Stu recommended I watch this film. Thanks to Netflix (which I am loving, by the way), I watched it. I’ll pretty much echo Stu’s thoughts on it. These talented individuals who have devoted their lives to creating amazing videogames do not deserve the contempt which is levelled at them by the players of their games (fans or not), and even the industry itself. Although saying that, one of the guys who created Super Meat Boy says that big budget games are shit. I guess our definitions may be different, because the games he mentioned were not shit – they were just big budget, polished and popular videogames. But then this is the same guy who acted like a spoiled kid when Super Meat Boy was a few hours late being put on the Marketplace – a common occurrence to be honest – Wednesday may be Xbox Live Arcade day, but from personal experience the upload time varies from week to week.
Jon Blow was fascinating. He seemed a little sad that not many people looked beyond the delightful art-style and incredibly thoughtful time-based mechanics and really got Braid, really made that connection with him. Our very own melatonin may have, with his theory that “Braid is a story that focuses on the development and deployment of the atomic bomb, and the irreversible impact it had on all human conflicts thereafter”. You can read the entire thread on rllmuk, here. I’m not sure if that was ever revealed as the meta-story, or if it ever will be, but Dave is our hero when it comes to things like this.
And I can totally understand why Phil Fish decided not to carry on with Fez 2. He came across as a very sensitive soul, and as I said earlier, these people do not deserve the hate that is often directed towards them. They are creative, often working by themselves or in very small teams – cries of “Why is this game taking so long”, etcetera are disgusting. It takes as long as it takes, don’t be so damn impatient. These guys deserve respect, patience, and a little understanding. This is another reason why I do the Random Game Friday – if I can get a game a little more attention, get an author a few more clicks, garner a little more interest in someone’s game, that they made, then that is fucking cool. If I have any kind of clout on the internet at all then I would gladly use it to champion the creation of incredible videogames, and the joy that playing them brings.
