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Geek Culture / Just what kind of designer are you?

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Megaton Cat
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Joined: 24th Aug 2003
Location: Toronto, Canada
Posted: 29th Sep 2003 20:36 Edited at: 29th Sep 2003 20:43
ok this is just an old article i got over at gamasutra that I read long time ago. Wanted to know wat the rest of u guys would chose.
I would say I have to be a Dungeon master.

What Kind Of Designer Are You?

The Drill Sergeant. Listen up, you maggots! Forget whatever you already think that you know about videogames. There's the right way, the wrong way, and the Army way, and you're in the Army now. I'm going to train you, through suffering, to survive in this world my way. My methods will work with the least common denominator; the dumbest, most ignorant grunt on the planet. Brains are of little use here. Follow orders and do what I tell you when I want and where I want, or else.




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The Zen Master. The inner nature of the game is inscrutable. Those who strive to beat the game shall not succeed. Only by surrendering to it do we gain mastery. Understanding is not achieved by logic but by sensation. The game contains mysteries within mysteries. Those who would seek to complete it shall never do so, for in concentrating on achievement, they lose sight of the Buddha nature. Empty your mind.




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The Competitor. You are my opponent and I intend to beat you. I am the game designer, so I hold all the cards. I shall challenge you. I shall humiliate you. I shall frustrate you. I shall play tricks on you and even cheat you if I feel like it. For every obstacle you overcome I will put up a harder one. When you fail I will display text that mocks you. The only way to win my game is to explore it exhaustively by brute force and memorize everything in it. If you are incredibly, incredibly good I will condescend to allow you to enter your initials into a data file and admire them from time to time.


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The God. This is my world. I created it. I am its lord and master. It is beautiful and perfect, because it is mine, mine I tell you! You are a mere puny mortal, and I care nothing for you. You are an interloper in my world, grudgingly tolerated at best. Beware my wrath. I can kill you on a whim.


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The Used Car Salesman. Hey, Ernie - I can call you Ernie, right? - let me tell you about this game. This game is great. It rocks. I'm telling you, nobody has ever seen anything like it. It'll blow you away. The graphics, the music - all totally the best! Everybody who has been to our offices for a preview says so. It's going to make a fortune. The kids'll love it. Check out this pre-rendered video. Isn't that cool? What's that? Oh, you want to play it? Well, tell you the truth, Ernie, we decided not to go with a demo on this thing. It's so totally revolutionary, we don't want to show our hand too early - you understand. No profit in giving away slices. Did you see those awesome loading screens? Our development team is brilliant, I'm tellin' ya.


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The Evangelist. This is a game for members of my religious faith, and it embodies its principles. It is about the ordeals we, God's chosen few, face in the temptations of sin and the opposition of the unenlightened. There are no moral ambiguities here; all decisions are obvious to any but a damned heretic. You have but to follow the tenets of our faith and you shall win the game and enter the kingdom of heaven.


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The Lazy Plagiarist. Well, let's see. We'll do some jumping, I guess. People like jumping. And shooting. And driving. I played a game last week with a sort of blue glowing shield thing that turned red when it got weak. It looked cool, so let's do that. This level doesn't take long enough to solve. Just put in a maze. How do we justify it? Who cares, it's only a game.


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The Artiste. This game is an expression of my creative impulse, my magnum opus. You must stand in awe and admire my handiwork, and of course me as well. Be quiet! I did not make it in order to listen to your opinions. You are my audience; it is for you to look and learn. When I play, I have no need of "instructions" or "tutorials" and I see no reason why you should either. Why must you be so petty-minded, thinking only of yourself? Can you not see my genius?


