WHAT THE HELL IS THAT FALLING FROM THE SKY?!?

It's raining in So Cal!

Not just raining but freaking POURING! And I LOVE IT!

I liked Tina Fey's take on all the water at the Golden Globes last nite. She said, "This isn't rain. It's God crying for NBC."....or something to that effect. She so funny :)

I love the rain. I would not love it if it rained all the time. But 2-3 weeks of rain per year? Oh man, that's da bee's knees as the Brits say. It's like snow used to be when I lived in Alabama. We'd get it MAYBE a few times a year and it was a major novelty. That's how rain is here in San Diego.

Plus I'm kind of a homebody at times so I really love to get my coffee, open the window, and work while the rain just pours down. It's very cozy and productive and just feels like...I dunno...like I'm wrapped up in a little work cocoon. Yes, that is crazy dorky I know. Whatever. Here's the view from my window today:

Hard to tell from a still shot taken on an iphone but this year we're getting some major wind as well, so that's a cool bonus. In the pic above that big ass tree on the right is going nuts, dude! Whipping around and banging against my window just like in Poltergeist!  Speaking of: a big tree came down a few blocks away, that's how windy it is.

Now I know that most of ya'll who get this kind of stuff year round must think I'm nuts. "What's the big damn deal?!?" you must be asking.

I get that. But whatever.

Ohh and it's all overcast too (duh). Check it:

Me and the ex took the girls to PF CHANGS for lunch today. They were home from school celebrating MLK day. So this is the drive home, shot from inside the car. I post it for a few reasons:

#1- look at those palm trees! Windy I tell ya! Not as crazy as it was when I drove to the Spike awards a few weeks ago...then the wind was pushing my car all around the freeway and I literally could see about 5 feet in front of my car. Very tense but very cool. I'm racing down the freeway, blasting Jay-Z, part terrified and part like, "Come on motherfucking rain! This all you got?!?! Bring it rain bitches!"...

#2- People think I'm rich because of the games I've worked on. I am SO not rich. I make a good living for sho, but check it all you 'peeps who think I live in a mansion': I don't! I live in a nice but typical suburban neighborhood in San Diego. So all you bitches out there saying I'm all rich, please stop. OR better yet: please send me lots of cash so I can live up to your swanky image of me! :)

#3- I know the dude who made Paranormal Activity lives in San Diego and shot the movie at his house. He also used to work at Sony San Diego (which is pretty close by). So I wonder if he doesn't live around me and shot his flick in my neighborhood cause the exterior of the house in that movie looks JUST like my neighborhood!

Ok, back to work. Prepping for a video capture session with the San Diego Sony peeps tomorrow so we can cut a video for the European Sales/Marketing teams. Later!

David

ps. Man I'm kinda hyper. What the hell?!? Can you tell?!?

YES, I'M AN IDIOT

Just got back from seeing Avatar a second time.

Some of you may recall I walked out of the movie about 30 minutes in the first time I went. I was just way too bothered by the cliche story to tolerate the thing.

Just goes to show that one's mindset when doing any sort of activity is everything. From watching a film to consuming any other sort of entertainment to eating a specific kind of food, if you're head's just not into it, it don't matter how good the thing is you're trying to vibe with.

When I tried to watch the flick the first time, I think my head was way too into our game (I had gone right after work) and I couldn't really give myself over to anyone else's creative vision. I was too tied into our own vision to get swept up in anyone else's, too focused on what we were trying to do with our new title.

Today however-prob cause it's the weekend and I've had about 12 hours to detox from the job- I could just let go and let the movie wrap me up. And it did! And I loved it! I don't think it's the next big thing but it was pretty darn fantastic and some parts of the flick downright classic!

Ok ya'll: it's Saturday nite and I'm hunkering down for a late nite of planning a video that we're making to show to the European sales/marketing folks in the next few weeks. Besides that, gonna be taking breaks by  pounding away on Splosion Man on XBLA, my new addiction. What a fantastic game and a what a fantastic new character!

Talk soon-

David

FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND

And that's all she wrote folks.

In a few hours, the Calling All Cars servers go down for good. And after that, there's no way in the foreseeable future to play Calling All Cars online.  Heck, if I'm being honest, truth is: she's never gonna be online again.

