LucasArts creative director Clint Hocking has criticised what he describes as a Viking-like development culture in the games industry.
To do so, he thinks the industry needs to attract more female workers and become a little less obsessed with fart jokes.
"Minus the literal rape and killing, of course, modern game development has a number of things in common with the Viking expansion," he said. "Specifically, game development studios and their teams are largely staffed in the same way that Viking longships were crewed. Consequently, the culture is overflowing with beer and pent-up aggression, and a very significant portion of our overall cultural output is fart jokes."
While the games industry is already a successful, growing one, Hocking pointed out that the Viking Empire was toppled in 1066 by a better-balanced culture because "it never learned how to be sustainable instead of expansionist".
"We need more female game developers in order to ensure that the development culture in game studios becomes more reflective of our culture at large," he said. "It's this overall culture that's the giant untapped market we need to serve: a rich and diverse mass market that's comprised of men and women, appreciating and consuming art and entertainment together.
"I'm not suggesting that we stop making violent, fart-joke-infused, aggression-release-valve games for the aspirational Vikings among us. If we ever hope to make high-profile titles that are something besides that, however, we need to behave a little more each day as though we're seated at the family dinner table, rather than rowing the longship."
Comments
29 comments so far...
BenThomasFoster on 6 Jul '11 said:
Hurrr viking developers have enough fun in their job to allow creativity. Or would you rather have the drones of infity ward games
almanac2015 on 6 Jul '11 said:
LucasArts needs a creative director to say "lets do more Star Wars"? Monkey Island please.
Most gamers are male. The most hardcore gamers are male. Whilst I'm not at all against females in the industry and would hate to see any form of discrimination keeping them out of the industry I don't think they are specifically needed.
More men in tampax adverts please.
ensabahnur on 6 Jul '11 said:
Never underestimate the pull of a good fart joke.
jim2wheels on 6 Jul '11 said:
Couldn't agree more with this article.
Not saying there isn't room for it, but gamers are a lot older than they used to be. Unfortunately the industry hasn't quite caught up with this fact yet.
WHERESMYMONKEY on 6 Jul '11 said:
They already have done more monkey island. Tales of monkey island came out over a year ago. Have you been living under a rock? Sure its telltale/lucas arts. But the guys at telltale are basically all the guys they fired when lucas arts stopped making adventure games. It even had the input of ron gillbert and tim shaeffer.
almanac2015 on 6 Jul '11 said:
More Monkey Island please. Yes I've played Tales. And it was insanely average to be honest. But it's something other than Star Wars I know them for.
Telltale failed at making side characters, being inside a manatee sucked and the puzzles were just odd. Easy, but odd. Way too many random items to be used in voodoo spells etc. that makes little sense. Guybrush was ace though and the humour was pretty good.
beemoh on 6 Jul '11 said:
How has this become news recently?
I mean, I know it's just been posted on Edge's website, but it was a column in their magazine three issues ago...
xabi on 6 Jul '11 said:
bustard wants to see boobies in the office...
Tebyx on 6 Jul '11 said:
I'm a female Games Art student and really hope to get into the industry after studying at university!
^ Oh god, I don't even want to know how that would work!
TheCrimsonFenix on 6 Jul '11 said:
How about actually developing games with heart no matter what genre it is (first person shooter, platformer, third person shooter, whatever) instead of worrying about silly things that this guy is grossly exaggerating? It's like he's saying just have more female games devs just for the hell of it. I've yet to play a game this generation where fart jokes and infantile humour have been the draw point. People like this guy only say stuff like this to get noticed. He's comparing games developmental culture to vikings for goodness sake.
This next week, games designer x says playing video games is just like first time anal sex.
dragonjim on 6 Jul '11 said:
What next? Will EA say Cally Of Duty Is made by Romans because romans liked things to be linear. What BS.
