First GDC keynote transcribed for your morning coffee
by Ben Zackheim 
{ Mar 8th 2005 at 9:01AM }
Wonderland has done a wonderful job of laying out one of the keynotes from GDC. The speaker was Raph Koster, who
wrote 'A Theory of Fun'. It's a loose transcript but it does the job of catching Koster's enthusiasm just fine. He
seems to believe that games are a lot more than entertainment. In fact, he thinks they hold the key to solutions to
everyday problems - past, present and future. His conclusion launches GDC with just the right tone:
We have to figure out games that don't have one right answer, and we face our own cognitive challenges here.
Otherwise we know what the fate of games will be: they'll be the thing you stop doing when you're 25 and you get kids.
We'll be missing out on a chance to improve the human condition.
So what I want to see: the games about curing cancer. The games about how do we restructure Florida when it's
under water? That's where we need to go. In the end games stand on their own as the ONLY MEDIUM THAT TEACHES FORMAL
SYSTEMS IN THIS WAY. It is the only communicative medium that does this. It is the only fully experiential method
of learning abstract concepts.
Do yourself a favor and read the whole thing. If you've been falling asleep in the flood of holiday/post-holiday
titles, the speech is like a shot of caffeine.
[via boingboing]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
quadinfinity @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Finally, someone who understands the fundamental scope and effect that games have on all of us. It's far more than GTA or Halo2, it's life and all of its wonders in a digital format. The problem with non-gamers is that since they don't understand it, they condemn it...humankind at its worst. They don't see how GTA can help a parent release his frustration at home rather than leaving his wife and kids, going to the bar and getting wasted. God bless the gamers!
Don Wilson @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
OH GOD HERE HE GOES AGAIN!!
Shut up already, Koster you Twit! More gems of wisdom from the Knob who brought us Star Wars Galaxies - the most OVER hyped, and UNDER delivered pile of garbage ever to be hoisted onto an unsuspecting gaming public.
This idiot just doesn't get it. It's a GAME. It's all about BEING A GAME. And that is a GOOD THING. It's what makes it FUN. Get that through you're thick cranium you drifty hippie.
But no, here we go again... they're aren't just Games. They are about curing cancer, and saving flood zones. There is no one right answer, games are and can be all things to all people - hell they don't even have to be games at all! Everything's out of context as per usual with this flake - heck why not just lets make games your morning cereal, the car you drive, and the birth control you use at night.
More proof positive that Koster's brain got frozen with Austin Powers back in 1969. I'm starting to wonder when the Gaming industry will start to "Get it" the way the New Media has and start booting these ideological relativists.
Games are NOT all things to all people. They are GAMES.
Idiot!!
quadinfinity @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Finally, someone who understands the fundamental scope and effect that games have on all of us. It's far more than GTA or Halo2, it's life and all of its wonders in a digital format. The problem with non-gamers is that since they don't understand it, they condemn it...humankind at its worst. They don't see how GTA can help a parent release his frustration at home rather than leaving his wife and kids, going to the bar and getting wasted. God bless the gamers!
Don Wilson @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Good God I actually read that awful thing. I've never seen anyone use so many words to talk themselves into a circle.
Dumbass.
e t waits @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Dear Number Two,
Do you have a college education? I'm just wondering.
I'm in college right now, again, for a masters in New Media and Epigenetic Art. Basically, I'm not getting my degree in being a 'gamer'... I'm studying the linguistics of gaming. You see, this is the GDC. That stands for Game Developers Conference. These people are game developers as a profession. They're gamers in their spare time. These keynotes are going to speak about the linguistics of new media as a profession and as an art. You're not going to find keynotes titled "The Grav Gun Is So Sweet" or "I Got 60,000 in Tetris Attack Yesterday." These are about ideas on the future of interactive scenarios.
