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I'm 24. My goal is to be one of the most influential video game designers of this century. I may not be considered the absolute greatest (rankings like that ar
by Jimmy 10y ago
I'm 24.
My goal is to be one of the most influential video game designers of this century. I may not be considered the absolute greatest (rankings like that are very fickle anyway, and never universally agreed upon, even in the sciences). But I do want my works to be considered necessary for any future survey of the major works of this period.
- criddell 10y ago> My goal is to be one of the most influential video game designers of this century. Shouldn't your goal be to make great games? Otherwise, aren't you striving for a goal defined by other people? For goals like yours, politics and personality can matter as much as the work itself. If you are enjoying the journey you are on, then go for it (and I hope you are spending as much time on your social network as you are on games). Otherwise, I'd urge you to consider the opportunity costs of a narrow, intense focus.
- Jimmy 10y ago>Shouldn't your goal to be to make great games? That was an implied sub-goal. The verification criteria I gave was merely to illustrate what the concrete results of my endeavors might look like. If I said flatly "I want to make great games," then someone might reasonably respond "how do you know you're succeeding?" >For goals like yours, politics and personality can matter as much as the work itself. This is quite true. But Paul Graham has a great quote which I think might be applicable here: "Everyone in the sciences secretly believes that mathematicians are smarter than they are... And so there is a great temptation to work on problems you can treat formally, rather than problems that are, say, important."
- criddell 10y ago> That was an implied sub-goal. Being influential and making something great aren't necessarily linked. In music, for example, lots of musicians I adore list Captain Beefheart as an influence. Captain Beefheart never really achieved much commercial success. I don't like his stuff at all. Anyway, I sincerely hope that your work towards making something great is enjoyable or at least doesn't consume all of your time. Life is short and there's more things worth experiencing than we have time for.
- soared 10y agoWell... you talk about video games as if they are a high art. You might be in for more than one wake up call in the near future.
- Jimmy 10y agoOne of my further goals is to disabuse people of notions such as this. As it happens, though, I'm already too late to be the initiator of this sort of cultural shift. Universities like NYU and CMU already offer MFAs in game design. There are conferences and journals dedicated to game studies. So the wheels are already in motion.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- truth_sentinell 10y agoWell... they're certainly much higher that modern abstract art bullshit people buy for thousands
- someone7x 10y agoReminds of this experiment in a subway station where they put a world class violinist with a stradivarius to play some of the most highly regarded violin music. The only person that stopped for this high art performance was one that recognized the musician. The point being that high art can be right in front of us and we may miss it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/pearls-before-breakfast-can-one-of-the-nations-great-musicians-cut-through-the-fog-of-a-dc-rush-hour-lets-find-out/2014/09/23/8a6d46da-4331-11e4-b47c-f5889e061e5f_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/pearls-bef...
- antisthenes 10y agoSorry to break it to you, but the most influential video game designers were born in the 70s. They've made Doom, Baldur's Gate, Fallout 1-2, Everquest, Master of Orion and all the other classics in the 90s and very early 2000s. Most games released today are either donationware (WoT) or completely derivative works (think long running series like CoD or sports games), or survival-game clones like No Man's Sky (and about 500 others) Your best bet would probably be to join Valve and get them to release Episode 3 if you ever want to get any renown and not just endlessly try to push your games on Greenlight. Sorry if this sounded harsh.
- Jimmy 10y agoYou have a very limited conception of what video games are capable of. This is like going up to an aspiring writer in ancient Greece and saying "The Odyssey has already been written, there is nothing more to be done." Not realizing that 2,000 years later, authors like Joyce and Nabokov would still be breaking new ground. Assuming the human race endures long enough, video games are at the very beginning of what is going to be a very long and interesting history.
- antisthenes 10y agoI actually hope you prove me wrong in the most spectacular way possible, because the current games are very stale and derivative. Star Citizen is the only thing on the horizon that shows promise, at least to my personal tastes. Best of luck in your endeavors.
- exelius 10y agoStar Citizen isn't even revolutionary though; it's more or less a modern re-imagining of EVE Online. It'll likely devolve into spreadsheet hell just like EVE -- reality is boring, and most of the real world is tracked in spreadsheets. I do think there is some possibility for innovation in gaming with AR/VR, but I also agree we've probably reached the point of diminishing returns with what we can do with current control schemes (monitor + mouse/keyboard/gamepad).
- icefox 10y agoGot a link to your games?
- Jimmy 10y agoI hope to release my first project in 4-5 months.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- cloverich 10y agoPlease forgive my blunt opinion, but I think you're incorrectly equating your potential with your legacy. Legacy is greatly influenced by achieving your potential, but ultimately outside of your control. It depends on timing, politics, other people, etc. You cannot control whether you will be recognized or not. You can only wake up each day and do your best. It sounds corny but imo its the only sane way to go about achieving your potential.
- Bakary 10y agoAre you more interested in making games themselves or being known as an influential designer in the future?
- astrange 10y agoI hope you've read all of actionbutton.net.