Chaos Raiden
Avid Gamer & Reviewer
This is an interview carried out between Angelo Credo and me. This would be the last interview carried out since Keaton is not active in this forum at the moment.
Site related questions
1) What is your role as a moderator in this site?
As you’d expect really, handling reports, thread clean ups, moving them if they’re in the wrong sections, closing if need be, as well as dishing out warnings and bans if/when it’s required.
2) Can you ban a member in this forum?
S’pose I accidentally answered that in the last question, yes, I’m able to ban forum members, though it’s never something to be taken lightly, I’m not exactly a fan of doing it because usually the verbal/official warnings work well enough, but obviously there are times when those simply don’t work, in which case, the banhammer comes out.
3) When did you become a moderator?
13th of March, 2009. So nearly 3 years ago now, and no, I don’t just so happen to have that date etched into my memory, I just never clear out my message inbox, so the message I got asking if I wanted the position is still sitting in there.
4) Is your moderator job relatively easy to do or is it the opposite of it?
I’d say it sits somewhere in the middle, while the mechanics of it all aren’t in the least bit difficult, the hard part actually comes from making decent judgement calls about what actions to take where warnings/bans are concerned, though we all usually discuss things to a reasonable length before jumping straight onto the ban wagon.
5) Are you enjoying your job as a moderator?
Like I’ve always said, I enjoy moderating this forum because I’ve had a lot of good times here, both as a mod and before I became one, and it’s good to feel like I can give something back in some sort of meaningful way to a place that made me some good friends. So yeah, I definitely enjoy my job here.
Devil May Cry series related questions
6) Have you played any Devil May Cry games?
Yup, I have indeed, played them all from start to finish, several times over.
7) How did you know Devil May Cry series at first?
If I recall right, I first came across it after spending some time at a friend’s house quite some time ago, he told me his dad had bought him this awesome new game and that I should come round and try it out. That was the very first Devil May Cry game and I fell in love with it more or less the second I picked up the controller, spent the night at his house and we pretty much played that game solidly until the early hours of the morning, where neither of us could even keep our eyes open.
8) Which Devil May Cry game is your favourite?
DMC3 by far, got it for my 13th birthday and had a hell of a time with it, after being somewhat disappointed by DMC2, 3 absolutely renewed my passion for the series. Brilliant game, and it’s the one I’m most looking forward to playing when the HD collection comes out.
9) Which characters that you like in DMC series?
Dante, naturally, but Vergil stands as a constant favourite, I always thought he was a pretty well developed character, not just evil for the sake of being evil, but actually having motivations that are fairly relatable. Oh yeah, and that coat’s pretty awesome too.
10) What features in DMC series that you like the most?
Well, fast paced combat has always been something I’ve had quite a thing for in my games, DMC is a shining example of how to do quick, fluid and stylish combat absolutely right and I adore the series for that.
11) What things that you actually hate in DMC series?
Things I hate? That’s a tough one really, there’s never been anything that’s been present in the entire series that made me sit there and think “Hang on, this is absolutely bloody awful”, however, DMC4 was probably the most insulting of the series for absolutely crap game design. By that of course, I’m referring to the obnoxious forced backtracking of levels you’re made to do as Dante, it was just such laughably lazy game design and it really disappointed me.
Oh, and the bloody dice game, whoever thought THAT was a good idea deserves a solid beating.
12) What do you think of the controversial reboot of Devil May Cry series, DmC: Devil May Cry?
There was a time when I was vehemently against everything the new reboot stood for, especially where redesigning Dante is concerned, but I’m gonna be honest, it’s gotten to the stage now where I actually could not care less about it. It’s going to happen whether I like it or not and there’s nothing that can be done to radically change any of the design choices put in place this late in the game.
So I suppose really, I’m extremely indifferent in regards to the whole thing these days.
13) Are DMC fans outburst on the new Dante's design is justified?
Well yeah, I’d say so, and for a good reason too. NT redesigned a beloved character and turned Dante into something he was never meant to be just because they didn’t think he looked “cool” enough, which is a ridiculous thing in and of itself.
