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Trent Reznor pitched a game(and his thoughts on the industry today)

Odrion

Banned
^^^ Just got that, HAH!

Trent Reznor, regardless of what you think of his music, is the coolest musician ever.
 

Ranger X

Member
As usual Trent Reznor is right.

And of course he knows the hell what's going on out there. He's not a bullshit artist. I think many people are having some bad images of him from The Downward Spiral times or something and it's stuck in their mind.

Trent Reznor simply is an impressive person. And he's not only "vision", he actually pull off stuff.

.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Listened to the whole thing. Trent is smart, interesting, and totally in touch with reality. Respect +100.
 

SpacLock

Member
Trent Reznor is the man! My friend has one of his dad's heaters in his garage which makes it 10 times cooler in there.
 

birdman

Member
SpacLock said:
Trent Reznor is the man! My friend has one of his dad's heaters in his garage which makes it 10 times cooler in there.

He's better return that shit. Sounds like a faulty heater.
 

kaskade

Member
This thread was posted on Kotaku. Anyway, yeah I just linked to the part where he talks but if you care about music even a little you should definitely watch the whole thing.
 

RSTEIN

Comics, serious business!
I remember those days... 200 mhz PC rockin Quake with NIN in the CD tray. 56K bitches!
 

DangerStepp

Member
EviLore said:
Listened to the whole thing. Trent is smart, interesting, and totally in touch with reality. Respect +100.

Definitely.

I'm not the biggest NIN fan, but he's nothing short of a genius. I've always respected his work.
 

jenov4

Member
I still have my Quake CD with the NIN soundtrack. Actually, I think that was one of the first CD rom based games I bought. Trent rules.
 

RSTEIN

Comics, serious business!
jenov4 said:
I still have my Quake CD with the NIN soundtrack. Actually, I think that was one of the first CD rom based games I bought. Trent rules.

I remember buying the big ass PC Gamer with the Q symbol on the cover. Reading and consuming everything I could about the game. I begged my mom to take me to the mall to buy it. I even starting my own clan. I was quite young so my parents were a bit concerned why I was communicating with people much older than me over the "Internet."
 
Now if Trent could only start making good music again. Everything from PHM to The Fragile was awesome. From there on out? Not so much. So, if he could pitch a game that was as great to play as say anything from the span of music I mentioned that I liked? Oh man, that'd be a great game.
 
DiatribeEQ said:
Now if Trent could only start making good music again. Everything from PHM to The Fragile was awesome. From there on out? Not so much. So, if he could pitch a game that was as great to play as say anything from the span of music I mentioned that I liked? Oh man, that'd be a great game.
Year Zero is a pretty amazing concept album. It's not something I could listen to that often though.

The Slip has some damn good songs, but it's not so much an album, as just a collection of tracks.
 

Ollie Pooch

In a perfect world, we'd all be homersexual
DiatribeEQ said:
Now if Trent could only start making good music again. Everything from PHM to The Fragile was awesome. From there on out? Not so much. So, if he could pitch a game that was as great to play as say anything from the span of music I mentioned that I liked? Oh man, that'd be a great game.

think i've burned myself out on the spiral/fragile for a while... after hearing the newer stuff the fragile sounds bloated and overproduced and sluggish.

i love his newer material, particularly Ghosts. and the first 6 tracks of the slip are awesome.
 

BuzzJive

Member
It's great that he mentions WiiWare. I like to imagine him and the guys from Jane's Addiction sitting around after shows with a Wii playing some Target Toss Pro: Bags...
 
DiatribeEQ said:
Now if Trent could only start making good music again. Everything from PHM to The Fragile was awesome. From there on out? Not so much. So, if he could pitch a game that was as great to play as say anything from the span of music I mentioned that I liked? Oh man, that'd be a great game.

