasutra Radio. The first panel, on Gamer Demographics, will start transmitting as a two-part Gamasutra Radio podcast in the near future, and features veteran game designer Chris Crawford, gameLab's Nick Fortugno, PopCap's James Gwertzman, analyst Michael Pachter, author Katie Salen and NPD's Martin Zagorsek discussing the changing demographics of video game consumers.

As for GDC Radio, the editors of Gamasutra will be going through the archives of the recently launched GDC Radio website, where it's possible to purchase audio recordings spanning a plethora of vital subjects discussed at this and previous Game Developers Conferences, and picking some of the most interesting archival performances to distribute in podcast form. More information on both podcasts will be released in the near future.POSTED: 7.25am PST, 04/18/06 - Simon Carless - LINK

Announcing Episode 7

Sat, 15 Apr 2006 21:00:00 GMT

Hello Brave Listeners-

Sorry for the long hiatus. But as you can probably gather, we've been pretty busy here at fatpixels. Namely, in setting up our new home at Gamasutra.

We are still finalizing a few points, such as new music, show format, and the like. But all in all, Simon Carless and his intrepid staff have been really wonderful.

So to make up for the long break and to reward your patience, we'd are happy to provide you with a veritable flood of fatpixels-related content. Not only do we serve up the long-awaited Episode 7, but also for our loyal listeners, we're happy to present a special preview edition of our panel discussion on Gamer Demographics for the Gama podcast.

The total panel discussion runs for 45 minutes. I have only included the first 12 minutes because I'd like you to listen to the actual show when it comes out, hopefully at the end of this month. If that isn't enough, you can also check out my guest appearance on Videogame News Radio's April 9th show. The link to the download is here.

So, sorry about the long delay, but I hope you enjoy the heaping helping of content.

As usual, please email your thoughts to fatpixelsradio@gmail.com.

-Tom

Special Preview of Gama Podcast Show 1

fatpixelsradio@gmail.com — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 20:55:00 GMT

It's a special fatpixels preview of our April 7th panel on Gamer Demographics with Chris Crawford, Nick Fortugno, James Gwertzman, Michael Pachter, Katie Salen and Martin Zagorsek. (c) 2006 CMP Media LLC/Tom Kim, Inc.

FPRP Episode 7

fatpixelsradio@gmail.com — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 17:36:00 GMT

Our April 1st panel is an inside look on putting together a fatpixels radio show. We're joined by Jay Parker, Lead Technical Designer at Surreal Software, and John Williamson, President of Zombie Interactive. (c) 2006 Tom Kim, Inc.

Video Game Voters Network and some news on our next show...

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 16:46:00 GMT

Hello Brave Listeners-

I thought I'd post an entry to promote the Video Game Voters Network and encourage you to sign up if you haven't already done so.

With the increasing proposals of state and federal level retail games regulation bills, this is exactly the kind of easy, relatively low impact, grass-roots mechanism that gamers need to at least make themselves heard to their local representatives.

Perhaps it's naive to look at the situation and wonder what's going on. The proponents of retail-level games legislation really don't care about the issues of First Amendment protections and speech. Nor are they genuinely concerned about the media effects debate. And it is apparent that they clearly aren't interested in a dialog with anyone on the developers' or publishers' side.

They merely find it convenient to bash on the game industry because it is an expedient way to shore up their family values cred -- to appear to be doing something to right a social ill without having to account for the hard solutions, such as funding education and addressing socioeconomic inequalities.

Our industry doesn't have a powerful lobby, like the film and music industries do, and as a whole, the gamer demographic doesn't tend to vote. But at least this is one way for all of us to do what we can.

To quote: "For over 30 years now, millions of Americans have played video and computer games, and this pastime has become an important part of American culture. Yet, as this entertainment medium grows it has also become a frequent target of criticism and legislation. The Video Game Voters Network working to protect the rights of Americans who play video games, and is first line of defense against legislative threats. The Network enables you to stay updated about issues and to voice your concerns to your elected officials.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What's Really At Stake?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Government regulation based on games' content will stifle creativity, and inadvertently cause game publishers to dilute content due to the threat of government action and fines. Game content is constitutionally protected, just like movies, books, and cable TV, so why should games be subject to a higher level of scrutiny? These legislative threats would create a double standard for this innovative medium.

Join Today, and Take A Stand - Protect Your Games!"

You can learn more about how you can help, and sign up by clicking the VGVN icon in the sidebar to the right. Or, you can just click on this link.

Onto less pressing matters: As most of you know, the Game Developers Conference 2006 is taking place this week. Steve and I would've loved to have attended. But, alas, we both have commitments to our paying jobs that precluded our presence at this year's GDC.

Also, for better or for worse, most of the guests we would have liked to talk to for our show are in attendance. Heck, most of them are presenting or running seminars... But never fear: it's looking like our next panel show will be recorded on April 7th, and probably editing and released by the next week (I promise not to keep you waiting too long.)

That show will be on The Changing Face of Gamers. According to the ESA's Top 10 Industry Facts, 75% of U.S. households play video or computer games; the average player is 30 years old and has been playing for almost 10 years; the average game buyer is 37 years old, and in 2005, 95% of PC game buyers and 84% of console game buyers were over the age of 18; 43% of all game players are women; in 2004, 19% of Americans over the age of 50 have played video games -- an increase of 9% from '99.

Now, numbers such as these are met with much skepticism from game developers and the enthusiast press alike because they are inclusive of the so-called casual games space -- people playing lightweight fare on mobile phones and the mainstream public playing Hearts on Yahoo Games. Even garnering criticism from certain circles in the enthusiast press. But in my view, the distinction is a nebulous one. And I am curious about the game industry's resistance to the adoption of their product among a wider audience.

