The Problem.

 It is so easy to believe in destiny. So easy to believe in true calling. But if you are aspiring writer, who believes that is what you are born for; first thing your Boss will ask you is not how good you are? He will ask you do you know some C++? Can you script? Can you make a texture of rusted old spaceship? Can you draw zebra in vector clipart? My secretary is out today how good are you at suckin... no, bad storyteller. Man would expect from them to be glad I am so passionate about my work. This is what they call Hollywood model.    It is not possible to teach game design or explain it to your boss. It's creative business. Different side of the brain. So that would make logic something different. Something mechanical and cold. Something that can't possible create art. And yet it still does.

If you don't understand this, you never truly understood hackers. They disassemble everything, defining world of electronics from OS to atoms and assemble it back together to do what they want it to do. It is not "pretty". There is nothing poetic about it. But it is assembled perfectly, doing what is not originally built to do.
That's why Starcraft is important. It has no screenwriting of Portal and yet it's  art. It has no visual quality of Braid and yet it's art. It is chess. It is so close to perfection, like Street Fighter II, that still amazes and yet it's primitive and old. Blizzard created everything with lot of testing and hard work. Because they weren't hackers. Version 1.0 was, meh...

How primitive? First games were just one of the many revolutions original hackers started. Created in MIT labs (famous railroad club) in spare time games like Spacewar! had gravity, perfect realtime simulation of our solar system with perfectly recreated night sky. All that on computer advanced like today average electronic watch. That's magic. That is what old consoles aspired to with games like Battlezone and Elite. So question is;

How the frak we forgot and lost that?

Just don't treat me like a cylon agent.

Why would a writer bitch about it? Well, in a long run this direction of development hurt us to. It's relatively easy for a writer or painter to improve Starcraft and Portal when game mechanics are perfect and do storytelling on their own. What the frak am I supposed to do with Legendary, Too Human, Barbie Adventures and most of the crap they publish on Wii. Bad game design needs so much embellishment and storytelling that's easier to write a book. Like in most RPGs with poor game mechanics and 1000 random quests. Or in adventure games where designer put together puzzles from enigmatic magazines then turn to the artist and say; Do your magic.

Well frak you. I am not here to do your job.

Getting characters and dialogs right is hard enough. We shouldn't be game designers. Game designers shouldn't be producers and programmers should have time to master a hardware and create something, allow me to be poet here, magical.

God of War II and Shadow of the Colossus are breath taking with a reason. It took 6-8 years of console life to produce them. Everything after would be as close to art as you can get. Yes, PS2 as digital art museum. So what happened? PlayStation 3. Big black monolith. Of course, there is chance that this generation of consoles would last 15 years. And it will be last generation if Steve Perlman doesn't frak it all up. If you haven't heard; He's the guy on a quest to create long lasting hardware for programmers to master. So they won't have to be ashamed of version 1.0. Games would be as perfect as they can make them. Focus would be on self improvement and making everything better. Not just learning how to make them faster. Excellence not swiftness.

But what about rest of us.

The Primitive Solution

I'm sitting here in a hallway of my collage (Economics if you care) and I think it's all their fault. It is primitive, outdated solution to education. Especially game design. Collage professors can't live with the fact genius is something that cant be manufactured. So they are creating more collage professors. Picasso once said: We are all born artist. Problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. School kill creativity.
Collage student (The Neohuman) doesn't need huge database with all worlds knowledge in his head to do his job. He needs a simulator. Perfect virtual universe with all the rules adjustable and explained. Safe environment for playtesting his ideas. A game that explains all games. All game mechanics. Able to create prototype you wish in seconds and populate it with procedural algorithms. Ultimate game editor. One that ask only one thing from you. Not to spend 4 years learning how to use it. But to be creative. Original. Make games that would be breathtaking. Not replacing what parents call normal life, but giving people unique life experience through games.

Modern and magical solution. Collaborative and compatible. Wiki based and open source. Supported by cloud computed modern engine, witch is perfect.

Suddenly principal scientist could be the most important guy in game industry.

Which make sense.

Because I know the guy.

And he is hacker.