State of play: 2008
With 2008 winding down retrospective pieces are beginning to pop up all over the place. You can find a particularly good one here at BBC online.
Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux and Richard Garriot of Ultima fame are some of the industry insiders offering their two cents on the year that was.
Molyneux hints at a ‘super secret’ project (Black & White 3 hmmm?) in the offing for ’09, although a release date hasn’t been confirmed as of yet.
Molyneux’s comments on GTA IV and specifically the state of game design in general throw some light on a trend that has been bugging the gaming community for a while now: the phenomenon of dropping between £30 to £70 on a title only to blast through in hours.
“On the gaming front, GTA IV was a real moment for the industry. Rockstar nailed how you characterise a game and their engine and cut sequences are state of the art. However, only a few people actually saw all the cut sequences because the game was so tough to play. Are we making games too difficult? That’s a question the industry has been asking itself of late.”
Are we making games too difficult? Has Mr Molyneux played his own Fable titles? They practically play themselves – hold forward, move from marker to marker – its the videogame equivalent of orienteering on a train.
In terms of challenge the industry has been a victim of its own success. Moving from the realm of fanatical hobby to lifestyle accessory has created a popular motion toward pick-up-put-down playing.
The average gaming pattern has now become: wake up, work, rakishly flirt with colleagues, go home, play Burnout on PS3 for 20 minutes, go to the cluuuuub, resolve life into a Paco Rabanne ’1 Million’ advert:
I believe that’s a custom Wiimote in the child’s hand in 0:17, and judging from his silken arm waggling throughout he’s a demon at Wii tennis.
Though it is a refreshing change to the ‘wake up, sigh, work, go home (to mother), play Zork for 12 hours, die alone’ stigma that was entrenched not so long ago.
