APRIL 1999 GAME DEVELOPER MAGAZINE GAME PLAN 600 Harrison Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.905.2200 f: 415.905.2228 w: www.gdmag.com Rock Star Woes Publisher Cynthia A. Blair cblair@mfi.com ou have to love the month entertainment in America, and pub- EDITORIAL of February. And May. lishers now cozy up to newspapers and Editorial Director Alex Dunne [email protected] Heck, while I’m at it, let’s pop-culture magazines for coverage Managing Editor throw in July and Novem- about their games, and compare their Tor D. Berg [email protected] Y Departments Editor ber. Why? Those are the sweeps game revenues with movies over simi- Wesley Hall [email protected] months for television, when the net- lar periods of time — a metric readily Editorial Assistant works throw everything they’ve got at understandable by the lay person. Jennifer Olsen jolsen@mfi.com you in an effort to boost their audi- Add to that the fact that many com- Art Director ences. For instance, last week I caught panies have started to market the per- Laura Pool lpool@mfi.com “The World’s Most Shocking Moments sonalities behind the games, elevating Editor-At-Large Chris Hecker [email protected] 2: Caught On Tape” on Fox, which in- designers, programmers, and artists to Contributing Editors cluded the usual assortment of plane rock-star status. Just look at Take-Two Jeff Lander [email protected] wrecks, animal attacks, extreme sports Interactive, which just formed a new Mel Guymon [email protected] Omid Rahmat [email protected] accidents, monk riots, and other scenes internal videogame label called (per- Advisory Board of gratuitous carnage and mayhem. I haps not coincidentally) Rockstar Hal Barwood LucasArts 4 often wonder why one person can be Games. Take-Two says this label “em- Noah Falstein The Inspiracy so fascinated with another’s calamity. bodies an elite team of talent which Brian Hook id Software Susan Lee-Merrow Lucas Learning Whatever the reason, though, sweeps has been assembled to redefine the Mark Miller Harmonix month certainly has its share of these videogame industry.... At Rockstar, we Paul Steed id Software Dan Teven Teven Consulting types of shows. want to change the way the media Rob Wyatt DreamWorks Interactive For some companies in our industry, looks at the game industry and give it sweeps month came a month early. In some personality, which has been ADVERTISING SALES January, all eyes were riveted on Ion noticeable by its absence until now.” Western Regional Sales Manager Alicia Langer e: alanger@mfi.com t: 415.905.2156 Storm after a damning exposé about Clearly, statements like this are de- Eastern Regional Sales Manager/Recruitment the company appeared in the Dallas signed to evoke interest from a broader Ayrien Houchin e: ahouchin@mfi.com t: 415.905.2788 Observer, in which reporter Christine cross section of media, those who know ADVERTISING PRODUCTION Biederman ripped the company’s man- what a “rock star” is, but who don’t Senior Vice President/Production Andrew A. Mickus agement and cast doubt on the viabili- necessarily understand what an “en- Advertising Production Coordinator Dave Perrotti ty of the company. And, like the mil- gine programmer” does during the day. Reprints Stella Valdez t: 916.983.6971 lions of spectators that tune in to The combination of marketing per- MILLER FREEMAN GAME GROUP MARKETING watch tragedies unfold on Fox specials, sonalities and products to mass-media Group Marketing Manager Gabe Zichermann many in our industry dropped what we outlets is a shrewd way of getting at- MarComm Manager Susan McDonald were doing to rubberneck at the Ion tention. The mass media readily gloms Marketing Coordinator Izora Garcia de Lillard Storm fender bender. In the interest of on to larger-than-life characters. On CIRCULATION conserving this very limited space and the other hand, it’s that tendency to Vice President/Circulation Jerry M. Okabe owing to my strong aversion to ugly glom that results in coverage when it’s Assistant Circulation Director Mike Poplardo legal messes like that which ensued not welcomed. What happened to Ion Circulation Manager Stephanie Blake between various parties in the incident, Storm could have happened to any Circulation Assistant Kausha Jackson-Crain I don’t intend to recount the story. number of companies, under a variety Newsstand Analyst Joyce Gorsuch (Plus, frankly, I’m really tired of the of different circumstances. INTERNATIONAL LICENSING INFORMATION whole thing.) But the situation is It’s clear that many in this industry Robert J. Abramson and Associates Inc. worth noting for other reasons. For as want the kind of coverage normally af- President Libby Abramson much as you may not want to witness forded true rock stars. However, those 720 Post Road, Scarsdale, New York 10583 