I'd say she had a good run online, but she really didn't. With the exception of the first few hours when the game hit PSN, there were never more than 3-5 people playing at a time. Until tonite, that is, when a handful of loyal CAC supporters came out to say their goodbyes. Thanks for that, ya'll. I know it's just a fucking video game but that meant a lot to me to see a good chunk ('good chunk' being relative) of you folks online and giving her one more go. Check it out:

I'm a little sad, naturally, to see the online aspect shut down. This was the first online game I'd ever done and so it was a HUGE learning experience. And it was my first step away from the more story based games I'd been working on (Twisted Metal:Black, God of War) and my first step into the arcade, play mechanic experiences our new company is focused on now. I loved working on it and many on the team did as well. My biz partner Scott Campbell often says this was the most fun he ever had making a game. I don't know if it was- for me- the MOST fun but it was indeed a damn good time.

I think the game had it's flaws for sure.

The biggest one being a lack of stickiness.

Even playing tonite after 3 very, very fun matches full of shouting and overtimes and comebacks, I was done. I didn't want to play anymore. I think we did a really good job making a fantastic piece of bubble gum that was sweet and jam packed with sugar and had a hell of a bang when you put it in your mouth. But for some reason I still have not totally figured out, the flavor faded VERY fast. You could come back to it after 2-4 weeks and have that same great experience, but it was always a really short ride. Some folks say leaderboards and trophy support would have helped.  And they would have, for sure. But the core game was lacking something that kept people coming back...I think most likely in our attempt to create a fast, furious, pick up play party game that reminded us of the classic SNES and arcade games we grew up on, we neglected the depth. I know you can have both in this kind of game...hard to know if Calling All Cars doesn't have the depth because we were so focused on short term play goals that we simply forgot to put it in or because it never occurred to us to put it in in the first place (i.e. we thought the moment to moment fun would be more than enough)...

Lack of defense when carrying the criminal was another problem the game had. Not sure what the logic was in making it so you could not fire weapons when you carried him (I recall this being my request, truth be told). Not sure why we didn't have a team mode. Not sure why we didn't have a pure combat, Twisted Metal style mode. Don't know why I didn't fight harder for the bawdy, XXX rated vibe the game was originally designed to have...I think that would have been much more targeted to early adopter PS3 buyers. Hell, we shoulda just made it war themed and fucked the cartoony stuff. Not kidding about that. Altho I gotta say, I love the cartoony look :)

I guess we just didn't know what the hell kind of game was expected of us, truth be told. No one's fault but ours. But you gotta remember, this was the launch of PSN and no one really knew what these small games needed to be. I mean, Geo Wars was huge on 360 but we were not making a high score driven game, so it was hard to use what we learned from playing that title when designing this title.

I guess it really came down to us gambling wrong in terms of what kind of and how much entertainment people wanted for their 10 bucks on a- at the time- $600 HD state of the art game machine. We just thought, for 10 bucks, people woulda been trying these things and sampling them like candy. But alas, much of the same logic that applies to what people buy for 60 bucks also applies to what they spend 10 bucks on.

Perhaps it would have done gang busters as a Wii game. Perhaps it would have done just as poorly over there (altho I do think we broke even on CAC and we did get a majority of favorable/ good reviews and got a decent number of GREAT reviews. I think CAC is perceived as a failure even tho it actually was not...it wasn't a smash hit or even a hit, but it was not a critical turd and I am pretty sure IF it lost any money, it was a very, very modest sum).

Whatever the case, for me, 10 bucks was totally worth the fun I've had online and off with the game. But for many, it was clearly not.

Still I'm really proud of our baby. It's a really fun game in short bursts and gets people yelling and laughing and swearing at the tv and that was always the core goal we set out to achieve. We wanted to make people happy with this game. And so when I hear stories of people playing together and having a great time, it really does mean tons to me. And I'm sure the rest of the team would agree. And so while I'm sad to see online go, most folks never played online anyway. It seems to have found a home- albeit a very modest home- via split screen and I'm glad Calling All Cars will live on as a local party game for years to come.

Perhaps Calling All Cars marks the beginning of the end of my career making hit games. Maybe when I'm 90 and sitting in the game designer retirement home, I'll be like, "Yep, after Calling All Cars hit, it was all downhill"...

Or perhaps it will be viewed as simply a stepping stone, a learning process that we had to go thru so me and the team could move on to our next mega blockbuster!

Who knows. Who cares. That's for the future to know.

All I know is I'm really damn proud of the game.

