Escapist Podcast: 033: Tim Schafer & Doomsday Preperation

[The Escapist Staff]

033: Tim Schafer & Doomsday Preperation

This week, we discuss preparing for the apocolypse, the Tim Schafer Kickstarter campaign and what it means for game publishing.

Watch Video

 

[Panorama]

I have to agree i can't tell you the last game that Tim actually worked on himself. I did put in on this i am looking forward to it, but at 1.3-1.4 mill im not sure what he is going to do with it.

 

[Hoplon]

Oh god... crazy people are crazy, polar reversals take like between 1,000 to 10,000 years. it doesn't happen in a day.

 

[Kristian Fischer]

Games that created their genre:

TETRIS

 

[DustyDrB]

Past boycotts: Left 4 Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, any Valve game that isn't Half Life 3, and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. There are probably more, but I forgot them or just happened to not know about them.

Past successful boycotts: ...

Anyway, the podcast got very echo-ey around the 40 minute mark. Greg and Justin sounded like Turians. It didn't hurt my enjoyment, though. This Kickstarter thing is fascinating. I hope it leads to some original kind of ideas and some change in how game development goes (from what I hear, the term "development hell" sounds like it could apply to much more than what we use it for).

snip

Oh my God, that avatar is amazing. Never change it.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Another great podcat.. though the audio was getting rather weird and echoey at various points.

I found the bit(s) on developers and publishers quite interesting. It's a subject that many games do seem to find confusing and seems to be the source of disagreements that may not have even existed had the participants been aware of what they are talking about.

Kudos for pointing out (again) that publishers are not evil taskmasters and that developers aren't their slaves who are solely interested in the art of game making. Everyone wants and needs to make a profit, even if it's just so they can find funding and support for their next title. Every publisher, even the beloved Valve, looks at profitability first as, want to believe it or not, that's kind of their job.

Also, nice commentary on boycotts. I always find it hilarious when high horses are called upon relating to various debates but then the complainers buy the game anyway. The only way to protest something is, yes, to actually not play the game. It's the only thing that a publisher/developer will understand. Sorry, but buying the used or pirating it in an attempt to "stick it to the man" doesn't count. All a publisher will see from that is that you wanted to play the game, perhaps enough to do something illegal to get it.

 

[Ramith]

Susan is 100% correct.

I almost always comment on the podcasts, but last week was so?generic, kind of lifeless.
This one was better.

Yes it makes perfect sense to streamline a video games for a broader audience to sell more units, but I don?t have to be happy with it.

Yes not buying the game sends a powerful message, but complaining sends a message too, and let?s be honest, it?s cathartic. And of course I mean mature complaining, I never take trolls into account for anything, trolls are everywhere, on every side, best to ignore them.

Either way, good podcast. Still lacked a Simpsons, Baldurs Gate. I suggest you mix Food, Simpsons and BG into one reference for the next one.

 

[The journey man]

A good examples of games that did higher difficulty right are the first two Thief games. Instead of making the game harder(Since you can't actually make enemies any more stronger then they are), it actually gave you more stuff to do like restricting you from killing quards and requiring you to steal more stuff from each level.

 

[The journey man]

Susan is 100% correct.

I almost always comment on the podcasts, but last week was so?generic, kind of lifeless.
This one was better.

Yes it makes perfect sense to streamline a video games for a broader audience to sell more units, but I don?t have to be happy with it.

Yes not buying the game sends a powerful message, but complaining sends a message too, and let?s be honest, it?s cathartic. And of course I mean mature complaining, I never take trolls into account for anything, trolls are everywhere, on every side, best to ignore them.

Either way, good podcast. Still lacked a Simpsons, Baldurs Gate. I suggest you mix Food, Simpsons and BG into one reference for the next one.

If there's ever an episode of the Simpsons where Burt is playing Baldurs Gate while eating cake (Real cake not rice crispies) i'm sure they will.

 

[Mikeyfell]

You guys need to do a Podcast that is an hour and a half of just sound check.
The first 10 minutes was the best of the whole thing

 

[Susan Arendt]

You guys need to do a Podcast that is an hour and a half of just sound check.
The first 10 minutes was the best of the whole thing

Be careful what you wish for...'cause we can totally make that happen.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Oh god... crazy people are crazy, polar reversals take like between 1,000 to 10,000 years. it doesn't happen in a day.

What? You can't move continent-sized flows of iron overnight? CRAZY TALK!

