Letters To The Taunter

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Finally I am not the only person completely fed up with the state of the
game these days. Let me know if anything develops!

many games have been total shit from some companies or really short changed like thief 1 & 2. Star Trek: Armada could of been the next big multiplayer game, nope activision discontinued support, and claimed that the reason the game crashed every goddam 10 minutes was because they were crashing.

Anyhow I hope a company does take you up on your offer, and you do produce a kickass game, that is fun to play, and there isn't 80 zillion variables you have to learn.

I make no promises about complexity, but if the game IS complex, the interface and the game design will make sure you aren't overwhelmed by complexity.

I agree. These games should be 100x's better than yesterdays games because technology is 100x better. But these quality of games do not seem to scale exactly with technological advances. In fact gameplay seems to have suffered since then. Good luck!

The visual quality is great-the game play is the problem that has always been there since the start. But, with the almost assembly-line creation of games (your competitor has a RTS coming out, you need one that's the same with the serial numbers filed off) makes the problem worse.

Im hoping your thinking something like Counter-strike in the year 2020 (or so heh), options of Rocket Arena Q3:A, life like maps.. yadda yadda. Drivable vehicles and more weapons too

Perhaps. Perhaps not. But, one thing to be said, it'll be as different as I can get it without being too off-the-wall.

Amen brother. I hope you get total control of a great project and come through with flying colors.

B-17 The Mighty Eighth. So much potential, including the ability to have your buddies take on the roles of pilot, copilot, gunners, radio operator, navigator, bombardier, etc. Multiplayer dropped to ship game on time. Game shipped with a ton of bugs, crashing to the desktop so much it was unplayable until the patch came out yesterday. We'll see how this one ends up, but...

I saw B-17 and it was a great concept. Unfortunately, it's also been plagued by the same problems that a lot of flight sims have been getting-very poor quality control. Personally, I still think that Lucasgames' Secret Weapons Of the Lufftwaffe was probably one of the best games of the European Air War over Germany, even though it ignored the significant British contribution.

Jeremy Frost is also an editor for aa33.com, go by and say hello and tell him how nifty a site he has.

dude ! I think you are right about all the crappy games on the market!

I guess we all look like sheep to the developers { sheep another lame attempt } bye the way I saw you're page on HARD OCP

Sadly true, it's more like the marketing droids that run too many software companies are aiming for too low a denominator. I'm saying we should aim a bit higher-not much higher, but assume that these people can put two and two together and get four.

Make sure to check out HARD OCP, whom first posted this massive rant and rave against the gaming industry!

Not to be insulting, but dude what company is going to do what you proposed-good luck.
Ummm, any way great idea i agree with you

First of all let me say that I agree with your dissatisfaction with the current state of computer games. There are too many companies that are willing to capitalize on the growing demand in this particular industry. Unfortunately many of them do not have the experience and/or potential to
create a truly great game. Now, you have to realize a couple of things. These companies are not in the business of making quality games. They are in business of making money. And game development requires lots and lots of money. You can spend millions of dollars trying to create a perfect game but if you screw up one little thing and your sales do not cover the development costs, you are out. Out of your job that is. And if you are not lucky then out of your house and all of your possessions also. And I think that's more serious consequences than dancing nude in a game development conference. That's the main reason why the companies do not have "willingness to go against the Mainstream" It's just too much of a risk to take. How do they know their game will be better than a game by their competitors based on a tried and true concept? There is no way to know until they go on sale. When you are making a clone at least you know what that kind of games are in demand. You say you can make a truly innovative, absolutely flawless, bitchingly awesome game. Well I'm sorry, but do you have a slightest idea what it takes to create a
game, any game? Have you made a single game in you entire life? Or do you imaging that making games involves playing the game all day and giving orders to your subordinates? It's not a personal insult, but more of a reality check. It's just too damn hard to make a game that will capture people's attention and generate healthy sales. And it's 10x times harder now than it was 5-7 years ago. That's one of the reason the average quality of games declined. So, if you still insist that you can do it, then go ahead, create you own game. That's right, try to make a simple game with captivating story, intuitive interface and exciting gameplay. All this can be achieved without the use of latest 3D graphics technology, surround sound or force feedback. Impossible? Then how about Tetris? That game didn't require too much work, did it? Shouldn't be hard to come up with another great concept like that if you are as experienced in gaming as you say. Again, that was not meant as a personal insult, but more as an invitation to look a bit deeper into the issue. Anyway, I hope you realize that the things are not that simple as they look. Playing games
and making games are two totally different things and you should keep that in mind. And believe me I'm saying these things not because I've read them on another website or heard from another person. I also thought that I knew more than enough to make a perfect game, until I actually started coding. I'm trying to make my own game. I basically just started it, but there's already so much stuff involved that I'm trying to get people help with the project. So, If you want to talk seriously about creating games and all the things involved, go to http://digitalfiends.com/airwars/ and post in the forums. And by the way, if I were you I wouldn't hold my breath for that job offer.