It’s like, say you have a dog, a dog that’s been with you for years, you trust it, you love it and you’ve had some great memories with it, then some doucher bursts into your house and replaces your beloved pet with another, slightly worse dog just because the aforementioned doucher declares that your dog isn’t “cool” anymore.
Christ that was a god awful analogy, but you get the idea.
General gaming related questions
14) Which video game companies that you think are full of original ideas for games, and which ones have always recycle previous ideas of making games? Please elaborate on each points for those companies that you listed down.
I think it’s hard to state that any company is full of original ideas, and even harder to actually clarify those points, original ideas are damn hard to come by, but if I were to give it a go, I’d probably say that From Software have always been a very promising company with a lot of original ideas. Demon’s/Dark Souls were both successes in their own right because they’re unique, they’re unforgiving and difficult in a world of games that hold your hand through scripted events.
And it’s not just those games either, they’ve got the Armored Core series under their belts too, though there’s a lot of them, there’s a good deal of originality in the concept purely because that style of game is barely touched upon these days.
Then of course there’s Tenchu and Otogi, the former of which indulging the ninja fantasy, something else that seems to be relatively unseen grounds these days, and the latter of which drawing a great deal from Japanese mythology and history.
As far as I’m concerned, From have proven time and time again to have a lot of unique and well crafted ideas to draw from. I’ve got more games developed by them than I initially realised and I cannot think of one I didn’t immediately fall in love with, be it because of the story, the aesthetic design, the characters, anything.
15) Which video game companies are currently successful, and which ones are in danger of being bankrupt or being closed down? Please elaborate on each points for those companies that you listed down.
Also hard to say really, not sure that I can think of any developers off the top of my head that are in any real danger of failing at the moment purely because the vast majority of them have franchises they can fall back on to pull them out of any trouble.
The only developers that face any sort of risk these days are the independent developers, or the ones signed with publishers that are working on new IPs. 38 Studios comes to mind actually, developers of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. While it looks like it could be a promising game, whether or not it actually does well could either seal their fate before they’ve even really gotten started, or secure themselves a grand position in the industry.
16) Why does PlayStation 3 system have always the short end of stick when it comes to multi-platform games, such as screen tearing, etc?
I recall Gabe Newell, CEO of Valve, saying something along the lines of the PS3 being inherently difficult to code for because of the complexity of the architecture and I believe there’s some truth to that. The PS3 processes differently and the architecture used, Cell, takes a lot more effort and development time to adequately develop for compared to the 360.
Ideally, if a multi-plat console game is being created, the lead development platform should be the PS3, because if it works well on the PS3, then it’ll work well on the 360 as well, but I believe a lot of the technical issues PS3 suffers in games simply comes from laziness or time constraints on the part of the developer. Developing for the 360 is significantly easier, it takes less effort and less time to make a game work acceptably on the 360, but because a game works on the 360, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll work on the PS3. Again, architectural differences and all that, developing with what is provably inferior hardware as the lead platform isn’t going to bode well for the platform that works differently.
17) Does the PlayStation 3 system have potential to become one of the best game consoles?
Quite possibly, but I doubt it’ll ever see that stage because once again, laziness and time constraints make developing with the 360 in mind a much more attractive prospect because it’s a hell of a lot less time consuming and laborious than developing for the PS3.
18) Which video game companies do you think have the potential in making next generation consoles that are capable in playing more advanced games?
Assuming we’re talking developers, DICE probably. Lately they’ve been pushing the letter incredibly far in where their hardware’s concerned, with the Frostbite 2 engine being able to pull off some quite frankly amazing things. If there’s any dev that could pull off releasing a next gen console and making advanced games to work with it, DICE would definitely be the one to pull it off.
19) Some multi-platform games such as L.A. Noire and Final Fantasy XIII for PS3 only requires one Blu-ray disc, whereas the Xbox 360 version requires 3 dual layered DVDs. What factors can cause the game to require more discs on a game console?