And I know I'm grateful for all of ya'll out there who played it and who continue to play it.

And I know I'm so thankful for the amazing team at Eat Sleep Play who built the damn thing. Ya'll made a damn fine game people. Thank you so much!

Ok, enough sissy talk! Time to get back to work and make another hit! Not being in the top 10 motherfucking sucks! :)

LATER!

David

META GAMES, COOL MEETING, WALKING OUT OF AVATAR

Yep, sync is still fucked up. Been posting on forums to try to get some help, but no luck :(
Fuck I'm tired- later ya'll!
David

COME ON MOVIE MARKETING PEOPLE!

Clearly I love Greek Mythology. And clearly I love cars mounted with machine guns and rocket launchers. And what do ya know?!? From watching the trailer, this movie has both!!!?!?

And I'm not one of these Chris Columbus haters. I think he's a solid director and used to be a great screenwriter (Goonies, Young Sherlock).

So I'll be there for this movie, hells yes. Not as excited for this as for the CLASH OF THE TITANS remake but I'll be there day one for both.

But COME THE HELL ON! PERCY JACKSON!?! That is the name of your hero? And that is the name of your fucking franchise?!?

I get that you can't just call it THE LIGHTNING THIEF, like the book cause you want to build brand awareness of the lead so you can do sequel after sequel and still keep the core protagonist in the title. Makes good sense. But change the fucking dude's name. You're launching a movie that- from the looks of it- cost at least 150 mill. I'm sure you've made lots of changes from the book to make the story more appropriate for the movie medium. When you were tinkering with the book to movie adaptation, didn't anybody go, "Dude, Percy Jackson is a stupid, wimpy, lame name for a hero and FUCKING TERRIBLE name for a movie franchise?!?"

Think about it: HARRY POTTER, INDIANA JONES, JAMES BOND, AND...Percy Jackson?!?! Percy Motherfucking Jackson?!? Come the fuck on. So dumb.

Hell, when the trailer voice guy even says the title at the end, you can so easily imagine after he recorded it he turned to the sound guy and was like, "Percy Jackson?!? Are they fucking kidding with that shit?!?"

"Hey mom! I wanna Percy Jackson action figure!"

Ugh.

Later ya'll! Hope your weekend is going great! Just got back from taking my kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks Part Deux. I dug it! Liked the first one as well and David Cross is always really funny in these flix.

Oh speaking of movies, I walked the fuck OUT of Avatar on Friday nite. I get I'm in the teeny, tiny minority on this one so I ain't gonna deny that people clearly love it. I just ain't one of them. And you all know my taste's. I'm not some elitist movie going snob.  Love mainstream movies and popcorn flix more than any other kind. But man, the story was SO boring and I've seen that story done over and over and over that I really was just kind of bored by the whole thing. But again, I get that I'm kind of alone on this as it's made over a billion bucks in less than a month?!!? Holy hell!

David

THANKS MOD NATION RACERS!

Just got this from Scott McCarthy, our game's new kick ass marketing dood!

Seems Tooth is getting some love over in Mod Nation! Whoever made this, thanks! It's so cool! Now if I could just get a real one! :)

Seems someone also made a KRISTA SPARKS (from Twisted Metal 2) and BRIMSTONE (from Twisted Metal: Black!) Thanks for the Twisted Metal love ya'll! What a cool idea: Twisted Metal on PS3! SWEET!!!!

LIKE I HAVE TIME FOR THIS...

Just got back from lunch and the siren's call of new games- especially new games that I've been eager to play and/or are getting stellar reviews- was too strong. But hell, I'm still playing Uncharted 2 and Mario & Luigi and a crap ton more. What am I thinking?!?!

Interesting thing on Darksiders: where the hell is the THQ logo?!? I thought THQ funded and published the game...it's rare enough to see a dev reach a status of getting the logo on the front of the box at all. But VIGIL is the only logo on the front OR back of the box (not even a THQ logo on the rear...just the name THQ in the legal text). I know THQ now owns VIGIL, perhaps they are trying to start a new brand? Anyway, just curious.

Ok ya'll- if I can get done with work early enough tonite you know what I'll be doing!

David

ps. Saturday at Comic Con already sold out?!?! Thank god a friend reminded me I can get a PRO badge which ain't sold out yet. I'd go nuts without all 4 days :)

LET'S BE HONEST...

