Comments on: Why Devs Are Important

By: Patrick Dugan

Patrick Dugan — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 15:35:00 +0000

As an industry we should take it a step further and focus the credit on autuers, even if that focus hyperbolizes an individual’s role in development. Sure, Richard Garriot probably had about 10% of the role in ensuring Ultima IX was good as he did on Ultima IV, but people can remember and cherish the meme “Richard Garriot” a lot more readily than “Origin Systems”. It makes marketing sense too, for all the reasons you cite.

By: solipsistnation

solipsistnation — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 11:26:00 +0000

Well, the developers are more important to me than the publisher, but only a few developers are more important than good reviews... I've actually bought games in genres I don't usually enjoy ("Myth" for one) because the developers are so consistently interesting that I wanted to see what they would do with games outside their normal areas of expertise.

Sometimes this turns around on me, though-- while I'd buy a video game based on stealthy flatulance if Looking Glass developed it, Ion Storm has managed to turn from a developer whose games I'd buy sight unseen (I really dug "Anachronox!" So there!) to a developer who, even though they have combined with Looking Glass into what should have been the giant Voltron of game houses, I will now regard with suspicion.

Irrational Games still has some serious cred with me, though, and I await "Bioshock" with bated breath. (Even though I tried the demo of "Freedom Force" and didn't really like it.)

I have no idea if I'm unusual in this. I probably am.

By: Aleks

Aleks — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 08:42:00 +0000

Since I’m working for a group that works with both first and second party developers, I gotta chime in in defense of the publisher. The publisher has a large responsibility for deciding the games that will be developed by a specific developer. (This happens both internally and externally through multitude of Marketing/Design discussions.) The publisher is also heavily responsible now to provide the QA, support and may decide when is the game “good enough” for shipping. (ie. When the games ship with glaring bugs – it’s either insufficient QA or too much date push)
After my personal experiences with Civ4 and other things I’ve heard about Take Two. I will wait at least a month and read forums before any games published by them.