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The Gamer. I am a gamer and the only people I respect are other gamers. If you're going to win this game, you had better understand gaming conventions. Shoot at everything that moves. Blow up everything that you possibly can blow up. Pick up everything portable. There is spare armor that fits you, and ammunition that fits your weapons, all over the place. You can't be hit by your own ricochets. No matter how much noise you make, no more than four or five guys will ever come to investigate at any one time. It is normal to store explosives inside air conditioning ducts. Injuries don't slow you down and can be healed instantly. It is morally acceptable and in fact imperative to loot the bleeding bodies of the dead. You may be required to jump off cliffs to win this game, but you can do so without any harm. Do not under any circumstances stop to admire the scenery. If you don't already know all this, you cannot possibly win.


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The Engineer. This game is a precisely-crafted, well-tuned machine. Every part has a function. There are no extraneous features here. Story, character, and emotion are nothing but window-dressing. The weenies in the art department may create the images on the screen, but I design the engine and that is all that matters. As the player, it is your job to understand the game's functional elements and learn to master its controls. You will do just fine as long as you comprehend the essential mechanics and don't allow yourself to be distracted by mere surface details.


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The Adolescent. Hey, dude, check out the tits on this babe! Do you notice how they bounce when she runs? There's a cheat code where you can get her to take her bra off, too! You know when you've got the Plasma Destructor in the ballroom on level 6, if you fire at the third guy just as he comes in the doorway, you can get his intestines to hang off the chandeliers. Ha, ha! Was that awesome, or what? I put a lot of stuff like that in there. This game has got music in it from the coolest bands in the Universe, uh, at least they will be for the next three weeks. Wow, that move sucked. Don't you know you have to hit AABACCBCABB before you arm the Nuclear Cheese Grater? You are so lame.


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The Dungeon Master. I created this world as a place for you to play in. I designed its wonders and its terrors, and I am proud of the place I have built. Yet my world is meaningless without your presence. Like the gods of old, I built the world specifically as a place for you to dwell. My interest is not an impersonal one; I am directly concerned with your welfare. I challenge you to achieve, I encourage you when you fail. I lay the traps… but I also provide the clues that the traps are there. As my customer, your entertainment is my responsibility. Sometimes I am your guide, sometimes your opponent, sometimes your mentor. Above all else, it is my role to see to it that you enjoy yourself. If my game does not give you pleasure, then I have failed.


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i would have to say I know quite alot of ppl who would fit in to the "The Lazy Plagiarist" lol

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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 29th Sep 2003 20:59
from that list "the Artiste" i guess...

Ian T
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Posted: 29th Sep 2003 21:49
Dungeon Master or God.

--Mouse: Famous (Avatarless) Fighting Furball
Read It: http://www.angryflower.com/itsits.gif
Learn It: http://www.angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif
M00NSHiNE
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Location: England, UK
Posted: 29th Sep 2003 22:06
Id probably go for dungeon master.

"It's amazin' what you can do with a computer and access to t'internet"
Eddie Gordo
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Location: Ohio - USA
Posted: 29th Sep 2003 22:10
GOD...heh heh heh...the scientists favorite game...

Visual Programming Studio ORANGE
Replacement IDE for Dark Basic Professional...
(Will Be Availeable When This is Removed)
Preston C
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Location: Penn State University Park
Posted: 29th Sep 2003 23:57
Quote: "The Dungeon Master. I created this world as a place for you to play in. I designed its wonders and its terrors, and I am proud of the place I have built. Yet my world is meaningless without your presence. Like the gods of old, I built the world specifically as a place for you to dwell. My interest is not an impersonal one; I am directly concerned with your welfare. I challenge you to achieve, I encourage you when you fail. I lay the traps… but I also provide the clues that the traps are there. As my customer, your entertainment is my responsibility. Sometimes I am your guide, sometimes your opponent, sometimes your mentor. Above all else, it is my role to see to it that you enjoy yourself. If my game does not give you pleasure, then I have failed.
"


That pretty much describes me as a game designer.


Dark Basic Pro has arived! I can feel the power!
Mentor
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 30th Sep 2003 00:33 Edited at: 30th Sep 2003 00:34
you missed my description....

