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http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/03/19/r...designers-suck/ This quote pretty much sums up the article: quote:I’ve met virtually no one…who I think is close to as good a game designer as I am. It really comes off as him being bitter and just cannot fathom why his ingenious RPGs aren't more successful over the shooters that dominate the market today. He talks about his process like no one else in the industry does the same things and that's why he's so much better than everyone else.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 14:36 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 11:33 |
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The reason why he probably hasn't met anyone that can contest his game design prowess is because he's probably insufferable to be within 100 yards of and no one wants to talk to him. Ever.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 14:38 |
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Sid Meier, Will Wright, Richard Garfield, Gary Gygax, Peter Molyneux; that's just off the top of my head. Just because you haven't met them doesn't mean they don't exist Richy boy.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 14:45 |
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Rutibex posted:Sid Meier, Will Wright, Richard Garfield, Gary Gygax, Peter Molyneux; that's just off the top of my head. Just because you haven't met them doesn't mean they don't exist Richy boy. He mentions Wright & Molyneux as being good, along with Chris Roberts. But yeah, if he thinks health packs are still a thing in shooters, he uh, is a bit behind.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 14:51 |
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Ugh, I wish he was making brilliant and deep RPGs anymore. He spent some time making grindy Korean MMOs, the last Ultima game was pretty awful...but past that? He was a brilliant designer for his time, but he hasn't really made anything particularly noteworthy in nearly a decade if not longer. I wish he would blow some of the modern sensibilities out of the water with the new Ultima. Ultimately I think the real problem is that his brand of design, and sadly the era of gaming I love the most, just don't really work anymore.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 14:52 |
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Uh, isn't this the same guy that made a puzzle in which you talked to an Old Man who says "I'm an old man." and you have to use an undocumented feature to give him 500 gold coins so the guy can give you a magic ring who's power is never explained that you need in order to progress? I know it was the late 80's but that's still horseshit.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 14:53 |
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Rutibex posted:Sid Meier, Will Wright, Richard Garfield, Gary Gygax, Peter Molyneux; that's just off the top of my head. Just because you haven't met them doesn't mean they don't exist Richy boy. Read the article, he namedrops some of those guys as up there. He's not saying he's the best ever, he's saying most people aren't very good at it and don't even realise they have to try. Which is fair enough for a lot of games. I think he's kind of curmudgeonly and doesn't appreciate that today you can do more with a team of smart guys than you could with one genius in the past, and that a lot of modern studios do put the thought and effort into design, but I don't think he's far off the mark that it's difficult and most people suck at it.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 14:53 |
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I can forgive the dude his ego, he successfully pulled off the dream of every rpg-playing nerd out there and made himself rich and successful writing make-believe games. I get that the author of the article and goons in general want to paint him like he's some huge arrogant rear end in a top hat but he's actually making a really canny point. I'm sure he said those things but the real disappointment here is that the author chose to focus on Garriott's already well-known ego in favor of actually covering the real meat of the story. Design does seem to often take a backseat to genre conformity, from what I've heard most people doing design work in games have not had any targeted training, and the quality offerings spilling forth from the indie scene these days does seem to corroborate his point about design process of the jack-of-all-trades designer.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 14:59 |
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Richard Garriott is the One True King of Video Games
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 16:35 |
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Improbable Lobster posted:Richard Garriott is the One True King of Video Games Though is sounds like Peter Molyneux comes in a close second. 