Deinsleaf on 6 Jul '11 said:
I believe the underlying question in his concern is how many female game developers are there? Because no matter the sex of the developer is, the finished game would reflect how good the developers are. Regardless or gender or sexual orientation.
originalbadboy on 6 Jul '11 said:
Female devs = something to look
TheCrimsonFenix on 6 Jul '11 said:
This.
ianson on 6 Jul '11 said:
"more male gamers than female" that hasn't been true for a LONG time. Hardcore is split about 40:60 to men (from what I have read) but, if you include pop cap, miniclip etc etc etc then us blokes are made to look casual by the amount of money and time that middle aged women spend gaming. The industry is built on misconceptions... just cos the majority of Halo and COD players are male doesn't equate to no female gamers.
almanac2015 on 6 Jul '11 said:
You think this LucasArts guy is going on about miniclip? As far as console games go - men will buy more and play more.
ianson on 6 Jul '11 said:
No, what he is saying is that the testosterone leaking into AAA titles isn't engaging those women...
"We need more female game developers in order to ensure that the development culture in game studios becomes more reflective of our culture at large,"
He isn't talking about the closed, inbred world of console military FPS now is he? He want's the industry to become more balanced towards the expectations of a larger audience... the reason men will "buy more and play more" is because the content is more male orientated which is the whole point of what he is saying. If you know how the industry works from inside Designers are plucked from the best programmers and artists. So more female developers is necessary to get more of them at the design table.
almanac2015 on 6 Jul '11 said:
'Balanced' means casual. I like my games the way they are - it's what the genres are for. Yeah, there's probably a bunch of testosterone filled games on the market but there's s**t loads that aren't like that as well. It's about taste.
ianson on 6 Jul '11 said:
Balanced does NOT mean casual at all. Tell me what has happened to the 3D platformers, the Point 'N' Click adventures, the story based adventure games etc that we used to enjoy? we have been stuck in a gun-loving "awesome N epic" stage of gaming where blood and explosions have ruled the day. It isn't that there is no call for that stuff its just that the male centric attitude has labelled the consoles and put off consumers, developers and publishers. This 'casual'/'hardcore' crap has got to end its not a matter of casual/hardcore its elitist rubbish. Is Ratchett and Clank casual or hardcore? Sphinx and the cursed Mummy? Banjo and Kazooie? Shenmue? Monkey Island? Psychonauts? Little Big Planet ?? Gaming is only just getting out of an era of shiving prostitutes and shooting foreigners and your assumption that more women means more 'casual' just betrays your predjudices more than the truth of the matter. Assassins Creed owes a lot to having more women involved in the design process... nuff said
EDIT:: and you say there are loads NOT like that... ever tried looking for stuff that isn't??? No, there isn't mate. Can count on one hand number of gameplay experiences I have enjoyed in the last 5 years that weren't just 'explosions and fart jokes'. That isn't to say they are literally having fart jokes in them, just that they have a very teen-male aesthetic in general.
almanac2015 on 6 Jul '11 said:
Point and Click briefly died, then came back. Telltale make numerous adventure games. I love these type of games, my gamertag Threepy is due to Guybrush Threepwood.
You mention loads of games - LBP, Ratchet and Clank, Banjo, Psychonauts and Monkey Island. I'll add to that Jak and Daxter, Alice Madness Returns and the Sly Trilogy. And Mario and Zelda.
So yeah, not every game has explosions - not every game is aimed towards men. So you're right that 'balanced' doesn't mean casual but in some cases it does. There are enough genres for everyone and the FPS genre is male dominated. Don't wreck it by trying to aim them at women.
ianson on 6 Jul '11 said:
Also, when he says balanced he is talking about the whole industry NOT a game experience:
For every platformer there are probably 9 FPS that ISN'T just a matter of tastes. That is because they have gone out of their way to attract male gamers of the 16-25 range and as a result nothing else will sell. Look at the PS3 and tell me they didn't design that to encourage males gamers to buy... the 360 pretty much campaigned to be the port of call for frat boys everywhere. My gf is a gamer but, she doesn't really get on with 'male' games. I get a new game to play every month she gets one every 3 or 4 months. She loves God of War btw so it isn't like she is just picky or overtly 'girly'.
almanac2015 on 6 Jul '11 said:
No, it's because FPS games are popular because so many people like them. FPS games are the market - they sell.
ianson on 6 Jul '11 said:
Lol, no that isn't the case. They sell to a very specific demographic and that demographic are on console because they know they can get stuff for 'them'. If the Wii taught us anything it is that fps sells well to a pretty small audience that don't represent the whole of gaming.
