Warren Spector lecture 01 - intro

September 10, 2007: Warren Spector (Intro Lecture)

"I'm teaching a course at the university of Texas, where I've been inviting -- well -- gaming luminaries to talk to me for three hours, from the perspective of, "Hey -- I've known you for 20 years, don't try to con me and let's talk about the stuff that typically doesn't get talked about." It's part of an oral history project -- because we are all still alive. Well, not all of us -- Dani Bunten's gone and a couple of others. But we're getting to the point where the pioneers are not going to be here forever. We need to get it recorded for future generations before it's lost, in the same way that lots of early film history is lost. Gone. Never known. I don't want that to happen to us, as I really believe that videogames are the medium of the 21st century, in the same way that movies and TV were the medium of the 20th century. We have to preserve our history before it's gone." [Warren Spector interview - Rock Paper Shotgun]

source: http://junctionpoint.wordpress.com/2008/03/03/master-class-videos/

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Warren Spector
• lecture
• game
• design

[w4tupmy]

@ageshero Ahh so its all about you, You're a tick is what you are.

[ageshero]

musical game? amazing idea.

[ageshero]

I'm pretty fascinated with making video games, I have basic modeling exposure (and confident it doesn't totally suck) More so than video games, i'm fascinated with telling stories and creating characters. Drawing people in the way that i can say "Hey look, i'm doing it differently than those guys, come over here." I hope to Jesus, i can totally inch my way into this stuff, if not, i rely on comic books and musical composition (another aspect to add to games).

[mizas]

@mizas Sure there is the issue that the publisher probably get 98% of the profits, but that doesn't mean the money isn't there. That's a problem with contracts.

[mizas]

It doesn't matter how many people wrote a game. Everyone who worked on it gets paid. If a game cost $X to make, everyone got paid. Black Ops was estimated to cost ~$30 mil. So it probably actually cost $50-$60. It pulled in $1 billion! So after you subtract the cost of the game they still have a ton of money left over to pay people for their over time work on Black Ops and most likely, several other projects that developer studio is working on.

[WarrenBey]

@mizas What game has made $200 mil? And what game costs $50 mil? You know how many people wrote Counter Strike? 2! You know how many people wrote Team Fortress 2? 3! I've been programming for the past 10 years I'd love to make $25 mil on a game. I know Blizzard and EA devs that don't even make $100k.

[mizas]

Mr. Spector touched on the cost of video games, stating that the industry can't afford to pay overtime. But he never mentioned ROI. If it costs $50 mil to make a game and the game pulls in $200 mil, why can't overtime be paid?