Category Archives: quotes

Yes, This

”There was no evil executive coming in from on high telling us to make the game more lowbrow. The team was not a bunch of sniveling adolescent boys (a couple were, to be honest, but most were of the aforementioned good type). I think instead that the problem was structural— deeply structural to the product itself, at a level where no amount of “smart” versus “dumb” choices can really change things. One of those games centered around shooting aliens with guns and lasers. Another was about navigating an environment and punching people until they died.

The very second you try to wrap actions like those in a “good story” that does not somehow address what happens during the mechanical part of the experience is the second you fail to write a good story.”

– M. Wasteland, “Dumbness in Games, or the Animal as a System“

Stupid Games

“Angry Birds, it seems, is our Tetris: the string of digital prayer beads that our entire culture can twiddle in moments of rapture or anxiety — economic, political or existential.”

– Sam Anderson, “Angry Birds, Farmville and Other Hyperaddictive ‘Stupid Games’“

True Enough

“There is value, though, in the notion of the geek role model. Though many of us have enjoyed uplift to a higher plane of living there are still millions stuck in podunk towns, surrounded by bullies and morons. The Internet is great at letting people know that they’re not alone, but it doesn’t magically transport you to San Francisco or Brooklyn or wherever else all of your people congregate. In cultural wastelands, it is still possible for a geek to feel alone. That’s why geek heritage is important.”

– Gus Mastrapa, “On Being A Geek”

Desperation

“Users hide comfortably behind their computer screens and type the most obnoxiously offensive things they can think of and thirstily WAIT for an angry response; a validation of their modest efforts.“

– Issa, “People On The Internet Can Be Hella Racist“

(PS: Check out “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl“, even if your only reason for doing so is to see how charming, bright and non-awkward people are still liable to feel ‘awkward’)

Meow

“Leigh Alexander has become a central figure in the debate, whether she likes it or not.”

– Smashing stereotypes around women and gaming, CBC News

Performance

“It’s sad to me to think that we’re the entertainment industry, and we’re the most technologically advanced of all the entertainment industries, and yet we seem to be lacking in a social progressivism that matches our technological progressivism.”

– Harmonix’s Matt Boch, Dance Central project director

Sucks

“One of the biggest failings of the videogame industry is that very few people are famous for making games.”

– Gus Mastrapa, Hating on the VGAs is Boring

Tough Act

“As game creators, we put up too much front in our creations and we don’t make ourselves nearly vulnerable enough. I think our audience senses this, and they emotionally withdraw from our games.”

– Richard Lemarchand, Naughty Dog lead designer

Media As Care For Others

“When you really care about what your game is going to do to somebody… if you put that in there, people feel it and they acknowledge it. They appreciate it, because nothing feels better than the feeling that ‘someone else cares what I’ve accomplished.’”

– Jesse Schell, G4C 2011 Closing Keynote

Why I’m Not Into Going

“Genuinely loving games isn’t even enough. You have to love the idea of loving games. You have to listen to music about games and tell jokes about games and dress like characters from games. You must completely obsess over games until you forget how to relate to people in any other way. It’s kind of like being an Evangelical or, worse, a Boston sports fan.”

– Garrett Martin, ‘Paste Goes To PAX East‘

[Today’s Good Song: Crystal Stilts, ‘Shake The Shackles‘]