(sorry for the ultra-late response)

"Would you still think there wouldn't be merit to the system? (Not a rhetorical question; actually curious)"

IMO, if the industry matured to that point I would be all for it since there are safeguards (unionization, higher hourly pay) and probably enough work around to be able to make a decent living.

"Another question: how many designers work on a game, and what does each specifically do?"

Depends on the game created in my experience. PC games for sci-fi it was usually one or two designers creating all the scenarios, not too much of a Lead.

For early consoles RPGS there were a Lead which coordinated the rest with a specific designer assigned to each area or level.

A 3rd person action title going to "current gen" the design started to staff up more and it started to get more specialization.

I honestly feel that we're starting to go to the "hollywood" model with freelancing and specific roles for gaming. It probably be the "next gen" (Xbox 720, Ps4) that it'll be really apparent.

JohnnyLA

So what is so wrong about that?

whiskey

SolInvictus

Interstella5555

mizeriq

mizeriq

Hideo Kojima is not a good example. He is not a brand name applied to games. Games gained his recognition.... Same with Sid Meier.

Peter Jackson's Halo (which hasn't been released yet) is a good example. How many people are going to buy Peter Jackson's Halo, because:
a) It's Peter Jackson's Halo
b) It's Peter Jackson's Halo

Hell, I don't like Halo. Will Peter Jackson make me buy it? I doubt it...

But the reason I don't want to see this is that they might add non-dev names... "50 Cent's Half-Life 3" etc. ...wait, that might be a good idea! THINK OF ALL THE CRAZY AMERICAN CHILDREN I CAN SELL "50 Cent's Half-Life 3" TO! SOMEONE GET ME 50 CENT RIGHT NOW!

Eranmane

StartRunning

Replica23

Lilinka

Another question: how many designers work on a game, and what does each specifically do? I would think that there is a lead designer within a team, and that each member of the team is assigned specialized tasks--levels, mechanics, UI, etc. I'm not in the industry, so I wouldn't know. But I was envisioning some sort of system where a lead designer is brought in (as a "design creative director") and individual designers are brought in according to his or her needs (e.g., bringing in someone with a solid history of FPS level design for an FPS game). Point being: from what I know, I believe that it might be better for creativity and efficiency if specialists are called in for specific aspects of video game production, instead of handing over the entire deal to a specific development house.

Mind you, I don't think that such a system would develop in the games industry in my lifetime, for a few big reasons that are neither here nor there. But it's fun to speculate.

JustThisGuy

EmeraldDragon

TheWP

I agree with this. It would be the same as seeing, "Kill Bill: A Film By Quentin Tarantino." They do it with MGS where it says "A Hideo Kojima game". They could familiarize people better. For example most people will buy the Call of Duty series thinking Activision makes it. If it said "Made by Infinity Ward" on top of the box instead of just their logo at the bottom, people could tell which one to get and which one wouldn't. Same with all those that said Rock Band copied Guitar hero, because all they saw was EA and Actvision on the box, and not the developers.

kylo4

He isn't arguing or doubting the importance or existence of people like Kojima or Cliffy B in mainstream media, he's saying where are the rest of those people and why aren't they being given the same treatment as them.

Again, even though I know I wouldn't buy into the hype, there are people out there who would. So, if that's the case, why aren't more companies playing on that? Look at Jade Raymond for example. She obviously wasn't the sole reason for Assassins Creed's success, but her attractiveness and likeability obviously garnered some more attention to the product, because Ubisoft constantly made a point to have her as the mouthpiece for the project by playing on those attributes they knew would help grab the attention of other people who normally wouldn't glance at Assassins Creed on general principal alone.

Adding a name and face does work, not always, but depending on the person it's more likely to work than not. People like individuality. People like having one person to remember instead of one thousand. People also like having someone to instantly identify when citing the main creative force behind a product, and they like the idea of having somebody to speak for the company. If that somebody isn't recognizable or eccentric enough when it's time to get on a personal level, people aren't going to care what the rest of the group is doing. After all, what was Happy Days without the Fonz or Family Matters without Urkel? Both great shows, but remembered for the guys who sold it. Only when a name overshadows a product is when we need to worry, and looking at some of the comments here, I doubt many will allow that to happen.