Don't we all - while his more recent stuff isn't bad - it's lost its soul compared to his earlier stuff. The reason:

HEROIN and ALCOHOL FREE. But this is a great thing because musicians across the globe look up to him and he is a genuine dude with amazing ideas and great business sense. He has a passion for music many musicians lack. I still can't believe how amazing the EP/bonus album (paired with NIN's first live album) is, entitled STILL. I suggest anyone with an appreciation for music somehow listen to this album. It is the defining period in his timeline I believe. All the pain and sorrow he was feeling when he wrote those tracks really prove this man is a powerful musician, and knows exactly how to translate it to music.
 
gantz85 said:
More than N'Gai Croal, IMO, who sounds intelligent but I almost feel like he's bullshitting like someone would do while in college.

If Reznor appeared on a gaming podcast I would lap it all up.

Glad i'm not the only one who feels that way about N'Gai.

But yeah, Reznor obviously knows his stuff.
 

rpmurphy

Member
Trent along with Rob Sheridan had a huge interview with Joystiq, talking about the video game industry, his game development ambitions, his thoughts on gaming, etc.: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/24/interview-trent-reznor/

A lot of great stuff to read.

Here are some good quotes, but I recommend reading the whole interview:
Trent: Rob and I have some things on the side that we've been working on and one of the things we've been talking about doing is publishing or developing video games. A few years ago we took that idea to a few of the main publishers, Midway, Activision, etc. And as first time people in a pitch meeting, it was kind of depressing. Depressing to see that the people in control of those studios and publishers are much the same as the people sitting at record companies.

In a record company, they aren't musicians or people who love music, they're people who want to sell plastic discs. They think they have a formula where if they can eliminate the artist from that equation, even better. You see that in the case of the Pussycat Dolls and some of the other fabricated crap that's out there. What we tended to notice in the video game meetings was that it didn't seem that there were gamers there. It's business guys who want to turn the company into a profit making machine. They look at it in terms of numbers, like a Hollywood studio. If it costs "X" amount to make a game, to compete, then it has to be a proven franchise or it has to be similar enough to something they know is going to sell. They don't want to take the risk.

Trent: Me and Rob are both big Nintendo fans for a number of reasons. Nintendo approaches gaming from a prospective where Super Mario Bros. is still a classic and doesn't look dated. Look at any game on the PlayStation 1 that tries to exceed past the terrible 3D graphics, with their look alike, sound alike franchise attempts.

With Nintendo, there's this kind of aesthetic that they bring to their in-house games that makes them feel like art. Where they aren't trying to be something else, where they have their own place and are just what they are. I've talked with Rob about this, about why that kind of game is cool, has a timelessness to it and isn't trying to be more than what it is. If I were going to make a video game today I would not put in rendered, 3D characters that try to look human. You know, where when they talk their lips are out of sync and have this weird aliased thing going on. There's that Shadow Complex game, which does looks cool. Every cut scene has the eyes rendered pretty well, but there's that terrible voice acting and the characters look like Fembots.

Trent: The strength of motion controllers will be if there's a killer app that makes a person go, "Fuck yeah, all right!" That's always what it comes down to. I'm glad there's innovation in that field and maybe something great will come of it, but I'm not holding my breath that the technology will redefine gaming.

Rob: There's a difference between praising the Wii as an important step and saying that motion controls are the greatest thing in the world. What was great about the Wii is that it proved that they could do something that goes back to having just pure fun, that opens up the doors to people like my mom playing. This is something the fanboys cry about, "But who cares?" Those casual gamers aren't playing Halo, they aren't bothering you in your deathmatches. The Wii is just opening up the medium to so many more people using simple, pure fun. Something that original arcade games were all about. That doesn't mean it's the future necessarily, it just means that Nintendo found a tool to open the door to others and it could go a million different ways from there.
 

batbeg

Member
Great interview. The guys absolutely seem to have a sensibility I can relate to, and I'll be there to support them if they ever do break into the game industry.
 

Fersis

It is illegal to Tag Fish in Tag Fishing Sanctuaries by law 38.36 of the GAF Wildlife Act
Trent said:
"Madden: This Year."
:lol

Damn, Reznor gets it. I agree with every single statement he makes.
 