Kotaku just put up an article on what parents think of video games. Journalist Stephen Totilo asked parents what they thought their kids got out of video games. Good read, check it. 


All of the responses are pretty standard by now, with some weighing in on the values, others saying games are a waste of time,etc,etc,etc. Heard them all before. But one response from a parent really stands out:


Lets be honest most "Popular Games" don't require analytical thinking or planning or creativity. Sure you might find the one game out of 30 that require you to use the grey matter, but for the most part, they will not. MW2, probably the most popular game in recent history was just basically a rail shooter. Even the competitive component favors twitch reflexes over actual planning and tactics. WoW, the most successful game to date does not require analytical thinking or analysis.


So why does this stand out (aka annoy the fuck out of me)? Well I'll tell you ('he's going to tell, he's going to tell):


1- 'Let's be honest'- I fucking hate when people say or write that. Granted I've probably done it too, which is why I hate it even more. But writing 'let's be honest' is such a pussy way to argue. It's like the LAMEST attempt at debate, as if putting 'let's be honest' in front of the bullshit you are about to spew makes your listeners more apt to swallow it. Like 'I didn't think you were right before, but yeah, since now we're being HONEST and not just LYING to ourselves, sure, I gotta concede your point'. Fuck you.


2- Why is Popular Games in quotes? Is Modern Warfare 2 not REALLY a popular game but just an imaginary popular game? Is all that money Activision is raking in just pretend money? I don't understand. Perhaps this parent has a point if he's talking about imaginary games. Altho I would think imaginary video games are even MORE valuable for kids because they promote, you know, imagination.


3- Finally to his/her actual point- what a stupid fucktard. MW2 requires no tactics or strategy? Guess he has not actually played the game but just seen the tv commercials (which tends to be the case with these people who make this argument). Guess he/she has not played the Spec Ops mission where your buddy is in a copter and you are on the ground in the burbs trying to reach an extraction point. It was tense and required team work, communication, planning, resource management, and a host of other cerebral skills to succeed at the mission. Any good game designer KNOWS that a even a mediocre game HAS to tickle the brain or the game gets old in 5-10 minutes. 90% of what designers DO is try to figure out how to make a game engaging and trust me, it's got NOTHING to do with blood and effects and machine guns. That surface stuff TOTALLY matters to get your core audience of adult males INTO your game to begin with. But what keeps them playing- and purchasing versus renting- is engaging play. The presentation- which is what most people who know NOTHING about video games bitch about- is JUST the trick you use to entice the player to show up in the first place. But once they show up, your game better deliver the gameplay (read: mental) goods or you are sunk.


Man, I'm so fucking sick of this argument from people who don't play video games and yet- for some stupid ass reason- they think their opinion is worth something in this debate. 


Ok done- off to work! Later ya'll!


David 

THIS IS WHY THE INTERNET=GOD DAMNED GOLD!!!!

Adam Orth at LucasArts sent me this and I just fell on the fucking floor. This is just gold man! GOLD!

David

Sniff...Sniff....

DAMN YOU KOTAKU!!!

This is a link to the Kotaku Darksiders game review.

Glad to see most other reviewers don't feel the same. However Kotaku usually has pretty good reviews so I'm not sure what to think. Ah hell, I'm gonna get it anyway as I've been looking forward to it since I played it at Comic Con a few years back (and really dug it). Love the main character and world design (just a Joe Mad fan I guess). Here's hoping the rest of the game has something special to offer!

Anyway, so there's that. :(

David

ps. Ugh, this is why Twitter was so good. Easier to do a quick tweet about this...ah well, I'm just in the sadness phase of losing Twitter.

pps. Speaking of Joe Mad, remember Danger Girl? That was J. Scott Campbell but it was the same line of comics and it hit when Battle Chasers came out. Man I loved Danger Girl. Battle Chasers was great too but Danger Girl was my fave of that time. Shame the DG games were never any good. And every time they try to bring the comic back, seems someone has to put their own damn spin on Danger Girl. Screw that- I want classic Danger Girl back! :)

My very fast thoughts on the indie game scene...

First off, let me make this clear: my 2009 game of the year is Flower.

Now I have yet to finish UNCHARTED 2 (playing thru it now) and so that could top it. BUT I 

mention it because:

a- many folks have asked me what my 2009 GOTY is.

b- I need to make it clear- before I go off- that I'm a fan of all games, mainstream and indie 

alike.