Surveys such as the ESA's go a long way toward countering the mainstream perception of gamers as a monoculture of pubescent males. Which I think, can only be a good thing for the forward progress of the medium. Now, the unfortunate truth is that most of the people making games are a monoculture. I think that it is particularly important to foster the discussion of the growing diversity of game players among those making and selling games.

In that for 2005, the industry never had a better year for overall volume and sales, this past holiday season downgrading of many of the game publishers' analyst numbers--according to Michael Pachter of Wedbush-Morgan, due to console transition and sequel-itis--indicates that perhaps the industry should seek to broaden their markets by diversifying their product. The numbers show that the people are out there. But most game developers make titles for, and influenced by a very small cultural profile; they mostly make stuff for themselves.

Now, one of my friends (and erstwhile fatpixels radio co-producer) sent me this reply to a query about this show topic:

I saw John Cleese's one-man show last night, and when asked about why Monty Python was such a success, he said (huge paraphrasing) that it was because they had "no pressure, no demographics; we just tried to make each other laugh." I have heard other entertainers and artists echo this sort of sentiment -- that the best, the most enduring work comes when creators are working to please themselves. It is not surprising, then, that the gamers tend to focus their energies on games for the hardcore audience.

The trap for the gaming industry is that the contrapositive is also true -- the worst work comes when the creators are working to please others. If a game producer creates a game that he/she would not play, no matter what the market research might say, the result will in all likelihood be a crappy game. Crappy games do not grab new audiences, and the inability to make/sell fun games to a wider audience becomes almost a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The real breakout "non-traditional" hit will need some "non-traditional" creative forces behind it. It will happen (though probably not without some more failures); it is just a question of whether an outsider or some segment of the "monoculture" takes that first risk.

Good points, all. And I agree that a fair share of original and personally inspired excellent work comes from creators who hold themselves to their own vision -- the rest of society catching up when and if they can. I'm not suggesting that developers engage in a practice of making games by focus group. We all know that never works.

But I do think that very few of them seek to create any works of "high stakes." John Cleese and the Pythoners weren't seeking to feed the uroboros of genre hell -- serpentine metaphors completely intended. Instead, they broke molds and defined a certain flavour of humour, for better or worse, for decades to come.

In other words, I don't have a problem with gamers making games for themselves, so long as that crowd occasionally reaches further than insert-your-flavor-of-orc-demon-cyborg-from-space-hell here, or a blonde elven archer in a chainmail bikini. And I wish that if game developers continue to insist on relying on genre standards, that they would at least try to do something interesting or original with them.

The confirmed guest panelists on that show currently include Katie Salen, co-editor of The Rules of Play, and The Game Design Reader, and Heather Chaplin, co-author of SmartBomb. I'm trying to confirm a couple more panelists from the hard numbers and analysis side of things. Hopefully, I will be able to let you know who those people are, soon.

In the meanwhile, I have put out an all-call to my game developer friends to send me an email about how they got into the industry. Steve and I would like to record a show where we read these letters to you all. If you happen to be a game developer, please feel free to send in an email of your own to fatpixelsradio@gmail.com.

Also, I will be guest hosting on the Videogame News Radio podcast this upcoming weekend (April 2, 2006.) If you haven't heard of the show, in their own words, "This ain't your normal gaming show. A truck driver, a brick layer, and an ex-cook talking video games. The working person's gaming show." They have a decidedly different tone than fatpixels, but Kevin Baird and crew run one of the most honest gaming podcasts out there. Check it out.

On that note, I'd like to mention several other excellent game podcasts out there who's hosts and producers I have corresponded with: The ChatterBox Video Game Radio Show, the Gaming Steve Podcast, and the 4ColorRebellion podcast. Check out their shows. All of them are labors of love. And although they don't quite need as much promotion, please check out the PCGamer Podcast and the 1UP Radio Podcasts. (Much thanks, again, to Dan Morris of PC Gamer and Sam Kennedy of 1up.com for participating in our Games Journalism panel discussion.)

-Tom

Announcing Episode 6

Thu, 2 Mar 2006 06:49:00 GMT

Better late than never... I finally got around to editing the second half of the Games Journalism panel. In this episode, we are joined by guest host, Kyle Orland of Video Game Media Watch. Thanks to Kyle for his expert moderating of the panel, and for sharing his time and expertise to record our pre-show.

Here is a list of some of the resources and sites referenced in the show:

Kyle Orland's great article, It's Our Fault Videogames Aren't Considered Art. (Be sure to read the comments thread. There are some excellent, well-reasoned responses.)
1UP.com
1UP.com podcast
Sam Kennedy's blog entry on participating in the show
Dan Hsu's blog entry on Editorial Integrity
Dan Hsu's Peter Moore interview originally printed in EGM, and reposted on 1UP
Computer Gaming World
Matthew Sakey's Culture Clash column
Ankama Studios' free Flash-based MMORPG, Dofus. (To our French audience, je m'excuse.)
About.com's English lyrics for La Marseilles.
Vic Lucas' website for The Electric Playground
Electronic Gaming Monthly
EGM's collected Afterthoughts articles on 1UP
The Escapist
Gamasutra article, Difficulty and the Interstitial Gamer.
GameDaily BIZ's article, 7 Bad Mistakes that Good Game Journalists Make
GameDaily's Media Coverage page
Game Informer
The Gamer's Quarter
International Game Journalists Association
Joystiq
Joystiq's posting on Dofus
Kieron Gillen's Workblog posting on Games Journalism
Kotaku
The L.A. Times' recent reviews of film critic, Kenneth Turan
Official Playstation Magazine
PC Gamer
PC Gamer Podcast
Slashdot games
SlashDot Games reader comments on The Gamer's Quarter
Jordan Mechner entry on Wikipedia
Cahiers du Cinema entry on Wikipedia
W.H. Auden's Rules for Critics on the Wandering Ways blog page.
Sontag & Kael. An engaging, witty, and beautifully written critique on the process of critique by Craig Seligman.
Wizard Magazine
Esquire Magazine
David Jaffe's Modblog page
Hideo Kojima's HIDEOBLOG

I was going to write a 1,000-word critique on the game play experience of Tetris. But instead, I'll post some quick thoughts.