Oni Jazar

Member
rpmurphy said:
Trent along with Rob Sheridan had a huge interview with Joystiq, talking about the video game industry, his game development ambitions, his thoughts on gaming, etc.: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/24/interview-trent-reznor/

A lot of great stuff to read.

Here are some good quotes, but I recommend reading the whole interview:

Thanks for that. Great read!

I'm glad to hear that he's got so much enthusiasm for creating content like the Year Zero ARG. I loved that ARG and I hope one of the secret projects he's working on is the rumored YZ series with HBO.

edit: Also judging by his comments he's not going to love Uncharted 2. :p
 

bengraven

Member
God I love Trent Reznor. I was obsessed with him and his music from the early 90's until early 2000's. The Fragile is my single favorite album of all time.

It's great to see him back and talking for the first time in a very long time.
 

Jonnyram

Member
Trent Reznor's an awesome guy, but I haven't enjoyed his music much after broken/fixed.
Total geek, but then a lot of musicians are. This one just doesn't hide it as much.
 

G.O.O.

Member
Trent: The strength of motion controllers will be if there's a killer app that makes a person go, "Fuck yeah, all right!" That's always what it comes down to. I'm glad there's innovation in that field and maybe something great will come of it, but I'm not holding my breath that the technology will redefine gaming.

Rob: There's a difference between praising the Wii as an important step and saying that motion controls are the greatest thing in the world. What was great about the Wii is that it proved that they could do something that goes back to having just pure fun, that opens up the doors to people like my mom playing. This is something the fanboys cry about, "But who cares?" Those casual gamers aren't playing Halo, they aren't bothering you in your deathmatches. The Wii is just opening up the medium to so many more people using simple, pure fun. Something that original arcade games were all about. That doesn't mean it's the future necessarily, it just means that Nintendo found a tool to open the door to others and it could go a million different ways from there.
Fuck me sideways. I don't know why this argument is so rare.
 
rpmurphy said:

In a record company, they aren't musicians or people who love music, they're people who want to sell plastic discs. They think they have a formula where if they can eliminate the artist from that equation, even better. You see that in the case of the Pussycat Dolls and some of the other fabricated crap that's out there. Depressing to see that the people in control of those studios and publishers are much the same as the people sitting at record companies.

Great comment. What gets me about gaming communities, from people on forums to the professional websites, is how many people seem to rate games by how serious and businessman like companies are. Like, they need games to be a serious industry like razor blades and napalm manufacturing more than they want to play and enjoy games. Maybe they have mortgages to pay off or something but that sort of attitude is not very attractive.
 

1-D_FTW

Member
More Fun To Compute said:
Great comment. What gets me about gaming communities, from people on forums to the professional websites, is how many people seem to rate games by how serious and businessman like companies are. Like, they need games to be a serious industry like razor blades and napalm manufacturing more than they want to play and enjoy games. Maybe they have mortgages to pay off or something but that sort of attitude is not very attractive.

Some are just fanboys hoping for their company's success. But a lot of people are just commenting how these companies are run by soulless suits and they're reflecting on that fact.

Plus, people get excited about sales numbers because if a great game gets terrific sales, it's good for the gamer. It's very difficult for great games to be produced in a system that's stacked against greatness. So when individuals are able to do it, and it results in huge sales, it's a win-win for everyone. The suits are more likely to greenlight further projects when there's success.
 
In a record company, they aren't musicians or people who love music, they're people who want to sell plastic discs. They think they have a formula where if they can eliminate the artist from that equation, even better. You see that in the case of the Pussycat Dolls and some of the other fabricated crap that's out there. Depressing to see that the people in control of those studios and publishers are much the same as the people sitting at record companies.
OK, much respect to Reznor --he's talented and has all kinds of good music to his name-- but selling a lot of plastic discs is the difference between playing at dirty little clubs in Cleveland and going on a world tour. If he isn't a master of niche marketing, I don't know who is.

