Jimquisition: Guns Blazing

[Erttheking]

Is it just me or is Escapist (magazine: is it a magazine?) experiencing technical difficulties today?


Excuse me, but I feel it incumbent upon me to use this opportunity to assure the passive video gaming populace (no offense; just saying) that this problem is being worked on. I know it sucks to always be on the receiving end of a relationship, but know that we got this genre covered (http://www.swordofmoonlight.net/)


PS: Also Dark Souls is a pretty unmanageable slash unenjoyable game by all but contemporary (lets be honest, could the bar go any lower?) standards. Its spiritual predecessor of its spiritual predecessor (King's Field) got the controls right. It's the standard by which all 3D first person games will be played as soon as we kick our collective "AAA" dependency...

Believe it or not it's actually possible to do everything any game does with 3 buttons and two thumb sticks (the unbuttoned variety) which when you think about it, is plus or minus a finger all you have to work with. Provided both hands and all fingers are in working order. Accessibility v. the video game industry Jim?

I'm just going to quote myself and tell you guys that its time to grow up and start making games for yourselves (just like opensource software) or shut up. You are never going to get good games ever again. Much less games that are accessible, standardized, open, p2p, good, respectful of your intellectual caliber, etc. etc. etc. Something like Kickstarter is the only way that niche demographics are ever going to get served and paid for at the same time... but at the same time don't discount people just doing things for themselves for the love and joy of it.

The only reason games were ever any good at all is because they were being made by amateurs that didn't have a clue what the hell they were doing. That forces you to be creative. To this day the only games that demonstrate any degree of self awareness are Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. And where is the third game? I guess we can wait decades for one half decent game to maybe appear now. Why not. Every other game is a demonstrated fluke, like Star Wars. A broken clock is right once in a while. Or aliens beam ideas into our little incy wincy pea brains once in a blue moon.

You get what you deserve. Quit supporting indie developers, and start supporting open platforms. Open standards in gaming. Open content. Can you imagine what browsing the internet would be like without open standards? And public domain resources. Can you imagine how many movies would get made if every prop had to be created from scratch? Including the actors. Only one movie per actor. Games are a medium that has yet to begin. Stop the idol worship. The games are not even good. Remember that hoop and stick was once the pinnacle of gaming technology.

One day people will make games. Like people make books. An author, maybe a co author, hopefully an editor. Leave it to the marketing corporations to make hit or miss adaptations for the thick among us. And let them take their earnings and pump into people with proven track records just to see if they implode or make a respectable big budget feature that will be remembered 50 years hence.


PS: I like the post that imagined gamers raising the rubber fist. You guys need revolutionary rallying cries to get this century on the right track. Art is the highest purpose of life, and video games are the highest purpose of art. Act like you mean it when you standup for these things.

"Let's see you do better" is, and has always has been, the mother of all cop out arguments.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

I want to kidnap every high-ranking exec of EA, lock them all in seperate rooms with no way out, and nothing in them but a chair, TV, DVD player, and DVDs of every episode of the Jimquisition, and tell them all that they're not being let out until they're done watching them all.

I can dream, can't I?

 

[Nomanslander]

Here here. Good rant... As a Dark Souls fan I agree 100%.

Dark Souls - I also felt - was a step in the right direction. Avoiding the temptation to go AAA. Going against the formula, and being its own game. If more developers were to follow this lead, it could solve the biggest 2 problem with the industry right now. Being innovative while making money.

 

[Flunk]

You can always tell Jim is angry if the video looks like an episode of "The Raccoons".

 

[acillies45]

Nice hat Jim

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

He whines hard, and he is jumping into a debate that is already occurring (and has been going for some time), but I don't think he gets how good dark jrpgs can be, and I don't think they will fuck it up, just because of a press release in the news speak he hates.

The game is mostly done, some clips are out, it looks a lot like Dark Souls 1 and Demon Souls, and not uncharted or COD.

Be at peace my son.

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

To be a "bit" fair to Namco... I'm part of that weird cross over market who would buy Dark Souls 2... if it had an Easier Mode...

I wanted to like Dark Souls... but I found it too fucking hard to be fun and I gave up.