That’s easy, disc space. Blu-ray discs simply have more storage space than DVDs, what could fill up a Blu-ray disc would take several DVDs to accomplish.
20) Does exclusive games can actually be bug-free and void of technical issues?
No game is ever bug free or void of technical issues, doesn’t matter if it’s exclusive or not. Why do you think games get patched so much these days? The majority of patches for games are bug fixes because it’s an actual impossibility to release a flawlessly working game.
21) Piracy of video games is a rage everywhere, such as people play pirated Xbox 360 games on their modded Xbox 360. What do you think about this?
Well, I understand why a lot of people pirate games, I don’t do it myself because I prefer having physical copies of games, but I get the reasoning behind it. Being burned by a £40 game that ended up sucking, developers and publishers putting in increasingly restrictive DRM that hurts the consumers more than the pirates themselves, shady business practices in general...The list goes on.
I understand all the reasons for it, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely do not think that excuses people from pirating, not at all, but I get it, all these things usually come as a direct result of the publisher’s actions anyway, and honestly, I find it harder and harder to sympathise with publishers who take in hundreds of millions each year complaining that piracy is ruining their income, when they’re actively harming legitimate consumers with their business practices.
Again, referring to a quote from Gabe Newell, piracy is a service problem, people are being offered a better, no risk service for games by pirates than by publishers. I genuinely think that if publishers want to attempt to curb the issue of piracy, then they’ve got to start improving the way they treat their consumers. When you treat your primary consumer base like scum with things like intrusive DRM, BS downloadable content practices and the like, how can anyone really be surprised when people then choose to opt for the service where they can get games with no risk for absolutely free?
22) Porting a game from one console to another is popular thing done by developers to allow more potential customers to play their product. Does the process of porting games to another console may encounter any problems?
Well naturally, console ports are usually notoriously problematic for PCs in terms of performance issues, optimisation in general and especially bugs, Saints Row 2 and GTA IV being prime examples of this, but for consoles? Well yeah, that’s also an issue, looks at the PS3 version of Bayonetta, almost unplayable because of frame rate drops and the like.
It relates back to the earlier questions about the PS3, where I said that it’s simply harder to code for because of the architecture. Lead development is usually done on 360 for time/money/laziness reasons and again, just because a game works on 360, does not mean it’ll work on PS3.
23) Western made games and Japanese made games have very different ideology and styles that can set them apart from each other despite the same genre. What do you love and hate about both Western made games and Japanese made games?
You’re really laying on these tough questions aren’t you?
Hmm, I’ll try to answer this without sounding hilariously weeaboo, but I tend to find that the Japanese made games, particularly where RPGs are concerned, have a more involving storyline/better character development, even if clichés are drawn from, but then, what genre doesn’t draw on clichés? Western games...I dunno, I guess in that regard I’m tired of how “safe” Western developers have been playing in regards to making games lately, sticking with tried and true formulas and never really changing much up, there’s not a great deal of innovation to be found in the Western market at the moment, but when you look to the Eastern market, companies like From etc bring that in droves.
I think generally, I prefer the work ethic of Japanese/Eastern games in general, there seems to be more incentive to come up with something new and interesting.
24) What do you think about the culture of gaming currently?
Well, that’s an odd one, because there’s a lot of elements of the culture I despise, particularly where fanboys/girls and the console wars are concerned. There’s far too much elitism surrounding so many things within our culture that to the outsiders/uninitiated, it can really put people off, my thoughts on the culture in its current state? If things keep going like they are, it’s really going to do damage for our image.
Gaming culture isn’t exactly newcomer friendly when you get into the community side of things, the side where people still see the Wii as a sort of baby’s first console, where people berate and chastise you purely on the basis of the platform you game on...I don’t know, I’m not a fan of the current state of gaming culture and I think people really need to start changing their attitudes if we’re to be taken seriously.
25) Let's say SOPA bill is initiated, what do you think it will affect to the world of gaming?
Well I’ve already spewed my opinion on SOPA/PIPA/ACTA/everything of the like pretty much ad nauseam, so I’ll summarise.
