Dopass.com

In the past I've asked why we can't make hits in the industry. Why we don't take risks. I act like it's a big mystery, but you know what? It's not. That's a lie. I know why. It has nothing to do with a lack of innovation, nothing to do with risk-averse publishers - those are both just symptoms of the problem.

The real problem is far, far worse.

Let's look at a famous quote from President Kennedy:
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

If you replaced "go to the moon in this decade" with "work hard and produce something truly different on this project" that would apply to the industry - only we don't have our Kennedy. As an industry I often feel like no one wants to work hard. No one wants to accept that challenge. We do NOT choose to go to the moon or do the other things, not in this decade or in the last. We ARE willing to postpone the challenge and we do NOT intend to win.

It's sad. It's US - it's laziness or complacency or maybe it's just that we've lost our passion for games and now are just in it for the money. The problem is not a dearth of innovation, it's a dearth of passion, plain and simple.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard developers say, "That's too hard" or "that will take too much work to do" or "That's not enough bang for our buck." They aren't saying these phrases about outlandish things, they're saying them about things like mail in an MMO, or auction houses, or books you can read, or physics based puzzles. They're saying them about things like supporting non-linear gameplay, exploration or living worlds. They're saying them about things the hit games have all had for years.

The next time you play an FPS and say, "Why isn't this as good as Half-life 2?" or play an MMO and say, "Why didn't they realize potential?" remember this blog, because this is why - people don't want to work any harder than they have to and this industry hasn't yet realized it's reached the limits of what it can do at this level of effort. We need to work harder if we're going to produce higher quality work. It's really that simple.

Take Risks. Choose to do this and the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge should be one we are willing to accept, we should be unwilling to postpone and one which we should intend to win, and the others too.

- Snipehunter