The first thing a student studying New Media or game dev learns is that a game doesn't have to be a game. Games are considered successful based on a quality of interaction. If something has the qualities of a game that doesn't automatically make it a game. Look at point of sale systems used in restaurants, or military training exercises. These are obviously game-like, but they are in no way games. These are systems which serve to reach a real world goal or better the person interacting with them. I think that's more what Mr. Koster was getting at in his speech.
I personally don't care if his games are bad as entertainment. I wouldn't care if they were good either. That's not why I'm a gamer. I play games for the dynamics, the systems, the pattern analysis... the things Mr. Koster spoke of. I've seen him speak and I've read his book; I'm more interested in what he has to say than what products he brings to the table. Games most certainly are all things to all people, at least from my experiences as an artist who works with gaming systems. To say otherwise is... well, it's fairly absurd. You wouldn't tell someone that flour can only be used to make cake when there are obviously thousands of other applications that someone might prefer over a slice of cake.
I recommend reading Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman's book Rules of Play. It's an entry level look at critical thinking in gaming. It'll help you react better to the world's perception of 'games' in the future.
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=9802
One last thing: This keynote was the start of the Serious Games Conference part of GDC. Criticizing a private speech about taking gaming to different levels given at a conference about gaming to different levels with an argument of "a game is just be a game" is... a little moot.
Don Wilson @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Wow, Thank you for being so unbelievably condescending to me!! A flame with a velvet glove. Touche'!
I'm in my mid 30's and have a Master's Degree Elmer. Wake up and smell the slop yer' slingin'. I'm sorry your trapped in the warm and fuzzy world of "Let's Pretend" called College, but there's nothing I can do about it. I am well within my rights to have my own opinion. Just because Koster and his buddies are "Serious" doesn't mean they're "Right".
Unfortunately the Gaming industry, along with the Entertainment industry, and the world of Academia are the last bastions of society that haven't realized the Cold War is over; that Communism and Socialism, and the Ideologically relativistic philiosphies upon which they are based are dead. Kaput. GONE.
Raph Koster still holds sway in that industry the same way Kevin Kostner can release BOMB after BOMB after BOMB at the box office and still get movies made. The industry is isolated, myopic, and self righteous. They can't give you a SOLID reason why they like Koster anymore than they could give you a SOLID reason why they voted for John Kerry.
All Raph Koster ever does is talk himself in circles and spout theory after empty theory. The only stand he ever makes is not to take a stand on anything. To you're average west coast Google loving bespectacled socialist he sounds like GOD incarnate. It's pretty much an intellectual circle jerk all around.
Sure some games are different things to different people - but their still just that. GAMES.
If you don't want to make a game, go make something else.
e t waits @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
"They can't give you a SOLID reason why they like Koster anymore than they could give you a SOLID reason why they voted for John Kerry."
Okay, I made a mistake earlier, this quote makes your trolling quite obvious. I apologize to the editors for fueling you. Still, I hope that someone who takes things seriously (who doesn't troll a video game blog, of all things) will be motivated to check out the Salen & Zimmerman book that relates to this article.
Don Wilson @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Rofl!!
Enjoying the view of that tree? If you haven't noticed there's a WHOLE FOREST BEHIND IT.
WizarDru @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
The more interesting parts of the speech, to me, was where he discusses exactly how games fit into the greater pattern of human behavior, and how many current video games fail for not presenting themselves well.
Doom 3, for example, was something of a major letdown, even as it was a commercial success (though far from the massive commercial success it was expected to be...that would have been Half-life 2 and Halo 2). Why? Because, as Koster points out, it becomes Tic Tac Toe. Note how many reviews of Doom 3 were revised (many apologizing for their earlier rushed oh-so-rosy reviews, hoping to be the first to say "It's brilliant") when it became clear that it was amazingly repetitive, and many people got bored with it. Everyone I know got so bored that they activated god-mode half-way thorugh to get to the end, if they didn't just stop playing altogether.
