Patreon Q&A #21

Matt Koster Asks
Growing up, I remember the excitement of each new console generation - the promises of only-imagined graphics, unprecedented dreams, and more intricate stories becoming reality (well, sometimes). Looking forward to the new generation later this year, what are your biggest dreams? Biggest fears?

I'll be honest, the next-generation is barely on my radar. It's possible that's because COVID's completely thrown the normal advertising campaign out of whack, but I also think it's because game development is unavoidably more iterative. The jump in consoles used to be far more overt, which is why what's most important about the next-generation isn't so much the technology's ability, but it's optimization.

Games have become so expensive, resource intensive, and time consuming, that the next-gen will hopefully focus on addressing those issues.

The Great Leveler Asks
What series would you like to see make a comeback next gen, and what are some possible changes you'd like to see made to the franchise?

I've mentioned before how much I'd love to bring back old-school Tom Clancy principles in a new Rainbow Six game. Featuring many of the characters from Siege, but putting them in a much more grounded context. One where there's permanent death, human error, and consequences, but with the character exploration and hopefully player empathy, that'd give those mechanics weight.

Burnout would be incredibly with modern destruction tech! And of course, I wanna return to the Milky Way Galaxy in Mass Effect, even have some ideas on how it'd be possible without jumping the shark.

Ferenc Viczmándi Asks
Do you agree with NakeyJakey's assessment that GTA IV aged rather poorly?

I've rewatched Nakey's Red Dead 2 video an embarrassing amount of times, and consider it to be his peak of his work (so far). He put my years of frustration into words. 

I'd go one-step further and argue almost all of Rockstar's games have aged poorly, with a few exceptions. Midnight Club 3's one of them. But the GTA games in-particular are all products of their time, and that likely stems from their "satirical" lens.

Dakota DaCody Piner Asks
Which developer (closed or not) would you want an extensive interview with?

Old-school Bungie, Bioware, Obisidan (Not just because I'm covering Alpha Protocol), Respawn, ID Software, Looking Glass, etc.

Thing is, I'd even be interested in talking to studios whose games I don't care for. For all that I dislike about Crystal Dynamic's approach to the Tomb Raider franchise, I'd want to understand the creators themselves rather than speculate their perspective. When it comes to art, there's always a base amount of respect I hold for those who make something, even if I hate it, because most of us will never create something that takes so much work.

The_Surviv0r Asks
I know your quite a fan of racing games so I wanted to ask your thoughts on how most racing games seemed to have ditch the classic formula of "start slow and move to faster vehicles" that you saw in say GT4 and Forza 3. Do you think it's because of a flaw of that system? I personally miss it but I can't say if it's nostalgia that speaks. 

I started gaming just after that system popularized by Gran Turismo in 1998, was fresh. Lots of racing games lacked proper career modes at the time, let alone something so vast and personal. Now however? That formula is the cliche.

In 1998, we endured driving lawnmowers for two hours because the idea of owning an in-game vehicle was a novelty. Today, we're in a world of Twitter, Netflix, and Amazon. We're used to getting what we want immediately, which is only encouraged by how much easier it is to get into gaming today compared to twenty years ago. Asking the player to endure vehicles they have zero interest in, is the perfect method to send them away.

It's also not beloved by many who did all of that twenty years ago. I must admit, when I boot up an old racing game like Sega GT 2002, I roll my eyes at the formula of buy a slow car, steadily upgrade before buying a faster one, repeat. Because I've driven these games for years, and I'm more than skilled enough to operate a Honda FIT around a track designed for GT Cars. 

The Forza Horizon series had the right idea of evolving the car-collection fantasy and having the player earn them in new/interesting ways.

That's not to say I didn't have fun doing all of that back in the 00's. There is an appreciation in starting small and working your way up, but when even NFS: Heat's progression feels too slow to start, Gran Turismo and all of its copycats feel like crawling through a desert.

Matthew Beazley Asks
The existence of clear moral choice systems has largely died out at this point, burning out in 7th Gen systems. What game do you believe best executed one of these systems?  My vote for this would be Infamous 2. The original Infamous has the same ending regardless of which side you pick, but Infamous 2 has distinct endings that both make sense, depending on which path you lead Cole down. And it does a good job in not making the evil ending feel like a super-dick move, rather making it about taking the "easy" way to solve the ending crisis over the "hard" way. 

I think KOTOR's 1&2 did a pretty great job, mainly in how different the two paths truly were. I understand in Mass Effect it makes sense that even the meanest Shepard would still be in-part humanity's biggest savior. But it was just genuinely cool to see how your character could approach the Star Wars universe.

Infamous 2 has been on my playlist for sometime, especially as I completed and really enjoyed the original game.

Daniel Anugerah Asks
Do you think there's a reason Immersive Sims aren't as popular as Massive open world games? For every Prey/Deus Ex we get there's a bunch of Assassin's Creed/GTA type of world's. Is it harder to market to players, or too difficult for the devs to design?  Thanks, and look forward to the Alpha Protocol vid.

Bit of both. Open World games have a reputation for being buggy, so it's certainly harder to micromanage a game that might be smaller in scale, but contains far more variables. That, and most consumers will play the game once and yes might have a great time with it, but aren't viscerally hit by the variety of an immersive sim. It's typically why graphical fidelity or open-world scale is pursued, it's something that even the most inexperienced gamer can recognize immediately.

Basically, it's harder and longer to make, often comes with sacrifices in fidelity or scale, and the genre's biggest success don't meet the peaks of other genres. Sadly, in-terms of pitching, almost all the odds are stacked against it.

Matthew Bryon Hall Asks
I was wondering how you get your audio to sound so amazing? I'm trying to make my own videos (with help) + I do a bit of voice acting and I keep finding myself sounding younger than I actually am.

Voices will always sound different when heard outside of your own head, but it's very possibly exaggerated your microphone and room setup. I don't know what you have, but if it's a USB Microphone in a normal room, you'll want to isolate your sound or mix the audio. For instance, even on my recent videos, I've got a very subtle bass filter to give more of that AM Radio vibe, and I originally leaned into the effect more with my USB mic, as it had a harder time registering lower tones.

Getting audio right definitely involves equipment, but it's more about experimentation, and finding a process that suits your voice the most.

Finn Clarke Asks
You've stated your opinions on Chaos Theory but what of the other Splinter Cell games? Sorry if it's a bit of a pointless question, I was just curious.

I haven't played Pandora Tomorrow, and only half of the original. One day, I should just sit down with the series and go through them. In-general, I like the Splinter Cell series, but never really had a game that clicked with me to the point of consuming for hours and hours. It's also probably because none of the ones I've played have the character of Thief or MGS3, though if Ubisoft were to break character and make a new one, that grounded style could actually be quite refreshing in a genre whose only alternatives are things like Dishonored.

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