It’s hard for me to look at the news of the preceding 10 or so days and not feel like there’s been some enormous, possibly irreparable rupture between gamers and those who serve them. I certainly contributed to this with a post about the ending of Mass Effect 3 and the movement to have it changed or appended.
It’s not only smaller, younger developers who have to worry about cloning. Idea theft is on the minds of the people at Epic Games, too. Even though they make big, burly games like Gears of War and Bulletstorm, the developer still sees themselves as an indie, said Epic CEO Tim Sweeney. People could try and do what Epic does, he offered, but the studio’s titles have size on their side.
Steph Thirion’s games understand the power of touch. While most iOS games require tactile contact to play, so few translate what it means to touch in real life. Touching a thing or a person can connect you to it intimately. Think about touching ingredients when you cook or affectionate laying hands on a romantic partner. There’s an specific kind of pleasure and feedback that comes from that dynamic and Thirion’s Eliss — one of our iPad Bests — revels in that
Motion-capture technology’s changed the way that today’s movies, TV shows and video games look and move. Usually, sessions where special cameras and suits upload a person’s movement to computers happens in sequestered studios, far from prying eyes. At GDC 2012, mo-cap happened right out in the open and it was a wonder to behold.
Christina Norman worked for BioWare on Mass Effect. She’s with Riot Games now. But she must have felt pangs of sympathy when BioWare got raked by gamer complaints about day-one DLC in Mass Effect 3. Because she basically gave them a double-barreled middle finger in a rant at GDC.
Why are so many games just copies of past games? Who is responsible for this state of affairs? Does the industry need more variety to survive?