Koster's point is that games should present new challenges and find multiple ways for the player to solve problems and move through the system, while at the same time not allowing them to grow complacent with the status quo within the game. The trick is that people want to learn patterns (how do I fight a headcrab?) and how to solve/recognize them...but once you've solved them, they lose their entertainment value. Once you've seen your fiftieth Imp in Doom, you're bored by them. The problem with Doom isn't that it uses Imps over and over, but that it uses the Imps the SAME WAY over and over. Compare and contrast with something like Resident Evil 4. You face many of the same types of enemies, but the situations keep changing. Here's a killer villager. Now he's riding at you on a truck. Next time, he's armed with dynamite. The next time, he chasing you on a mine car. The next time, you're on a ski lift, and you have to snipe him with a rifle before he gets to you. The next time, you're inside a giant clockwork or he's pushing a boulder down hill at you. In Doom 3, the Imp is....warping in behind you. Or he's warping in from behind a door that open after you pass it. Or he's warping in when you press a button. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. That's the difference he's talking about. He's advising fellow developers to look for ways to improve their output, and makes a pretty good case for it, IMHO.
Jerrybean @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
"I am well within my rights to have my own opinion."
For someone declairing they have the right to their own opinion, you are certianly intolerant of other peoples opinions. Rather than just disagree, you attack, demean, dismiss, anything BUT address the opinions you disagree with.
http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html
Hmm...
Don Wilson @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Seriously though, this isn't a political attack I'm making, but if you can't see how the philosophies of the people who run the Gaming & Entertainment industry relate to the Free Market in the big picture maybe you need to change your major to Sociology or something.
The Gaming and Entertainment industries are dominated by people of a liberal mindset - this isn't something anybody can deny - and the plain fact is, yes FACT, is that has a direct effect on how they design games. In some cases that's good because Liberals tend to be more flexible and open minded, in others it's bad - because you end up with people like Koster at the help, who are so open minded they are the intellectual equivalent of JELLO.
These guys' monopoly needs to be busted up some imo. They need some fresh air, and fresh ideas. It's done wonders for the News Media - you actually have a choice now as to who you get your news from. If yer' a Lib you watch CNN, if your a Con you watch Fox. But smothering it up with only one viewpoint or another doesn't do ANYBODY any good. The one side gets shut out, and the other becomes what Raph Koster is: Isolated, Self-Congratulatory, and innefectual.
Don Wilson @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
...at the *helm
I type too fast sometimes...
Don Wilson @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
So WizarDru... what you're saying is that the Great Light Koster has shed up on us in this conference is that....
*drumroll*
...games shouldn't be repetative....
*shocking gasp*
Um... and exactly HOW MUCH money doesn't this guy get paid to come up with such sage advice?
No offense but a frikkin' 3 year old could tell you that.
Have fun worshiping at the throne of the Drunken Monkey.
Ben Z. @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Yeah, GDC is def a place for dreamers to dream. A lot of theory is thrown around, some of it good, some of it not so good. Dreaming isn't really a liberal or conservative thing, I have to say (for fear of getting into a political discussion). I know quite a few staunch conservatives who think gaming could help society (medical profession, military, etc). Hey, he got us talking, so it looks like he earned his pay...
WizarDru @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
If that's the only thing you could pull out of his writing or mine, Don, then I'm not sure what more I can say to explain it to you.
A 3 year-old WANTS repetition...that's how they learn. As the father of two, I've seen it in action. If all he was speaking of was making games varied...well, you'd still be missing the point, since so many games simply AREN'T. If it's such an obvious and simple point, then why do so many games fail to grasp it (and by extension, their designers)?
How many games came out last year that were simple rehashes of an existing, not terribly interesting formula? I have no idea if Koster is a loon or not...I certainly have no desire to play SW:G, that's for sure (hell, today's the first day I've heard his name). But his points are valid, IMHO.