SOPA and anything like it are a dangerous thing, not just to the internet, but to gaming as well. So many of the more innovative projects, the brand new IPs and so forth rely on a free and open internet to actually come to fruition. Look at things like Minecraft, Super Meat Boy, Jamestown and my two personal favourite indies of 2011, Bastion and Frozen Synapse.
Do you really think that any of those games would have been able to exist if SOPA/PIPA/ACTA were in place? If the internet were regulated in such a severe manner? Hell no, someone would claim copyright violation just because they could, those games would have ceased to exist and that’s the biggest threat that the gaming industry faces in regards to those bills, they serve no other purpose than to stifle creativity, because who wants to buy Generic Modern Shooty Gun Fest #10342085 as £40/$60/insert standard game price here when we can just go looking for innovative indie product at £10 a pop?
26) Have you any intentions to expose gaming to your future children?
Hell yes, why wouldn’t I? I’ve been gaming for most of my life and it’s a passion for me, why wouldn’t I want my children to experience the same joy that it’s brought me for the majority of my years?
27) Which video game company would you like to work with, and what video game project you will do if you are taking the position as the Game Director of the project for that company?
DICE most likely. I’d tell EA where to shove it and then actually get to work on making a Battlefield game that genuinely caters to the original Battlefield audience in a reasonable development time, rather than what EA did in asking them to make some titanic super game to rival CoD in a year.
28) Companies like Sony have their own first party developer studios like Naughty Dog, Guerilla Games, etc, and there are companies that employ third party developer studios such as EA hiring BioWare to develop Mass Effect games. Does the developer studios gain any profit from the total sales of video games?
Well I’d imagine so otherwise there’d be no way for them to continue existing.
29) A lot of games as of lately have two main playing modes, which are single-player mode and multiplayer mode. Is it better for developers to develop games that have both modes, or develop games that have singleplayer mode or multiplayer mode exclusively?
This is a topic I could write pages upon pages on, but I’ll keep it brief. Developing a game that has both multiplayer and singleplayer is fine, absolutely fine, but only so long as both the multiplayer and singleplayer elements receive the same amount of development time and the same amount of care and attention. If you’re making a primarily singleplayer game and just decide to tack on a multiplayer in the hopes of catching people that play MP games, don’t bother, because it’ll just make your game worse.
The same goes for primarily multiplayer games (Looking at you, Battlefield) tacking on a frankly unnecessary and poorly done singleplayer. In those games, no one’s looking for the SP content, we’re all here for the multiplayer, so do what you do best and don’t just half ass both aspects.
30) Certain games have been detected to have a lot of bugs and glitches that render the game to be almost unplayable, such as Fallout 3, Bayonetta (PS3), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS3), etc. Does the developer actually did not test the games for bugs and glitches, or are they rushed to finish the games to meet the deadline for launch without any testing?
Again, this links back to what I said about the PS3’s architecture. Because the hardware works differently, games that function fine on the 360 may not function fine on the PS3. I firmly believe the PS3 should be lead platform in anything that ends up being multiplat in that regard because it’s been proven that if a game works well on the PS3, it’ll work well on the 360.
I think time constraints are the biggest issue, publishers really crack down on developers to get games out by stupidly strict deadlines and so not enough time is given to test games before release to see if they’re fully functional.
In regards to Fallout 3, that one’s just Bethesda being Bethesda and doing an awful job of making well programmed games, but Skyrim? Yeah, that’s just unacceptable where the PS3’s concerned, letting a game go literally unplayable after a certain amount of time and barely bothering to address the issue is disgusting practice.
Many thanks to Angelo Credo for participating in the interview.
Steve - http://devilmaycry.org/community/threads/interview-with-steve-founder-of-dmc-org.10205/
Angel - http://devilmaycry.org/community/threads/interview-with-angel-wife-of-the-founder-of-dmc-org.10216/
Dark Drakan - http://devilmaycry.org/community/threads/interview-with-dark-drakan-wiseman-of-dmc-org.10233/
Tony_Redgrave - http://devilmaycry.org/community/threads/interview-with-tony_redgrave-executioner-of-dmc-org.10240/
Site related questions
1) What is your role as a moderator in this site?