The industry definitely needs auteurs, but wasn't there a lot of thought and art infused into Call of Duty 4? OK, so it sold millions of copies and it's sometimes unpopular to say you love it, but the majority of gamers love it. Does that make Activision bad somehow, for marketing a good game from a good developer and reaping a huge profit? Aren't the real "independents" the people that can make their art in whatever fashion they choose because they have the money to do it?
 

gkryhewy

Member
Wow, Trent is positively glowing about Nintendo:

Trent: Me and Rob are both big Nintendo fans for a number of reasons. Nintendo approaches gaming from a prospective where Super Mario Bros. is still a classic and doesn't look dated. Look at any game on the PlayStation 1 that tries to exceed past the terrible 3D graphics, with their look alike, sound alike franchise attempts.

With Nintendo, there's this kind of aesthetic that they bring to their in-house games that makes them feel like art. Where they aren't trying to be something else, where they have their own place and are just what they are. I've talked with Rob about this, about why that kind of game is cool, has a timelessness to it and isn't trying to be more than what it is. If I were going to make a video game today I would not put in rendered, 3D characters that try to look human. You know, where when they talk their lips are out of sync and have this weird aliased thing going on. There's that Shadow Complex game, which does looks cool. Every cut scene has the eyes rendered pretty well, but there's that terrible voice acting and the characters look like Fembots.

Rob: The characters usually look better stylized in a way where it lends itself to the media as opposed to trying to look like the latest 3D-animated movie, which can create things super-realistically. When it's done only half way ... well, it's just kind of weird.

Trent: How that applies to Nintendo, and I'm not saying they haven't fucked up a few times too, but they have this sense of here's this game, we're aware of the limitations, but we're going to make the game great with taste and integrity. Being honest, I'm not a huge fan of Sony. Their entire strategy behind the PlayStation is to focus on gaming as an experience last and getting a Blu-ray player in your living room comes first. Now, three years later they're trying to release a motion controller that's a little bit better than the Wii's.
 

batbeg

Member
DeuceMojo said:
OK, much respect to Reznor --he's talented and has all kinds of good music to his name-- but selling a lot of plastic discs is the difference between playing at dirty little clubs in Cleveland and going on a world tour. If he isn't a master of niche marketing, I don't know who is.

The industry definitely needs auteurs, but wasn't there a lot of thought and art infused into Call of Duty 4? OK, so it sold millions of copies and it's sometimes unpopular to say you love it, but the majority of gamers love it. Does that make Activision bad somehow, for marketing a good game from a good developer and reaping a huge profit? Aren't the real "independents" the people that can make their art in whatever fashion they choose because they have the money to do it?

He's referring specifically to the publishers, and I'd say not referencing the developers at all here. For your point of CoD4 - would you say Bobby Kotick is the artist? No, Infinity Ward are. Bobby is just trying to sell the plastic discs, and is commisioning IW to do what they can within the restraints he places on them.
 

Kai Dracon

Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
G.O.O. said:
Fuck me sideways. I don't know why this argument is so rare.

1. Fanboys are insecure and can't stop freaking out over the idea of "grandma" playing thar video games and whining about being "betrayed" by Nintendo, who is the new Judas of gaming.

2. Game developers and pubs are jumping on the bandwagon, hoping to directly compete with or one-up Nintendo, and thus throwing a scare into gamers with bullshit like Natal. It makes the gaming public think that everything is going to be "perverted" into the exact shape and form of the Wii and all games will be Wii Sports and Wii Fit.

With all this chaff in the air it's not surprising most people cannot make a clear-eyed analysis of WTF is really going on.

Hell, even Nintendo will not sit and let "everything be Wii Sports and Wii Fit" as gamers see it. They're interested in making bridge games - Mario Kart Wii is the number one example of that - and moving upwards as people come on-board with the Wii. (Though if they stay smart about it, they won't abandon good-for-everyone entry level games again and make sure there's always a selection of AAA games aimed squarely at the always evolving expanded market.)
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
DeuceMojo said:
OK, much respect to Reznor --he's talented and has all kinds of good music to his name-- but selling a lot of plastic discs is the difference between playing at dirty little clubs in Cleveland and going on a world tour. If he isn't a master of niche marketing, I don't know who is.

