• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Warren Spector: The world didn't need another Wolfenstein. Adolescent male fantasy.

I don't know... Wolfenstein looks pretty dull to me, but it's very much the videogame equivalent of genre fiction, so if you don't like it, you should probably just move along and play something you do enjoy.

And while using the Jimi Hendrix version of All Along The Watchtower is a toe-curling cliche, complaining about his songs being inappropriate for an "adolescent male power fantasy" seems like just as much a rewriting of history as them featuring in a game set during World War 2.
 

Azih

Member
Huh, Cranky old man syndrome.

Gaming is wide enough for a lot of different themes maan.

Does the world really need another Tom Clancy novel?
 

Kusagari

Member
There's a 99% chance the new Wolfenstein will be more fun than anything Spector has made in a decade.

He sounds like a bitter old man.
 
1367278188593.gif
 
I don't think he's criticising the work, but instead the culture that encourages the work.

You're right...he can't criticize the work because he hasn't really seen it yet. It's an old franchise that someone is cashing in on for sure, but the delivery is pretty bad. It comes off as him speaking for the industry, when he absolutely does not.

If he had said something like "It's a shame that they're putting development into this as opposed to something new, would have liked to see something fresh" my opinion would be different.
 
V

Vilix

Unconfirmed Member
In the comments he further backs his opinion up. Seems he is just tired of shooters that don't bring anything new to the industry, yet people get excited and buy them anyways.

Which is why I hope the industry falls flat on its face. Between the FPSs and all but having to pay for a lot of extra stuff that used to unlocked if you actually played the game I'm not excited about anything coming out in the future.
 

Skiesofwonder

Walruses, camels, bears, rabbits, tigers and badgers.
I don't think it was wise to single-out any one game when trying to make this point, and for Wolfenstein fans I am happy that you are getting a new entry in the franchise.

But the dark, mature, FPS stagnation (or dark/mature games in general) is getting extremely old and is quite honestly very bad for the industry. On that front I agree 100% with Spector, no matter what (crappy as of late) games he has developed beforehand.
 

Effect

Member
So for those saying no one has played the game why you think people can't already see how this is going to play out?

All straight FPS play the same. They're all dark and violent. They're all go from A to B, watch cut scene or maybe take part in a quick time event and then repeat. Maybe throw in some melee combat to "spice" things up along with some banter so you don't just hear gun fire the entire time. You kill wave after wave of enemies until you hit the invisible check point. Then stay out of combat a few seconds so health can regenerate.

What about the Riddick game was different that makes people think those assuming the above are wrong and shouldn't voice any opinions now?
 
It's weird how when a developer gives an opinion, that's presumed to be inherently less valid than when any number of posters here say the exact same thing.

Agree or disagree with him; his prior output doesn't give him any less right to speak out about the industry than anybody here has.
 

MDSLKTR

Member
What makes him think his opinion matters? He himself almost destroyed the same franchise that got him relevant in the first place.
 

Oddduck

Member
It's a bummer that if Warren Spector makes a point about something, the thread has to be 80% drive-by posts about Epic Mickey instead.

It's one thing to give your opinion on the problems with the game industry.

But Warren Spector has enough influence over the industry where he can provide a solution to the problem. He's not some kid on a message board.

Epic Mickey games are just as bad as a generic FPS. I don't see how his last few games have made the industry better. If they did, all of those people at Junction Point wouldnt have been laid off.
 
I'm not a big fan of the new Wolfenstein either, but Epic Mickey, Warren. You lose your license to talk trash when you make trash. Twice.

Do people not understand the difference between a game that tried to do something different and fell short of expectations, and a game that's trying to the same thing as dozens of others, such that it doesn't matter how well-executed it may be?

Spector's recent failures to make a mechanically fun game have no bearing on his ability to discuss how finite publisher money is going to samey projects than attempting something new.
 

Risette

A Good Citizen
Do people not understand the difference between a game that tried to do something different and fell short of expectations, and a game that's trying to the same thing as dozens of others, such that it doesn't matter how well-executed it may be?

Spector's recent failures to make a mechanically fun game have no bearing on his ability to discuss how finite publisher money is going to samey projects than attempting something new.
No. Ideas and "tries" are worthless. Only quality of the end result matters.
 

marrec

Banned
You're right...he can't criticize the work because he hasn't really seen it yet. It's an old franchise that someone is cashing in on for sure, but the delivery is pretty bad. It comes off as him speaking for the industry, when he absolutely does not.

If he had said something like "It's a shame that they're putting development into this as opposed to something new, would have liked to see something fresh" my opinion would be different.

The way he said it comes off aggressive and old and bitter, but there's an important point buried under all that.

The question should be: Do we need another Wolfenstein game if it's more of the same type of gameplay? That's a dangerous question to ask though, asking to justify any type of entertainment is kind of a moot point.
 

Kusagari

Member
Do people not understand the difference between a game that tried to do something different and fell short of expectations, and a game that's trying to the same thing as dozens of others, such that it doesn't matter how well-executed it may be?

Spector's recent failures to make a mechanically fun game have no bearing on his ability to discuss how finite publisher money is going to samey projects than attempting something new.

Yes it does. Spector got money to try to make a good, really good, licensed game and he failed twice.

If he wants less samey projects maybe he should have tried not to make two shit games when he got the chance.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Wow, what a dick. Alternate history, Nazi themed FPS aren't exactly common and it sounds like the team is one that knows how to make a good shooter.
 

Sblargh

Banned
The problem is not too much adolescent power male fantasy, it is too little of other kinds.

Do I want more varied games? Yes.

Do I want less giant robot killer nazis? Not really.
 

Marcel

Member
Wow, what a dick. Alternate history, Nazi themed FPS aren't exactly common and it sounds like the team is one that knows how to make a good shooter.

I know you're trying to give yourself an out with the 'alternate history' thing, but come on. Really?
 
The world doesn't "need" anything. Not video games, not 20,000 page David Cage scripts, not horrible boring Mickey Mouse games, not to be told what kind of entertainment to make or consume, fuuuuuuck.
 
Do people not understand the difference between a game that tried to do something different and fell short of expectations, and a game that's trying to the same thing as dozens of others, such that it doesn't matter how well-executed it may be?

Spector's recent failures to make a mechanically fun game have no bearing on his ability to discuss how finite publisher money is going to samey projects than attempting something new.

Innovation doesn't mean a goddamn thing if it's not any good. I'll take a quality shooter about shooting Nazis than an "innovative" game built on not-fun game mechanics any day of the week.
 

Alchemy

Member
He is correct, but he doesn't have the status to get away with a post in that tone. Epic Mickey 1 and 2 more or less prove Spector was just in the right place at the right time for Deus Ex, he doesn't deliver product to product.
 
Top Bottom