"I think a lot of game designers are irresponsible. When we can make something that affects so many people's lives—a AAA game these days, a hit one, is 10 million copies or more, probably. When you are making something that affects that many people, and you're not thinking about exactly what way you're affecting them—like seriously, not just like "oh, I'm giving them something fun" but like really introspecting—I feel like there's something wrong. If you think really hard about it and then you come to the conclusion "oh, what I'm doing is great, this is totally good", that's fine. But I feel like there's a lack of serious thought in the industry. People go and they spend three or four years of their life making a game, working very hard—it's very hard to make games, even when you have a hundred people helping. Because it's that much of your life, you would think it's very important to understand it and spend that time well but I think often the opposite happens psychologically—it's like "oh, I'm spending—I'm putting so much of myself into this". The thought that "it could be a bad thing when I thought that it was a good thing" is almost unbearable. "So I'm just not gonna look at that." I'm not saying that all game designers are like that. I've encountered what I perceive to be that attitude. Whereas other game designers, who make games where you just run around killing a hundred dudes or whatever, I've had totally reasonable discussions with them and they're just like "no, I've really thought about it and here's what I think". And so, it's complicated."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
In an interview with Brandon Bales of State of Play, 2011
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jonathan_Blow
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Jonathan Blow
22 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Jonathan Blow →
Related Quotes
"The way I think about puzzles is a real puzzle, is something you may not ever figure out."
"I can complain about games for my whole life."
"You know, in college, I never got either degree, but I was a double-major in Computer Science and English. And Englis…"
"A long time ago, I used to write fiction, short stories mainly. And I reached a point where I had honed my style so t…"
"Finally, Braid was the thing where I felt that writing could enter into it. But the game design also is a different k…"
"Well, it's very personal to me, because I have that kind of personality. The same sort of thing that drives somebody …"
"There's another interesting thing, that I think that's interesting about game design is that game design is kind of a…"
"I'm not really in the indie scene, that's the thing. I'm off by myself. I don't hang out with game developers, either…"
"So, let me say something that may—I mean, some people get a little nervous when you talk about things like meditation…"
"Here's a thing I like to point out to people—I'm not really anti-piracy, I'm not really pro-piracy. I pirated stuff w…"