As you’d expect really, handling reports, thread clean ups, moving them if they’re in the wrong sections, closing if need be, as well as dishing out warnings and bans if/when it’s required.
2) Can you ban a member in this forum?
S’pose I accidentally answered that in the last question, yes, I’m able to ban forum members, though it’s never something to be taken lightly, I’m not exactly a fan of doing it because usually the verbal/official warnings work well enough, but obviously there are times when those simply don’t work, in which case, the banhammer comes out.
3) When did you become a moderator?
13th of March, 2009. So nearly 3 years ago now, and no, I don’t just so happen to have that date etched into my memory, I just never clear out my message inbox, so the message I got asking if I wanted the position is still sitting in there.
4) Is your moderator job relatively easy to do or is it the opposite of it?
I’d say it sits somewhere in the middle, while the mechanics of it all aren’t in the least bit difficult, the hard part actually comes from making decent judgement calls about what actions to take where warnings/bans are concerned, though we all usually discuss things to a reasonable length before jumping straight onto the ban wagon.
5) Are you enjoying your job as a moderator?
Like I’ve always said, I enjoy moderating this forum because I’ve had a lot of good times here, both as a mod and before I became one, and it’s good to feel like I can give something back in some sort of meaningful way to a place that made me some good friends. So yeah, I definitely enjoy my job here.
Devil May Cry series related questions
6) Have you played any Devil May Cry games?
Yup, I have indeed, played them all from start to finish, several times over.
7) How did you know Devil May Cry series at first?
If I recall right, I first came across it after spending some time at a friend’s house quite some time ago, he told me his dad had bought him this awesome new game and that I should come round and try it out. That was the very first Devil May Cry game and I fell in love with it more or less the second I picked up the controller, spent the night at his house and we pretty much played that game solidly until the early hours of the morning, where neither of us could even keep our eyes open.
8) Which Devil May Cry game is your favourite?
DMC3 by far, got it for my 13th birthday and had a hell of a time with it, after being somewhat disappointed by DMC2, 3 absolutely renewed my passion for the series. Brilliant game, and it’s the one I’m most looking forward to playing when the HD collection comes out.
9) Which characters that you like in DMC series?
Dante, naturally, but Vergil stands as a constant favourite, I always thought he was a pretty well developed character, not just evil for the sake of being evil, but actually having motivations that are fairly relatable. Oh yeah, and that coat’s pretty awesome too.
10) What features in DMC series that you like the most?
Well, fast paced combat has always been something I’ve had quite a thing for in my games, DMC is a shining example of how to do quick, fluid and stylish combat absolutely right and I adore the series for that.
11) What things that you actually hate in DMC series?
Things I hate? That’s a tough one really, there’s never been anything that’s been present in the entire series that made me sit there and think “Hang on, this is absolutely bloody awful”, however, DMC4 was probably the most insulting of the series for absolutely crap game design. By that of course, I’m referring to the obnoxious forced backtracking of levels you’re made to do as Dante, it was just such laughably lazy game design and it really disappointed me.
Oh, and the bloody dice game, whoever thought THAT was a good idea deserves a solid beating.
12) What do you think of the controversial reboot of Devil May Cry series, DmC: Devil May Cry?
There was a time when I was vehemently against everything the new reboot stood for, especially where redesigning Dante is concerned, but I’m gonna be honest, it’s gotten to the stage now where I actually could not care less about it. It’s going to happen whether I like it or not and there’s nothing that can be done to radically change any of the design choices put in place this late in the game.
So I suppose really, I’m extremely indifferent in regards to the whole thing these days.
13) Are DMC fans outburst on the new Dante's design is justified?
Well yeah, I’d say so, and for a good reason too. NT redesigned a beloved character and turned Dante into something he was never meant to be just because they didn’t think he looked “cool” enough, which is a ridiculous thing in and of itself.
