Whole New Door

Innovation by Carrot

"Creative free rein is so vague and unquantifiable that it's impossible to put in a contract, so there's no good way to hold a publisher to it ... [and] any publisher who starts feeling as if the project is running off the rails ... is going to clamp down, promise or no promise."

You can't translate creative freedom to legalese, and a gentlemen's agreement won't cut it. The only hope is to mutually develop the parameters of the independence in advance and codify them as best as possible. Doubtless there will be many false starts. But witness passing evidence that larger publishers - even ones ridiculed for their obsession with franchise IP - are seeing the light when it comes to the fact that trustworthy developers with creative autonomy tend to turn out some pretty amazing games.

As to Adams' second point, it's less a problem of publishers clamping down on a troubled project; it's their eagerness to do so. If development is going badly awry, the publisher should step in and snap the leash. GSC Game World's S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl actually turned out pretty well, but THQ had to slam the lid - hard - on a project that had long since lost direction. Turning the screws on GSC was the right thing to do, since the alternative might mean the game never would have shipped. I can't fault a publisher for monitoring and protecting its investment and the allowance of creative freedom shouldn't negate that right.

But publishers must recognize the difference between acting to protect an asset and acting so rashly that premature interference derails the project. A proven studio should have earned clemency, should be allowed time to right itself before the publisher intervenes. That right there is the biggest flaw in the model. Adams voices the practical concerns regarding the codification of "creative freedom" rather pragmatically: "I think we're better off struggling for all the creative freedom we can get on every project, rather than accepting an iron fist now in the hopes of lenient treatment later."

Adams isn't being a curmudgeon; he's being a realist. His views are those of a longtime industry player whose experience has made him cautious. Plenty of developers probably view an incentive-based model as hopelessly optimistic, as far too trusting of entities that repeatedly demonstrate untrustworthiness. There can be no argument that developers should struggle for maximum freedom on every project, no matter what. This should never change, and publishers need to recognize that. The thought process behind this model isn't about developers trading away all their freedoms for some mysterious future boon, it's about publishers hedging their bets and improving games by supporting validated properties as well as innovative ideas.

Bluntly, it's about finally recognizing that creative latitude means better games, and better games mean bigger sales.