And, I know that the business isn't ordering around subordinates. I've worked with game companies (both PC and paper), developed and produced games on the lowest end and written up some product for it. I've made maps and written some of the most HORRIBLE dialog you'll see outside of a porn film. Yes, games cost money-LOTS more since the era of garage-production games and risks are To Be Avoided since games are an investment. But, any investment is a risk-if you aren't willing to risk, then don't invest your money.

I'm willing to risk my ego, body hair, and my own money if necessary. Let's see what happens, shall we?

I have to agree whole-heartedly here, Messiah was jump, flap them little wings like crazy, die of radiation poisoning, repeat (sorry I gave up at this point). Adding to the sheep theory: Developers write these games to run on way to many types of PC's. Who cares if joe blow can't run it on his 200mmx and 4m voodoo? Now I just play demos and save my cash for upgrading the weee beasty.

I do understand how a lot of game studios have to aim for the lower end because there are QUITE a few low-end computers out in the world, not just the United States. But....aiming too low prevents you from reaching the stars.

That was great ! :)Daitakata SUCKED - the most boring game ever. The only thing that it had going for it was the cool central character. The sidekicks - caused me to fail more missions than anything else. The "almighty daitakatana" sucked. Crap weapon. Star Wars Force Commander - sucked. Nice music .. and... nothing else. New Worlds - SUCKED. Nice graphics but boring as hell. Messiah - lacked that playability. Not that bad but what a fuckin waste! Reach for the Stars - Haven't tried.

Daitakana had a GREAT concept, but the application of it sucked. I could write for HOURS on how Daitakana could have been done better. The idea would be to make each "realm" an adventure in itself, like Deus Ex, with a growing team of "sidekicks" through each era, armed with era-appropriate weapons and the All Mighty Daitakana, chasing down the maniacal supervillan whom has kidnapped your One True Love, who has the sword that allows for time travel forwards in time.

It seems like I haven't played a really good game since Ninja Gaiden on the old 8 bit Nintendo. Stiff controls, canned levels, side-scrolling, bitmapped, 3-frames-per-animation fun at its finest, good for hours and hours of replayability for a dumb kid for whom it is all new and exciting. These days we have 30 million shaded, texture mapped triangles per second of dynamically lit, volumetrically fogged magic--all wrapped around games that are, to put it mildly, complete and total excrement. Console fare sucks, PC fare blows, and I am left wondering whether I should buy that latest FPS or would my money be better spent on a boxed set of Bozo the Clown screen savers and a can of spray string. I'm leaning toward
the screen savers. At least they'd be entertaining. If you need a programmer, let me know. Peace.

I'll bring the string spray cans. :) But seriously, a lot of the most innovative titles were created by small studios working with A Goal in mind. Some rather recent games, such as Ground Control, Homeworld, and Deux Ex were created by small studios that Took A Chance and were innovative.

On the subject of offering help, there will be a link to a Unreal Tournament mod, which will be as innovative as I can get it.

Completely agree with your views on your site... Good luck on getting a development studio to go for it!

It's a shame that a project like that isn't too feasible with a group of volunteers, I think that a lot of decent games could be produced by people who are doing it purely for their love of gaming, and not for the money.

They do, it's called the Mod community. And, in this vein, I'm going to put up my idea for an Unreal Tournament mod, currently unnamed and undeveloped; but it will be innovative.

Believe me, those aren't the only crappy computer games out there. I can't tell you how many times I've cursed the excessive reliance on 3D with no thought to game play balance. Why is it that the best real time strategy games have been so few in number. Aside from Starcraft and Age of Empires II the pickings have been slim.