It’s like, say you have a dog, a dog that’s been with you for years, you trust it, you love it and you’ve had some great memories with it, then some doucher bursts into your house and replaces your beloved pet with another, slightly worse dog just because the aforementioned doucher declares that your dog isn’t “cool” anymore.
Christ that was a god awful analogy, but you get the idea.
General gaming related questions
14) Which video game companies that you think are full of original ideas for games, and which ones have always recycle previous ideas of making games? Please elaborate on each points for those companies that you listed down.
I think it’s hard to state that any company is full of original ideas, and even harder to actually clarify those points, original ideas are damn hard to come by, but if I were to give it a go, I’d probably say that From Software have always been a very promising company with a lot of original ideas. Demon’s/Dark Souls were both successes in their own right because they’re unique, they’re unforgiving and difficult in a world of games that hold your hand through scripted events.
And it’s not just those games either, they’ve got the Armored Core series under their belts too, though there’s a lot of them, there’s a good deal of originality in the concept purely because that style of game is barely touched upon these days.
Then of course there’s Tenchu and Otogi, the former of which indulging the ninja fantasy, something else that seems to be relatively unseen grounds these days, and the latter of which drawing a great deal from Japanese mythology and history.
As far as I’m concerned, From have proven time and time again to have a lot of unique and well crafted ideas to draw from. I’ve got more games developed by them than I initially realised and I cannot think of one I didn’t immediately fall in love with, be it because of the story, the aesthetic design, the characters, anything.
15) Which video game companies are currently successful, and which ones are in danger of being bankrupt or being closed down? Please elaborate on each points for those companies that you listed down.
Also hard to say really, not sure that I can think of any developers off the top of my head that are in any real danger of failing at the moment purely because the vast majority of them have franchises they can fall back on to pull them out of any trouble.
The only developers that face any sort of risk these days are the independent developers, or the ones signed with publishers that are working on new IPs. 38 Studios comes to mind actually, developers of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. While it looks like it could be a promising game, whether or not it actually does well could either seal their fate before they’ve even really gotten started, or secure themselves a grand position in the industry.
16) Why does PlayStation 3 system have always the short end of stick when it comes to multi-platform games, such as screen tearing, etc?
I recall Gabe Newell, CEO of Valve, saying something along the lines of the PS3 being inherently difficult to code for because of the complexity of the architecture and I believe there’s some truth to that. The PS3 processes differently and the architecture used, Cell, takes a lot more effort and development time to adequately develop for compared to the 360.
Ideally, if a multi-plat console game is being created, the lead development platform should be the PS3, because if it works well on the PS3, then it’ll work well on the 360 as well, but I believe a lot of the technical issues PS3 suffers in games simply comes from laziness or time constraints on the part of the developer. Developing for the 360 is significantly easier, it takes less effort and less time to make a game work acceptably on the 360, but because a game works on the 360, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll work on the PS3. Again, architectural differences and all that, developing with what is provably inferior hardware as the lead platform isn’t going to bode well for the platform that works differently.
17) Does the PlayStation 3 system have potential to become one of the best game consoles?
Quite possibly, but I doubt it’ll ever see that stage because once again, laziness and time constraints make developing with the 360 in mind a much more attractive prospect because it’s a hell of a lot less time consuming and laborious than developing for the PS3.
18) Which video game companies do you think have the potential in making next generation consoles that are capable in playing more advanced games?
Assuming we’re talking developers, DICE probably. Lately they’ve been pushing the letter incredibly far in where their hardware’s concerned, with the Frostbite 2 engine being able to pull off some quite frankly amazing things. If there’s any dev that could pull off releasing a next gen console and making advanced games to work with it, DICE would definitely be the one to pull it off.
19) Some multi-platform games such as L.A. Noire and Final Fantasy XIII for PS3 only requires one Blu-ray disc, whereas the Xbox 360 version requires 3 dual layered DVDs. What factors can cause the game to require more discs on a game console?
That’s easy, disc space. Blu-ray discs simply have more storage space than DVDs, what could fill up a Blu-ray disc would take several DVDs to accomplish.