And already, it starts: I have received about a dozen alarmed reader emails expressing some concern over our comments on pithy, 100-word capsule reviews and numerical ratings of games. In case you weren't listening to the show, please allow me to restate: Kyle, Steve and I are not suggesting that all numerical scores be abolished outright. We merely want to see a broader range of how the press talks about games. We acknowledge that to many players, reviews serve a valuable purpose.

But while not everyone wants to read a wordy critique to help them decide whether or not they'd like to rent or purchase a game, it might help to validate the inherent worth of playing video and computer games if those who enjoy them were able to talk about their experiences in a way that might be appreciated by a non-gaming audience. Or even a hardcore gaming audience, though I suspect they are not the ones who need convincing...

I am finding that it is increasingly difficult to come to an experience with any freshness at all. Before anyone sees a movie, reads a novel, or plays a game, they've probably been exposed to much of the content through previews, news, or reviews already. At least in games, it is impossible to spoil the play experience simply by talking about it. Even if you read a cheat guide or FAQ, you still have to play the game to get the full experience. So that's at least one advantage we have over other media.

On games that are critical darlings that don't get the sales numbers: if I see a game that has something unique and good to offer, I put my money and time where my principles are. I buy that game and play it. There are lots of great games that didn't get the audience they deserved. Like Psychonauts, Beyond Good and Evil, Eternal Darkness, Rez, and Ico. My bet is, if your run-of-the-mill gamer would give any of these a try, they would not only enjoy them, but love them.

-Tom

FPRP Episode 6

Thu, 2 Mar 2006 06:37:00 GMT

More topic, less rambling! In Part Two of our February 3rd panel discussion on Games Journalism, we're joined by the always entertaining and informative Dan Morris of PC Gamer, along with Sam Kennedy of 1up.com, Vic Lucas of G4TV, Julianne Greer of The Escapist, and Matt Williamson of The Gamer's Quarter. (c) 2005-2006 Tom Kim, Inc.

Announcing Episode 5

fatpixelsradio@gmail.com — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 20:48:00 GMT

Hello brave listeners.

So I should know better than to promise a new show in a week... In truth, Steve, Kyle Orland and I didn't get around to recording our pre-show until tonight (Monday, February 27th.) We had planned on conferencing this weekend, but schedules didn't work out for us. So... I now have all the raw content I need for Episode 6. I just need to get to editing it down to a listenable form.

A heads up on audio quality, or lack thereof: we ended up having to use the conference call system to get Steve, Kyle and I in on a recordable call. Steve and Kyle were on cell phones, so from time to time, you will hear that signature buzzing sound of a cellphone signal under the audio capture, of the type you might hear through your car's radio when your cellphone is sitting on your car dashboard as an incoming call is coming through. Kind of scary when you think about it. That sound is caused by a point microwave source beaming a signal to some distant tower. That powerful signal is coming from that cellphone that you stick up to your head... This is why I own an earpiece.

-Tom

FPRP Episode 5

fatpixelsradio@gmail.com — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 20:45:00 GMT

Part One of our February 3rd panel discussion on Games Journalism with Sam Kennedy of 1up.com, Vic Lucas of G4TV, Dan Morris of PC Gamer, Julianne Greer of The Escapist, and Matt Williamson of The Gamer's Quarter. (c) 2005-2006 Tom Kim, Inc.

Episode 5 Coming Soon

fatpixelsradio@gmail.com — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 23:31:00 GMT

Hello brave listeners (as Steve would say). Just a quick note to inform you that Episodes 5 and 6 are on their way. Sorry for the delay, but my day job has gotten in the way of the podcast.

Have no fear: some excellent programming is coming your way soon. Kyle Orland moderated a spirited panel on Games Journalism with Vic Lucas of G4TV's Electric Playground, Sam Kennedy of 1up.com, Julianne Greer of The Escapist, Matt Williamson of The Gamer's Quarter, and Dan Morris of PC Gamer.

Part One of that panel, along with opening commentary from myself and Steve should be up by this weekend. Part Two, with guest commentary from Kyle, along with me and Steve should be up very soon after.

Apologies for the delay, and thanks for your patience. Stay tuned.

-Tom

Announcing Episode 4

fatpixelsradio@gmail.com — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 16:28:00 GMT

Here is a list of some of the resources and sites referenced in the show:

Ernest Adams' homepage: The Designer's Notebook
James Gee's Games + Learning + Society page at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Henry Jenkins' website at MIT
Ernest Adams' Gamasutra article, "You Must Play Façade, Now!"
Henry Jenkins' article, "Games, the New Lively Art"
Kyle Orland's article, "It's Our Fault Video Games Aren't Considered Art"
Homepage for A Tale In The Desert
Next Generation's coverage of OPM's James Mielke interview with Hideo Kojima: "Games Are Not Art"
Jeremy Parish of ToastyFrog.com's case for games as art: "Wherefore art?"
Digital Eel's Weird Worlds: Strange Adventures in Infinite Space homepage and links.
Bethesda Softworks' The Elder Scrolls.

Merriam-Webster's definition of art is: "The conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects; also : works so produced."

