Whose Game Is It Anyway?
The internet and the rise of the armchair game designer.
Over the last few years the gaming industry has been hit by a revolution. The rapid rise of the internet has opened up a whole new world of opportunity, from e-commerce to multiplayer gaming.
It has also brought the gaming industry closer to its fan base. Tim Sweeney of Epic Games says "it's a lot more open and fun now that everyone is connected to the Internet".
"Gamers used to just go to the store every few months and buy a new game, but now there are tons of news sites, fan sites, deathmatch clans, [and] teams of enthusiast level designers and mod makers thanks to the availability of tools like UnrealEd and UnrealScript."
But is this always a good thing?
Just A Shot Away
In the past companies would vanish behind closed doors for a year as they worked on their latest magnus opus. Occasionally a journalist would manage to sneak in and do a preview of the game or interview the team working on it, but in general developers were left to get on with it.
Today every developer is just an e-mail away from their "fans", many of whom are downright fanatical. In a way this makes the companies more responsive and accountable, but this instant feedback isn't always welcome.
Developers now live their lives under a microscope, with fans dissecting every little piece of information that is released and voicing their opinions about it.
And if the fans don't like something they hear, the developer is likely to be inundated with e-mails (often incoherent and/or abusive), and to be faced with fan sites trying to change their minds by posting editorials and arranging polls and petitions.
The most recent example of this came when id Software announced that the CTF mode of Quake III Arena wouldn't include a grappling hook. There was an uproar in the Quake community, and David "Zoid" Kirsch (the man behind Q3CTF) has practically gone into hiding since then.
Design By Committee
That's not the end of it though - there are constant arguments between QuakeWorld and Quake II fans about weapons switching, air control, rocket speed... Even whether or not other characters' footsteps should be heard when they run has been argued about.
Quake III Arena is meant to be a new game, but instead of letting id get on with developing it the fans are arguing about which of their previous games it should try to recreate. Don't they trust the company to develop a game that will be fun to play without their interference?
More importantly, how much of a say should the gaming community have in the development of a new game? Should companies just lock themselves away and ignore their fans, or should they listen to every word they say and "design by committee"?
There has to be some compromise - a company that ignores its own fans is doomed, but then so is one that tries to pander to their every whim. Like the man said, "you can't please everyone all the time"...