@veektarius:
@seppli:
Are you guys serious? Please give me some examples to back up that argument because I honestly can't think of any off the top of my head. I can think of a handful of developers who survived the resignation of their founders, Naughty Dog being at the top of the list, but the fact is that Naughty Dog replaced an incredible creative leadership with an equal or even better creative leadership with Amy Hennig who is arguably one of the best writer/designers in the industry. Now you might give an example of, say, System Shock 2 being a better game than the original and made by a different developer. But not only did Ken Levine get his start at Looking Glass, he is, again, one of the best writer/directors in the industry.
And the examples of companies destroyed by the loss of their top staff are quite numerous. Outside of Rare and Infinity Ward which I already mentioned, Team Ninja, Origin, Atari and Activision come to mind. One key aspect, especially in the case of the latter three, is that they were purchased by a larger corporation that changed company culture. Activision went from championing the art of game development to being the exact opposite. And the people behind that change are the exact people currently running Blizzard. In the case of Rare and also Silicon Knights, much of the perceived talent seemingly had to do with the influence of legendary designers like Miyamoto and Kojima. Neither company remained successful outside of the Nintendo fold.
People made the same argument you guys are making about the film industry under the Studio System of the 30's through 50's. The idea was that the director and writers of a film didn't matter. Once someone had a good concept they just copied it. Then in the 60's the French New Wave created the auteur theory that was picked up by numerous US directors like Martin Scorcese, Francis Ford Coppola, Stephen Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Stanly Kubrick, and numerous other writers and directors who remain the most acclaimed of all time. The studio system didn't work. It made a lot of money for a lot of people, mind you, but look at the number of truly masterful films from that era and you'll only be able to name a few. One of those, the mighty Citizen Kane was made by a man given completely free reign to do whatever he wished. At the same time you saw movements like the Italian focus on realism or late German Expressionism which created masterful films that to this day are some of the best ever made. And many of the the Studio era directors made their best films after the end of the Studio System. Alfred Hitchcock for example made a bunch of mediocre films while under studio control. When given creative freedom he made films like Psycho, Rear Window, and The Birds. The same with Kubrick. His early stuff is good but compare something like Lolita to 2001, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, or any of his other films after the fall of the studio system and you can see that they were vastly superior.
Point is, the best pieces of art, be they games, movies, books, plays, music, paintings, or anything else are created from passion. They are created by artists who deeply believe in the art they are creating. Anyone can make a new Diablo and make a fun, balanced, polished game. But like most of Blizzard's recent games, it would lack the flare that you gain when a truly creative artist creates an idea. If you don't believe in the importance of the directors of games, then look at how much more the best designers get paid. The top talent at Rockstar make millions every year. Ken Levine makes millions every year. Miyamoto, Kojima, Ono, Todd Howard, John Carmack, and Casey Hudson, just to name a few, get paid 10x or more what the average designer makes. Activision fired Jason West and Vince Zampella just because they made $10+ million on each game. Activision thought they could replace them and make something just as good. Call of Duty 3 and Ghosts would strongly disagree with that statement.
Log in to comment