Irrational Games - Kevine Levine on the American Gamer

Dhruin

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In what is presumably a patriotic gesture, GameDaily has an interview with Irrational's Ken Levine on the "American gamer":
When making Bioshock, does appealing to that global audience play into how you make the game?

People try to do that. I remember working on a game where they said, “Put a Korean character into it!” As if that was going to open up the Korean market, which is primarily based around one game: Starcraft. And they certainly didn’t think, “Oh, that guy’s a Korean, they’re going to love this.” It was a total accident. That’s what going to happen if an American game breaks out in Japan. It’ll be sort of an accident. And I think trying to go for that is folly, because cultures are complicated, and I’m not smart enough to go, “Which level, what weapon can I introduce in BioShock that can make the Japanese fall in love with it?”
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Thats a pretty interesting interview. I can't believe he'd name x-com and civ as the best games and then make an action game. Anyway, this interview actually made me want to give this game a try if there is a demo, whereas that footgage trailer they had before made me want to not ever think about this game.
 
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Liked the interview and it poses some interesting questions. There is a down side to things becoming accepted, and the "cool" people picking them up as part of their style. It ( A) puts more pressure on the creator to conform, and ( B) can become a transitory fad that is replaced by the next "cool" thing.

While I'd like to see gaming become popular enough to be more secure and self-supporting, I'd also hope that popularity isn't a road to mere replication and yet more generic titles.

I feel bad for the guy, though, that he was considered a reject for bringing his Golden Age comics (by which I"m guessing he means the old Superman, Batman, WonderWoman, Aquaman, Swamp Thing, Dr. Strange stuff) to school--I lived on those comics because they were a cheap( .25$) and accessible escape from reality for a ten year old. Of course, I never took them to school--they would have been ripped off. :)
 
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