Mainstream gaming is stuck in a rut, according to Deus Ex designer and industry veteran Warren Spector, who called out the AAA space for its “lack of progress.”
Word comes by way of Gamasutra, who quizzed Spector on his return to game development ahead of long-awaited sequel System Shock 3. That’ll involve joining with OtherSide studio, though the designer had some choice words to say about the current state of game design in the industry.
“I can’t believe I’m about to say this–I’ll never work in this industry again–but in the mainstream space I really haven’t seen a whole lot of progress. It seems like we’re getting more finely tuned, prettier versions of games we’ve been playing for years. Thank god for the indie space; there are people trying interesting things there.”
Further in the piece, Spector then pinpointed areas for improvement, claiming that the most prominent is the need for “more robust characters and character AI.” In his eyes, there are a handful of studios working to “extend the design philosophy,” one of which being Dishonored developer Arkane.
“Also, while I’ve seen some efforts, especially from the guys at Arkane, to sort of extend the design philosophy of Origin and Looking Glass — that whole “immersive simulation” and its philosophy of empowering players to tell their own stories. I’d like to go further with that. It’s nice to see more people trying, but I think there’s a ways we could go as well, in terms of empowering players to tell their own stories. Those are the directions I’m going to try to go in. We’ll see if I can pull it off.”
What do our readers think of Warren Spector’s views on mainstream gaming?
[Source: Gamasutra]
