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Post your questions for the PAX Panels Here!
Robert Khoo
Registered User, ClubPA staff
Registered User, ClubPA staff
Hey guys, as Tycho had mentioned, we're pulling questions from our community to make up the questions on the game industry panels at PAX. The four panels are:
- Breaking Into the Industry
- Online Gaming
- The Development Process
- State of the Industry
Go ahead and post them in this thread- thanks!
-robert
- Breaking Into the Industry
- Online Gaming
- The Development Process
- State of the Industry
Go ahead and post them in this thread- thanks!
-robert
Some guy.
Robert Khoo on
0
Posts
What is the best way for someone who is trained not in computers but instead in writing story and dialogue to break into the industry without having to say... work their way up through qa?
*Online Gaming:
It seems that in the game market all developers can do is copy one another or wait for some kid on the internet to devlop something better. While at the same time the online game market which is saturated by MMORPG's has a strong focus on coming out with more of them even though at their nature they require one to be fairly commited to playing.
So what has happend to the innovation in new forms of online gaming? Where are the new styles of online games?
*State of the Industry:
A game can look good, but play horribly, play well but be just like any other game and probably look bad too, or have some amazing new feature never seen before anywhere else but only last for about an hour. How is it that so many games come out that have a stong focus on one minor technical aspect, why can't the whole package be good?
-How much longer do you expect that small outfits will be able to make
good quality cutting edge games? As the graphics are increasing, the
amount of people required for games is also increasing, so how long do
you think it will be before every game company is the size of EA, or
bought by Publishers or console manufacturers because of the cost
implications?
-After seeing the UnrealEngine3.0 video, I'm just wondering how long
you expect it will be until games reach photorealism.
-What do smaller companies look for most when recruiting? Do they care
what degree you have, or do they care if you've been involved in a
high quality mod project? Do they care if you have only a community
college degree, or do you need a bachelors?
-After Doom 3, do you expect a reemergence of good 1st person shoot emup single player games? It seems that the whole industry was moving
towards multiplayer everything, but after the number of copies Doom 3
sold becomes public, will there probably be more SP games?
-Do you believe that it is technically feasible to have a true, fun,
massively multiplayer game on a console, as every MMO on Xbox has
failed, except for PSO, which isn't really an MMO.
what the hell ever happened to virtual reality games? hasn't technology progressed to a level where it's a viable form of media yet? and why are we still stuck using controlers for the most part. can't someone come up with.... I don't know some sort of cool controler glove that actually works?
Would you advise someone looking to become a game programmer to attend a specialised college such as DigiPen or get a more general programming degree?
"Every once in a while, I will see props given to a woman on a studio's staff (two great examples being the composer and the concept artist for the Castlevania series). However, I don't see very many games being developed by women, for women - the present games which try to do so are often developed by men and usually miss the mark. Lara Croft would have been a strong female character if her greatest asset weren't her rack, and Samus would be awesome if she actually had any characterization (save how much of her suit disintegrates at the end of every game). Is there a studio from whom we can expect characters who are women and who are interesting for other assets than simply 'not being a man'?" -Addelle Dierking, Bellingham WA
"In the beginning, before you could load a game up with graphics and sound and budget, developers actually had to make games fun. In the heyday of the Super Nintendo, gaming reached a sort of peak - even typical platformers had incredible innovation, as we saw from games like Gunstar Heroes (by Treasure, on Genesis) and E.V.O. (by Enix, for SNES). Of course, once gaming started to mainstream we saw a massive dwindling of the innovation that went into games, falling into greater depths of ultraviolence or lazy franchise (3DO's Army Men). We can see ourselves coming out of this rut, since many gamers are openly sick of repetitive movie games - and we can also watch the success of more innovative games such as Ikaruga, Guilty Gear, ICO, and Rez. Do you think that gaming is coming out of its 'dark ages,' or do you suspect the pendulum will swing back again in the future?" -Richard Hartnell, Bellingham WA
Do you see the future of online gaming in Pay to Play *MMO* or free *Diablo II, Warcraft*?
I'll field this one Mukus.
they saw it as a pay to play because the MMO's cost upwards of $15 to produce. then there's the continual cost of service. because that adds up to a shitoad of money and because the chance of them seeing a profit is slim unless the game makes a boatload of money; that's just the way it's going to be.
but then it makes perfect sense because on average an mmo player spends about 20hrs a week for 3 months. that means that they get about 240hrs of game play in comparison to a non mmo where they'd get maybe 20hrs tops
Did this ever happen? Did my one question get fielded?