-----

I recently read James Mielke's excellent interview with visionary game designer and producer, Hideo Kojima in the February issue of The Official U.S. Playstation Magazine. In the course of their conversation, Mielke and Kojima get into a brief discussion on Roger Ebert's assessment that videogames can never be viewed as art.

Before you all start flaming Hideo Kojima on the subject -- Roger Ebert has already received his share of irate rebuttal -- I believe it is instructive to understand his and Ebert's viewpoints. (By the way, I do not feel that flaming people who offer opinions that might be perceived to be anti-gaming, or that simply do not coincide with your own is productive. If you must lodge a complaint, for the sake of the industry you represent, please try to do so in a civil, well-reasoned, and even handed manner.)

Ebert says that: "...I did indeed consider video games inherently inferior to film and literature. There is a structural reason for that: Video games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control...[T]he nature of the medium prevents it from moving beyond craftsmanship [however elegant or sophisticated] to the stature of art. To my knowledge, no one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists and composers... for most gamers, video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic."

In typical Japanese fashion, Kojima is rather elliptical in his reply: "...art is something that radiates the artist, the person who creates that piece of art. If 100 people walk by and a single person is captivated by whatever that piece radiates, it's art. But videogames aren't trying to capture one person. A videogame should make sure that all 100 people that play that game should enjoy the service provided by that videogame. It's something of a service. It's not art. But I guess the way of providing service with that videogame is an artistic style, a form of art."

Although I feel that Kojima's thesis differs in significant ways from Ebert's, they share a notion that art is an expression of an individual: an "artist." And that the intention of this expression is intrinsic to the definition of "art." It is unstated, but implied that the artist intends for his or her expression to be rather singular in intent and interpretation. In Ebert's case, this falls under the assertion of "authorial control." In Kojima's case, he explains that he is merely providing "a canvas and paint and the paintbrushes" as a "service" to the people who play the game; that the expression of the medium is not coming from the creator of the medium, but rather from its participants. But Ebert offers the additional claim that the act of playing games holds no inherent value.

My personal opinion is that Ebert and Kojima both advance a rather narrow definition of art. If you ask a bunch of academics, critics, or artists themselves to provide you with a pithy definition of art -- or perhaps more specifically, fine art -- you will probably get as many answers as respondents.

According to Henry Jenkins: "Let's be clear here. All games are art...In a superficial sense, we could point to examples (of in-game assets) which could be described as professionally competent and well-produced. In a higher sense, we look for works that create new expressive experiences or push a medium to places it hasn't gone before."

From Ebert and Kojima's perspective, perhaps these goals aren't possible without an artist's embedded intention or narrative. To simply hand over the medium, whether it be canvas and paint, or pixels and input device to an experiencer in their view, removes an essential component of what makes art, "art." Namely, the intrinsic, guiding hand of the artist. Rather than the extrinsic, emergent qualities found in interactive entertainment.

Personally, I acknowledge that we haven't yet seen many examples of the medium which could be generally described as "works of art," at least as understood by a consensus view of what is considered canonical art. But I would like to allow that video and computer games might start to define an emerging notion of a unique kind of commentary or experience, due to the very fact that a participant has more direct input on the experience itself. Particularly in the fields of emergent drama or storytelling or interactive performance with other people. Such as in the case of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, like World of Warcraft.

And even in the case of single-player games, the craft and artistry of the game designer could define a rich and directed experience illuminating the general human condition, the creator's comment on his or her world, or reflective of the medium itself. Professor James Gee views games as being a particular kind of virtually-embodied performance art, where there is a unique interaction between the intention of the game designer providing "a trajectory of choices," and the game player.

In other words, James Gee and Henry Jenkins assert that the interactive experience in itself can be described as artistic, and games as a form of art wholly deserving of inherent value as an experience, in the same manner as film, or novels, or other works that are generally accepted as art. And, I would like to note, as deserving of First Amendment protections as any other form of expression. A point which obviously is lost on many politicians, moral reformers, and anti-game crusaders and special interest groups.

As far as the elements that comprise that experience, such as the visual components of 2D and 3D design, animation, music, sound, and storytelling can also be artistic, I do not separate the granular components of the medium from the overall interactive experience. Any more than I would separate the screenplay, cinematography, editorial, musical score, acting, set design, title design, or any other granular component from film. Nor would I make the same qualitative comparisons between, say the style and quality of writing in a screenplay and the prose of a novel.

All parts work in complete communication of an experience unique to the medium they service. In this way, my personal thesis of games as art differs from Kojima's. Kojima makes the analogy of a videogame as being comparable to a museum: "Art is the stuff you find in the museum, whether it be a painting or a statue. What I'm doing, what videogame creators are doing, is running the museum -- how do we light up things, where do we place things, how do we sell tickets? It's basically running the museum for those who come to the museum to look at the art. For better or worse, what I do, Hideo Kojima, myself, is run the museum and also create the art that's displayed in the museum."

It is my opinion that Mr. Kojima sorely understates the importance of his role. In my view, he is not a mere curator. He is an artist. And not just of "the art that's displayed in the museum," but of the holistic experience itself. He is a wonderful game designer, and should acknowledge the significance of his accomplishments as far as he is clearly embracing the weight of his role in creating compelling experiences. I also feel that a very public assertion that games are not art coming from one of our most visionary game designers only serves to hurt the medium. I am sorry he feels that way. I am even sorrier that he broadcasts these feelings to the enthusiast press, his fans, and by extension, the non-gaming world.