Does everyone buy into it? Certainly not. Should we care? Not at all. Wilson's suggestion is directed mainly toward publishers who I'm sure do want to make money, and in retrospect, is that a bad thing? Talented individuals who deserve praise get recognition and great developers get money to make outstanding products by having a great spokesperson behind them. If they produce crap, guess what, don't buy it . Just because I like Hironobu Sakaguchi, doesn't mean I'll buy Shit as Pixels DS because he's the front man. Trust me folks, this is a good thing.

KeroseneClimax

No one from the "playstation era" of video games cares or even knows who the hell this "Richard Garriott" is. The few well known video game "stars" who ARE actually relevant players in the field generally don't advertise themselves and the general public can't put a single name on the two best selling franchises: Halo and GTA.

What I'm trying to say is that the few people who have tried to be super stars (or the industry has tried make). Have just ended up making complete asses of themselves -- to the people who even take notice.

The other thing is that in, say, movies the stars are the actors, or the director. You don't here about the special effects guys, the costume designers, the makeup artists, etc. Composers fair a little better, but they're still not on that level. In games, the most important people are those behind-the-scenes people. When you play a video game you aren't seeing actors who you'll recognize from film to film or who you can expect to deliver a good performance, etc. In a film, for better or worse, certain people (actors or directors) stand out as being instrumental to the movie (weather it's really true or not), with video games, there really isn't any position like that.

Luziphir

ohhello

As for design, imo, you need a core team all the way through the process to get something to gel..at least in my experience. It might be harder with freelancers with a superstar.

When it comes to the rest of the team, it might be a boon the publishers and the "superstars" but to the majority of artists, programmers, etc. it would come down to freelance which would have no security, no benefits, no royalties, and most likely nothing unionized for the devs protection.

I might as well be working as a 3d artist in the movie industry at that point, and probably making better money with less security.

JohnnyLA

Also, this kind of this was done back in the 80's and is the reason for the formation of ACTIVISION (read up on it, it's pretty interesting).

EA used to do it too, remember Bill Budge's Pinball Construction set?

vellocet

The man's right: publishers would make more money by heavily promoting certain names and figures. The audience-at-large (meaning not the type of folks who post on video game blogs) remembers and connects with names more easily than corporate brands; it's much easier to build a level of trust with a figure than with a company. From a marketing standpoint, Wilson's comment is just plain common sense, and I'm surprised it's not done more often with video games (exceptions to the rule notwithstanding).

This article did have me thinking, though. Right now, the game industry is very much like Hollywood back in the 50s, insofar as the creatives behind the production are a part of a consistent corporate team. I'm quite curious what kind of games would be released if the industry followed Hollywood's current model; that is, if all talent became more or less freelance, with different principals called in for the creative and specialized houses taking care of the grunt work (engine coding, modeling, network coding, etc.).

I'd like to think that such a scenario would be a boon to the games industry, opening up new avenues for innovative thought and design. Of course, for such a system to work, the industry would need many established "stars" in place--just like the one that Wilson recommends.

Hmm...

JustThisGuy

Gambia

IMO what gaming needs is more story. but hell Galaxy was fun without a deep story so i dunno.

psgamer92

Cliffy B's Gears of War

but wait three months later:

Mark Rein's Gear of War - The Remix

we can have gaming remixes now. AWESOME.

Ghostyghost

enigma89

K-Squad! (Badass Edition)

rinerdar

I still don't own a copy of Gears of War, and I don't plan on buying one anytime soon so you got me there. It just didn't grab me, although I found their usage of Gary Jules Mad World cover to be amazing in that commercial. :P

ekkobi

LittlestLamshi

The Costume designers?
The Producers?

Any one?

These are people who execute the vision of the "superstar" directors and/or the actors.

Same thing with videogames and the majority of their content creators. Not too much visibility.

JohnnyLA

...Which is the reason you don't want to put all your money into "rockstars" in the first place. Games have a unique ability to have mascots and worlds that can be carefully managed by the publisher or dev teams to fit the themes of the day. They don't have crazy personal lives or say things in interviews that can suddenly reverse public opinion of them... or simply fall out of style...
It's much easier to revive a franchise(Tomb Raider), that has taken a bad spin, than revive a celebrity that has nose dived(Tom Cruise).