20) Does exclusive games can actually be bug-free and void of technical issues?
No game is ever bug free or void of technical issues, doesn’t matter if it’s exclusive or not. Why do you think games get patched so much these days? The majority of patches for games are bug fixes because it’s an actual impossibility to release a flawlessly working game.
21) Piracy of video games is a rage everywhere, such as people play pirated Xbox 360 games on their modded Xbox 360. What do you think about this?
Well, I understand why a lot of people pirate games, I don’t do it myself because I prefer having physical copies of games, but I get the reasoning behind it. Being burned by a £40 game that ended up sucking, developers and publishers putting in increasingly restrictive DRM that hurts the consumers more than the pirates themselves, shady business practices in general...The list goes on.
I understand all the reasons for it, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely do not think that excuses people from pirating, not at all, but I get it, all these things usually come as a direct result of the publisher’s actions anyway, and honestly, I find it harder and harder to sympathise with publishers who take in hundreds of millions each year complaining that piracy is ruining their income, when they’re actively harming legitimate consumers with their business practices.
Again, referring to a quote from Gabe Newell, piracy is a service problem, people are being offered a better, no risk service for games by pirates than by publishers. I genuinely think that if publishers want to attempt to curb the issue of piracy, then they’ve got to start improving the way they treat their consumers. When you treat your primary consumer base like scum with things like intrusive DRM, BS downloadable content practices and the like, how can anyone really be surprised when people then choose to opt for the service where they can get games with no risk for absolutely free?
22) Porting a game from one console to another is popular thing done by developers to allow more potential customers to play their product. Does the process of porting games to another console may encounter any problems?
Well naturally, console ports are usually notoriously problematic for PCs in terms of performance issues, optimisation in general and especially bugs, Saints Row 2 and GTA IV being prime examples of this, but for consoles? Well yeah, that’s also an issue, looks at the PS3 version of Bayonetta, almost unplayable because of frame rate drops and the like.
It relates back to the earlier questions about the PS3, where I said that it’s simply harder to code for because of the architecture. Lead development is usually done on 360 for time/money/laziness reasons and again, just because a game works on 360, does not mean it’ll work on PS3.
23) Western made games and Japanese made games have very different ideology and styles that can set them apart from each other despite the same genre. What do you love and hate about both Western made games and Japanese made games?
You’re really laying on these tough questions aren’t you?
Hmm, I’ll try to answer this without sounding hilariously weeaboo, but I tend to find that the Japanese made games, particularly where RPGs are concerned, have a more involving storyline/better character development, even if clichés are drawn from, but then, what genre doesn’t draw on clichés? Western games...I dunno, I guess in that regard I’m tired of how “safe” Western developers have been playing in regards to making games lately, sticking with tried and true formulas and never really changing much up, there’s not a great deal of innovation to be found in the Western market at the moment, but when you look to the Eastern market, companies like From etc bring that in droves.
I think generally, I prefer the work ethic of Japanese/Eastern games in general, there seems to be more incentive to come up with something new and interesting.
24) What do you think about the culture of gaming currently?
Well, that’s an odd one, because there’s a lot of elements of the culture I despise, particularly where fanboys/girls and the console wars are concerned. There’s far too much elitism surrounding so many things within our culture that to the outsiders/uninitiated, it can really put people off, my thoughts on the culture in its current state? If things keep going like they are, it’s really going to do damage for our image.
Gaming culture isn’t exactly newcomer friendly when you get into the community side of things, the side where people still see the Wii as a sort of baby’s first console, where people berate and chastise you purely on the basis of the platform you game on...I don’t know, I’m not a fan of the current state of gaming culture and I think people really need to start changing their attitudes if we’re to be taken seriously.
25) Let's say SOPA bill is initiated, what do you think it will affect to the world of gaming?
Well I’ve already spewed my opinion on SOPA/PIPA/ACTA/everything of the like pretty much ad nauseam, so I’ll summarise.