This might get to a notion of his humility. Earlier in the interview, he explained that most of the Japanese press call into question the title that most of his fans confer on him. The adoring otaku refer to him as, "Kojima-kantoku." The word, kantoku loosely translates to "director," as in film director. In Japan, film directors such as Akira Kurosawa are revered as bona-fide artists. So the question is intended to ask if Kojima, himself thinks of himself as being in the same league as a film director. And by extension, videogames as being in the same league as film. In Japan, as in America, the public consensus is that videogames are an inferior medium compared to film. So I wonder how much of his assertion is deferring to the general view, so as not to appear unduly arrogant.

In games, I propose that developers and game designers have an obligation to explore the medium's unique interactive elements, and to strive to understand the aesthetics and push the limits of those components. And apply what they learn toward the question of why they are creating the game in the first place. If the medium is to move forward, developers and designers should start to ask themselves these questions of intent, and regard what they are creating as worthy of the effort.

Kojima himself comes up with an interesting example: an unbeatable videogame: "Maybe let's say there's a game out there where there's a boss that you cannot defeat. It's made that way. Normally, when you beat the boss in a game, there's a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, but if you can't beat the boss at all, if what you're left with is a sense of loss, then maybe that could be defined as art." But, he goes on to caveat his example by saying: "That's why you want to think about art and videogames. I think the lousiest videogames can be considered art. Because bad games with no fun aren't really games, by definition."

Again, I would disagree. For now, our notion of games might require that they perform as consumer artifacts; as lightweight, escapist pieces of entertainment; as toys. But if we were to expand the range of what is considered a worthwhile experience in playing a game, the measure of mere commercial success as a defining precondition of "quality" for a game may no longer need apply. People might not aesthetically appreciate the atonal music of Philip Glass, but few would say that atonal music is completely without merit simply because the experience itself isn't widely accessible.

Don't get me wrong. I still understand that we're talking about games, here. But that might be part of the problem. Right now, almost any interactive piece that runs with the assistance of a computer or console is called a "game." With that moniker comes the assumption that the work is merely a trifle -- an amusement.

I don't propose that we add a new description to the lexicon which would only serve to confuse people and make the game industry appear overly full of itself. (Maybe I have a little empathy for Kojima's humility, after all.) Witness the comic book industry trying to rebrand their work as "sequential art" in the "graphic novel" format. Though I have the highest respect for the fine artists who have contributed to that field such as Will Eisner and Frank Miller, their PR efforts didn't work. And comics remain a niche medium in the States. It is my opinion that the video and computer game industry have already achieved more mainstream status than the comic book industry, anyway. But we still have a ways to go. Cultural awareness does not equal respect.

For now, we might as well keep the appellation and strive to improve the inherent worth of the experiences. After all, the term, "rock and roll" was originally a pejorative description of the form.

As in rock music, film, or other forms of popular mass media that are generally accepted as art, it is my opinion that it may be much more difficult to create a work that has universal appeal, and that can also be generally regarded as having high artistic merit. As opposed to creating something that is a fascinating piece of art, but that only appeals to a limited set of individuals. I'm just saying that I might play a game -- experience an interactive work of art -- and "get something out of it" that is worthy of the experience, but that might not be described purely in terms of "fun factor." Just like I might find it difficult to read the prose of James Joyce's Ulysses, but still find the experience valuable enough to re-read the novel in spite of my initial discomfort.

New York artist, Cory Arcangel has already mounted a few interactive exhibits, one of which fits Kojima's bill. By changing a few bits of GameBoy code, Archangel created the agonizing, nearly unplayable, "Super Slow Tetris." Archangel's pieces rely on the penetration of Nintendo's classic 8-bit era properties into cultural consciousness to create a referential kind of art that comments on the fact that videogames have officially entered Postmodernity. Even if one isn't a gamer, some of Arcangel's pieces, such as "Super Mario Clouds" have a certain aesthetic elegance and an almost impressionistic effect on the viewer.

Incidentally, this, and other interesting topics are covered in the December 9, 2005 episode of WNYC's Studio 360 which explores the topic of videogames.

One segment of the show highlights the use of games as military training simulators. These simulators elicited highly emotional responses from their participants. If that reaction could be directed to an intention of exploring unique and significant experiences, we might start to explore and expand the range of the medium's capabilities. To quote segment producer, Rachel McCarthy: "Perhaps the one big difference may be the intent of the player: a game is only just a game when the person using it chooses to see it that way."

-Tom

FPRP Episode 4

fatpixelsradio@gmail.com — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 09:13:00 GMT

Our January 12th panel discussion on Games as an Emerging Art with Professor Henry Jenkins of M.I.T.'s Comparative Media Studies program, Professor James Gee of the University of Wisconsin Madison, and Ernest Adams. (c) 2005-2006 Tom Kim, Inc.

Announcing Episode 3

fatpixelsradio@gmail.com — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 16:37:00 GMT

Here is a list of some of the resources and sites referenced in the show:

Dennis McCauley's GamePolitics.com
International Game Developers Association
The IGDA's key points on anti-censorship
Jason Della Rocca's article, "Regulation Is Everyone's Business"
Matthew Sakey's Culture Clash column
Kyle Orland's Video Game Media Watch
Entertainment Software Association (ESA)
Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB)
Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA)
The IEMA's Government Advocacy page
National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF)
The NIMF's 10th Annual Media Report Card on the video and computer game industry
Henry Jenkin's article at PBS.org, "Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked"
GameDaily.biz's article on FEPA, and the industry response.
The Onion article, "New Video Game Designed To Have No Influence On Kids' Behavior"

In this episode, Steve and I get to riff a little on our take on the legislation issue.

It is Steve's opinion that an addition of brief descriptions of action to the ESRB's summary of representational content would be helpful to parents, and possibly toward allaying some of the criticisms of the ratings system from politicians and special interest groups. Also, that such a listing of interactions would serve to point out the differences between games and other more "passive" media such as movies.