The Eternal Muse this game is the best, I have all this interaction built in and you can creat over 50 billion types of unit easily, they all have advanced AI, just a mo, I want to add animated trees with shadows and the trees can burn, and I just had an idea for animated landscapes to allow avalanches and volcanoes, we could put in a simple nurbs for the water, the net play is so advanced, hey! I just had another idea, lets add fractal weather systems matched to the real world, what?, no!, none of it works properly yet, it`s not finished, no! that bits in development!, I am going to replace that, hey! I just had another idea for soft shadows, just need to re-write the engine a bit, yeah!, it crashes a lot, it`s not finished, beta release? are you serious?, hey I just had an idea, I can remove the AI state engine and add a simple learning routine linked to self modifying scripts, I wonder if we could use fractal compression?, just a mo, I decided to remake it as platformer, hey another idea...........


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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 30th Sep 2003 01:15
Its either The Drill Sergeant or The God for me...


Avatar & Logo by Indi. Come to the UK DBPro Convention in Chichester
Ermes
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Posted: 30th Sep 2003 11:48
The Engineer.

Free Download for a Free World
zircher
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Posted: 30th Sep 2003 16:10
Dungeon Master + Gamer = War Gamer

Reality conforms to the game mechanics for your gaming pleasure.
--
TAZ
The admiral
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Posted: 30th Sep 2003 16:39
I think dungeon master describes all game designers best.

[href]www.vapournet.com/~flyer[/href]
Megaton Cat
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Location: Toronto, Canada
Posted: 30th Sep 2003 21:14
pretty mcuh so yea
there are ppl who fit in to The Gamer alot though

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Ian T
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Posted: 30th Sep 2003 21:52
' It is normal to store explosives inside air conditioning ducts'

Just saw that one...

--Mouse: Famous (Avatarless) Fighting Furball
Read It: http://www.angryflower.com/itsits.gif
Learn It: http://www.angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif
Yian
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Posted: 30th Sep 2003 22:03
The perfect game maker is a blend between the engineer and the dungeon master i guess

-john D.
Ian T
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Posted: 30th Sep 2003 23:34
The perfect game maker spends no time on forums or talking to people, but simply produces amazing games in binary (total optimization) and game making tools he's made in binary (total development speed) and distributes them in boxes to anyone who wants them for free (he's an heir).

The perfect game maker, sadly, does not exist

--Mouse: Famous (Avatarless) Fighting Furball
Read It: http://www.angryflower.com/itsits.gif
Learn It: http://www.angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif
Wiggett
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Location: Australia
Posted: 2nd Oct 2003 17:10
half zen half DM half clown , it's a game of three halves really.

Shadow Robert
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Posted: 2nd Oct 2003 17:20
Quote: "The perfect game maker, sadly, does not exist"


describes carmack bloody well though

Dave J
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Posted: 2nd Oct 2003 17:29
The God.


"Computers are useless they can only give you answers."
DivW
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Posted: 2nd Oct 2003 20:22
I'm half competitior half god, i guess. A competative god creator. (wish i had something to back that up with)

Your soul...it tastes like chicken
Digital Awakening
AGK Developer
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Posted: 2nd Oct 2003 22:05
I'm a Dungeon Master, no question about it.

Megaton Cat
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Posted: 3rd Oct 2003 03:38
@raven:The Artiste? fits u well
lol

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MikeS
Retired Moderator
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Posted: 4th Oct 2003 21:14
The Engineer



A book? I hate book. Book is stupid.
Arrow
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Posted: 5th Oct 2003 18:03
Half DM, half Artist, but drop the massive ego.


DDR is the best form of exercise money can buy.
Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 5th Oct 2003 18:45
The Artiste needs modification......


The Artiste Reincarnate. This game is an expression of my creative impulse, my magnum opus. Come with me on a journey into the realms of my mind. I am happy to hear your opinions should you IQ match mine, otherwise shuddup! You are my audience; it is for you to look and learn. When you play, you have no need of "instructions" or "tutorials" because of my intuative gameplay, and wondrous gameflow. 100meg Download? So what! I'm worth it!

Pincho.

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