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 16:38 |
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Orgophlax posted:http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/03/19/r...designers-suck/ He is an rear end, at one time an innovative rear end, but still an rear end. The guy called himself Lord British for fucks sake, is anyone really surprised that he is a colossal dipshit? If you want to head on over to Gamasutra right now, you might be able to catch him defending his bullshit in the comments section of an article where he may have said all designers suck, or he may have just been saying "design is hard and we need to train people better" One of those two.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 16:43 |
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Seriously he calls himself Lord British and he's a Texan. There is basically no way he's not an rear end. Does he still live in a castle? That's like, a triple rear end score.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 16:45 |
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You know I'm really not sure this required a thread. Garriott probably has every right to be arrogant though, his games are massively influential to every corner of the industry. His avatar game looks lame but hey I might be proven wrong.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 17:02 |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_Rasa_(video_game)
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 17:03 |
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Mr. Pumroy posted:Seriously he calls himself Lord British and he's a Texan. There is basically no way he's not an rear end. He's selling his current castle to move into an even bigger castle.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 17:05 |
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Lord Lambeth posted:You know I'm really not sure this required a thread. Garriott probably has every right to be arrogant though, his games are massively influential to every corner of the industry. His avatar game looks lame but hey I might be proven wrong. His only really successful game(s) was Ultima, which was just D&D with space added because space.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 17:08 |
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Orgophlax posted:He mentions Wright & Molyneux as being good, along with Chris Roberts. But yeah, if he thinks health packs are still a thing in shooters, he uh, is a bit behind. I miss health packs in shooters  Also what has this guy done that is considered successful besides a 15 year old RPG? BadLlama fucked around with this message at Mar 20, 2013 around 17:11 |
| # ? Mar 20, 2013 17:08 |
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Garriot's earned his name recognition so he gets to be an egomaniac, but that doesn't mean anyone should take him seriously. When I read this article I get the same feelings I do when my boss tries to explain why he'll never upgrade past Windows XP or why C++ is just a bunch of "unnecessary stuff" tacked onto C or any number of other things. It's an old guy showing his age. He probably wouldn't even know a good new designer if he saw one because he's stuck in the past pining for his glory days.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 17:10 |
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His attitude might leave a very sour taste in the mouth but I don't think he's all that wrong when it comes down to his vision of the industry as a whole. Especially when going to school, I always noticed very few of the people teaching game design had any experience or notion of what they were talking about. When they were actually competent they weren't very good at explaining why they were competent. I don't agree with the disrespectful tone though, but I guess that's the point of sensationalism. Elentor fucked around with this message at Mar 20, 2013 around 17:23 |
| # ? Mar 20, 2013 17:13 |
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BadLlama posted:I miss health packs in shooters Have you seen his house?
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 17:15 |
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Richard Garriot says true things in easily sensationalized snippets: the article.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 17:21 |
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He's 100% correct about not being able to go to school and learn to be good game designer. You can go to film school and learn the three act structure etc etc but that doesn't mean you're going to write the Godfather versus Transformers. He's as arrogant as he is influential (very) even though his glory days aren't coming back.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 19:37 |
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I found a full copy for sale at a Target or Kmart a few months ago.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 19:39 |
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I agree with him completely, and there isn't a trace of irony in my post.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 19:40 |
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I agree with him regarding RPGs, but there's a huge number of other genres that have fantastic designers behind them. There's a good chance he just only cares about RPGs and sim-style games though.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 19:49 |
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BadLlama posted:I miss health packs in shooters http://www.richardinspace.com/ He turned his big buckets of cash into a trip into space.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 19:49 |
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Garriot and Molyneux seriously need to get together and make the highest profile hack game design studio in history.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 19:51 |
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I agree with him. Ultima 4-7, and Ultima Online make up my fondest gaming memories. He is kind of douchey though.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 19:52 |
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Legin Noslen posted:Garriot and Molyneux seriously need to get together and make the highest profile hack game design studio in history. The only hacking that will be going on is me running you through if you ever speak about his Lordship again in that manner. Shove off, knave!
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 19:54 |
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“I think most game designers really just suck” Truer words never spoken. quote:To be fair, Garriott agreed when I asked if he thought some developers, such as BioWare, had been doing good work recently. His judgments are still very broad, but I inferred that, rather than condemning the entire industry, he was pointing out flaws he perceives in how design talent is assessed and promoted in specific parts of the industry. His ideal programmer, artist, designer combo still exists, especially among the current crop of indie developers, who I think retain the spirit of the early days Garriott is reminiscing about. I think that sums up the article better than the OP's. Mazreal fucked around with this message at Mar 20, 2013 around 19:58 |
| # ? Mar 20, 2013 19:54 |
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It's hilarious that Lord British is trying to make a game again, and the best way to endear himself to the industry is proclaim he is the best because he made Ultima a long time ago. This happens a lot in film, but I can't remember the last ti--.. Oh, yeah. Romero and Daikatana. Molyneux strikes me as someone with good intentions who Really Likes Games but his enthusiasm doesn't translate 1:1 in to a fine product. He's harmless. I'll never forget the SA article mentioning that you could plant a tree and have it grow and skewer someone you are fighting when you return to the area years later.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 19:57 |
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To me this seems like a whole bunch of "everything is bad today, but was perfect in the past and as a relic of this wondrous past you should donate to my kickstarter." Seems like a lot of old washed up formerly relevant games people have been pulling this. Even if most game designers do suck, they weren't any better in that nonexistant ideal past that Garriott is trying to sell to people.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 19:58 |
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I'm a huge fan of old CRPGs, 2D beat-em-ups, beautiful sprites over serviceable polygons, et al but Garriott is really getting no sympathy from me. "What's a Paladin?"