Assuming these stereotypes:
There are more FPS 'cos they sell better.
Women don't use console as much as men.
Men like FPS.
so if there were more women gaming then other types of gaming would sell more. FPS wouldn't sell LESS but, there would be a more REPRESENTATIVE set of games available. Which, is what he is saying... the reason Sony and MS are trying out 'casual' experiences is because 'hardcore' gamers are a TINY group by comparison to the available market.
Humour me for a second and tell me why Dance Central for Kinect is a casual game.
almanac2015 on 6 Jul '11 said:
If you want a dancing monkey...go make a f**king monkey dance.
The reason Sony and Microsoft want the casual gamers is because they are an extra market. Everyone I know who has a Ps3 or 360 still uses it. Do you have any idea how many Wii's I see unused because some casual morons fell for the hype? The casual market has aided the Wii so much because Nintendo make a profit on every console sold and the games they make are cheaper.
Yes if there were more female gamers more platformers might be sold. And? The platforming market isn't that barren and if there were a decent amount of platform fans out there, the games would sell more and platforming games would therefore be made for.
ianson on 6 Jul '11 said:
If you want a war go fight a war, if you want to play guitar go play a guitar, if you want to go to space go build a rocket, if you want to solve a puzzle buy a jigsaw, if you want to use a sword take up fencing, if you want to be a gangster sell some drugs... your point??
its not an EXTRA market it is a more representative, less elitist view of gamers. It is the same market.
sorry but, no amount of anecdotal 'evidence' changes the fact that out of 20 of the highest grossing wii games 8 are 'hardcore' 1 came with the console and 3 of the others can be argued to be either 'hardcore' or 'casual'. The definition of "casual" is just NOT WHAT PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALWAYS CONSIDERED THEMSELVES GAMERS LIKE. There is no definition beyond that. So it is just elitism.
The gamers are out there BUT HAVE NOWHERE TO GO COS THE CONSOLES ARE GEARED TOWARDS GUYS. That is the WHOLE point. They don't NOT sell 'cos there isn't a market they don't sell cos the market is untapped because of the 'viking' nature of the games industry. That is the WHOLE point. They have designed, advertised and pigeon holed console gaming to a 16 - 25 male gaming demographic. I speak to people all the time and if you ask them are you a gamer they say no. But, then you ask them about games they have played and they have played LOADS and enjoyed them. When you ask them what a gamer is they describe a 16-25 year old male. The platforming genre isn't barren but, compare it to FPS and the difference is massive.
almanac2015 on 6 Jul '11 said:
It's not about elitism. It's about games being butchered to make it more casual friendly. I believe the latest SOCOM fell to this - I can think of no other reason why the tactics were made so basic. If someone wants to be a casual gamer I don't give a s**t - the way I see it the more people who game the more accepted gaming will be. But the games have totally different markets and too many games I feel try to appeal to both.
Bulls**t. Most gaming adverts are for the casuals anyway.
Because times have moved on. As graphics and technology has got better, FPS games have been allowed to shine. 3D platformers just haven't felt the same and the same happened with point and click games. It's not a gender issue, it's just different games have made better use of technology.
NEO_SUPERMAN on 9 Jul '11 said:
This guy starts with "minus the literal rape..."
This guy made farcry 2.
This guy looks like a turtle.
I don't think I'll pay any attention to this guy.
voodoo341 on 9 Jul '11 said:
you just paid attention to him.... fail
NEO_SUPERMAN on 9 Jul '11 said:
Funny comment...fail
Do people still say fail?