Fri 14 Dec 2007
By chance, I consumed the following bits pretty much back-to-back (my brain is still churning…):
- Awesomely engaging Lawrence Lessig talk from TED on user generated content (thanks Kim!)
- David Edery’s thoughts on a new approach to licensing IP
- Raph Koster’s big brain dump slides from GDC Prime
- Denis Dyack on the one console future and open standards
UGC * IP = culture remixed!
December 14th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Jason…
Good to see you churning on this stuff too. I’m almost done with a draft of the dissertation, and I’m happy to see folks zeroing in on some of the same issues I have. After three+ years studying the work of video game development and the industry more broadly its nice to see things I’ve found being brought up by others.
One important thing, and I love how poorly these suggestions get read. Open standards does not necessarily mean “one console.” I have been amazed at how the moment you say “open standards” someone is saying, “One console will kill the industry.” We’re talking about some standards which underly all sorts of things. Each console can go above and beyond, but they provide a foundational layer. It’s like saying that HTML standards will mean only one kind of website. Or TCP/IP means only one kind of service. Just because a cell phone supports Brew doesn’t mean that some aren’t better gaming platforms than others. There are extensions. Some have more capabilities. But even those APIs are more open than those of the console market.
I think standards will have a lot to do with the future maturity and stability of the video game industry. Most importantly I think it has dramatic potential to improve QoL, the variety of games, and demographics of the industry. Standards and demographics? This same system disables two things. 1.) Read/Write culture. This means that fewer people are interested in the game industry because we can’t be obvious or forthcoming about what it takes to make games. For the most part people assume game development is editing code by yourself. Developers know better, but they’re not passing that on. Participation is a sure-fire way to become interested, and right now people are limited to consumption. 2.) Institutional learning/memory in the game industry. I spent the last couple of weeks going through Game Developer Magazines back to about 2001 and I was amazed. The same mistakes time and again.
I think having some sort of “reference platform” that consoles could support would be great. Then I would know I don’t have to port X, Y, and Z to that console, just P, Q, and R. All our tools would focus on ensuring X, Y, and Z were all set. We could even *gasp* share those tools more broadly. You mean every developer out there wouldn’t need to write an XML parser that works on the Nintendo DS?
Ultimately, it also prevents all sorts of new people and games from entering the console market. Developers in other countries have significantly difficult times obtaining licenses, developers that I’m sure have good ideas.
Just me rambling.
Best.
Casey