Ex-GTA developer explains why he'll never go back to violent games

[Zod95]

happydolphin said:

Zod95 said:

happydolphin said:
Violence is cheap, and I believe that's what some Nintendo fans have been posting against in some of their posts. A lot of the games seen on non-Nintendo consoles follow the violent trend and it begs the question "why?". I understand that it makes money, but it is the lazy way to make games.

I would say precisely the opposite. Violence is expensive. To create a very realistic violent scene is far more difficult than to create a cartoon catching star coins. Making childreen happy is cheap and highly profitable (just look at Nintendo yearly figures). Making interesting experiences for teenagers or adults is far more complex, demanding and expensive. I wonder why Nintendo is always stricted to Mario, Zelda and motion mini-games, doesn't invest on foto-realism, simulation physics or borderline artificial intelligence...and people even say the non-Nintendo followers are the lazy ones.

As for your question, the answer is simple: because it's a viable way. Like it's also viable to create racing games like GT, Forza, NFS, Burnout, DiRT, MotorStorm, F1, Project Gotham, etc. Like it's viable to create platform games like Sonic, LittleBigPlanet, Braid, Limbo, Ratchet & Clank, Banjo, etc. Like it's viable to create sports games like FIFA, PES, Virtua Tennis, Skate, NBA, NFL, MLB The Show, Tony Hawk, Hot Shots Golf, etc. Like it's viable to create arcade games like World of Goo, Pack-Man, Child of Eden, Monkey Island, Pixel Junk, etc. And like it's viable to create action games like Fable, Uncharted, Valkyria Chronicles, Final Fantasy, Demon's Souls, Portal, ICO, etc. And none of these games are really violent (and note that none of those are Nintendo's either). PS3/X360 game lists are vast and violent games that appeal because of their violence are a very small part of it.

I'm not talking about that, I know that that's cheap too and wrote many threads about it. I'm talking about Zelda, Metroid and (yes I know it's not on a Nintendo console, but that wasn't the point of my post) Final Fantasy.

Regarding your second paragraph, it's pretty clear you didn't read my whole post:

happydolphin said:
Violence is cheap, and I believe that's what some Nintendo fans have been posting against in some of their posts. A lot of the games seen on non-Nintendo consoles follow the violent trend and it begs the question "why?". I understand that it makes money, but it is the lazy way to make games.

Right now I'm playing FFX, and although there is violence, it's not the focus of the game, and the game employs romance, laughter, concepts of dogma and other very interesting things. If games continue in their current trend of pleasing the trigger-happy gamer, it leaves those looking for more substance unsatiated.

I read your entire post and there was no reference to Zelda or Metroid. If you were talking about them you should have mentioned them, otherwise I couldn't guess, could I? But even Zelda or Metroid are not more expensive than most (or even all) of AAA violent games. If you are talking about cheap games and non-Nintendo games, please remove the "non" because I know no other company producing games with such low cost for such high revenue as Nintendo. They are champions of profitability and experts on the not-expensive segments (cartoons, arcade, fitness, etc.). I wonder why people like you suggest the opposite. I'm really trying to understand that...

Regarding the 2nd paragraph of my previous post, I was just trying to show you that while you claim it's a "lot of the games seen on non-Nintendo consoles follow the violent trend", in fact it's just a small part of it...and the reason they exist is because people like it. Like they like racing games, sports games or platform games. I could say there are a lot of sports games and wonder why it is so. Well, despite I'm not lying at all, I'm suggesting there are too many and that there's something wrong with them...and that's simply not true. Sports games are just a small part of a console's game catalogue and they exist because people like them.