It is my opinion that this might be a dangerous move, especially if it proves to play into the political agenda of groups such as the National Institute for Media and the Family, who have proposed to replace the ESRB ratings with just such a system. The question becomes, who is doing the rating, and how is that rating listed? Steve contends that this should be the ESRB. But consider that if the MPAA listed out all of the actions taken by the lead characters in most popular movies, one might think that the only people who watch movies are voyeristic sociopaths.

My point is, detached from the context of the experience, even the most objective interactive ratings system loses a lot of accuracy, and thus utility.

I do think he raises a valid issue in terms of assessing the difference between games and other media. However, I don't necessarily classify other media as being "non-interactive." All media requires some participation from the reader or viewer or listener, in that we all interpret our exposure to media differently. Two people could watch the same movie and have completely different impressions and interpretations of the same material.

Scott McCloud contends that most of the interaction between a reader of comics and sequential art takes place between the panels of the page, as the mind fills in the actions that aren't explicitly displayed. Or, for a more simple example, Hollywood directors always have the problem of adapting written works to the screen because every audience member already has an internal subjective view or expectation of what they have read in the novel.

So in this sense, although games are more interactive in that they require direct real-time feedback and response from and to the system, they are not the only medium that requires participation from the experiencer. I also do not believe it would be productive to get into a debate over who's medium is better than who's.

I don't think it is the ESRB's place to devise such a system, seeing as the parents who are concerned about the ratings are mostly thinking about the representational, rather than the interactive content of games in the first place. The difficulty is that coming up with succinct descriptions of such actions can be highly subjective. As I have already stated, such a ratings system would present those actions out of context of a person playing the game. Also, much of this information can already be gathered simply by looking at the screen captures and copy on the back of the game packaging, where such information takes up far more space than the ESRB rating. And lastly, parents already aren't interpreting the existing rating that's already prominently displayed on posters, brochures, and counter cards, as well as the front and back of the packaging itself. So the probable answer is not to make that ratings system even more complex.

The real answer, I feel, is public awareness. The reason the MPAA ratings have been generally accepted is because they have the momentum of over 30 years of being in the public's mindshare. So although it can be argued that the MPAA ratings are equally subjective, there is a general understanding that it may be inappropriate to bring a minor to an R-rated movie. Also, as Jason Della Rocca pointed out, the public assumes the film ratings work because the retail and distribution chain of motion pictures -- movie theaters -- has a much higher incidence of compliance to enforcing their ratings system. A system which is, by the way, put out by a subsidiary of the film industry whose enforcement is completely voluntary.

I invite our listeners to weigh in with their points on the issue. In the meanwhile, we hope you enjoy the second part of our panel.

-Tom

Steve Replies: My Turn to Weigh In...

Games :Are: Interaction

My suggestion that the ESRB include information related to the interactive content of the games they review is the most relevant facet of a larger desire I have regarding gaming in general: the perception of games as influential on the minds of young players -- the same concerns that brought about the founding of the ESRB in the first place.

The ESRB currently assays games for graphical and audio content. Profanity, provocative imagery, and of course violent themes are singled out and detailed on the package for the ease of understanding of people who might not get that information from the screenshots or feature descriptions on the box (or who don't read them in the first place). I believe it is just as, if not more important to detail similar information about the interactive content of the game in question, to help the consumer understand the kinds of activities depicted by the interaction between player and game.

Many WW2 shooters have descriptions on the ESRB label like "Violence and Gore," "Blood," or "Adult Themes." But a game about Emergency Room medicine could have similar descriptors, though the interactive content is completely different. The packaging could be identical to the eyes of a parent purchasing a product, but a game where the player is a battlefield medic attempting to save lives on the beaches of the Normandy invasion has very different messages than one where the goal is to create casualties.

I think the language used to create these descriptors already exists; it is very similar to the language already in use by the ESRB. "Lifelike Violence" is different from "Animated Violence," but the difference between violence enacted on humans or humanoid fictional characters (like zombies or robots) is as important as the distinction on player vs. environment violence and player vs. player violence. I'd also like to know, if I were a parent, if the violence is enacted with fists, guns, swords, or cars, and if any sexual themes in a game were interactive or passive. This is the only real distinction between small niche "blue" titles and others like the Leisure Suit Larry series.

I'm not suggesting that every possible interaction be spelled out to the letter. Listing a 720 triple flip with a nosegrab as an interaction on the back of SSX would be as unnecessarily descriptive as the spelling out of evisceration and decapitations would be on the back of a Mortal Kombat title. Simply listing "Trick Snowboarding" or "Extreme Player vs. Player Unarmed Combat" would be informative enough to satisfy the concerns of the public.

The root of this argument comes from my desire to see gaming progress as an intelligent medium. The reason that Baby Boomers fear Doom is because they have no idea of what it represents to their kids. Politicians propose legislation against games because they have never played them and have to take the slanted research and worst fears of activists as truth. The public still doesn't accept games as an equivalent media to TV or cinema because they still see Frogger or Pac-Man as representative of the entire industry. And, most importantly, developers continue to make FragFest 200X because it's what they know will sell to the limited audience that pays attention to their work.

The answer to all of these ills is education. If games worthy of merit and accessible to a larger audience were billed as such by the media (including the enthusiast media), more people would learn about the possibilities for learning, expression, and entertainment offered by games. This would allow more game developers to innovate in areas other than poly-counts and frames-per-second.

If the ESRB started using descriptions of interactive content, it would send a message to parents and other consumers that games are different than movies or television. After all, while the listener to a song has to mentally interact with the tune and lyrics to interpret a message, that song would play without any input from the listener. On the other hand, start up most games and provide no input, and they many might be mistaken for a still image - there is no content without interaction from the user. Many non-gamers, parents and politicians among them, don't get that.