Should that star be unavailable or die, that would probably hurt the franchise quite a bit, if it had been marketed heavily... I personally would not buy any game that said Cliffyb's ... Gears of war

Ehardergardens

Talent isn't something that can be found on an assembly line just from knowing how to code games; it is something that is so imperative to the success of a project, that removing it would cause the entire framework to falter. For those who have put the time in, and have the credentials to back them up, they're entitled to have some sort of recognition or acknowledgement for their achievements. Events like the Game Developers Choice Awards should be the platform for spotting those who are likely going to change the industry in the future, and I'm all for it, because whether we like it or not, a big name always sells products, even if it isn't many.

Besides, at the end of the day, the consumer is the one who decides what they want. Even if there is a big name attached to a product, we're the ones who get the final say in the matter. Did I care that Fable had Peter Molyneux behind it? Nope. Still didn't like it. Was Dirge of Cerberus a good game because it had Tetsuya Nomura doing design work? Absolutely not, it was still extremely flawed. Even with extra attention, I'm still able to decipher crap from gold. So, yeah, I say companies should go for it, but people aren't so foolish to buy into names only.

@daklog: I wonder how many people who sent death threats to Kojima if he wasn't behind MGS4 would agree with your statement.

KeroseneClimax

TIM FUCKING SCHAEFER'S BRÜTAL LEGEND.

Bad-ass. Ok, go ahead and do it. But just this once.

wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!

wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!

There *are* already superstars in this realm, but apparently this analyst refuses to see it that way. A few have already been mentioned: Hideo Kokima, Shigeru Miyamoto, even CliffyB . As another example, I will probably play any game Will Wright devises, sight unseen.

Even so, while I think that people who can see ideas come to life sucessfully and profitably *should* be rewarded for their efforts, I think that making rockstars out of them is a little over the top. I already think that all-star athletes and musicians are paid too much, so maybe I'm biased in that regard.

The short version is that I don't want to see Clive Barker receive a huge paycheck for a crappy game because his name is on it. Likewise, I wouldn't want Shiggy to get a huge check simply because he came up with the next great Ninty franchise while he was lying in bed.

Unless, of course, he singlehandedly turned it into a hit. Getting paid after the fact sounds way more reasonable than money up front for some lame-o name recognition in an attempt to drive sales.

antialias02

Trust me, I'm a doctor

Roto13

Screw you, Clive Barker.

Roto13

Also, know that it's a fact when I say: more and more game designers will become well known celebrities. It comes with the territory of becoming a successful medium. Gaming is making mad money, and people are starting to take notice.

Voteforme2020

Yet for all the hype of it being John Romero's game, was it really that much of an awesome product? Hardly. Headlining a game like that doesn't mean it would be good. Sure, it may sell better but that doesn't mean it'd be a better product. Success for the Analyst is measured in sales, the bottom-line. I agree with you, and a lot of other posters as well that if they were to go this route it'd be better to namedrop the team, not the individual.

Even then I think that I wouldn't really like the idea. Selling the product off who made it speaks nothing of the quality of the product. A game shouldn't sell on the merit of the people who made it, but on how good it actually is.

ekkobi

"If George Lucas died today the probability of another Star Wars installment would go to 0%." I don't know about THAT analysis, Mr. Wilson...

boopadoo

The same could be said for films.

FP mind in rewind

That will only come, they day the industry stops asking for more sequels instead of new contents. A lot of developers are famous because they did one single smash hit, but once they try making something else, they fail, like Ed Boon and John tobias from Mortal Kombat or Dave Perry, who is a great businessman but lousy developer.

VakeroRokero

It looks to me like they expect those "stars" to start making a lot more money, and to have studios invest quite a lot in just signing up that producer/designer as an overall cost of the game. I'd read much more into the cost portion of this, and then you can't really argue. If CliffyB can consistently produce a game that makes $100M, then whats to stop him from saying he needs a $5M paycheck to work on your title?

Yossarian

Some have said games are very different than films and other media and therefore shouldn't have the name attached. That it's more about the character. Which I somewhat disagree. With film especially big budget films its very rarely a one man operation. Some of Steven Spielberg's biggest films weren't written by him. They were someone else's idea. Same with Tim Burton. George Lucas came up with the Star Wars idea which was great. Also a mix of a bunch of other stuff thrown into a sci-fi universe. But the best Star Wars movie wasn't directed by him. The screen play wasn't done by him.

