Return Of The Warren!

[gleeful]

i guess most of us here like the warren for all the ingenious things he has done in the past (and are somewhat willing to forgive him his failures, i.e. dx:iw). so this should be exciting news.

 

and i quote:

 

"Saying he's back "to shake things up," Warren Spector, the famed game designer, has reemerged from the shadows to reveal his latest endeavor. Although he claims it's "a little early" for full disclosure, Spector is talking up details of his new development shop, Junction Point Studios, at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco."

 

you can read the whole thimg right here:

 

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/03/08/news_6119959.html

 

kind regards

gleeful

[sparhawk]

Hmm. I always confuse Randy Smith and Warren Spector. Who is who and which one was it who said that he doesn't have the patience to play Thief properly as a sneaker?

[gleeful]

Hmm. I always confuse Randy Smith and Warren Spector. Who is who and which one was it who said that he doesn't have the patience to play Thief properly as a sneaker?

yeah, that would be warren.

 

i like him still for giving us the goodness that was the original deus ex.

 

kind regards

gleeful

[oDDity]

THe thing you always have to remember about Warren Spector (and let's be fair to him) is that he's a cunt.

I seem to be the only person in the entire world who though DX was boring and didn't even get a quarter of the way though it. Anachronox was ISA's best game, but still wasn't my cup of tea. The less said about Diakatana, DX2, T3, and Ion's really early attempts at strategy games, the better.

In short, I'm glad ION closed down, since as far as I could see, there wasn't enough talent there to fill a mosquito's posing pouch, they had just become another shitty developer releasing the same tedious repetitive one-size-fits-all games which make up 95% of the market today, and are only concerned with pleasing the publishers shareholders.

[sparhawk]

I'm glad we finally seem to agree.

[oDDity]

I'm not just being my usual vindictive, cynical, sarcastic self either.

Let's look at exactly what Bunny has done.

I decent game (DX) which I didn't like, but I'll admit is was decent and fairly innovative. Tis is what he's built his repuation on. We don't know how much personal credit he can take for that anyway, he didn't make it singlehanded after all, for all we know he was the whip cracker at the top and everyone else did all the hard work and had all the good ideas, while he leeched all the credit as the boss.

Even if we give him that one, that only makes him a one hit wonder, and as we all know, one hit wonders have nothing to do with talent, only luck.

If he was a genuine talent he would not have presided over so many failures - far outnumbering his 'success'.

Warren was concerned with nothing but pleasing Eidos, lining his pockets, and then laterly, grabbing anything he could before deserting the sinking Ion ship.

[gleeful]

I seem to be the only person in the entire world who though DX was boring and didn't even get a quarter of the way though it.

well, de gustibus non est dispudandum - i've played it 5 times and rank it among my all-time favs. and judging from the abysmal dx:iw it couldn't have been mister smith's input.

 

i know warren's reputation is somewhat dubious, but i for one don't think he's a useless, non-creative manager-type cause he started out designing board and pen-and-paper games at steve jackson games and the late tsr.

 

if his next game turns out to be dx:iw-like crap though, i'll probably stop liking him.

 

kind regards

gleeful

Edited March 11, 2005 by gleeful

[Vadrosaul]

What I find funny is this underlining praise for someone who spearheaded 1, maybe 2, great critically acclaimed games, then came out with 2 or 3 major flops and people say it wasn't because of him.

 

I'm going with Oddity on this one. I just can't understand this cult following for him when his game production quality level is at or around 50%.

[Renzatic]

I gotta give the guy benefit of the doubt here. Before Ion Storm he produced and helped design for a number of great games. Like:

 

System Shock

Ultima Underworld

Ultima VII

Thief 1 (a tiny bit)

 

and eventually Deus Ex. It was when ISA was forced to codevelop for 2 platforms that it seemed he really dropped the ball. Being forced to take advantage of the newest technology while being limited by the Xbox's ram means that you're gonna get some amazingly tight spaces to play in.

 

It's like getting 5 pounds of play-doh and a spatula and being told to sculpt Michaelangelo's David. They did the best they could, but they were limited severely and the games turned out worse than they should've been.

 

Imagine DX2 if it had large enviroments to explore and time to build on it's gameplay system, it would've been a pretty damn good game. But instead they were forced to cram it all into tight little 15 foot rooms with constant load zones and it ruined the rest of the game.

[sah]

Warren was concerned with nothing but pleasing Eidos, lining his pockets, and then laterly, grabbing anything he could before deserting the sinking Ion ship.

http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/...the_house_.html

 

Either he has a twin brother speaking for him on all the panels/interviews, or maybe all his failures are bad design decisions - and he's not a money whore, just a developer that makes mistakes. Don't we all? Try to understand the man.

[oDDity]

Well I;m heavily biased since I simply don't like the kinds of games he makes, even his few successes.

[Dram]

Warren Spector is the guy that said "we don't make games for MIT grads" right? if so, what a cockflop. If no, wrong guy.

[]-UnderTOW-[]

Warren Spector is the guy that said "we don't make games for MIT grads" right? if so, what a cockflop. If no, wrong guy.

You would be accurate. On the MIT bit, as well as the cockflop bit.

[Ishtvan]

I think his exact words were: "You can't make games for MIT grads." Which is very interesting, because for years there was a CompUSA a few blocks from MIT (it has since closed down), and they sure seemed to sell a shitload of games.

[oDDity]

What he meant was you have to make games so even dumbasses and 10 year old kids can understand them. THat way you sell the most copies. He's obviosuly assuming that dumbasses and kids make up the majority of the gaming market's buying power, and he'd probably be right, but that's no excuse for it.

Everone can play a dumb game, but the more complex and intelectual you make it, the smaller the market gets.

Publishers are not interested in critically acclaimed, innovative, intelligent games that don't sell well. No - fighting with other publishers to see who can snag the development company who can make the most populist repetive genre clone possible is in the interest of their shareholders.

Their motto is

'People buy them, so let's make more of them'

rather than

'the market is already swamped with them, so let's do something different'

[Zaccheus]

What he meant was you have to make games so even dumbasses and 10 year old kids can understand them.

And then make your game so violent that it ends up 18-rated !

:lol:

[oDDity]

Like that makes any difference. Guess what my sister bought my 9 year old nephew as one of his christmas presents?

GTA San Andreas.

I'm sure it happens everywhere. Most people just have this unbreakable perception that computer games = kids stuff, and there can be no such thing as an adult game no matter what it says on the box.