BioShock Dev: Game Designers Need More Variety

[Tommy Tallarico]

Ken Levine (right), President of Irrational Games, thinks that most game designers today haven't read enough books or seen enough films to be properly inspired for their work. He also had some interesting thoughts on how he compares to Epic's CliffyB.

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(Link to GameDaily.com)

[icarusfall]

I don't care about videogame makers opinions on anything.

[NeoZeedeater]

I don't care about videogame makers opinions on anything.

Why not? They're the ones making the games.

Levine's a smart guy who has worked on amazing games. I would rather read what he has to say than any PR monkey.

[Dipstick]

I don't care about videogame makers opinions on anything.

Not even videogames?

Honestly, I think he's dead-on. This industry is more inbred than Yoshi's family. . The only people that work in this industry at the people that grew up in/with the industry. You can see it even in the hiring process, where "a passion for games" is always the first (or last) bullet point for prospective hires. Fuck that! If I ever started up a studio, I would look for people that best fit the role regardless about how passionate they are about games.

There is a lack of talent that comes from outside that circle, and I think this is at least partially due to the medium coming across as being legitimate as porn. The industry is immature (on both sides of the world -- the flood of military-themed shooters and dating sims full of twelve-year-old girls are just teenage wish-fulfillment fantasies from their respective countries), and until it matures

Some of us on TNL (myself included) are most certainly part of the problem.

[sethsez]

I agree with this man and hope his science fiction FPS with creepy little girls, big robots and mutants will help fix the problem.

[Dipstick]

I agree with this man and hope his science fiction FPS with creepy little girls, big robots and mutants will help fix the problem.

See he's improving the situation by including fetishes from both regions.

It's like if I worked on a game that involved a war between bald-headed space marines and genetically engineered 12-year-old girls (which I may or may not have done).

[sethsez]

FEAR was already partially there.

[Space Pirate Roberts]

I agree with this man and hope his science fiction FPS with creepy little girls, big robots and mutants will help fix the problem.

You forgot "inspired by the works of Ayn Rand" - that's the key difference. Dollars to donuts CliffyB doesn't even know who Ayn Rand is.

[Frogacuda]

The reason there isn't more variety of story is because the adventure genre has been marginalized. If it's a requirement that all of our games have to be about killing lots of shit, guess what kinds of stories they're going to make around them.

[NeoZeedeater]

The reason there isn't more variety of story is because the adventure genre has been marginalized. If it's a requirement that all of our games have to be about killing lots of shit, guess what kinds of stories they're going to make around them.

So true. It is sadly ironic how the industry is bigger than ever yet the genre best suited to providing themes that appeal to non-traditional gamers is the one deemed unviable.