Dopass.com

I've been playing some Age of Conan this weekend, as I'm sure many of you can imagine. You know, despite not having a machine that can play the game at any sort of frame-rate a normal human being would call playable, I've been enjoying it... Enjoying it, that is, until now.

The problem is, as it often is in MMOs, death penalties...

As an aside, I'll mention that a fellow designer once called me an anarchist. It was mostly unrelated to work in that it was a conversation about censorship and personal responsibility. My stance was that, while people should be accountable for what they do and say, they shouldn't be penalized for the way other people react to what they've said. The example at the time was of someone saying, "I hate you, you really ought to go off yourself" and then watching in horror as the person being spoken to acted on the suggestion. The stance I took was that it was the suicide's responsibility to not kill himself - after all, how can the speaker be held responsible for what goes on in the mind of another person?

I think that the moment we begin to regulate speech, we risk shutting down the exchange of ideas - and that society as a whole suffers for the sake of the thin-skinned or those lacking the self control to police their own reactions. My colleague couldn't disagree more, stating that it was irresponsible to speak when you know it might offend someone and shame on me for saying otherwise. To tell you the truth - I didn't mind the label. I don't believe for a moment that I'm an anarchist, but gods know this world could use a little revolution in thought, so maybe this designer wasn't so far from the mark, in labeling me.

Fast forward a year or so and here I am, the latest in a long line of people whose opinions have inspired a wave of invective from the thin-skinned and those lacking the self control to police their own reactions. I find myself still feeling as I did before... and yet, simultaneously an instigator of what amounts to internet anarchy, at the same time. I guess my colleague and I were both right... You know, in this industry that happens more often than not....

In response to Kelly's Piece:
Kelly! Damn man! Mass minsunderstanding of the year! I never said working with you was a problem. In fact, I thought we had a really good process that worked - something I mentioned in my original blog, that I guess got edited out in the reprint. Ah well. You're a damned good writer - one of the few I've worked with in the last 13 years who really understands the role of writing in games, even if the requirements of the project we worked together on really didn't let either of us explore that, all that well.

Despite the respect I have for you, I do think you've got some misconceptions of your own that I hope you don't mind if I address:

When I wrote that original blog, I had no idea how touchy a subject I was broaching. The amount of discussion the recent reprinting of the “Case Against Writers in the Games Industry” blog has generated has itself, been insightful. Clearly, “Story” is something near and dear to the hearts of gamers and developers, alike. I have to sheepishly confess, it’s near and dear to my heart, as well.

I have to admit I wrote the original blog in that way specifically to be somewhat provocative. But, to be clear - I never once said I thought writers weren't useful or that games shouldn't have stories. I did say that games don’t need stories in order to be games, but that’s not the same thing....

Dopass.com is a sort of secluded place on the internet. I don't mind toiling away in obscurity because putting eyes on my page isn't really the point. I talk about games here, but I don't tout myself as expert because I don't believe that anyone is an expert on game design. I'm a professional and I've been doing it for about a decade or so and that's as close to an expert as I'll ever be -- a guy that gets paid to do it.

The obscurity makes it easier to get that point across. I'm not saying I wouldn't mind being well known, though! :) I'm just saying that being in this sleepy dusty corner of the net makes it easier to say what's on my mind without worrying that I'll end up having to issue an apology because my publisher or studio is afraid their share price will drop since I said the Wii is a piece of shit, or something. Being obscure, I have to admit, has its advantages.

Still, every once and awhile I do something like post an entry to digg - because the topic is something I feel strongly about. Take today for example: I finally went through the trouble of claiming my blog on technorati (Technorati Profile). I was curious what it would mean, if it mattered... but you know, the more I look at it, the less I believe it does.

The people interested in what I have to say seem to find me, anyway...

...so here's to obscurity! Cheers!

- Snipehunter

There is no doubt in my mind that it was my skills as a writer that opened the door to my becoming a game designer. It was 1997 and a designer from the Warcraft II team had left Blizzard to join another ex-blizzardite in creating a new studio. They had a 3 game deal with Activision and an idea in mind to create a paradigm breaking RTS game, called Third World, but what they lacked, was someone who could write their documents for them. I wasn’t technically hired as a writer, but rather an assistant designer. This would prove to be a decision that I am eternally grateful. Had I been hired simply as a writer that would have been the end, for me. You see, that studio sort of imploded very shortly thereafter, but it’s not that implosion that would have doomed me – as a designer I survived. No, what would have doomed me is the simple, and some would say sad, truth: There’re no places for writers in our industry…

I saw this great list of blogs today on Bruce on Games and I thought I'd pass it on to you all. (TongueInCheek)I'm particularly fond of the second entry on the list:(/TongueInCheek)
Some great game development blogs -  
Most of the knowledge available to keen gamers about the gaming industry can be of a pretty low quality. This is because that knowledge is third or fourth hand. As a very minimum it has been “spun” by a marketing department (I have done loads of this) and then “interpreted” by a journalist. But there is a way round this, keen enthusiasts can get their knowledge directly from the horses mouth, if they read the right blogs.
Whilst there aren’t many blogs from the publishing side of the video game industry there a quite a few from the development side. And they are excellent. These are the guys who actually make the games that everyone plays, so they know what they are talking about. And when they analyse a game they do so with an authority no magazine could match. These guys are the complete opposite of the fanboy, they are intelligent, informed and incisive. There are quite a few in my blogroll but here are a random selection:

[Bruce on Games]