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 20:00 |
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Ultima 7 / Serpent Isle were the first "sandbox" style game I'd ever played. I still only really enjoy games that have a sandbox element to them, and of those I think he probably did design some of the best in the genre. Ultima was a unique game in its time that you could at some point during your adventure just decide to become a pumpkin farmer, farming pumpkins every day for enough cash to go around town and buy some things... Or move to buccaneers den and gamble all of your pumpkin cash away. If you think about Ultima in comparison to rogue-likes, it's really a masterpiece. Obviously his stuff is dated but I have to give him respect and am thankful that he made the stuff he did. If there was a modern even basic isometric Ultima game whether it was single or multiplayer done right could be amazing. I am still amazed there has never really been a sandbox style successor to UO besides the emulated servers.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 20:05 |
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Here is the 10 dollar pledge level for his kickstarter: GUILT PLEDGE Thank Lord British and prove your virtue with a $10 donation. If you ever pirated an Ultima game or used an exploit to grief other players in Ultima Online, here’s your chance to repent! For your $10 donation you will receive a clear conscience and Lord British's undying gratitude. It just reeks of arrogance, and comes with no reward whatsoever. I think at one time he was great, but as far as I can tell he hasn't really done anything groundbreaking since Ultima 7. His attitude towards "modern gaming" and what he believes his fans truly want may play a part in this.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 20:15 |
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AHEM In 2011 he was married and changed his name to Richard Garriott de Cayeux His game designing allowed him to become a space-man so I don't see any reason to hate.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 20:16 |
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I agree with him, really. Not that he's the best, because he hasn't done anything worthwhile since UO, but that most game designers just suck these days. The only really interesting (to me) games coming out at the moment are indie games and occasionally something a bit different from a bigger developer, like Demon's/Dark souls.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 20:17 |
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He practically invented CRPGs and also pulled off some of the best games in the genre. A lot of the Ultima series blew everything else available at the time out of the water both from fun and design angles, and two of them in particular (Ultimas VII and VIII) came close to having what felt like fully simulated worlds to play around with to a degree that only a few other games have been able to match. Furthermore Ultima Online was a revolutionary idea and though the implementation faltered somewhat (It's hell to play even today because of a poo poo interface) it's also one of the most fun games of all time. So I'll excuse him if he lets his talent go to his head somewhat. He had some great ideas back in the day and managed to follow through on a lot of them. I'm holding out quite a bit of optimism for Shroud of the Avatar. Hopefully the escalating flaws in his later games were signs of crap video game corporate BS and not his declining ability as a designer.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 20:19 |
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Orgophlax posted:It really comes off as him being bitter and just cannot fathom why his ingenious RPGs aren't more successful over the shooters that dominate the market today. He talks about his process like no one else in the industry does the same things and that's why he's so much better than everyone else. Honestly It didn't really come off that way to me, in fact most of his talk seemed rather humble. As much of an rear end he may be, it can't really be argued against that he brought a lot of innovation across the board for RPGs and in some aspects gaming in general. I think he raises a few decent points. Porndwarf posted:Here is the 10 dollar pledge level for his kickstarter: Really? Most kickstarters have a low level pledge, that doesn't necessarily come with a reward. It's so that you can still support a project without really diving into it, not everyone can afford to invest at the higher pledge levels. I found it rather charming actually, I really doubt it was meant to be taken seriously. I'm pretty sure it's a bit of a fun jab.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 20:21 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 11:33 |
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I see what he is saying. I wish someone else had written the article. I would have an ego too, if i was one of the pioneers of some of the earlier ages of gaming. Hell, he talks less poo poo than Molyneaux sells up his own games at least.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 20:24 |
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