This message needs to get out to society at large if the medium and the industry that produces it are ever going to expand past the monoculture it has built. My argument about the ESRB is only one step that I think can advance that goal.

-Steve

FPRP Episode 3

fatpixelsradio@gmail.com — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 08:28:00 GMT

Part 2 of our panel discussion on the Family Entertainment Protection Act. Plus, some listener mail, and Steve and Tom weigh in with their opinions. The audio levels are a little low, but the update took long enough to edit... Our show follows the old adage, always leave them wanting something more. Please email us at fatpixelsradio@gmail.com or visit us at http://fatpixelsradio.com (c) 2005-2006.

Announcing Episode 2

fatpixelsradio@gmail.com — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 20:12:00 GMT

Happy Holidays listeners-

For Episode 2, Steve moderated a panel discussion between Jason Della Rocca, Executive Director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), Dennis McCauley of GamePolitics.com, Matthew Sakey, writer of the IGDA's monthly Culture Clash column, and Kyle Orland of Videogame Media Watch.com. The subject of the discussion was the Family Entertainment Protection Act, the first bill introduced on the federal level intended to regulate the sales of M-rated titles to minors. There are some important distinctions to this bill that distinguish it from the various state-level laws that have been proposed, enacted, and overturned.

I think the issue of game commerce legislation is a timely and important one for the game industry. And, it touches on other points that are of importance to the continuing development of games as an accepted medium of critical and creative expression. Particularly in light of the general public's perception of games as entertainment only suitable for children.

To be fair to the non-gamer's perception, there is little common ground for discussion. On the surface, most popular games are rather unsophisticated in their thematic presentation. It is hard to discuss what makes Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series such great games to a non-gamer. Like GTA, there have been big, popular movies where the protagonists were amoral criminal misogynists. Scarface comes to mind.

But in 1983 when the movie came out, few would argue that film as a medium had no artistic merit, that Pacino as an actor had no talent, that DePalma as a director had no creative vision, or that Universal Pictures had no business releasing the movie. Or even, to a more subtle degree that Oliver Stone didn't craft an effective screenplay or that the movie didn't touch on larger issues that resonated with the audience. That I can justify these points with most people -- aside from the perception and presentation of the content of the movie -- speaks to a lack of shared dialog and terminology with artistic themes in games.

Movies did not crack that serious crust until people who loved movies began to dissect them seriously for a broader audience. Most movies are still rubbish, but Pauline Kael was still able to comment seriously upon the artistic choices in Rambo, and connect the film to a larger historical and artistic context. No Pauline Kael of video game criticism has stepped up to the plate. Is that the game press' fault for poor journalism, or gamers' fault, since product previews and reviews are apparently all they buy? If there is no critical mass of serious game journalism within the industry, there is no reason for anybody outside the industry to think games are anything but barren, and, more to the point, those outside the industry will always set the agenda. If you have not already seen it, take a look at Kyle Orland's article "It's Our Fault Video Games Aren't Considered Art."

Henry Jenkins has cited the fact that media messages are most effective when they tend to reinforce the values, beliefs and preconceptions of the reader, listener or viewer. Conversely, we are remarkably resistant to media messages which do not resonate with us. Which is, in no small part, why a well-adjusted teen is highly unlikely to go out and gun down the neighborhood after playing Grand Theft Auto. By the way, in light of the fact that media messages can be reinforcing of beliefs and behavior, my belief is that game designers and publishers should exercise some restraint on the content they put in their games. I can accept the pushing of limits of taste or execution if they are done in service of a message or theme. However, in my opinion, wanton violence and shocking subject matter shouldn't be employed indesciminately. I am somewhat conflicted, as a gamer, about my enjoyment of the play experience of the Grand Theft Auto series and Rockstar's irresponsible behavior. I feel their lying to the ESRB about the Hot Coffee content was unprofessional and damaging to gaming. But market forces and game sales introduce a ripe target.

Rockstar purposefully releases titles with controversial content. These tend to sell well for the same reasons that kids listened to rock and roll in the fifties and rap music in the aughties. And also because some of that music is pretty good, and some of Rockstar's games are pretty fun (the point that Rockstar's less well-designed games do not sell is kind of lost on suburban moms.) So as long as controversy produces profits, some developers will try to take advantage of that fact. And publishers have to decide with the bottom line. Both with little regard to the possible long-term effects on the industry. What bothers me about Rockstar is that they purposefully push the limits of what is admissible or generally acceptable in other media, and then resort to the First Amendment defense. The problem is that this erodes Constitutional protections. Because other media have been around for longer and enjoy more general public acceptance, the subject matter tends to be self-correcting. You probably wouldn't see a movie with big box office numbers that was essentially a snuff film (Manhunt).

When relevant to the story/theme at hand, violence and shocking subjects pack a lot of power. The problem in all media is when the artist uses them as their only theme, or as a lazy way to cover up a lack of original craft. The market will correct for a snuff film. It will not punish a Scarface that does something with its shock and violence. The problem specific to video games is that, for some reason, the violence either sells or is perceived to sell, on its own. The market does not correct against a game that advertises itself as having "more blood" -- it sometimes even rewards it, and the game press chirps along happily, focusing on the realism of limb severings instead of the theme -- or, sometimes, even the fun factor -- of a game.

But bad public perception and short term legislation might limit the choices we have as consumers. At least to the point where it might become a liability for publishers to distribute certain kinds of content in an already narrow and risk-averse retail channel. I don't want to see the marketplace shrunk in general. Nor do I want the public at large to continue in a self-perpetuating perception that games are, as Jason Della Rocca says, "just toys for children." Or worse, for sociopaths.