I think they should put more time into thinking a game through, and then making it dead stable, than worry about whether or not the fighters have "cool graphics" on them. Ultimately a good game is replayable and
perpetually challenging.

And I sure hope they fix the lags on Strat games...you play a few levels and the thing bogs down just terribly.

It's not just the reliance upon 3D graphics-a game is created that makes lots of money and you can see the cookie-cutter elements. Command and Conquer comes out-and send in the clones! This is not to say that building upon the basis of a good game is a bad thing-Quake drew from Doom and Wolfenstine 3D. But, failing to innovate is cloning and we have enough clones already.

Damn dude you rule!! If you want a tip.... Try mixed genres like a golfing game the incorporates flight sims and fps's as well Doesn't have to make sense but would be fun!!

We are going to try and avoid games that demand you use drugs to make sense of them. But, it would be interesting to try something weird.

I support your ideas, games nowadays are bad. I haven't come across a good single player game (well one that you can play over and over again type of game) since halflife. But i doubt a company with invest in such an idea, they wont shoot out a heap of cash to you unless you have a lot of experience with game programming or design.

I enjoyed Half Life as well, and thought it was something completely different and unique. And, I'm willing to give it a try and break into the game design market-with a sledgehammer if necessary.

Get on the Nomex long johns, because we've gotten some flames. Flamers, please do remember that we require clear, literate English and there are MANY good grammar books out there.

A very cool game end to end. If you really have spent the time, you should have the skizzles to beat it. A better example would be any game that you cannot customize key config's. (ONI) Or are slapped together without any fit or finish. (Klingon HG). Or incompatible with decent O.S.'s like Win2k. (too many to mention) You have to give props to companies like shiny and valve. Call me a liar to my face or whatever, but do you really have any skizzles or is bitching enough to create a good game?

I don't know about you, but the way I think about it, if you're willing to bitch and put in the time to FIX the problem, skills are somewhat secondary. Since I've only played the demo for Oni and haven't played Klingon Honor Guard, I decided to reserve commentary on the games. Also, a lot of games DO run on Windows 2000, if you make sure that all the drivers and other bells and whistles and gongs are current. Also, lots of memory, LOTS. Also, Chris, the how much of Messiah was jumping and hard-to-understand puzzles?

While I agree that there are many crappy games out there, you are not forced to buy them.
Demos allow you to preview the games and see if they are worth buying. There are plenty
of decent games around and some are so good I play them daily (Unreal Tournament is my fave).
However (here is where the flames really start), I really doubt your talents and education are good
enough to produce a high quality game. Take my favorite game, UT for example. The game
itself has no real story line, no characters and no real control over the game itself (unless you're
into making mods and maps). And yet the game is an absolute blast to play. Why? Because the
physics, eye candy, team play, realism, etc, are all awesome. But those things are PROGRAMMED,
not just dreamt up by someone like you, laying in bed sipping wine coolers. What I'm saying is,
that reality RARELY lives up to a persons expectations. Do you really think that all the companies
that make crappy games SET OUT TO FAIL? I doubt it. Games just aren't as simple as you'd like
them to be. But technology is progressing, and good games will get easier (and cheaper) to design.
In the mean time, stick with the classics and learn to take the good with the bad.

Let's address each point, one at a time. No, we aren't forced to buy crappy games, but demos don't tell the whole picture. Have you ever gone to a movie after watching the previews, and realized that the previews were the entire best parts of the movie? A demo can be like that-all the best parts of the game, but the game itself sucks.

And, I do think that there are SOME games out there made to fail, created for the sole purpose of being either a tax write off or just to get the company's name out in the market. I have no problems with learning new things, and if I was to get the job, I'd be working 20-hour days to keep up on the subject at hand-and I'm willing to do this.

I wouldn't offer you a job designing simple "Hello-World" type applications. Oh, and I doubt that anybody will take this seriously, not even postingyour resume. Who takes anybody seriously with a Hotmail e-mail address?

First, Tim (if this is your real name), I don't want to have my home e-mail address spammed, getting Denial Of Service attacks, viruses, and all the other things that people with way too much time and not enough hacker ethic do to people that they find "lame". And, I don't want my resume stolen by people whom need a resume but no skills to back it up. I'm doing my part to defend against identity theft (which is a MAJOR problem).

More letters as they come in, you can either Head Back to my little taunt, or e-mail me some more.