Do Gamers Enjoy Dying in First-Person-Shooters? - Ponca City, We Love You writes "Brandon Erickson has an interesting post about an experiment on players' emotional reactions to killing and being killed in a first-person shooters (FPS) with a group of students who played James Bond 007: Nightfire while their facial expressions and physiological activity were tracked and recorded moment-to-moment via electrodes and various other monitoring equipment. The study found that "death of the player's own character...appear[s] to increase some aspects of positive emotion." The authors believe this may result from the temporary "relief from engagement" brought about by character death. "Part of this has to do with the intriguing aesthetic question of precisely how the first-person-shooter represents the player after the moment of death," says Clive Thompson. "This sudden switch in camera angle — from first person to third person — is, in essence, a classic out-of-body experience, of exactly the sort people describe in near-death experiences. And much like real-life near-death experiences, it tends to suffuse me with a curiously zen-like feeling." An abstract of the original article, "The psychophysiology of James Bond: Phasic emotional responses to violent video game events" is available on the web." Obnoxiously this alleged scholarly research is not available for free, so we'll just have to speculate wildly what it says based on the abstract.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
[Slashdot Updates]

This one really brought a smile to my face. I could have - and have for some folks out there - told you this a long time ago. I used to describe it as "positive anxiety" when I was a younger designer and I was trying to use jargon as a way to lend legitimacy to what I do. ;) Jokes aside, the idea that a game (I will glaze over the erroneous assumption the study makes about this being FPS only phenomena) generates this type of anxiety/relief loop is a very old one to any designer - hell any gamer - that's ever bothered to analyze his or her own feelings while playing...

So, there I was reading Massively, when I come across an op-ed piece entitled Digital Continuum: Sci-fi, Looking back. Being, as I'm sure I've mentioned, a huge Sci-Fi fan, and dying - as I'm sure I've mentioned - as I am for a sci-fi MMO, I of course immediately clicked over to read the article...

I thought I'd throw this link out there since it was a good read:

GameSetWatch's HDR Knowledge - Telling Stories and Realizing Worlds

One of the things the author mentions is the layered storytelling often used in games like Halo 3 or Metroid Prime. He questions, at one point (and to be fair he questions for effect), why they would hide such amazing writing the way they do. He posits his own thought (it keeps the story out of the way of those who don't want it, essentially), which is dead on accurate in my experience, but he fails to mention the other reason this can and does happen:

Sometimes, you're not hiding the story from your audience, but rather from your co-workers.

In my last blog I mentioned some of the frustration I feel over the fact that I can't really make games for me - that the market segment I represent is too small to finance games of the size and scope said segment prefers. Interestingly enough, something similar to that thought came up at work recently and I was delighted to find out that some of the folks I work with and for don't agree that that's true. I can't and won't go into details, but it was refreshing. Let explain why...

One of the topics that come up often when game devs get around and talk about what they like in games is the topic of "open world" versus "gated world" game experiences. These conversations often boil down to devs distilling why they play games and what they're looking for, but really the question is a simple one:

Is it better to gate the player, so that pacing and narrative can be assured (As in a movie, say), or is it better to leave the world entirely open and allow the player to do as she pleases (as in a park, say)?

I'm a regular reader of Game Politics, a blog focusing specifically on the political and social issues surrounding the game industry. It's a great site and I've used it as the source inspiration for many of my blogs here on game related censorship issues. Today, Game Politics actually pointed me to this blog by Newsweek's N'Gai Croal. Here, Mr. Croal discusses the dangers of the common game myth/stereotype "games are just for kids." It's a great write up that succinctly points out the issue and its downside, but it includes an interesting quote that I wanted to use as a spring board. It's in reference to the removal of the Super Columbine Massacre RPG from the Slamdance Film Festival. Here's the quote:

Slamdance's cowardice, then, is of a piece with the controversies that greeted the "Hot Coffee" mod in Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as well as the company's more recent title, Bully. Simply put, the average person believes that videogames are solely intended for kids; that the content of all games is suitable for kids; and if it isn't, it darned well should be, even if it has an M-rating. This creates a double-edged sword for game creators and publishers. Because videogames have the revenues of Hollywood's box office but a cultural (in)visibility that's much more similar to that of comic books, creators can work freely, in relative obscurity compared to artists in other fields, while still earning a good deal of money. That is, until a game is perceived to have crossed a line or pushed a hot button, at which point, all hell breaks loose. This is a recipe for the continued infantilizing of a young medium whose potential, for all of the compelling works already released, still remains largely untapped.

I've emphasized the sentence in the quote that I found most interesting. It fascinates me that in one breath we can be discussing how games are hamstrung by the preconception that they are only for children and then seamless segue to the idea that game's obscurity allows us game creators to be free. I'm here to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth...

Writers Guild creates videogame writing award - The Writers Guild of America has announced the
creation of a Videogame Writing Award [GamesIndustry.biz news]

Yay, it's about time! Now, if only we game writers wanted and/or were in the union... we'd totally be up for this award. (in other words: "pfft! It takes more than the promise of an award to make us want your union - how about actually having the clout, desire and resources to get us better working conditions")

I mean seriously, why would we unionize? No union out there takes us seriously, don't buy the WGA hype. They can't offer us anything and actually deliver; they just want our dues and more power for themselves.

- Snipehunter

Ombwah recently put up a blog about the magic of names. It was a good blog that I really wanted to comment on, but I found I didn't have much to say. I think that names are magic and that they do matter, but in conversations with other designers, I've come to realize that the power I draw from names is different from the power that other designers get from naming. I typically use names to get archetypes across - so I tend to name things what they are, in some sort of evocative way. The swamp in AA is the Fetid Bayou, for example -- a stinking swamp.