Power of Laughter

In response to “Footprints” from The Escapist Forum: Let me just say, that this issue of the Escapist has been great. They say you always learn the most from people’s failures, but it’s rare that you hear about the ones that didn’t quite make it. For those of us with industry experience, we can all learn something from each of these stories.

– stevesan

I did work experience in the QA dept. of Mucky Foot in October ’01.

The Video Game BAFTAs were the same week I was there, and Startopia was nominated (although something like Max Payne or Deus Ex won). I remember some mention of troubles with Eidos, mainly stemming from the fact they did a pretty lousy job publicising Startopia.

They will, to me especially, be missed.

– Baron Crumbly

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In response to “Resisting the Next Generation” from The Escapist Forum: The basic reason why programmers hate change is because it forces them to stop doing what they like doing (writing code that does something) and go back to jumping through hoops imposed by the quirks of new libraries and new hardware. Typically every single layer in a software/hardware stack has badly designed bits in it if not outright bugs. Trying to code under such conditions is an exercise in frustration, particularly if you’re working under managers who aren’t themselves coders.
So no, not resistant to change as such. For proof you need look no further than which technologies programmers dabble with in their spare time!

– Dom Camus

that gave a new look on gaming! suddenly im feeling rather sorry for the programmers who create the games I play… i do tend to be rather critical when reviewing games… all that effort to learn new CPU programs and whatnot to make a game, and then people like me go off and dismiss it as rubbish… feeling a bit guilty now…

– Simalacrum

In response to “Cyberpunked” from The Escapist Forum: As one of the people who watched Black9’s progress in the gaming press and then wonder why it suddenly stopped appearing, it is both sad and relieving to hear the real story. As someone whose life as a gamer was irrevocably enriched by Deus Ex, I have little doubt that Black9 would have been of similar caliber. Is there truly no chance of the IP being resurrected?

– ugen999

If you look around, you can find on the internet the tabletop version of the game that we did as part of the promo/marketing effort. As we were closing in, it was something Erik commissioned from Steve Perrin, and I worked with him on collating all of the world info and building it into a tabletop game. He finished it, and it was actually tested at a few game cons to favorable results. So the IP at least survives in that form.
The ideas from the game made enough of an impression on me that I am building my own cyberpunk IP around them, but it isn’t Black9. For the game specifically, even the game story, at this point it would have to be wholly redone to compete with other modern games… and putting the IP, which was part of the contestation point of the lawsuit, onto modern technology is too much of a Pandora’s Box. Majesco would probably leave it alone, but if it got too successful, they might be financially obligated to try to get a stake in it. All of this means it’s highly unlikely anyone would touch it. And to be honest I don’t think any of the original creators is interested in revisiting the past. It was just too painful. I still have a hard time looking at the damn game. I know Erik feels the same way. So it’s easier just to move on, try again, build new things with the soul of the old ones rather than trying to resurrect the dead.

– Erin Hoffman

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In response to “Inside David Jaffe’s Heartland” from The Escapist Forum: A good article but I’m also saddened that you are happy to now be just a Michael Bay of video games, not just because I think Mr Bay should take a long walk off a short plank (I can never forgive him for turning Transformers into Dawson’s Creek with robots) but because in these days of tired franchises and the thousandth sequel there are so few people who actually seem to be trying to push the industry forward and tackle issues outside of what is normally considered videogame ‘fodder.’

– Drong