His analyses of many of Popcap's games are spot-on for example. When you've reached the 12th temple in Zuma...you've been there, done that. Having 10 less seconds and one more color of marble doesn't make it any more enjoyable. Remember when people did marathon sessions in Asteriods or Pac-man? They'd learned the pattern, and repeated it as often as they could manage as a measure of endurance...but they weren't enjoying the game, by any measure. I think it's safe to say that after 36 hours, they'd had about as much Pac-man as any human could stand.
Video and computer games have grown much more sophisticated, but not necessarily better. For every ambitious game like Morrowind, there's another FPS with nothing new to offer but a couple of different weapons that soon lose their lustre.
Is part of his speech playing to the choir? Sure it is. It's a keynote speech, not an article in the AMA journal. His purpose was to get people talking. Mission accomplished.
Don Wilson @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
As a father of 3 I'll tell you they DON'T want repetition. They get bored just like adults do. A certain amount of repitition is needed but they certainly don't dwell on it - unless their autistic or disabled. Anybody can say what Raph Koster is saying in less time, using smaller words, and shorter sentences. He's a hot air bag. A lot of sound and fury signigying nothing.
I'm not saying games aren't becoming more sophisticated or that some of his points aren't valid. I'm saying his ideas and his status are as much, if not more, the result of belonging to an industry that is to a large degree out of touch with the mainstream of modern social attitudes and ideas. They are trapped in a Liberal Bubble.
Nothing wrong with liberals - but the industry is nearly homogenous. They can't think outside the box they've created for themselves. Any time that happens to anybody of any particular philosophy that's a bad thing. They get slow, soft-headed, and reactionary.
Kosters ideas are nothing new or special, and when it comes right down to it are kind of half-baked. He is rewarded because the industry has trouble seeing outside of ideological limits it's set itself - not because he's a genius. He is at heart an ideological relativist - something the liberal community rewards without questioning. Much the same way reactionary conservatives reward the most inflexible and strident people in the Christian community.
And you can see it in the way he designs games. SWG tries to be all things to all people and winds up being incredibly SHALLOW. Nothing to Nobody in other words. A big pile of digital Mush.
Eric Pobirs @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
This sort of speech is why I've stopped attending so many of these events. These big fluffy, airy theories can usually be reduced to a paragraph that is immediately obvious to anyone who has spent more than an hour of their life thinking about the subject but the lecturer will take an interminably slow stretch of time to tell it his way.
One quick way to know somebody discussing game design theory is full of crap is when they insist that somebody voluntarily playing a game is not having fun. Isn't that amazing? They have this telepathic ability to reach into another person's mind and see if they're enjoying themselves. This is incredibly arrogant. Just because a simple but increasingly difficult game isn't what you would choose to play it is no measure of what who do choose are receiving from the experience.
I find nearly all spectator sports stultifyingly dull but I wouldn't claim for a moment that a dedicated football fan isn't having a great time playing endless league seasons in the latest Madden release. No one game is going to satisfy all audiences. Some enjoy Doom 3 because they really want to just blast a lot of interesting enemies without a lot of thought for how they get from point A to point B. Others want more complexity but how much is enough? Some popular puzzle oriented adventures appear to be nothing more than scams to sell pricey guide books because the puzzles are so obscure that very few people can relate to them.
The nice thing about the open market is that a whole spectrum of interactive choices can be put out there and the consumers allowed to choos for themselves. No one should be surprised that they don't all go for the same stuff.
WizarDru @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
I guess I'm not following you here. What do his social or political leaning have to do with it? And what alternatives are you offering up?
Judging by the current sales figures for computer and video games, if they're out of step with what mainstream America wants, then there must be trillions of dollars in revenue being lost...or maybe they're not as out of step as you think. Mind you, I'm not sure how an industry that owes a large chunk of it's developers to a foreign country would be expected to be in step with a US audience. So I'm assuming you're talking solely about US developers, which is fine, but how does a liberal bias (perceived or otherwise) impact a game like Doom 3? I think you're confusing content with actual gameplay. Devil May Cry 3 being outrageously hard has little to do with social values, and Dante not wearing a shirt nore does killing demons by the truckload, afaict.
