Third parties pull a fast one and blame Nintendo for their own crappy games

[The Ghost of RubangB]

noname2200 said:

Pristine20 said:

noname2200 said:

It may explain, but it doesn't excuse (and I know you're not excusing, I'm just making a general point). Developers need to remember that they're here to please us, not themselves. To use a personal example, it doesn't matter if I think my client's asking for more than he deserves; he's my client, and I'm here to serve him to the best of my abilities, my personal feelings be damned.

 

It's not an excuse but most Humans are lazy (devs included). Being an artist is also a very difficult thing. I don't know of any artist that doesn't like their own work. This is why most devs keep having trouble with the wii. It's bad that they're having trouble doing their job but we really should cut them some slack. I prefer using a ps3 for gaming and honestly, if I was a developer, I wouldn't know what to release on wii either.

I've heard the artist analogy used before, but I don't buy it. As far as I can tell, the vast majority of the greatest artworks we have were made by commission, not because the artist was free to do what interested him. Most of the works that we treasure the most were made because someone paid the artist to do X for them, not because one day the artist decided to make The Thinker, or compose a symphony.

It's a cheap shot, but much of modern art follows the "let the artist do what he wants" model of thinking. And I doubt I'm in the minority when I say modern art blows...

Anyhow, it's like bodhesatva said in this thread: "I think the answer to these developers is "too bad." I don't get to do exactly what I want at my job, either. This furthers my sense of developers as little man-children, who want to do what THEY want, and not what consumers want. As a database administrator for a hospital, I'd be fired almost instantly if I did everything "my way" despite requests to the contrary from my customers."

Put alternatively, if we cut developers slack for not liking their job (i.e. developing for the Wii) we'd have to extend the same excuse to every person we hire, from your doctor (who didn't really want to go to med school) to your cashier (who hates his job and, by extension, you). And if developers don't do a good job of developing for the Wii, because it's different than what they're used to, then the market will just have to find developers who do do a good job. I'm sure that, with time, that will become increasingly the case, even if many Western developers prefer to ride out this generation.

 

I agree with the 2nd half of your post, with the "too bad" argument and calling them little man-children.  Right on the money.

But I disagree with your view of modern art.  I think the greatest artists of the 20th century were doing whatever they wanted.  I'm not saying all artists who do whatever they want are good artists.  But I do believe that the majority of the greatest artists work that way.  My examples shall be: Marcel Duchamp, David Lynch, Shigeru Miyamoto, David Bowie, Brian Eno, the Residents, the Beatles, Frank Zappa, Pablo Picasso, Kraftwerk, Devo, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, John Cage, Bruce Cornell, Björk, and even Walt Disney.