But at the same time, I wanted to play a dark, creepy fantasy game with brutal combat not a Skyrim clone.

For dark souls, there is a time after you give up, that you can come back to it, apply yourself and then really get it. I was the same, so was a friend. You give up, then you come back and really learn, now with a stronger spirit.

Dark Souls 2 is not looking like a skyrim clone from what is out already.

 

[FoolKiller]

You would think they would learn about basic math in Game-making school.

If there are 5 million people that played your first game and everyone who liked it ended up playing it, it doesn't mean that if you change it to attract new people it will attract new people and keep the original 5 million.

What publishers need to learn:

We like specific games not specific IPs.

 

[Baresark]

I have to say: This whole rant mirrors my own fears for this game. I really don't want them to change any of the mechanics at all. I'm cautiously optimistic that they won't, but we will see what happens. The Souls games are two of my top 5 games of all time. I don't want them dumbing it down. I don't want them changing the controls, the combat, the customization... Basically, take the previous games, put them on new maps with new enemies and new weapons and armor... and the same 2 million people will keep fuckin' buying them. The secret, as Jim points out, is to not spend so much fuckin' money on it that the 2 million guaranteed sales won't be enough. Namco/Bandai are pretty fuckin' stupid though.

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

It is a rant mirroring fears, (we dark souls fans worry), but it is not yet substantiated by an actual bad game.

Some news speak may indicate they have lost their way, or it could be total bull to try and speak to the western gaming industry in their own language. Alas AAA are mostly shit now, but do they know it?

Here is hoping they don't lose themselves.

 

[Annihilist]

I should stress that "niche" is pronounced "Neeesh", not "Nitch".

 

[Tanakh]

I am not sure widening the net and being hardcore or niche are necessary exclusive. Starcraft was a niche game and a AAA one directed at the masses, so is LoL.

Will be disappointed if NAMCO ends up betraying the Dark Souls experience (whatever that means) to try to get Skyrim players, but so far I wouldn't freak out.

That said, throwing money into a project and hope to God it works out... lolz, that alone is enough to think their whole management is totally retarded.

 

[Do4600]

Spoiler: Goooooood

That was perfect bliss. Exactly my problem with the state of the industry now. This video should be linked to every producers website in every possible way, it should flow through the twitter feeds of every person who has ever touched a video game in development.

 

[barbzilla]

To be a "bit" fair to Namco... I'm part of that weird cross over market who would buy Dark Souls 2... if it had an Easier Mode...

I wanted to like Dark Souls... but I found it too fucking hard to be fun and I gave up.

But at the same time, I wanted to play a dark, creepy fantasy game with brutal combat not a Skyrim clone.

This is part of the issue though. They refused to make an "easier" mode. They instead decided to go with what they thought was the core gameplay and went about trying to generalize it. If they really want to reach out to a new audience all they have to do is keep the core experience the same, then implement an easy mode. That damn easy. Yet everyone will ***** and moan that if they make an easy mode they will have sold their souls to commercialization, and go down the road that skyrim went. Meanwhile sticking their fingers and their ears yelling "la la la la" ignoring any form of sense being spouted in their general directions.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I completely agree with your concern. I was worried as fuck about Dark Souls losing its focus to appeal to new audiences after that article compared it to Skyrim, of all things. And I still fear straightforward lore, cash-grab DLC or other tack-ons. However, having seen the interview with Tanimura, he seems like he knows what needs to happen. The innovation he's talking about is interesting level design. Other than that he seems to be all about enhancing what was already good and keeping challenge and difficulty intact. The article beforehand was worrying, but I am a little reassured by Tanimura, and it didn't even seem like damage control, he might just genuinely get Dark Souls.

 

[TAdamson]

As a shattered I just loved the Podtoid reference

Podtoid is quite possibly my favourite thing on the internet. If you like that then the Flixist (of the same site network as Destructoid) podcast was awesome till Alex Katz got a job a Disney or whatever.

I'm glad to hear in a recent podtoid episode that the Flixist contributor Matty Shoestring (Mattias Sjostrand) is a contributor to the Podtoid Wiki.

I encourage Jim to perhaps look Matty up and offer to read some of his.... fiction on the podcast. I'm sure Jonathan Holmes will love it.