I really have no idea how good or bad SWG actually is. I know that it's got roughly some 250,000 active subscribers, which is hardly nothing to nobody. World of Warcraft has obtained a million more subscribers than that, of course, but that hardly makes SWG a failure...just not a runaway hit to boggle the mind.
This sounds more like you have a problem with Koster as a person than the points he has to make.
Don Wilson @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Well you guys can keep trying to pigeon-hole me all you want - uneducated, bigoted, now it's that I've got a personal beef with Koster. It doesn't change the fact that you're missing the big picture. You don't even have to have played SWG to know what I'm talking about - use common sense and read his speech.
We all know that the Entertainment industry is dominated by Liberals - Gaming Industry included. Common sense tells you that Liberals practice ideolocial relativism (moral, cultural, ethical, religious, personal etc.. - if you don't know what this means too bad). Kosters entire speech, and every other opinion he's ever given that I've read, comes totally from this philosophical point of view.
There is no right answer, there is no right or wrong, you can't define anything in concrete terms, any and all ideological constructs are malleable and equal to one another etc.. etc.. etc.. In a word? Navel Gazing. I'm okay, you're okay, we're all okay - even if it's a stinking pile of crap.
All Koster ever does is spout ad infinitum theory, after meaningless theory in light of this point of view as it relates to gaming and the liberals who run the industry lap it up like mana from heaven. It's what they WANT to hear - hell it's not even news anymore, it's a freeking Mantra.
The problem with ideological relativism, and the reason it fails in the real world, is that in the end it's a big G*dd*mned copout. If it's offensive to make any objective observations or value judgements in regards to anything what's the point? There is none. That's why they sit back and play at being nuetral - which invariably winds up coming back to bite them in the ass.
Star Wars Galaxies REEKS of this philosophy. Kosters attitude that everything's destined to wind up in all ways the same in the end led him to take a massive cop out in creating that game. He tried to make it so much like a "Sandbox" that that's all he wound up with. An empty, meaningless game. No content to speak of whatsoever - all under the guise of "Letting the Players create the World".
What a bunch of hippy-drippy horsesh*t.
Get a grip, Don! @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Wow, Don, did Koster kill those three children of yours and that is why you are so angry. Everybody has the right to their opinion, and one of the main ideas of the Game developers conference is to discuss whacky ideas and generally just move the industry forward, right? Nothing wrong with this guy getting a little touchy-feely. Why don't you just go away and kiss the feet of your Bush golden calf.
Don Wilson @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Lol!! I love some of the responses I'm getting. Now on top of being an uneducated bigot with a personal beef with Koster, I'm also a bootlicking conservative minion. Just goes to show how little you peeps DO get to hear from Red America.
Sorry you guys are so sensitive. We're half of the country. Git' used to it! :-D
Don Wilson @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Oh, and incidentally....
--
"Judging by the current sales figures for computer and video games, if they're out of step with what mainstream America wants, then there must be trillions of dollars in revenue being lost..."
--
You aren't convinced? Do I detect Sarcasm? Hmmm... let's see... to give you a parallel from another wing of the entertainment industry... oh... let's say the Movie industry... what was that film? Hmmm... OH YES. I remember now!
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
Good God what'd that movie Gross worldwide? 600 million dollars?
Yes. Oh Yes. I'd definitely agree there's a LOT of revenue being lost in the other areas of the entertainmnet industry, Gaming included.
Don Wilson @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Look, I'm going to try and throw someone a bone here...
...this is directed at any Game Developer reading this. Which there probably are a few since this is the best game blog on the net...
Odds are pretty good that your a Liberal. Nothing wrong with that. Everyone has a job - yours is being a liberal. Now put aside all your ideas regarding morality for a moment. Forget that you hate George Bush. Forget that you hate Pat Robertson. Forget that you think anyone who believes in Religion is "Icky" on some fundamental level...
...clear your mind and think only of the market you're serving...