Games and movie franchises attract people with the characters. Do people now still see the adds for the new Indiana Jones movie and go "wow Lucas and Spielberg are at it again!" or do they go "Wow a new Indy movie!" Only the hardcore Lucas and Spielberg fans are doing that.

But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe if E.T. for the 2600 had been labeled "Howard Scott Warshaw's E.T." then there wouldn't be an abundance of them filling up landfills right now.

rf switch

FP Furious_Liver, lacks independence

The art work and story in Jericho are pretty decent and the gameplay is fun. Characters/voice acting look saturday morning cartoonish and didn't seem to fit at all. (I only paid 20 bucks fr it though)

I recognize why this analyst wants this, and why it would make publishers more money. It also simplifies the connection/branding as a marketing tool.
I am actually pretty turned off by any thing that's introduced as "so and so's something" because it really takes an army of creative talent these days to put anything together successfully, and it's not just the lead designer or the writer, or the director or the artists. This is not to say that there aren't people that can unite others into a common vision and make that work, or that there aren't amazing people tat stand out in all these fields. I am just don't want the games industry to turn into western hollyood world of marketed entertainment where only the director and sometimes the writer get all the credit or a lead designer.

That being said I do have my faves in the industry, so I'm sort of being elitist maybe.

Ehardergardens

igl

Ryumeka

ManjiKengo

i play it because of Hideo Kojima :/

Deaf Mute

daklog

daklog

CHOCOLATE RAIN!!!

ChocolateRAIN

CHOCOLATE RAIN! DICKBUTT!

ChocolateRAIN

FP mind in rewind

Bungie.

I think iconic characters is the key. Mario, Master Chief, Solid Snake, Cloud, etc. Its the characters and the story that make the game enjoyable, and I could really care less who made it. Some developers are better than others, like you said, but even a tiny/obscure developer could make an awesome game.

B-Tizo

WalkOnWater

And on the last note, if a game from SEGA every has the word "Sonic" in the title, I want to see a blue hedgehog, not a bunch of crappy wannabes. Thank you.

PissedPS3Fan

Shad0X

Not only does giving one designer superstar status downplay the involvement of the rest of the team, it creates the false impression that the team is interchangeable, and that the one superstar designer could create the same game with any team. That's a little hard to swallow.

J. Kyle

kjcwashere

Tom Clancy's (war game)

Sim Meier's (sim game)

American McGee's (Piece of Crap game)

Honestly, in all entertain fields, we do need big names, but let the names show naturally. This isn't music or movies where a handful of people (actor's or directors or singers) are the major contributing force. With games, we have teams. We have dozens, sometimes hundreds of people working on a single game. Gaming has become such a big production that to isolate one person as the face of a game is simply unreasonable.

When we do see it, it usually comes through excellence. Ken Levine, Carmack, Warren Spector are a few who are outstanding in there fields and have earned there title as being game industry 'stars'

Add a name to a title just (often to sell more copies) doesn't work. Just ask Romeo about Daikatana

huginn

Shigeru Miyamoto

Nintendo already gives him the celeb treatment and tries their best to protect his public image.

Deaf Mute

Rebochan

ThisCharmingMan

MetalGearMax

liquid_kore

Lets be honest, how many of you bought a game mostly (if not solely) because of who was the director/producer?

Deaf Mute

Idiot? No. Self-obsessed? Most definitely.

Mr.Waffleton

Games are unique in that there is rarely just one guy (or gal) responsible for both the idea and the execution. Many games are cooked up by a full kitchen of awesome developers. A round table, as it were. So rather than putting a persons name, I would rather they keep up with putting the studio's name. Maybe just feature these logos a bit more predominantly. If you just put one guys name on the box, it totally detracts earned recognition from the heroes in the studio.

Take CoD for example: We all know which one to buy, because it has Infinity Ward on the box. It also works the other way, like with Valve, 3D Realms, or the now defunct Clover. It's an automatic must buy just because of the studio involved.

Or am I just crazy here?