HAVNG SAID THAT (yes, I watch Curb):

SHUT THE FUCK UP WITH THE OBNOXIOUS AS HELL INDIE GAME MAKER 

ATTITUDE.

Yes, I get the irony of a loud mouth, obnoxious guy like myself telling folks to shut up for the 

same behavior. So this is kinda tongue in cheek. But it's also kind of serious.

Here, this clip MEGA64 made for the IGF sums it up better than I could anyway:

Granted, this funny as hell clip was made FOR the IGF and so I imagine it's meant to be a

badge of honor that supports the indie game dev community. And I get that and I sort of 

respect that. On one hand, I want to say: good for the indie game makers who are pushing

back against the mega corps that rule the gaming roost. I'm down with that fight, even tho I'm
not participating in it.

But at the same time it occurs to me that the indie game scene seems to be trying awfully hard these days to make it clear how cool and indie they actually are. One would think that the 

games they make- because clearly they are so artsy and amazing and meaningful and more 

communicative than anything mainstream games can shit out- could communicate that 

message for them. But I guess not. Hell in some cases you've got indie game makers publicly calling out other indie game makers for NOT being indie enough or not being worthy at all of 

the independent badge.

Well here's what I told a buddy of mine who makes indie games and who was called out for just that very crime (he had had mainstream success and now is finding success as well on the indie scene):

If you really want to be indie, stop giving a fuck about being indie and just be; just keep doing ya'lls thing and fuck what anything thinks. THAT- to me- is hella indie. Hell, the people who go out of their way to make it crazy clear they are indie seem a tad suspicious to me anyway. If they were really so indie, wouldn't that be clear from their games? Why do they have to keep reminding us?

Lots of games from the indie game community wear their angsty-ass hearts on their sleeves and- as an outsider- it's fucking annoying. We GET it: you're intelligent, you're free thinkers, you think the mainstream is beneath you and you are here to save the day. Yadda-fuckin-yadda.

Do you REALLY want to be grouped in with that bullshit mentality given how entertaining and accessible your games are? 

So ya know...there's that.

I dunno- I just hate it when mainstream games are so vilified. As a guy who LOVES mainstream games (playing and making them), it just seemed to be a good time to stand up for big, accessible, in your face, good old fashioned entertainment. 

And for my friends in the indie community: I LOVE some of your games (clearly) and crazy respect what SOME of you guys/gals do. Hell, if I have the talent, perhaps one day I will make an indie game as well. I think some of you are onto something. But it's not the only game in town and I sure wish some of ya'll would remember and respect that fact from time to time.

But for the rest of you assholes, get yourself a copy of this and shut the fuck up :)

David


ps. I know the formatting on this is shit. But it's 3AM and I don't have time to deal with it right now. When I came back to blogging last week I found BLOGGER had changed their interface and beats the hell out of me how to make it work. I'll get around to it in the next few posts but I'm frankly too tired and bizzy to deal with it right now. Hope ya'll don't mind too much- thx! 

RAMBLIN' MAN RETURNS

NOTE: Youtube seems to be having a problem with this video- I'll look into in a bit if it's still not playing end of day- sorry folks, park's closed. Moose out front shoulda toldja...


Ok, this one is pretty damn rambly- sorry bout that.

Happy New Year ya'll!

David


By the way, even since I got my new Mac, my video and audio have been out of sync. 
Promise I'll figure it out before the next one- totally sux. Sorry bout that!

Ok, and here are the pics of my now clean, memorabilia-free office :)

Making Room For The New...

Cleaning up my office in preparation for the game's script/story work. I need to get started and finished this week and a clean office tends to help me focus. Also, given that my brother and parents were in town this last week and we were short on bedrooms, I pulled out my couch/fouton and slept in here. So it's just a total mess. Plus, prepping for a very focused, very busy 2010 and the best way to start is with a clean slate.

Usually when I clean I just tidy up, but there's a sense I have of needing to make some significant alterations; to toss and/or file stuff I have not used in years in order to make room (both literally and energy wise) for new things to come into my life. So there's LOTS of old design notebooks and research books heading into the garage.

Thought I'd share some of the chaos!

David

ps. oh the graphic novels are a stack I'm gonna take over and donate to the library, get some new geeks into comics :)  Oooh, wait, 2 of those are someone else's that they lent me! Phew! Glad I caught it in this post- had totally forgotten! I guess those are staying put till I see Mr. Foge again! Sorry Richard- close call! 