The industry definitely needs auteurs, but wasn't there a lot of thought and art infused into Call of Duty 4? OK, so it sold millions of copies and it's sometimes unpopular to say you love it, but the majority of gamers love it. Does that make Activision bad somehow, for marketing a good game from a good developer and reaping a huge profit? Aren't the real "independents" the people that can make their art in whatever fashion they choose because they have the money to do it?

What makes Activision bad is increasing the price of MW2. Sometimes publishers work with the developer, but other times they're just focused on making money. Not that it's a bad thing to want to make profit, to put food on the table, but in many instances creativity of all kinds can be damaged.

There's always some guy, somewhere, with a ton of control over the project who has no interst in how good it plays, looks, or feels. He's only interested in his paycheck.
 

FartOfWar

Banned
batbeg said:
Great interview. The guys absolutely seem to have a sensibility I can relate to, and I'll be there to support them if they ever do break into the game industry.
Trent's responses or the interview as a whole? We talking about the video linked in the first post? I felt like I was watching the Chris Farley Show. "Yeah. Wolf 3D was cool!"
 

batbeg

Member
FartOfWar said:
Trent's responses or the interview as a whole? We talking about the video linked in the first post? I felt like I was watching the Chris Farley Show. "Yeah. Wolf 3D was cool!"

Talking about the new interview a few posts up, man.
 

Monroeski

Unconfirmed Member
You know, I totally understand why people don't like "soulless suits" running game companies, but I don't understand why people don't get why that happens or feel like it's an amazing travesty.

I mean, really, when I used to work at a hotel it wasn't because I have a burning desire to provide lodging to business travellers, it was because the hours worked for me and I require money to survive. When my friends in college went off to work for Sprint or Nextel it wasn't because their passion in life is cell phone providers, it's because those companies were hiring MIS majors.

Many, I might even say most, people work at companies whose product or service they are not totally gung-ho for. CEOs, CFOs, and executives in general are quite often where they are because they are good businessmen. Their passion is managing companies, working out financing deals, the prestige of having your company's name on a blockbuster product, etc. If they do it in an industry they love, that's great, but if it's somewhere else, so be it. I would bet most people in this thread don't work for companies they totally love and support, either. Hell, judging from a lot of the threads I see most people around here hate their jobs and the company they work for and wish they were doing something else.

I love when the head of the company making games is a gamer, too. It is great when you know they are committed from the top down to creating a game that people will love and that they themselves want to play. However, that doesn't mean I think we should demonize other people when their priorities are different. I mean, hell, they're still selling a shitload of copies of their games, derivative overpriced crap or not, so obviously they're providing a lot of people out there with what they really want to buy.
 
Monroeski said:
You know, I totally understand why people don't like "soulless suits" running game companies, but I don't understand why people don't get why that happens or feel like it's an amazing travesty.

I mean, really, when I used to work at a hotel it wasn't because I have a burning desire to provide lodging to business travellers, it was because the hours worked for me and I require money to survive. When my friends in college went off to work for Sprint or Nextel it wasn't because their passion in life is cell phone providers, it's because those companies were hiring MIS majors.

Many, I might even say most, people work at companies whose product or service they are not totally gung-ho for. CEOs, CFOs, and executives in general are quite often where they are because they are good businessmen. Their passion is managing companies, working out financing deals, the prestige of having your company's name on a blockbuster product, etc. If they do it in an industry they love, that's great, but if it's somewhere else, so be it. I would bet most people in this thread don't work for companies they totally love and support, either. Hell, judging from a lot of the threads I see most people around here hate their jobs and the company they work for and wish they were doing something else.

I love when the head of the company making games is a gamer, too. It is great when you know they are committed from the top down to creating a game that people will love and that they themselves want to play. However, that doesn't mean I think we should demonize other people when their priorities are different. I mean, hell, they're still selling a shitload of copies of their games, derivative overpriced crap or not, so obviously they're providing a lot of people out there with what they really want to buy.
I think generally people just don't like businesspeople. They're kinda on the "Lawyer List".
 
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