The good news is that retailers, merchants' associations and the courts are on the side of consumers. Also, I believe that efforts should be put toward educating parents and consumers rather than harassing retailers. But if senators Clinton and Lieberman start gaining public and political traction on their proposed legislation, things could start looking very ugly for the game industry. The press won't be good. What's more likely to get aired and resonate more with mainstream America: an earnest advocate for the game industry with a sound-bite to get across his or her points, or a ten second montage of violent game footage? Where are outlets in the press or points of public contact where we could address these issues in a more proactive way? Also, what would happen if there is another prominent incident of youth violence? How long do you think it would take before activist groups found a "prominent link" to video games?

Part of the reason press about games won't be good is that press by gamers is so bad. Why should mainstream media credit video games as art or even simply a legitimate medium, deserving First Amendment protection, if the publications by and for gamers consist primarily of blurbs covering graphics, blood, and cleavage? No ten-second soundbite can stand against what the rest of the industry is saying about itself. It is no wonder that those with an agenda find games such easy pickings; these are all self-inflicted wounds. If the game community wants to be taken seriously, it has to take itself seriously, first.

I am very interested to hear our listeners' opinions on these matters.

-Tom

FPRP Episode 2

fatpixelsradio@gmail.com — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 16:29:00 GMT

In this episode, we present part one of our panel discussion with Jason Della Rocca and Matthew Sakey of the IGDA, Dennis McCauley of GamePolitics.com, and Kyle Orland of Videogame Media Watch.com on the Family Entertainment Protection Act. Also, what we're playing over the holidays, and platform agnosticism. Please email us at fatpixelsradio@gmail.com or visit us at http://fatpixelsradio.com. (c) 2005, fatpixels radio podcast.

Announcing Episode 1

fatpixelsradio@gmail.com — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 20:34:00 GMT

Here is a list of some of the resources and sites referenced in the show:

Dark Horizons Lore
GameDaily.com's November 23rd article on Wedbush Morgan Securities' "The Nightmare Before Xmas"
GameDaily.com's article on Tips for the Independent Developer.
The Independent Games Festival
Kai Backman's Shorthike
Kieron Gillen's "How To Use And Abuse The Gaming Press And How The Gaming Press Wants To Use and Abuse You."
Marble Blast Ultra page on Xbox Live Arcade
Nethack
Popcap Games
RuneScape

Also, check out Greg Costikyan's excellent articles on "Death to the Games Industry" in issue 8 and issue 9 of The Escapist.

On December 1st, fatpixels radio co-host, Steve McLaughlin interviewed Greg Costikyan of Manifesto Games and Jay Moore of GarageGames on their respective roles in promoting independent game development. In an increasingly risk-averse retail environment, it is difficult to find games that aren't sequels, tie-ins to licensed properties, or re-treads of market-proven styles of game play. A look at Amazon.com's top selling game titles for this week demonstrates the point: Madden 2006, Mario Party 7, Age of Empires 3, Star Wars Battlefront II (sometimes, all three in one...), Civ IV...

Is this a problem? According to Michael Pachter, analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities, the full-year growth of the games industry may be in jeopardy, due in no small part to "sequelitis." Pachter notes, "In particular, consumers appear to be indifferent to the proliferation of sequels, indicating a slow start to holiday sales and risk of continuing weakness." And it appears that Mr. Pachter's fears were justified. The NPD Group, one of the premier sources of market information for the video game industry, recently retracted its November figures due to an unprecedented mis-prediction of actual sales numbers. The revised data wasn't pretty.

Of course, this doesn't mean that every sequel necessarily sucks. Sometimes successive iterations of a franchise allow the developer to more finely tune the play experience. However, as much as I have enjoyed the latest Mario Kart on the DS and throwing down with my buddies playing Madden, I long for the days of original, creative play experiences. Besides, am I the only one who is feeling more than a little indifferent about the latest Tony Hawk game?

But with so many titles competing for our time and money, any new release has only two weeks' shelf time before it is cleared to make room for the next cycle of games. And the next generation of hardware only promises greater time and expense to create assets, with correspondingly higher risk for game publishers. But Bigger-Faster-More doesn't necessarily lead to better game play or innovation. On the contrary, with 9 out of 10 titles failing to recoup their development costs, is it any wonder that publishers are wary about backing new properties or novel styles of play?

So where does this leave the you and me -- not to mention the developer? Is there any solution on the horizon?

There are people out there who are trying to do something about the problem. Some developers such as Wideload Games are seeking different studio and production models in an effort to maximize efficiencies and lower costs. BioWare|Pandemic is seeking development funding from venture capital, rather than exclusively relying on the backing of a traditional game publisher. I am pulling for their efforts to secure a better development environment for themselves. But both of these companies are still trying to create games firmly within the existing market and retail channel.

Our panelists are attempting to skirt the traditional game publishing model altogether. Their rationale: it is nearly impossible to sustainably release games under the current model without profits ultimately driving the development process. If a developer seeks to create unique experiences without these pressures, they have to resort to a different path to market. Also, our panelists would argue that there is a creative, as well as a commercial need for independent development.

We welcome your feedback. It is the only way we'll make the show better. I would request that the comments on the page stick to the theme of indie game development. For any other issues, please email us at fatpixelsradio@gmail.com.

-Tom

FPRP Episode 1

fatpixelsradio@gmail.com — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 00:30:00 GMT

Our December 1st interview with Greg Costikyan of Manifesto Games and Jay Moore of GarageGames on their respective roles in promoting independent game development. Please email us at fatpixelsradio@gmail.com or visit us at http://fatpixelsradio.com (c) 2005, fatpixels radio podcast.