The electronic game industry is dead, veteran computer software designers lamented in the heart of Silicon Valley on Thursday.
Chris Crawford, whose experience creating electronic games dated back to when he went to work for Atari in 1979, sounded a death knell for the industry during a gripe session at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose.
“Nothing better can be done about the game industry, because it is dead,” Crawford groused. “It is a body that has a beating heart, but is essentially brain dead.”
Interactive story telling was the future, Crawford said.
“Games are about things, while story telling is about people,” the game designer and author told an audience of 500 people during a session titled “Burn baby burn — Game developers rant.”
Many in the audience of game designers and enthusiasts challenged Crawford, while others agreed and suggested ways the industry might be resurrected.
“People are things,” someone shouted
Crawford was backed by rants from five other game developers who, in a panel discussion, pointed out why the game industry seemed lifeless.
Seamus Blackley, a game developer with Creative Artist Agency, contended a lack of business sense by game developers was killing creativity because it left them relying on corporate publishers to market their ideas.
“We have great ideas,” Blackley said. “Whats happening is that we don’t make a good business around the ideas. Think about money and consider how the audience is going to purchase independent games.”
The game industry should be more like the movie industry where daring independent films such as Brokeback Mountain have a chance of being made, Blackley said.
Other panelists blamed a lack of innovation for the dying game industry. Jonathan Blow, an independent game designer, argued that most new games are just old games but with different graphics.
Games also need to capture people emotionally, Blow said.
“We need to make games that people care about so much that they can’t not play them,” Blow said. “We need to put feelings in games.”
The ranting session, a tradition at the annual conference, was intended as a chance for game developers to address problems of the industry.
“No more ranting,” chimed Robin Hunicke, who helped design the popular Sims series of games for Electronic Arts. “Lets go out there and do stuff.” – AFP