Buddy_DoQ

If the trend of gaming stars becomes popular then every developer is going to have their "Big shot" developer.

It will dilute the glory of actually being a good game dev. when every company is trying to have star game creator.

Stars do not make good games. Good games make stars.

SofaKingHI

there are many, many more...

segamanxero

OldManGaming

Also, didn't Miyamoto have very little to do with Mario Galaxy? I mean, he supervised it, but I think lately he has had a more "creative suggestion" type approach than an actual design one.

WarlockSoL

ekkobi

Tei

golguin

Coming soon on everything except the Commadore 64. For now...

CitizenInsane27

AndrewG009

Really, I'm surprised he hasn't tried to pull that shit. How egotistical that guy gets sometimes.

CitizenInsane27

Kojima does rock though ;)

liquid_kore

Gannoc

that_happy_cat

mgy

Kanyeezy. Uh. No. We need good games as much as we need good music. Let's just keep the ego out of it.

FP ph15h

benself

I don't play MGS for Kojima. I play it 'cause I love Snake. In all honesty, I think some of the gameplay in the MGS series is kind of assbackwards, but Snake keeps me coming back.

dunetiger reads kotaku, seems pleased

DugDawg

So like John Carmack's Doom?
hrm nah.

I think the fans pretty much know who makes the games and already look out for the next games by said devs.

I mean, I'll buy anything made by Blizzard, Infinity Ward or um...anything NIS publishes here in the States.

Derigor

I think this is the case for most hardcore video gamers though. WE know who is developing the game and such, take for instance the CoD series. Gamers know which ones are the good ones but the common consumer doesn't they just know they see a sequel to a good game, then crap is sprung on them. I'm guessing this is why you want see companies adopting the developer or project director PR move anytime soon. It is easier to fool the uneducated consumer.

HurricaneDave

Imakeholesinu

Case in point, you weren't going to get "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" folk to just sit down and watch Firefly on the basis of it having any shared attributes, and seeing as it operates in a different universe, timescale, characters, etc. If you call it by it's full title, though, "Joss Whedon's Firefly", those that were fans of "Buffy/Angel" were automatically obligated to check it out, even if it operated separately from their established bits of enjoyment.

So if Shigeru Miyamoto developed something that didn't have Mario or Zelda's name in it... something obscure, it gets those folk to check it out. To slap his name over a Mario or Zelda title, though, would be redundant.

It's worked for Steven Spielberg for cartoons, it's going to work again for him in the video game industry with Boom Blox.

xanderphydeaux

byrc

Either way, the "Tom Clancy" games still hold more merit than most.

CitizenInsane27

We don't need any Kanye Wests of Gaming to be sure. I'm pretty sure I'd rather see no one go any further than "Cliffy B" has gone in this direction of "Super Stardom." It only makes a developer egotistical. I don't want to think of Cliff when playing Gears 2 for the first time. (If I play it at all, that is)

JohnnytheFuture

Beasterling

AndrewG009

SofaKingHI

Creators already are known, if they prove they deserve credit (or are a female, like Jade). I don't want people's names on my game box, and I don't want to make "game celebrities."

Gaming's focus should remain on the games. Anything that removes or lessens that focus, I am not for.

karasu is my homeboy

AndrewG009

I pretty much would like to have a lot more Co-op Campaign based games. It is fun playing video games, but it is pure enjoyment on a whole other level when you play games with friends.

And of course having a nice network of gamers (XBL) is key in helping that.

I Spit On Your Comments

Moonshadow101

So I guess you guys think Hideo Kojima is self-obsessed idiot?

Zone of Enders A Hideo Kojima Game

Zone of Enders 2nd Runner A Hideo Kojima Game

Metal Gear Solid A Hideo Kojima Game

Metal Gear Solid 2 A Hideo Kojima Game

Metal Gear Solid 3 A Hideo Kojima Game

Metal Gear Solid 4 A Hideo Kojima Game

It's on every game case.

Seriously folks, this ain't new.

byrc

AndrewG009

The only games I look at as quality when I see the guy's name on the box are Sid Meier. I guess you could call him a celebrity for the games industry.

Huckleberry

ekkobi

AndrewG009

dunetiger reads kotaku, seems pleased

Wow analyst are clueless.

SofaKingHI