August 2005
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt the MMOcommunity? Michael Hartman
- Marketing Niche Online Games Christopher Allen
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurtthe MMOcommunity? Michael Hartman
- DGN: Reasons for play[was: EmergentBehaviors spawnedfrom...] cruise
- MUD-Dev Digest, Vol 27, Issue 3 Adam Miller
- MUD-Dev Digest, Vol 27, Issue 3 lwl@black-knight.org (Lydia Leong)
- MUD-Dev Digest, Vol 27, Issue 3 Pandora
- MUD-Dev Digest, Vol 27, Issue 3 Marc Bowden
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviors spawned from...] John Buehler
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviors spawned from...] cruise
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviors spawnedfrom...] Michael Sellers
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] John Buehler
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviors spawnedfrom...] Sean Howard
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Michael Sellers
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Sean Howard
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Amanda Walker
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Sean Howard
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Amanda Walker
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Sean Howard
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Michael Sellers
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Amanda Walker
- SOC/DGN: Reasons the Sexes Play Jaycen Rigger
- SOC/DGN: Reasons the Sexes Play Michael Hartman
- SOC/DGN: Reasons the Sexes Play Sean Howard
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Sean Howard
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Michael Sellers
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Ilia Malkovitch
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] ghovs
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] lwl@black-knight.org (Lydia Leong)
- DGN: Reasons for play [was:EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Michael Sellers
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Amanda Walker
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Amanda Walker
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Sean Howard
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Amanda Walker
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Sean Howard
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Amanda Walker
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Sean Howard
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Michael Sellers
Sean Howard wrote:
> "Amanda Walker" <amanda@alfar.com> wrote:
>> I agree on My Little Pony, but I don't agree that "a good game is
>> a good game". There are some with broad appeal, but in general,
>> one person's "good game" is another person's "waste of time."
>> ...
>> "good game" is subjective.
> That's like saying a "good movie" is subjective, and yet somehow,
> despite my wife not being able to sit through it without falling
> asleep 10 minutes in, The Seven Samurai is a "good movie" and
> Dude, Where's My Car? is not.
You know you're proving Amanda's point, right? We might all agree
here that "The Seven Samurai" is a good, even great movie, while
"Dude, Where's My Car" is puerile nonsense. But these are
*opinions* -- they're inherently subjective.
Objectively, "Dude Where's My Car" was in the top 10 at the box
office for a month, and made $45M in the theatres plus an additional
$13M in VHS rentals in the first three weeks after its VHS release,
plus an unknown amount of continuing DVD/VHS sales and rentals.
So, does $58M+ in sales make a "good" movie? At the very least,
it's a clear indication that many people saw and enjoyed the movie
(as is its time in the top ten). Beyond that, such a question
depends on many more objective factors including how much the movie
cost to make and what its ROI expectations were -- entirely apart
from whether the movie itself was well-crafted, acted, written, or
directed.
> The reason for this is because we have a more complex way of
> objectifying movies than we do games. The Seven Samurai uses
> excellent composition, visual metaphors, a well structured plot,
> and superior acting. Dude has... um... pot. It's funny, sure, but
> there's nothing more to it that we can judge as being a "good
> movie".
The point is that there is no "we" to judge -- unless you want to go
by the box office and rental revenues, in which case "we," the
people seeing this movie, think it's pretty dang good after all.
Outside of that though, there is no "we" to judge whether a movie,
or game, is "good." We each know what we like, but no matter how
well-formed our opinions, they're still subjective.
Sometimes good games (or movies) don't do very well and sometimes
horrible games stay at the top of the charts -- for various values
of "good" which are going to differ by person and vary over time,
due to their inherent subjectivity.
> So, how do we judge WoW? How do we say whether or not it is a
> "good game" based on anything other than our own enjoyment? This
> is why I think we need some honest critical review in the game
> industry. Real hard asses who are impossible to please with
> extensive understanding of the breadth of games as well as their
> history. If we had a dozen of these critic superstars that
> actually had some freaking insight into gaming every once in a
> while, it wouldn't take long to develop something.
Informed, articulate, insightful opinions are worthwhile (even if
they are still subbjective) because they help others understand more
about a game and try ones they might otherwise miss. But don't
mistake this for some form of objective or inherently trustworthy
commentary that will somehow raise the quality of games that get
made. I would hope that such informed commentary (of which there is
too little these days) would help the quality of games; but opinions
being what they are, I wouldn't expect too much.
Mike Sellers - DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Sean Howard
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Michael Sellers
- DGN: Reasons for play cruise
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Amanda Walker
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Matthew D. Fuller
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Pandora
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Matthew D. Fuller
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Sean Howard
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Arnau Josep RosselloĢ CastelloĢ
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Michael Hartman
- DGN: Reasons for play [was:Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Michael Sellers
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] cruise
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Sean Kelly
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Damion Schubert
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] lwl@black-knight.org (Lydia Leong)
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Sean Howard
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Lachek Butalek
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Michael Sellers
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviorsspawnedfrom...] Sean Kelly
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Michael Sellers
- SOC: MUD-Dev, Developers, and DGN: Reasons for play, blah-bity-blah-bity-blah... Jaycen Rigger
- TECH DGN: Story detection Boyle, Paul
- TECH DGN: Story detection cruise
- TECH DGN: Story detection Craig Huber
- TECH DGN: Story detection Sean Howard
- TECH DGN: Story detection Greg B
- TECH DGN: Story detection Max Battcher
- TECH DGN: Story detection Michael Sellers
- TECH DGN: Story detection Mike Rozak
- TECH DGN: Story detection paulmc@syd.microforte.com.au
- TECH DGN: Story detection Mike Rozak
- TECH DGN: Story detection Boyle, Paul
- TECH DGN: Story detection Mike Rozak
- TECH DGN: Story detection John Arras
- TECH DGN: Story detection Mike Rozak
- TECH DGN: Story detection John Arras
- TECH DGN: Story detection Mike Rozak
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Mike Rozak
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Peter Harkins
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Mike Rozak
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Peter Harkins
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Mike Rozak
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Tess Snider
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Ian Hess
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Thomas Tomiczek
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Soy weiser
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Michael Hartman
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Peter Harkins
- DGN: Random questions about griefers lwl@black-knight.org (Lydia Leong)
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Miroslav Silovic
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Tess Snider
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Mike Rozak
- DGN: Random questions about griefers David Johansson
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Mike Rozak
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Nesta Stubbs
- DGN: Random questions about griefers Peter Harkins
- DGN: Random questions about griefers lwl@black-knight.org (Lydia Leong)
- DGN: Random questions about griefers John Buehler
- Formulae Generation Ximon
- Formulae Generation Pandora
- Formulae Generation cruise
- Formulae Generation Ximon
- Formulae Generation Eli Stevens (WG.c)
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviors spawnedfrom...] Damion Schubert
- MUD-Dev Digest, Vol 27, Issue 8 Adam Miller
- MUD-Dev Digest, Vol 27, Issue 8 Sean Howard
- MUD-Dev Digest, Vol 27, Issue 8 Amanda Walker
- DGN: Reasons for play [was: EmergentBehaviorsspawnedfrom...] Michael Sellers
- MUD-Dev Digest, Vol 27, Issue 9 Dread Quixadhal
- Democratizing MMOs - new business model chris klaus
- Democratizing MMOs - new business model Mike Rozak