Is there a proper way to tweet?!?!

Just like I musta missed the 'how to be super cool and get tons of chicks' class in junior high, clearly there was a Twitter class in the last 2 years that I musta been too busy to attend. Cause clearly there are some folks out there NOT having a good experience with my tweets.

Now if they are just elite, snobby pricks (i.e. 'waaah, you typed in CAPS and in my little stupid world where letters can hurt you, that means your are yelling at me! I so sad now!), I really don't care.

But as an all around nice guy AND a game designer, I do like to give folks the best entertainment experiences I can. And it's got me wondering a few things about twitter...well really, it's got me wondering one main thing:

Do you guys like to see people you follow tweet a lot or just 2-5 times/day?

To me, I don't have twitter on my cell and I use tweet deck so I just have a window open and when people tweet during the day, it's just another little piece of info to suck up my attention for 2-5 seconds. So I dig it when I see a block of tweets from Kevin Smith or Brian Michael Bendis (whom I both follow). And I don't mind if they have to use 3-4 tweets to make a point cause I have the overall thread opened on tweet deck for context. And I follow them cause I'm interested in their take on the world so to me, the more the better.

But I've had a few messages since I've been back where peeps are like, "I ain't following Jaffe no more, he spams twitter with blocks of updates"...and it makes me wonder: do most people feel this way?

And if so, why? Is it cause they follow on a cell phone and every time someone they follow updates twitter, they get a little chime and they gotta look down at the phone? I can see how this would get annoying but again, that's not how I follow people...to me, the more tweets from someone the better.

So help me out...what do you guys/gals like to see from people you follow? And yeah, I know it's my account and I can do what I want but again- annoying pricks aside- if I can communicate to folks better, I'm all open to learning the best ways to do that.

Thanks ya'll!

David

Thanks For Coming Out Tonight...

Yeah ok, so I’m back early. At the bottom of the blog you’ll see the names of the 3 folks who first called me out on it and- thusly- won a copy (be it download code or an actual disc) of our next game.

I had wanted to do a whole redesign of the site, maybe switch over to Wordpress and do it all snazzy. And I still may, but just not enough time in my life for that these days (which is a great thing) so it’ll have to wait a bit.

So why did I come back early? Why did I come back at all? Well, I have three explinations:

#1- Fuck the haters. While I was offline, I had so many people tell me they dug the blog and/or dug the work we’ve done over the years, that it occurred to me that I was ignoring all of the great support- and there is tons of it- and was only listening to the haters on the net. Stupid me, I know. I have no plans to do that again. And then when I found this clip of Kevin Smith talking about much of the same sort of thing- and saw how much better off he seems focusing on fans vs. haters- I knew it was time to head on back to my online home. I may have posted this clip once before but it really stuck with me over the last few months. Here ya go:

#2- DUDE HUGE- I was sitting in front of Cliff Blezenski the other night at the really fun Spike VGAs. I turned around and chatted with him for a few and I asked him if his blog was coming back. In typical super cool Cliff fashion he smiled and said, “Nah dude. Blogging is so 5 years ago”. And while I realized that he was right, I also realized I still like doing it. Life’s too short to not do the stuff you like. And so...here I am.

#3- JAY Z- Riffing a bit on #1, an early Jay-Z song- Izzo (H.O.V.A.)-opens with Jay speaking the following lines:

‘Thanks for coming out tonight. You coulda been anywhere in the world, but you’re here with me. I appreciate that’

Now as unhip as it is to admit, I'm only NOW getting into Jay-Z and I only heard this song- for the first time- about 3 weeks ago. And when I heard those opening lines, it occurred to me that people take time out of their lives to visit my blog, read my tweets, visit our EAT SLEEP PLAY site, and most importantly, play and discuss and support our games (and in doing so, they are promoting our games). And I was just hit with a real strong sense of gratitude that made me want to get back to connecting with the peeps who really get behind and support the stuff we make.

So there ya go! Those are my reasons. And it's good to be back!

I'll be twittering more than I blog and vblog just cause we're all very busy with the game (and it's only gonna get more busy) but I'll be around either way.  Oh and no, we're not ready to announce the game. So you can ask- and I'm grateful that ya'll care enough to keep on asking- but as of now, no news on that front.

