-Jonathan Blow on the State of Game Design-
In the same week Jonathan Blow, the creator of Braid, had a talk about the current state of video game design and the "Bad TV" that is Free-to-Play(F2P) games. If you do design these games, please close your eyes, because Jonathan strong opinions cast down all games designed around this business model.
Jonathan begins with a horrible episode of the Six Million Dollar Man fighting against a robotic Big Foot, a sore sight for modern eyes with terrible timing, effects, and camera angles. Using this example as "Bad TV", Jonathan tears down games like "Farmville" and "Candy Crush Saga", claiming their poor and immoral design is destroying the game industry.
For the most part, Jonathan is actually spot on. His points on how these models effectively "trick" players into playing a game for "free" while luring them into micro-transactions by keeping vital parts of the game behind a pay-wall. This business model can be seen everywhere, forcing players to pay for "buildings" in a city, "special gems" to improve their gameplay, and even "energy" to simply play the game.
Unfortunately, this business model is extremely successful in monetizing a game, making it a preferable choice for developers big and small. This trend destroys wholesome design and replaces it with games designed around gimmicks and endless treadmills to make a player think they're getting more game out of a F2P, swindling them out of hundreds, than from a $2.99 up-front traditional game.
Basically, Jonathan Blow was calling F2P games trash, which is not a bad assessment. As always there are a few exceptions to the rules and I'm not one to cast down a genre just because I don't agree with it. But I definitely felt bad for the F2P developers in the audience for having their idol call their work garbage.
Check out a write-up by a good friend of mine HERE to find out more about the talk.
In the same week Jonathan Blow, the creator of Braid, had a talk about the current state of video game design and the "Bad TV" that is Free-to-Play(F2P) games. If you do design these games, please close your eyes, because Jonathan strong opinions cast down all games designed around this business model.
Jonathan begins with a horrible episode of the Six Million Dollar Man fighting against a robotic Big Foot, a sore sight for modern eyes with terrible timing, effects, and camera angles. Using this example as "Bad TV", Jonathan tears down games like "Farmville" and "Candy Crush Saga", claiming their poor and immoral design is destroying the game industry.
For the most part, Jonathan is actually spot on. His points on how these models effectively "trick" players into playing a game for "free" while luring them into micro-transactions by keeping vital parts of the game behind a pay-wall. This business model can be seen everywhere, forcing players to pay for "buildings" in a city, "special gems" to improve their gameplay, and even "energy" to simply play the game.
Unfortunately, this business model is extremely successful in monetizing a game, making it a preferable choice for developers big and small. This trend destroys wholesome design and replaces it with games designed around gimmicks and endless treadmills to make a player think they're getting more game out of a F2P, swindling them out of hundreds, than from a $2.99 up-front traditional game.
Basically, Jonathan Blow was calling F2P games trash, which is not a bad assessment. As always there are a few exceptions to the rules and I'm not one to cast down a genre just because I don't agree with it. But I definitely felt bad for the F2P developers in the audience for having their idol call their work garbage.
Check out a write-up by a good friend of mine HERE to find out more about the talk.
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