“There is no places for writers in our industry.”
This article irritated me. This article made me feel better.
I mean, I get what Maxwell is trying to say, even with all the grammar errors. It is true that gameplay should trump story in our medium, because many people will play a great game with a mediocre story while few will tolerate the reverse. But claiming that writers aren’t worth the trouble is stupid. Like any specialist, they just need to be utilized effectively.
I could write a similar sensationalized piece (with fewer grammar errors, cuz that’s how I roll) arguing that sound engineers are useless because you can make a super fun game using only stock sound effects, and therefore time spent on fancy audio is wasted. But I’d be ignorant for doing so, because anyone with a modicum of insight realizes that spending the time creating professional audio for your game is going to make it so much richer and more memorable.
As ever, a lot of this stuff is a matter of degree and is at least somewhat dependent upon the type of game one is trying to create. But to make a broad generalization that writers aren’t useful in game development is, frankly, an ignorant thing to do. I think the rebuttal piece illustrates the many flaws in the original argument and hopefully helps relegate it to the dustbin.
I dunno, he seem to write good to me.
Anyway, as I said on Nerfbat, I’ve always gotten the impression that designers and writers tend to be one and the same when it comes to MMOs.
Too often they are seen interchangeably, I agree. But the fact is, the emphasis is different. It’s possible for a designer to be great at scripting events or populating zones without being a very eloquent writer. The reverse is also true, where one person may be great at writing but weak in some aspects of design.
As in any profession, people should be used according to their strengths. A team’s leadership needs to recognize those strengths and assign tasks accordingly. That’s not to say that people shouldn’t be encouraged to grow or move beyond their comfort zone, but it should be done in a way that gives the opportunity to succeed rather than fall flat.
I do think MMO’s need good writers, but i can kinda see were he is coming from. The majority of players rarly stop to even read most quest now. If the story is just text like it is now, i don’t think most players will stop long enough to read, or have the story told to them.
Now if the story is given in a cut scean or if instead of a NPC just standing there telling you, stuff happens when the story is being told, i think more people would read it.
Moorgard used to click through my dialog boxes without reading them. He made me sad.
But that’s okay. I clicked through his quests, too. Nyah!
I appreciate being a writer more now that I have. I had always felt that “anyone” could write, but now that it’s all I do, I realize how difficult it can be.
[...] entertainment software industry. Ron Toland offers a rebuttal. Ryan Shwayder comments, followed by Steve Danuser and Aaron Miller. I don’t have a lot to say on the subject except that striking out writers [...]