pseudocognition
Jan 16 2009, 08:46 PM
If you all have so many objections to the characters and their costumes, go design better ones, come up with a more interesting story, then go beg a company for millions of dollars to MAYBE try and make a game that won't get canned before it sees the light of day and, regardless of how many years and dollars you invested, suffers the insults of ignorant fools on forums. Oh, and this is in the middle of a global recession.
It is NOT an easy process, NO ONE on the team is making brainless decisions, and Nomura must be doing something right because he's still around. Maybe he's a great guy to work with/for, despite his belt fetish, who knows. It's not like everybody has to worship the game, just respect that:
A handful of people are working their asses off to catch even a sliver of your interest.
Do you know how many versions of a character any team goes through until they find the RIGHT one? It can be hundreds. Imagine one or two people slaving away over a sketchbook for days (because deadlines are obscenely tight in the video game industry) until they get together with the rest of the development team only to hear that they still haven't quite found it. And that the dev team wants fifty more ideas on their desk the next morning, so the artists can't go home that night. On top of that, revise the ten characters they've already approved. Oh, and they need a bug-free playable demo by March. And the fans are expecting new footage for this weekend's game show. And a key part of the team has to leave for the day for an interview, so god forbid you have any questions. Oh and we have to have this entire thing done by the end of 2009 when it has taken us five or more years to get to the point we're at now. But that's not good enough for the NA, Europe, and PAL regions! They want it in time for Christmas, too!
NEXT POINT. Deep, multifaceted characters don't work in video games because you can't summarize them in a sentence or two. Try putting Holden Caulfield in a video game. Every move the player makes would contradict his nature. You can't become someone with that much depth. Some personalities are just easier to communicate. And when you have a game with multiple characters, unless you're Hideo Kojima or are guarenteed funding for a billion (related) sequels, you can't spare that much time developing all of them. So, yes, some characters are limited to being "smooth-talking-metro-euro-han-solo Gunner" or "happy-go-lucky-pubescent-kleptomaniac-ninja." Are they charming? Usually. Are they memorable? Yes. Why are they memorable? Because they're annoying/perky/emo/violent/perverted/simple/moving/sexy etc. etc. and they are CERTAINLY better and more interesting than all of the furry animu shit that all of these DeviantArt "pros" keep spewing. The next time I see a 12 year old who wants to "make characters," I will tell that 12 year old to shove that sketchbook up their ass because that's how much pain it takes to succeed at all in the industry, much less be credited by name for character design like Nomura is in EVERY GAME.
It costs around 15 million dollars to make your average PlayStation 3 game.
Square-Enix probably spends a lot more, because they use a lot more people who are more experienced and therefore recieve a higher salary. It costs more to hire people who KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING. Because overall, only 5% of all video games make a profit.
SQUARE-ENIX APOLOGIZES FOR NOT ADDRESSING YOUR INDIVIDUAL NEEDS.
It is NOT an easy process, NO ONE on the team is making brainless decisions, and Nomura must be doing something right because he's still around. Maybe he's a great guy to work with/for, despite his belt fetish, who knows. It's not like everybody has to worship the game, just respect that:
A handful of people are working their asses off to catch even a sliver of your interest.
Do you know how many versions of a character any team goes through until they find the RIGHT one? It can be hundreds. Imagine one or two people slaving away over a sketchbook for days (because deadlines are obscenely tight in the video game industry) until they get together with the rest of the development team only to hear that they still haven't quite found it. And that the dev team wants fifty more ideas on their desk the next morning, so the artists can't go home that night. On top of that, revise the ten characters they've already approved. Oh, and they need a bug-free playable demo by March. And the fans are expecting new footage for this weekend's game show. And a key part of the team has to leave for the day for an interview, so god forbid you have any questions. Oh and we have to have this entire thing done by the end of 2009 when it has taken us five or more years to get to the point we're at now. But that's not good enough for the NA, Europe, and PAL regions! They want it in time for Christmas, too!
NEXT POINT. Deep, multifaceted characters don't work in video games because you can't summarize them in a sentence or two. Try putting Holden Caulfield in a video game. Every move the player makes would contradict his nature. You can't become someone with that much depth. Some personalities are just easier to communicate. And when you have a game with multiple characters, unless you're Hideo Kojima or are guarenteed funding for a billion (related) sequels, you can't spare that much time developing all of them. So, yes, some characters are limited to being "smooth-talking-metro-euro-han-solo Gunner" or "happy-go-lucky-pubescent-kleptomaniac-ninja." Are they charming? Usually. Are they memorable? Yes. Why are they memorable? Because they're annoying/perky/emo/violent/perverted/simple/moving/sexy etc. etc. and they are CERTAINLY better and more interesting than all of the furry animu shit that all of these DeviantArt "pros" keep spewing. The next time I see a 12 year old who wants to "make characters," I will tell that 12 year old to shove that sketchbook up their ass because that's how much pain it takes to succeed at all in the industry, much less be credited by name for character design like Nomura is in EVERY GAME.
It costs around 15 million dollars to make your average PlayStation 3 game.
Square-Enix probably spends a lot more, because they use a lot more people who are more experienced and therefore recieve a higher salary. It costs more to hire people who KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING. Because overall, only 5% of all video games make a profit.
SQUARE-ENIX APOLOGIZES FOR NOT ADDRESSING YOUR INDIVIDUAL NEEDS.