...think of the vacuums that exist in the market...
...the ways you can beat out the comptetition, drive the economy forward, and make a profit...
...clear your mind...
Why isn't there a seriously kick-ass RPG where the player lives out the life of Abraham, or Moses, or Jesus?
You're telling me that wouldn't SELL? You're telling me that every single Red American (HALF country remember... H A L F) wouldn't think to themselves "Holy Crap!! You mean there's something that is genuinely cool AND good at the same time for my kid to play?!?! Something besides that God Forsaken piece of Sh*t Grand Theft Auto?!?! Halleluhah!!!!"
You afraid of what your bosses might think? You afraid of the Controversy? The likes of which The Passion of the Christ got?
You probably are.
Chicken.
Raph @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Came across this... how interesting.
I don't particularly see ANYTHING political in what I am saying--it's certainly not intended that way; most of it is based on the latest reading in cognitive science and other fields. I most specifically don't see it as being representative of ideological relativism, and I am curious as to how you got there, Don. :)
FWIW, I am not particularly a relativist... from the transcript, was it not clear that I was saying that the dressing does matter, and that we need to be cognizant of how it affects people?
The reason why a game like that wouldn't be likely to get made is that it'd like run into as much opposition as welcome, from exactly the same people... there'd be the questions about whether it's blasphemous, etc. What if it were an RPG where you could play Moses and do things that were not in the Bible, for example? It'd be rather controversial.
That said, I think it is a sad thing that that game is too controversial to make, but GTA isn't, and I agree that is a commentary on our society. :)
Don Wilson @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Raph.
Do you ever stand FOR anything?
Have you noticed that everything in your response is cast in the negative? It's typical of the mental cloud liberals walk around it. Nothings ever anybody's fault and everything is at worst "unfortunate". You can stick yer' head in the sand all you want, it's not gonna stop the sun from comin' up in the morning...
"I don't particularly see ANYTHING political..."
"-it's certainly not intended..."
"I most specifically don't see ..."
"I am not particularly..."
"was it not clear that..."
Try posing your arguments in the POSITIVE instead of taking the copout and trying to play at "Nice-Guy Neutral" all the time. It's the equivalent of a turtle sticking his head in it's shell. It's a cop out.
So's this...
"The reason why a game like that wouldn't be likely to get made is that it'd like run into as much opposition as welcome, from exactly the same people... there'd be the questions about whether it's blasphemous, etc"
Riiiiight.... Like Passion of the Christ didn't run into any of that? Or DeMille's "10 Commandments" back in the 50's? Yer' not talkin' to a twelve year old here Koster.
"That said, I think it is a sad thing that that game is too controversial to make, but GTA isn't"
Roflmao!! Here we go again - it's not Genuinely WRONG that GTA gets pimped around by your industry - it's just "Sad". Awwwww.... I think I'll go pet a Kitty now....
Wow - I'm simply in AWE of how brave the gaming industry is for all the sex and violence in their video games... but... um... you're telling me they're too chickensh*t to take the heat from the conservatives in this country to make decent videogames based on the Bible? You think they might offend these people? Umm... like GTA doesn't?
Well isn't that speeecial. Can you say "Hypocrite"? I knew that you could.
Face it - the Gaming industry faces the same situation Hollywood does. It's dominated by Liberals. The overwhelming majority of the people in power don't WANT to make products that appeal to conservatives because they are against it for personal political reasons; and those who DO want to either have to shut up about it (for fear of losing their careers), or will need to work around the industry altogether and go directly to the Public (the way Mel Gibson did). You have ZERO evidence that there isn't a MARKET for it. There is however PLENTY of evidence that there isn't the WILL to.
I'm not attacking Liberal viewpoints here. But what I am saying is that the industry suffers because they have a near monopoly on it. Anybody who has it too good for too long (regardless of their ideology), without ever facing any serious challenges to their authority, becomes soft-headed, arrogant, and innefectual.