SOPA and anything like it are a dangerous thing, not just to the internet, but to gaming as well. So many of the more innovative projects, the brand new IPs and so forth rely on a free and open internet to actually come to fruition. Look at things like Minecraft, Super Meat Boy, Jamestown and my two personal favourite indies of 2011, Bastion and Frozen Synapse.
Do you really think that any of those games would have been able to exist if SOPA/PIPA/ACTA were in place? If the internet were regulated in such a severe manner? Hell no, someone would claim copyright violation just because they could, those games would have ceased to exist and that’s the biggest threat that the gaming industry faces in regards to those bills, they serve no other purpose than to stifle creativity, because who wants to buy Generic Modern Shooty Gun Fest #10342085 as £40/$60/insert standard game price here when we can just go looking for innovative indie product at £10 a pop?
26) Have you any intentions to expose gaming to your future children?
Hell yes, why wouldn’t I? I’ve been gaming for most of my life and it’s a passion for me, why wouldn’t I want my children to experience the same joy that it’s brought me for the majority of my years?
27) Which video game company would you like to work with, and what video game project you will do if you are taking the position as the Game Director of the project for that company?
DICE most likely. I’d tell EA where to shove it and then actually get to work on making a Battlefield game that genuinely caters to the original Battlefield audience in a reasonable development time, rather than what EA did in asking them to make some titanic super game to rival CoD in a year.
28) Companies like Sony have their own first party developer studios like Naughty Dog, Guerilla Games, etc, and there are companies that employ third party developer studios such as EA hiring BioWare to develop Mass Effect games. Does the developer studios gain any profit from the total sales of video games?
Well I’d imagine so otherwise there’d be no way for them to continue existing.
29) A lot of games as of lately have two main playing modes, which are single-player mode and multiplayer mode. Is it better for developers to develop games that have both modes, or develop games that have singleplayer mode or multiplayer mode exclusively?
This is a topic I could write pages upon pages on, but I’ll keep it brief. Developing a game that has both multiplayer and singleplayer is fine, absolutely fine, but only so long as both the multiplayer and singleplayer elements receive the same amount of development time and the same amount of care and attention. If you’re making a primarily singleplayer game and just decide to tack on a multiplayer in the hopes of catching people that play MP games, don’t bother, because it’ll just make your game worse.
The same goes for primarily multiplayer games (Looking at you, Battlefield) tacking on a frankly unnecessary and poorly done singleplayer. In those games, no one’s looking for the SP content, we’re all here for the multiplayer, so do what you do best and don’t just half ass both aspects.
30) Certain games have been detected to have a lot of bugs and glitches that render the game to be almost unplayable, such as Fallout 3, Bayonetta (PS3), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS3), etc. Does the developer actually did not test the games for bugs and glitches, or are they rushed to finish the games to meet the deadline for launch without any testing?
Again, this links back to what I said about the PS3’s architecture. Because the hardware works differently, games that function fine on the 360 may not function fine on the PS3. I firmly believe the PS3 should be lead platform in anything that ends up being multiplat in that regard because it’s been proven that if a game works well on the PS3, it’ll work well on the 360.
I think time constraints are the biggest issue, publishers really crack down on developers to get games out by stupidly strict deadlines and so not enough time is given to test games before release to see if they’re fully functional.
In regards to Fallout 3, that one’s just Bethesda being Bethesda and doing an awful job of making well programmed games, but Skyrim? Yeah, that’s just unacceptable where the PS3’s concerned, letting a game go literally unplayable after a certain amount of time and barely bothering to address the issue is disgusting practice.
Many thanks to Angelo Credo for participating in the interview.
Steve - http://devilmaycry.org/community/threads/interview-with-steve-founder-of-dmc-org.10205/
Angel - http://devilmaycry.org/community/threads/interview-with-angel-wife-of-the-founder-of-dmc-org.10216/
Dark Drakan - http://devilmaycry.org/community/threads/interview-with-dark-drakan-wiseman-of-dmc-org.10233/
Tony_Redgrave - http://devilmaycry.org/community/threads/interview-with-tony_redgrave-executioner-of-dmc-org.10240/