t: 914.723.4700 f: 914.723.4722 (or personally experience) another pub- individuals ought to keep in mind that e: [email protected] lic flogging of a game development rock stars get their share of positive as company, I can almost guarantee that well as negative publicity, much as this type of situation will repeat itself they try to avoid the latter. The moral CEO/Miller Freeman Global Tony Tillin again in the not-so-distant future. of the story is that companies which Chairman/Miller Freeman Inc. Marshall W. Freeman The reason is that today’s game com- charge headlong into the mass-media President Donald A. Pazour panies rely on sophisticated, multi- spotlight must prepare themselves for Executive Vice President/CFO Warren “Andy” Ambrose Executive Vice Presidents H. Ted Bahr, Darrell Denny, tiered marketing plans to build up ex- what could follow — both welcome Galen A. Poss, Regina Starr Ridley citement about their products. Once and unwelcome attention. Those who Senior Vice Presidents Annie Feldman, Howard I. Hauben, Wini D. Ragus, John Pearson, Andrew A. upon a time, game publishers focused seek the white hot spotlight shouldn’t Mickus most of their time and energy market- be too surprised if they get burned by it Vice President/Development Solutions Group KoAnn ing games, and the industry press was now and again. ■ Vikören Executive Vice President/Division SF1 Regina Ridley the only outlet for this information. However, games are now mainstream BPA International Membership Applied for March 1998 GAME DEVELOPER APRIL 1999 www.gdmag.com SAYS YOU Sttellig i RPGs: watching him emote (a movie conven- perspective, and you might find that in T Be Nt t Be tion), let’s play the ghost. The ghost blatantly violating these rules follow- can influence the action in the story, ing the Lambda Core levels, it takes a arren Spector covered a lot of observe while remaining unobservable, significant risk of diminishing its oth- W important topics in his article but doesn’t carry on conversations or erwise outstanding accomplishments. (“Remodeling RPGs for the New engage in sword fights. I think a game design language is Millennium,” February 1999). I’d like This kind of story caters to the com- needed to discuss the potential major to take a few of them a step further, if I puter’s strengths and makes use of its split in game design implied by the may. I agree wholeheartedly that expressive capabilities while avoiding interactive movie approach to gaming. games and game development have its weaknesses. It is, however, a chal- Scriptwriting is an exercise in control matured enough that it’s time to start lenging kind of story to write. Perhaps and manipulation — the quintessential exploring what we do that other media the problem with RPGs today is not linear flow. Movies have no choice here. don’t or can’t do. The issue now is how that the computer has its limitations, In terms of control theory, a movie is exactly we can accomplish that. but that most designers (present com- an open loop scenario. Games, on the Chris Hecker proposed the creation pany excepted) just aren’t very good other hand, depend on the player of a common terminology in Game with the medium. being in the loop, and decisively so. Developer a few issues back (“Spielberg Mike Kelleghan Ultimately, the patterns experienced in Switches to Panaflex Cameras,” Game via e-mail games might just superficially resemble Plan, January 1999). Perhaps we need those merely observed in movies. to take his idea and expand upon it. Defiig a Game Vcabla In my opinion, game design has prob- 7 How about coming up with a lexicon ably just as much to learn from physics of stock devices for computers as a he game design vocabulary Chris here: setting the scene in terms of initial storytelling medium? We could then T Hecker was looking for in his Game conditions and equations of motion treat computers not as emulators of Plan column (“Spielberg Switches to might ultimately turn out to be superior board games, movies, or books, but as a Panaflex Cameras,” January 1999) is to scripting events. In interactive enter- true and unique genre. possibly best defined in terms of exam- tainment, you may just have to get used We would list the strengths and ples, archetypes, or patterns. Since Erich to the idea of letting things happen. weaknesses of the various computer Gamma and his co-authors wrote Design There are some interesting resources techniques as applicable to storytelling. Patterns (Addison-Wesley, 1994), the on the Web for patterns — object- This would be accomplished in much very word “pattern” has become fash- oriented programming and its origin in the same way Spector did in his article ionable, but that does not diminish the architecture: for the few techniques he covered, but idea’s value.