Stan Lee: Game development is a 'miracle'

by Justin McElroy on Sep 28th 2009 4:30PM

For all our too-cool-for-the-room cynicism about video games, it's refreshing to hear the beautiful innocence of a child's perspective on them. In the absence of a child's perspective, however, we're willing to accept the perspective of an old, old man, which is basically the same thing. Speaking with The Guardian, Stan Lee admitted that we was fundamentally clueless about the mechanics of game making, adding "It's like a miracle."

Let's try something, just for today. Let's try to ape Stan Lee's attitude. Let's try to remember that from the games destined to be classics down to the games made by Destineer, they're all miracles; especially when you consider that 50 years ago, the industry didn't even exist. We're living in the future, friends, and if someone as rich and old as Stan Lee can realize it, we should be able to as well.

Excelsior.

[Image credit: vissago]

Source

Tags: activision, marvel, marvel-ultimate-alliance-2, miracles, stan-lee

Reader Comments (69)

Thanks joystiq, now everything I read is in Stan Lee's voice.

Its not the worst voice I could hear all day...

IT'S THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE!!!
IT'S THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE!!!
IT'S THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE!!!
IT'S THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE!!!
IT'S THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE!!!
(Covers own mouth with hands)

Q U A R A N T I N E

Stan truly is the man!

Well that answers my question. Thanks!

OCELOT

Newsflash: Old guy does't understand complex technology. More at 11.

Well said Mr. McElroy.

Seriously? Am I the only one who thinks this writer came off sounding like an arrogant, condescending jerk? He's Stan The-Freaking-Man Lee!!! I haven't the slightest clue about Justin McElroy's writing credentials, but ask anyone (including the 50 posters above) who Stan Lee is and you'll get a clear response. And, at the risk of sounding incredibly old, what happened to respecting our elders?

"In the absence of a child's perspective, however, we're willing to accept the perspective of an old, old man, which is basically the same thing."

Really? What gives you the right? You should be ashamed of yourself.

@MangaTodd

Yeah, I think it's just you. The perspective comment only meant that the tech of today can wow children, who have virtually no knowledge of how it is achieved, and the elderly who - by and large - also have no knowledge of how it is achieved.

That's not a blanket statement on all elderly people but in my experience anyone over 60 or so treats technology like it's an alien language. So you're getting the perspective of someone who isn't analyzing framerates and resolution and game mechanics but are simply taken aback by what is possible today.

Relax dude.

Have to agree. I was just staying at a friend's who has built himself a custom arcade cabinet w/ a MAME board and it has over 30,000 titles - including all the oldies like the original arcade Night Driver and Space Invaders.

I remember hangin' around the local 7-11 playing Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Mr. Do!, and Punch Out for hours on end. Or Congo Bongo, Popeye, Q-Bert, and Donkey Kong Jr at the mall arcade.

Today's tech just amazes me - and I'm in the industry and see it everyday. Playing Pitfall! at home on the Sears version of the 2600 and now seeing Uncharted 2 is like the realization of my imagination playing the former. I always have to roll my eyes a bit when I hear complaints about pixel count and trivial shit like that. Some kids today have no idea how good they have it.

Now get off my lawn.