My God, all that planning, all that time and money and... well, life wasted on such retardation. My defensive plan is useless against zombies or infrastructure collapse, but it's at least got a shot against mugging. And that's all the planning I think I need to do.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Oh god... crazy people are crazy, polar reversals take like between 1,000 to 10,000 years. it doesn't happen in a day.

What? You can't move continent-sized flows of iron overnight? CRAZY TALK!

My God, all that planning, all that time and money and... well, life wasted on such retardation. My defensive plan is useless against zombies or infrastructure collapse, but it's at least got a shot against mugging. And that's all the planning I think I need to do.

Thing is, their plan serves any catastrophe. Natural disaster, invasion, economic collapse,whatever. And they seem quite happy. I don't find them to be crazy at all. Just different.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Thing is, their plan serves any catastrophe. Natural disaster, invasion, economic collapse,whatever.

Unless they've got air supplies, then anything nuclear or biological means they're out of luck, be it natural or manmade, malice or stupidity or bad luck. Or they run up against something with tanks, or mortars, or planes.... Anyone can design a security system they can't break into and anyone can defend against a worst-case scenario they think of. There's a wide gulf between "damned secure" and "invulnerable", and I'll gladly give them "damned secure", but I have severe doubts about invulnerability.

And they seem quite happy. I don't find them to be crazy at all. Just different.

If it's their hobby and they're not hurting anybody, then it's their hobby and I can't criticize that. But as much as I like my security and have my paranoid habits, I personally think that isolationist compound living crosses the belt-and-suspenders line and settles in cyanoacrylate-in-the-pants territory.

 

[Formica Archonis]

I hate to double post, but I think there's too much topic whiplash here and this needs its own.

While it doesn't quite fit the bill of what was discussed in the podcast (as this one is bankrolled by the BBC), here's a documentary about a game developer that doesn't put everything in a positive light.


(I sincerely hope I'm not the only one who can guess most of the games being played offscreen at 18:25 and 21:20 just off the audio.)

 

[Eric the Orange]

Thank you Susan, thank you for saying the game businesses are a BUSINESS. I hate it when people get mad a a company for trying to make money. Like, for example, getting mad at blizzard for the real money auction house. They aren't trying to cheat you with it, they want a sustainable cash flow. (look out WoW players it WILL come to WoW if it does any business at all).

 

[OniaPL]

I could hear echoes of your voices as you were speaking. Don't know if I'm the only one who had it, but it bothered me.

 

[Hoplon]

Oh god... crazy people are crazy, polar reversals take like between 1,000 to 10,000 years. it doesn't happen in a day.

What? You can't move continent-sized flows of iron overnight? CRAZY TALK!

My God, all that planning, all that time and money and... well, life wasted on such retardation. My defensive plan is useless against zombies or infrastructure collapse, but it's at least got a shot against mugging. And that's all the planning I think I need to do.

Thing is, their plan serves any catastrophe. Natural disaster, invasion, economic collapse,whatever. And they seem quite happy. I don't find them to be crazy at all. Just different.

It's more worrying about something so esoteric as a polar reversal. Also I think the major problem with polar reversals is weakening of the magnetic field to the point that a strong solar flare could scour the face of the planet clean.

The games production is business thing, it does get overlooked way to often but the milking of things till everyone hates them seems precisely counter productive to that. We have seen it done a lot of times as well, with medal of honour for instance, because the publishers seem to ignore the fact that the people creating the product are as important as the product it's self. The pursuit of maximum profit pushes them in that direction all to often.

It has already happened to BioWare with Dragon Age 2, a game I like but one I also understand was forced out in 18 months to keep the earnings cycle up and the results from that where pretty obvious in the over reused environments, under developed story and mob AI.

There is a lot more waffling to be done on that subject but I hope I have gotten the point across.

 

[Valanthe]

It's really depressing that so many call for boycotts, and so few actually stick to their guns, I hate calling attention to that screenshot from Steam over the Modern Warfare 2 boycott, but it's a perfect example of how companies view these threats, because that's all they are, threats full of hot air.

On the other hand though, there are people out there who do stick to the guns, and as much as I felt like the one who didn't show up to the party when I hear fans frothing about the latest Assassin's Creed, or Anno 2070 (Though that last title seems to be really rubbing some people the wrong way thanks to the DRM) I said a while ago that I was fed up with Ubisoft, and as sad as it might sound, that personal little boycott of mine, which I know, doesn't hurt Ubisoft in any real way because I'm just one customer, and my little voice isn't going to change anything soon, has become a little badge of honour for me, it's my little bit of proof that when I say I'm doing something, I damn well follow through with it.

Huh.. the view is great from up on this horse...

I'll uhh... just go over there...