PixlBit

Yea i could possibly see myself considering biting on an ff x remake. My original disc broke and it broke my heart.

This seems interesting, and the level editor is a great idea. However, there lack of notable characters might make it difficult for LBP to compete with Mario for kart racing supremacy.

That's actually the exact reason I went back to ME 1 when was I was playing ME 3. It was a great game, but I realized that b/c I didn't have my old save data it wasn't really my Shepard.

Anyways I don't think that there is much more I could add to this conversation Julian, Michael, and JD already covered what makes this series so great.

Nicely done Jesse,

I was actually just saying to Michael117 today that I was considering writing this very piece. Guess you beat me to the punch lol. I think you have the right idea Kickstarter isn't necessarily impresive for its ability to revolutionize the gaming industry, but I think its marking an idealogy change in the industry, or at the very least the acceptance that a array of games can be made and please gamers without a mutli-million dollar price tag.

Hey Mike,

Thanks for the insightful response as always. I’ll do my best to address most of the things you’re brought up here, but I may fail to address all of it. I definitely think that a universal platform is the ultimate destiny gaming, and like Ben speculates it most likely is mobile. However, like you pointed out this transition isn’t going to happen overnight. More to the point, as current technology stands right now I don’t think phones/tablets are ready to become the main vehicle of gaming. As it stands right now there are a few problems that cannot be overlooked. The first like you said yourself is controls, as is phone controls are not fluid enough for players to want to invest serious amounts of time on a phone as a gaming machine. The second that I stated in the blog was the limited battery life. 

How long is it going to take for these two issues to be adequately addressed? I honestly have no idea. I will say though that it will probably be quicker than I imagined. I mean look at the development of smartphones over the last 4-5 years, it’s simply amazing. The new iPhone is starting to resemble EDI from ME 2 (obviously a stretch), but still it’s enough to make us worry about sentient machines in the future.

However, really when you think about it, all of this is sort of irrelevant. You said it best “I don't care about Sony stock prices or exclusives, I care about game design, games, and gamers.” I think people get themselves worked up when they hear that consoles might die, because they think the console experience might die, or the games that they love might die. When they hear about mobile gaming becoming the new potential norm, they fear a dystopian future that revolves around Angry Birds 24/7.

Obliviously this is not the case. If the day does come where all of our gaming is delegated to mobile devices they will not look like anything like the mobile games we see today. As much bull as there is this industry, by far and large good games have driven the industry and they will continue to do so in the future.  Additionally I think we can expect things like controls, connectivity and the like to be worked out as well.

Even still I can relate to your woes about the Xbox 360 controller. I kind of mentioned this in the blog, but I wanted to lay off on going to in-depth on it for a fear of coming off as tacky, but we like stability and comfort. I’m with you; I love the design of the Xbox 360 controller and the way it rests in my hands. Other controls while suitable just don’t feel as natural to me. The only other gaming peripherals I can use with a real sense of comfort is a keyboard and mouse, but it took some serious mental will to make that the case, and still even today I crave the feel of the Xbox 360 controllers for certain games.

There’s no doubt about it, a transition away from consoles will be bittersweet. It will feel like we’re leaving a part of gaming behind, but I think that the returns that we get in exchange will certainly be worth it. Entering a world with one universal system would be great for gaming. For consumers it would open up avenues of games that were once unavailable due to exclusives. For developers it would allow them to utilize the technology of that given hardware to the fullest. Games are diluted today in favor of cross-platform titles and no developer is truly able to take full advantage of the tech that is at their feigner tips.

All I can say is it’s an exciting time to be a gamer and the industry is right on the cusp of all these changes. It certainly will be interesting to see where things go from here.

P.S. In all honesty though, what I’m more excited about is the deviation away from the AAA model as you mention. I think that Kickstarter and the mentality that its bringing to games may be the most important thing to happen to games in 2012. I’m thinking about writing something covering Kickstarter, but I’m still not as familiar with all of it as I’d like to be.

yea it was awesome, I'm loving this new transparency with developers - especially when it allows us to get involved in the creation of titles that would otherwise be overlooked

I love playing online with friends, but I completely understand where all of you are coming from. I hope online gaming becomes more amiable in the future, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Yea I agree, unfoturnately not all parents are as vigilant as you Angelo or even worse, they just dont care.

It's probably harsh to for us to pin this just on video games, but the problem is other mediums have interactions outside of the internet. Video game culture/community almost totally resides on the internet. Thus, if we ever want to develope as a medium and be taken more seriously in mainstream society, something needs to change.

I completly agree, the costume design makes no sense, but I will say I love the idea of the American Revolution might actualy make me excited for this game. Hopefully they'll think about changing the charecter model in the future.

Great comment as always mike, I was actually interested to see how you were going to respond to this subject, because I knew from previous posts that you considered video games to be an art form. However, like you said with Jesse’s definition of what art, his opinion that games are not art makes perfect sense. I actually thought for the first time on the podcast we were going to bump heads on this issue, but context is everything and given his understanding of what art was I couldn’t disagree.

I pretty much fall into the same camp of you though when it comes to art – I don’t really understand what it is or isn’t, and to be completely honest I don’t care. For me the real discussion lies within the communities’ response to these statements, and what it means about us as gamers.

Video games at large are still considered a juvenile pursuit. Thus it makes perfect sense that you would be apprehensive to tell others about your aspirations for game design. However, you and I both know that games are much more than this and will only continue to grow as a medium in the future. You might say that what you want to do in game design is not art – focusing on mechanics, level design etc., but look at games like Bioshock, whose level design was instrumental in illustrating the narrative to the player.

I’m not much for telling people what to do or how to live their lives, but I can tell you’re an extremely bright person whose going to have success in whatever field you chose. All I can say is just try to figure out the things that are most important in your life and go for them; everything else will fall in place. Certainly is a cliché, but it’s also true. I will say thought I hope you decide to make games, because I think you’d be a real asset to the industry. I’ve read some of the ideas that you’ve thrown around in the comments and I’d like to see them come to fruition.