Ok ya'll! Nice to be back- hope everyone had a great holiday and has some fun stuff lined up for New Year's Eve!

Talk soon-

David

For the record...

Not sure if anyone still comes here since it's been password protected for so long but it's the only way I can respond to some press BS that hit today. This- by the way- is just me responding to some press inaccuracies and does not reflect me coming back to blogging. So no free games ! :)


Hope you are all well- chat in a few months when we announce our game- later!


David


ps. ever since I got this new mac my youtube videos have been out of sync- I'll check into it when I get back to blogging in Feb/March when I return...

Used Game Sales Ramble

I wish I knew why my sound sync is off these days- but anyway: here's where I ramble on about used games...it's long...and out of sync.... Sorry! :)

You Can't Teach A Dog To Sing...

Just to clarify a little on my views on the whole 'Destructoid/Can Games Mean Something More' thing...oh and someone mentioned liking to see a debate/discussion between me and the Destructoid author of the piece...would LOVE to do something like that when I have the time; it would be fun :)

But so just to clarify:

#1- I don't actually CARE if people view games as art or only entertainment or whatever. Don't want, need, or care about debating 'what IS art, anyway!!' That's just labels to me. And plus, yes, the debate over 'what is art' is too tired to even care about anymore. I'm not a junior in high school anymore which- to me- is around when that very relevant discussion should occur...and be put to bed. So my issue is NOT with 'when will we get to a place where the best work in our industry can be seen as art!' I really don't care. And anyone who is a real artist should not- in my opinion- care either.

#2- My main point was that the author's take- I forget his name and frankly am too tired to go back and check :)- but his point seemed to be that games can be more relevant to the real world and can speak more to the human condition than the violent power fantasy games that line the shelves. Some have pointed out that the Destructoid author was talking to gamers and not game makers. Sure, I concede that. But it makes no difference; the gist of his issue was the same: games can and should be more relevant. Now to that point, I say:

a- one COULD argue that the human condition IS violence and dog eat dog and video games capture that brilliantly, in many ways more so than any other medium by actually putting us INTO the experience and allowing us- after the fact- to analyze how and why we behaved in a tense, terrifying situation. Instead of having the privilege and luxury to sit and ruminate on 'the horrors of war' or the 'state of man' by watching Saving Private Ryan or Schiendler's List, games allow us to see how we would REALLY react in violent situations. And what does it show us about the human condition? It potentially shows us that all the cafe chillin', coffee drinking big brains sitting around pondering the fate of man would revert to our animal base in an instant order to survive and in order to win. So there is that. But to be fair, that's just me playing devil's advocate. I don't REALLY think that is what is going on. But ya know, there's a theory for you.

b- there ARE games out there that may not speak to the human condition (altho there are some that try) but there are commercial games out there that are not about violent power fantasies. Mario Kart was the best selling game IN THE WORLD last year. Not really a power fantasy. Same with Bejewelled or Bookworm or Pet Society or Tetris. So while there are few games that strive to meet the lofty goals set forth in Mr. Destructoid's video, it's wrong to act as if most/all games are violent blood baths. And a good % of the successful games are NOT violent.

#3- My key point in my video rebuttal was that IF it was possible or desirable to make games mean something 'more', we would have been further along by now. In the last 4000 years since the world's first game was known to be played, how have we been doing merging meaningful, human condition-striving stories, feelings, and emotions with game mechanics? Sure we have video and 3d worlds and motion controls now and YES those matter in the quest. But they don't matter so much that it would make sense that ONLY NOW is the merge of meaning and gameplay beginning to be possible. We should have seen at least SOME VERY PROMISING SIGNS along the way during the last 4000 years. But we have not. And using Chess or GO doesn't count in my book. Yes, those are POSSIBLY metaphors for other things but what those games stand for is not readily apparent to most players and only apparent to some once the metaphor has been explained to them. Few if any finish chess and- totally unprompted- say: 'ya know, I think that game I just played was about something MORE than just the surface...it seems perhaps it was about war and the futility of war...'

#4- My other point on this is that EVERYONE who loves games can and should have an opinion on this. I was not saying that only game makers should be able to discuss this. But I don't think it's fair to just sit and bitch about what games should/could be without being aware that big companies in the game industry DO TRY at different times to crack this nut and that the problem is not simply that we just don't wanna do it. That's just a bunch of bullshit. What I was also saying was, as an industry worker who has pitched games and been in pitches, people have either tried this and it never got off the launch pad (not cause stupid execs who are just greedy bastards but cause the design sounded boring and/or there was no clear direction on how the designers wanted to achieve their lofty goals and so no one wanted to make it) OR the attempt at emotion was made, the game shipped, and it didn't really resonate with enough people that it became a watershed moment.

#5- Also, remember- even fun, summer movies- the good ones- have heart and character and are ABOUT more than just power fantasies. IRON MAN certainly was, as was the DARK KNIGHT. So you'd think in the last 30 years of video games, even amid the big blockbuster power fantasy type games that we- admittedly- love to make, that SOMEONE would have SUCCESSFULLY slipped some meaning in their game. Going big and actiony is not anathema to character and metaphor and meaning. And look, I know game makers who have tried it (I won't mention the games or the names) but I've had them TELL me that their games- one of which was a MASSIVE HIT, and one of which was a dud- were metaphors for the Iraq war for example; or for going back home to where your soul really is. Hell, I've tried it before mysef. And NONE of us have succeeded at a level that matters enough for me to go, "AHH! We're onto something!"....as I've said before, it took years and years of work to establish character and meaning and game mechanics that mirror emotion and game play that is metaphor and in the end, very few were moved or affected by it. And the ones that were- while they applaud our efforts- are MUCH More affected by an average prime time television show. See, when we fire with all our ammo, all our effort...we still can't come close to an episode of CSI in terms of emotion. Granted, that's just us. Just cause WE can't do it, doesn't mean it can't be done. But I'm just saying that even our best game makers have not come close to an average level of emotion or meaning that you get from the TV. And yes, I've played ICO and SHADOW and PASSAGE and TODAY I DIE and BRAID and FLOWER and SEPTEMBER 12 and many others. And SOME of those games I've loved out right and are in my top 10 games of all time. Some I didn't love as much but at the very least I appreciated them for what they were doing. And so I am saying is that I am aware of the 'emotional cannon of games' and I still stand by my statement. Granted, it's just my opinion. Your mileage may vary. But I cry at fucking coffee commercials so I'm easy; easy enough that you'd think a great game with artistic and emotional intent would have gotten to me. But so far, nothing worth shouting about.

#6- Finally, I really think when the brain is engaged in gameplay, the thematic falls away. You could give me photo real graphics and smell-o-vision and jack the thing into my brain and put me on that beach landing in Saving Private Ryan and I would NOT be affected in the same way the audience watching the film was. I would not be thinking about the loss of life or the pointlessness of war. I would just be trying to 'solve the puzzle' of 'what is the safest way to get to the bunker at the top of the hill'....because games are simulations...for real life or for fantasy life, but they simulate an experience. And when you are LIVING AN EXPERIENCE- just like when you live your life- you are not appreciating the artistry of it. You are just living it. I really feel it's only thru outside observation of an experience (your own or that of a character that you relate to in SOME way) can we actually be affected and have our thoughts provoked. This does not happen during the experience. At least, this is my take on it.

Now all this is not to say, "Don't try!"...I would LOVE for games to have the ability to affect us more. How neat would that be! But I'm just saying that it's wrong to present the case that games could be so much 'more' if we just tried harder and just wanted them to be and the only reason we don't have our watershed game version of American Beauty or Casablanca or Gone With The Wind is because we just are not willing to be artists. That's bullshit. We're trying and many of us are STILL trying. I'm just saying that, so far, ain't noting happening yet. As for me tho,I've lost interest and would rather focus on what I feel games do very well than try to get them to do something else that other mediums already do crazy good. I mean, what's the point? Why not just go make a movie or write a book? It's like trying to teach your dog to sing. You can KIND of do it; he'll make some sounds that KIND of sound like singing and some folks will sort of go, "Hey it sounds like he's singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!' ....But end of the day, if you want to hear some great music, why not just go listen to an actual song? Doesn't mean you shoot your dog. He's great for other stuff. Just not singing. So why force it?

Games as Art?!? Oh Lord, THIS again?!?! :)

And here's his original post:

Ok, back to work- later!

David

ps. no clue why my sound is always outta sync...

How I Wish Video Games Were Summer Movies...sort of :)

...and here's the link to Totilo's Kotaku article.

Take it easy, ya'll!

David